The Florence Eagles

The “Starting Nine” for the Florence Eagles, 1866-67

The Florence Eagles were one of the legendary teams of early baseball history. In 1865, as the Civil War drew to a close, the Army of the Potomac had its own championship team composed mainly of youths from Western Massachusetts. One of the team's members wrote to a friend in Florence suggesting that when they returned home they could play a local team. Almost immediately, young men from several area teams joined the Florence Eagles. The Eagles met the team of returned veterans on August 1, 1865, and as the Courier reported, "To the surprise of nearly everyone, the Eagle was victorious."

A.G. Hill, Shortstop and Captain, Eagles Nine

Throughout the rest of the summer the Eagles played teams from Conway, Amherst College, Easthampton, and Haydenville--all of which they won. Over the winter of 1865-'66, the Eagles attracted as many as 100 members. With so many supporters, the Eagles could afford to challenge clubs from outside the area.  They traveled to New York to compete against the two most powerful clubs of the day, the Brooklyn Excelsiors and Brooklyn Atlantics--and not unexpectedly lost. It was no shame for the Eagles to lose to the Atlantics by five runs on November 5,1866, since the Atlantics were regarded as national champions.

Box Score, The Northampton Free Press, 1866

In 1867, the Eagles defeated teams from all over the Northeast--Greenfield, Pittsfield, New Bedford, Meriden CT, New London CT, and elsewhere. Recognized as the champions of Western Massachusetts, the Eagles were invited to Boston to play against four other teams from the eastern part of the state. The Eagles advanced to the finals against the Tri-Mountain Club of Boston, but soon decided that the umpire was biased in favor of the home team and after several disputed calls forfeited the game. The Eagles did not field a team in 1868 or thereafter but the record of the Eagles stands: some 60 games played, of which they lost only 7, 5 of them (including the forfeit in Boston) to the strongest teams in the nation.

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