The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York was a leading American

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 ...

club almost throughout its 20-year history. It was established during 1857, the year of the first baseball convention, just too late to be a founding member 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 ...

. It was a charter member of both the first professional league in 1871 and the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

in 1876. The team was initially formed from

firefighters A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

of New York's Mutual Hook and Ladder Company Number One. Boss Tweed operated the team until his arrest in 1871. The Mutual club initially played its home games at Elysian Fields in

Hoboken 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 58,69 ...

, with the

New York Knickerbockers The New York Knickerbockers were one of the first organized baseball teams which played under a set of rules similar to the game today. Founded as the "Knickerbocker Base Ball Club" by Alexander Cartwright in 1845, the team remained active unti ...

and many other

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 ...

clubs, but moved to the enclosed

Union Grounds Union Grounds was a baseball park located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. The grounds opened in 1862, its inaugural match being played on May 15. It was the first baseball park enclosed entirely by a fence, thereby allowing ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in 1868. Though historically identified as "New York", they never staged any home games in Manhattan. The Mutuals chose open professionalism in 1869–70 after

NABBP 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 ...

liberalization. They joined the first professional league, the

National Association of Professional Base Ball Players The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), often known simply as the National Association (NA), was the first fully- professional sports league in baseball. The NA was founded in 1871 and continued through the 1875 se ...

, for its 1871 to

1875 Events January–March * January 1 – The Midland Railway of England abolishes the Second Class passenger category, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the ...

duration. In

1876 Events January–March * January 1 ** The Reichsbank opens in Berlin. ** The Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the world's first registered trademark symbol. * February 2 – The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs i ...

, the Chicago White Stockings initiated the

and recruited its members from West to East, partly to wrest control of professional baseball from Eastern interests. The Mutuals were one of eight charter members, six of whom were from the National Association. Weak (sixth place at 21–35) and cash-poor, the club refused to complete its playing obligations in the West; and was expelled.Baseball history
Retrieved 2012-01-08 On May 13, 1876, the Mutuals executed the first

triple play In baseball, a triple play (denoted as TP in baseball statistics) is the act of making three outs during the same play. There have only been 733 triple plays in Major League Baseball (MLB) since 1876, an average of just over five per season. Th ...

in major-league history in a game against the Hartford Dark Blues. Union Grounds proprietor

William Cammeyer William Henry Cammeyer (March 20, 1821 – September 4, 1898) was a businessman who was a pioneer in the early days of Major League Baseball. He was the owner of the New York Mutuals franchise and even managed the team during the 1876 season. He al ...

, often listed today as the Mutual club owner, signed the

Hartford Dark Blues The Hartfords (more commonly called the Hartford Dark Blues because of their uniform color) were a 19th-century baseball team. The team was based in Hartford, Connecticut. History In 1874, baseball in Hartford, CT was being played in a fever pit ...

to play at his Union Grounds in 1877. The team was effectively a one-year replacement for the defunct Mutuals, and was sometimes called "Hartford of Brooklyn".

Record

Source for season records: Rio (2008).

Franchise leaders

Batting * Hits –

Joe Start Joseph Start (October 14, 1842 – March 27, 1927), nicknamed "Old Reliable", was one of the most durable regulars of baseball's earliest era, and one of the top first basemen of his time. He began his playing career in 1859, before the forma ...

(387) * Runs – Joe Start (264) *

At bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

s – Joe Start (1314) *

Games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...

– Joe Start (273) * Doubles- Joe Start and

Dave Eggler David Daniel Eggler (April 30, 1849 – April 5, 1902) was a Major League Baseball center fielder. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. Eggler's career began in the National Association of Base Ball Players with the New York Mutuals in , and was a ...

(40) *

Home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s – Joe Start (8) *

RBIs A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

– Joe Start (187) *

Stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...

s – Dave Eggler (36) Pitching * Wins –

Bobby Mathews Robert T. Mathews (November 21, 1851 – April 17, 1898) was an American right-handed professional baseball pitcher who played in the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, the National League of Major League Baseball and the ...

(100) *

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

– Bobby Mathews (2.41) *

Strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

s – Bobby Mathews (95) *

Innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bot ...

– Bobby Mathews (1,647)

Notable alumni

Lip Pike Lipman Emanuel "Lip" Pike (May 25, 1845 – October 10, 1893) the "Iron Batter", was an American who was one of the stars of 19th-century baseball in the United States. His brother, Israel Pike, played briefly for the Hartford Dark Blues during ...

, major league baseball 4× home run champion *

Rynie Wolters Reinder Albertus Wolters (March 17, 1844 – January 3, 1917) was a professional baseball player from Nieuweschans, Netherlands. He played five seasons in the amateur National Association of Base Ball Players from 1866–70, and three seasons in i ...

, first

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

professional baseball player

Baseball Hall of Famers

References

*Baseball-Reference
"New York Mutuals Team Index" (1871–1875)
Retrieved 2006-09-17. *Baseball-Reference
"New York Mutuals Team Index" (1876)
Retrieved 2006-09-12. *Retrosheet

Retrieved 2006-09-17. *Wright, Marshall (2000). ''The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857–1870''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co.

External links