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N.B.B.O. TO HOLD “GAME OF STARS” IN 1859!

(Contrary to popular belief, the first All-Star Game was not the 1st Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 1933. In 1858, a best-of-three series pitting the best players of New York City against the star players from Brooklyn was arranged, with Game One drawing nearly eight thousand spectators – a huge crowd for the time. You can read more about it here.)

NEW YORK CITY, March 13 (1857) – The National Base Ball Organization Executive Committee has come up with a radical new change ahead of the 1859 season. This time the change doesn’t involve the rulebook, but instead involves a very special game that will take place before the final week of the season: the “Game of Stars”.

During the meetings that take place roughly two months before the start of the season, the N.B.B.O.E.C. put their heads together and decided that a special event was needed to celebrate the sport near the end of the season. After some group brainstorming, the idea of a single game pitting the best players of the New York League against the best from the Northeastern League was agreed upon.

Next was to decide when and where to hold the special event. There are no games on Mondays or Tuesdays, so holding the game on one of those two days was easy – Monday was selected. Since the N.B.B.O.E.C. wanted the special event to take place late in the season, they collectively chose the Monday before the last week of games to hold the contest. As for venue, there was discussion to rotate it among the largest venues that host N.B.B.O. teams, but for now the game will be held at the mother of all baseball venues: The Elysian Fields.

The National Base Ball Organization’s first “Game of Stars” will be held on Monday, August 1st at the Elysian Fields. There will be twenty players from each league selected: four pitchers and sixteen batsmen – two for each non-pitching position. Entrance will cost the standard ten cents per person, and all profits from the game will be donated to charity. It should be a very memorable afternoon for all involved – spactator and player alike!