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THE N.B.B.O. SEES ITS FIRST 1-0 GAME
AVERAGE TEAM SCORING 6.6 RUNS PER GAME IN 1858

BROOKLYN, July 1 (1858) – Since its inception last year, teams across the 48-member National Base Ball Organization have scored, on average, between six and sever runs per game. Last year’s average was 6.9, and so far in the 1858 season the average is 6.6. So, imagine the surprise of the 2,500 or so that showed up to Washington Park in Brooklyn when the contest pitting Empire against Kings County ended with just a single run scored:

Not only was a single run scored, but Kings County won the game thanks to a walk-off single by Pinch Hitter Will Simpson with one out in the bottom of the ninth. If K.C. hadn’t scored history would have been made anyway, as it would have been the first game in N.B.B.O. history to go scoreless into extra innings.

Empire was held to just a pair of hits – singles by Walt Banks & Bill Crosby – and the nine total hits was the lowest in a game this year. The two pitchers responsible for all the zeroes on the scoreboard: Empire’s Henry Harding and Kings County’s Cliff Holmes, though the two teams’ defenses were just as responsible since there was a total of one strikeout over the course of the game.

Today’s affair was a memorable one, although not for the usual reasons since the games spectators usually want to write home are the ones where both teams’ run totals are up into the double-digits.