The New York Knickerbockers were one of the first organized
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
teams which played under a set of rules similar to the game today. Founded as the "Knickerbocker Base Ball Club" by
Alexander Cartwright
Alexander Joys Cartwright Jr. (April 17, 1820 – July 12, 1892) was a founding member of the New York Knickerbockers, New York Knickerbockers Base Ball Club in the 1840s. Although he was an inductee of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Mu ...
in 1845, the team remained active until the early 1870s.
[
In 1851, the New York Knickerbockers wore the first ever recorded ]baseball uniform
A baseball uniform is a type of uniform worn by baseball players, coaches and managers. Most baseball uniforms have the names and uniform numbers of players who wear them, usually on the backs of the uniforms to distinguish players from each ot ...
s.
Origins and rules
While a member of the volunteer Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 12, Alexander Joy Cartwright became involved in playing town ball
Town ball, townball, or Philadelphia town ball, is a bat-and-ball, safe haven game played in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, which was similar to rounders and was a precursor to modern baseball. In some areas—such as Philadelph ...
(an older game similar to baseball) with the Gotham Club of New York at Murray Hill in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. In 1845, several members of the Gothams felt the club had grown too large for their "fastidious" tastes, and broke away to create an invitation-only ball club. They found a playing field, the Elysian Fields, a large tree-filled parkland across the Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
in Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...
run by Colonel John Stevens, which charged $75 a year to rent. In order to pay the rental fees, Cartwright organized a ball club
Club may refer to:
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* ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
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...
so that he could collect the needed money. The club was named the "Knickerbockers", in honor of the fire company of which Cartwright was a member. The Knickerbockers club was organized on September 23, 1845. The first officers were Duncan F. Curry, president, William R. Wheaton
William Rufus Wheaton (May 7, 1814 – September 11, 1888) was an American lawyer and politician. He was also a baseball pioneer.Nucciarone, Monica"William Wheaton" sabr.org. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
Personal life
Wheaton was born in New York Cit ...
, vice-president, and William H. Tucker William Tucker may refer to:
* William Tooker or Tucker (1557/58–1621), English churchman
* William Tucker (musician) (1961–1999), guitar player
* William Tucker (politician) (1843–1919), member of the New Zealand Legislative Council
* Will ...
, secretary-treasurer.
Creating a club for the ball players called for a formal set of rules for each member to adhere to, foremost among them to "have the reputation of a gentleman". Wheaton and Tucker formalized the Knickerbocker Rules
The Knickerbocker Rules are a set of baseball rules formalized by William R. Wheaton and William H. Tucker of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club in 1845. They have previously been considered to be the basis for the rules of the modern game, althoug ...
, a set of twenty rules for the team:[The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club]
by Ralph Hickok, 2002
#Members must strictly observe the time agreed upon for exercise, and be punctual in their attendance.
#When assembled for exercise, the President, or in his absence, the Vice-President, shall appoint an umpire
An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection.
The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...
, who shall keep the game in a book provided for that purpose, and note all violations of the By-Laws and Rules during the time of exercise.
#The presiding officer shall designate two members as Captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
s, who shall retire and make the match to be played, observing at the same time that the players opposite to each other should be as nearly equal as possible, the choice of sides to be then tossed for, and the first in hand to be decided in like manner.
#The bases shall be from "home" to second base, forty-two paces; from first to third base, forty-two paces, equidistant.
#No stump match shall be played on a regular day of exercise.
#If there should not be a sufficient number of members of the Club present at the time agreed upon to commence exercise, gentlemen not members may be chosen in to make up the match, which shall not be broken up to take in members that may afterwards appear; but in all cases, members shall have the preference, when present, at the making of a match.
#If members appear after the game is commenced, they may be chosen in if mutually agreed upon.
#The game to consist of twenty-one counts, or aces; but at the conclusion an equal number of hands must be played.
#The ball must be pitched, not thrown, for the bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...
.
#A ball knocked out of the field, or outside the range of first or third base, is foul.
#Three balls being struck Struck is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Adolf Struck (1877–1911), German author
*Hermann Struck (1876–1944), German artist
*Karin Struck (1947–2006), German author
*Paul Struck (1776-1820), German composer
*Peter Struc ...
at and missed and the last one caught, is a hand out
Out may refer to:
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Films
* ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
* ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander
* ''Out'' (2002 film), a Japanese film ba ...
; if not caught is considered fair, and the striker bound to run.
#If a ball be struck, or tipped, and caught, either flying or on the first bound, it is a hand out.
#A player running the bases shall be out, if the ball is in the hands of an adversary on the base, or the runner is touched with it before he makes his base; it being understood, however, that in no instance is a ball to be thrown at him.
#A player running who shall prevent an adversary from catching or getting the ball before making his base, is a hand out.
#Three hands out, all out.
#Players must take their strike in regular turn.
#All disputes and differences relative to the game, to be decided by the Umpire, from which there is no appeal.
#No ace or base can be made on a foul strike.
#A runner cannot be put out in making one base, when a balk
In baseball, a pitcher can commit a number of illegal motions or actions that constitute a balk. Most of these violations involve pitchers pretending to pitch when they have no intention of doing so. In games played under the Official Baseball Ru ...
is made by the pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...
.
#But one base allowed when a ball bounds out of the field when struck.
It is likely that Wheaton picked some of his twenty rules based upon his previous experience in town ball play in Manhattan. According to his own account some fifty years later, his written rules for the Gotham Base Ball Club in 1837 eliminated "plugging" the runner and laid out the infield as a regular diamond. The twenty rules differed in several respects from other early versions of baseball and from rounders
Rounders is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a rounded end wooden, plastic, or metal bat. The players score by running aroun ...
, the English game commonly considered the closest relative of baseball. "Two of these rules—the one that abolished soaking utting a runner out by hitting him with a thrown ball
Utting am Ammersee (until 1953 just Utting) is a municipality in the district of Landsberg in Bavaria in Germany.
History
During World War II, a subcamp of Dachau concentration camp
,
, commandant = List of commandants
, known for ...
and the one that designated a foul as a do-over—were revolutionary, while the others gave the game a new degree of uniformity."
First "officially recorded" game and subsequent history
The formation of the Knickerbockers club across the Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
created a division in the group of Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
players. According to Wheaton, "The new game quickly became very popular with New Yorkers, and the numbers of the club soon swelled beyond the fastidious notions of some of us, and we decided to withdraw and found a new organization, which we called the Knickerbocker." Membership in the Knickerbockers was by invitation and required the payment of dues; those Gothams or "New Yorks" who were excluded continued to play among themselves.
What was long considered the first "officially recorded" baseball game was played on June 19, 1846 at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...
. The "Knickerbockers" and the "New York Nine" (also known as the New York Baseball Club, probably identical with the Gothams), played with Cartwright's twenty rules. Cartwright's team, the Knickerbockers, lost 23 to 1 to the New Yorks in four innings. Some say that Cartwright's team lost because his best players did not want to make the trip across the river. Cartwright was the umpire during this game and fined one player six cents for cursing
Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, rud ...
.
The lineups for the teams were:
However, there were several other recorded games prior to this. On October 6, 1845 the Knickerbocker Club played a 3 inning game between its own members, and on October 22, 1845 the "New York Club" beat the "Brooklyn Club" 24 to 4, with the box score included in the next day's morning newspaper.
Charles Schuyler De Bost
Charles Schuyler De Bost (August 5, 1826 – May 26, 1895) was an American baseball pioneer, who was a player and director with the New York Knickerbockers from 1845 to 1859.Morris, Peter (2013). Base Ball Founders: The Clubs, Players and Cities o ...
, a catcher with the club for over 10 years, would be named club director in the mid 1850s. Over the next few years, the rules of baseball spread throughout the country. Baseball was becoming a popular sport with Americans and drew spectators by the thousands. The Knickerbocker rules would soon become part of the rules of the National Association of Base Ball Players
The National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) was the first organization governing American baseball. (The sport was spelled with two words in the 19th century.)
The first convention of sixteen New York City area clubs in 1857 effecti ...
in 1857. These rules slowly evolved into today's rules of baseball.
When the National Association of Base Ball Players
The National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) was the first organization governing American baseball. (The sport was spelled with two words in the 19th century.)
The first convention of sixteen New York City area clubs in 1857 effecti ...
was founded in 1858, the Knickerbockers began to lose their influence, and the club died out entirely in the early 1870s, after baseball had become thoroughly professionalized.[
One century later, the Knickerbockers name itself was adopted by the New York Knickerbockers ]National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
team, although it is more commonly known by its shortened form, the Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...
.
See also
* Origins of baseball
The question of the origins of baseball has been the subject of debate and controversy for more than a century. Baseball and the other modern bat, ball, and running games — stoolball, cricket and rounders — were developed from folk games i ...
Bibliography
* Orem, Preston D. (1961), ''Baseball (1845–1881) From the Newspaper Accounts'', Altadena, CA: Self-published
* Peterson, Harold (1969, 1973), ''The Man Who Invented Baseball'', New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
References
{{Authority control
1845 establishments in New York (state)
Defunct baseball teams in New York (state)
National Association of Base Ball Players teams
Baseball teams established in 1845
Defunct baseball teams in New York City
Baseball teams disestablished in 1870