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BASE BALL’S FIRST COMPETITION

NEW YORK, January 23 (1857) – Numerous Northeastern clubs attended the meetings that led to the formation of the National Base Ball Organization, and when it came time to organize base ball’s first competition the discussion became a little contentious.

The New York metropolitan area was the center of the sport, and as such many teams wanted in. There were also many clubs throughout New England and the greater Northeastern United States that wanted the status and validity that being part of the sport’s first organized structure would give them. The NBBO was happy to take on all who would sign up, but teams had to be limited for the first competition so the format could remain logical.

On the final day of meetings – January 22nd – agreement was reached on how the first competition would look. The following was decreed:

• There will be 48 clubs admitted to the first competition
• The 48 clubs will be split into two leagues

• The New York League of Base Ball Clubs
• The Northeastern League of Base Ball Clubs

• Within each league there will be three intra-city and regional championships

• N.Y.L. – Brooklyn, New York City, & Upstate
• N.E.L. – Coastal, Inland, & New England

• There will be eight teams in each championship subgroup
• Teams will only play against the other teams in their championship group
• Those teams will play against each other team ten times

• Two five-game series against each team (home & away)
• (seven other teams) x (ten games each) = 70 total games
• Games will be played Wednesday-Sunday for fourteen weeks

That formed the base of the competition. Now, the issue was what to do with the six city & regional championship winners to determine the overall NBBO champion. Two formats were discussed: a ten-game Round Robin format in which the six teams played each other twice each at various venues in New York & Brooklyn, and a playoff format consisting of two teams at a time contesting each other over a five-game series. The playoff format won, and here’s how it will work:

• Championship winners will be seeded by record within their league (N.Y.L. or N.E.L.)
• The champions with the 2nd & 3rd best records will play each other in the League Semi-Finals

• Five-game series – home games in 2-2-1 format, #2 seed has advantage

• The champion with the best record will wait to play the winner of the League Semi-Finals

• Five-game series – home games in 2-2-1 format, #1 seed has advantage

• The N.Y.L. & N.E.L. champions will play for the NBBO title

• Five-game series – home games in 2-2-1 format
• Home advantage will alternate between the N.Y.L. & N.E.L. each year

The winner of the first N.B.B.O. championship will receive a shiny new trophy: the Tucker-Wheaton Cup, named after the two men who wrote the “Knickerbockers Rules” which formed the basis upon which the first organized version of the sport was built.

The inaugural 48-club roster of the National Base Ball Organization’s maiden competition follows geographical guidelines within their championship subgroups. Two examples: all the Upstate Championship clubs are outside of the New York metro area but reside in New York State, and all the clubs in the New England Championship are from cities & towns in New England.

The list of clubs:

NEW YORK LEAGUE

• BROOKLYN: Atlantic, Bedford, Continental, Eckford, Empire, Excelsior, Kings County, Nassau Co.
• NEW YORK CITY: Gotham, Harlem, Hilltop, Knickerbocker, Metropolitan, Mutual, Orange, Union
• UPSTATE: Binghamton, Eagle, Flour City, Minuteman, Niagara, Syracuse, Utica, Victory

NORTHEASTERN LEAGUE

• COASTAL: American, Mass. Bay, Newark, Olympic, Port Jersey, Quaker St., Shamrock, Trenton Utd.
• INLAND: Alleghany, Lake Erie, Merrimack Milles, Pioneer, Reading A.C., Scranton, Sportsman’s, Susquehanna
• NEW ENGLAND: Cantabrigians, Granite, Green Mtn., Oceanic, Portland, Quinnipiac, Sons of the Ocean, St. John’s

Each club carries with it its own visual identity that makes it stand out on the base ball field. The standard of the New York clubs is to wear all-white uniforms, so wearing the team’s logo on a shield located on the front of the shirt is the norm. The Philadelphia clubs and most of those residing in New England, however, choose to wear colored shirts to go with their white pants to further stand out.

The visual identity of each club is below:
 

NEW YORK LEAGUE

 

NORTHEASTERN LEAGUE

The 48 clubs of the National Base Ball Organization expect to take to the field for the N.B.B.O.’s first 70-game competition starting in the first week of May, with the season finishing in early August and the playoffs taking up the rest of the month.

The two toughest championships are, not surprisingly, Brooklyn and New York City. The winner of the first Tucker-Wheaton Cup is expected to come from either of the two. However, the Bostonian & Philadelphian clubs make the Coastal formidable, and clubs in the major New York cities outside of the N.Y.C. metro – Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, & Troy – make Upstate quite strong as well. The Inland and New England championships are made up of mostly smaller clubs, but Pittsburgh’s Alleghany B.B.C. and Providence’s St. John’s B.B.C. are said to have rosters that can challenge those of the New York clubs in quality. Also, the Sons of the Ocean from New Bedford, Massachusetts is a club that is expected to punch well above its weight.

N.B.B.O. directors have stated that they plan on handing out awards to the best of the best in the N.Y.L. & N.E.L. at the end of the season. What has been shared so far about the awards is that they will fall under five categories:

• BATSMAN OF THE YEAR – given to the player deemed the best with the bat
• MOST VALUABLE PLAYER – given to the player deemed the “most impactful” in the league
• TEAM OF THE YEAR – the nine players chosen as the best in each league, with one for each position
• GOLDEN GLOVE – the nine best defensive players in the N.Y.L. & N.E.L., with one for each position
• FIELD MANAGER OF THE YEAR – given to the manager deemed to have done the best work with his roster

The reader may notice an absence of pitching-related awards, and pitchers in the N.B.B.O. may feel slighted at the fact that there will be no “Pitcher of the Year”. The simple fact is that, at the current time, pitchers do little more than instigate the action on the field. Their job is to “pitch” the ball underhanded to the batter in a manner that is to be hittable, and with the throwing motion any pitcher can use severely restricted, by rule, there is only so much of an affect one can have on the game. Pitchers have various grips they might use that can cause the ball to react in different ways as it sails toward the batter, but any batter who strikes out will have done so because of their own failure to connect with three hittable pitches. Even the most highly regarded pitchers will see an average of one batter strike out per game AT MOST. For now, the defense behind the pitcher is likely to have more of an effect on the outcome of a batter’s trip to the plate than anything the pitcher might lob toward him.

In the future, if there is a time when the pitcher is allowed to throw the ball in any way he pleases to, then there will certainly be awards for excellence at that position. For now, the pitchers will have to go without.

Now that base ball has an organized competition, it will be fascinating to see how the first season will unfold, if fans will turn out to games, which team will be the first to lift the cup, and which players will shine the brightest among the 860 or so who will suit up for the National Base Ball Organization’s first season of play.