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 t ...

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. 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 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, with the New York Knickerbockers 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 p ...

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 liberalization. They joined the first professional league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, for its

1871 Events January–March * January 3 – Franco-Prussian War – Battle of Bapaume: Prussians win a strategic victory. * January 18 – Proclamation of the German Empire: The member states of the North German Confederation and the sout ...

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 th ...

duration. In 1876, 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 major-league history in a game against the Hartford Dark Blues. Union Grounds proprietor William Cammeyer, often listed today as the Mutual club owner, signed the Hartford Dark Blues 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 Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * '' H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album s ...

– Joe Start (387) * Runs – Joe Start (264) * At bats – Joe Start (1314) * Games – Joe Start (273) *

Doubles Men's doubles, Women's doubles or Mixed doubles are sports having two players per side, including; * Beach volleyball * Doubles badminton * Doubles curling * Footvolley * Doubles pickleball * Doubles squash * Doubles table tennis * Doubles te ...

- Joe Start and Dave Eggler (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 – Joe Start (187) * Stolen bases – Dave Eggler (36) Pitching * Wins – Bobby Mathews (100) * ERA – 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 den ...

s – Bobby Mathews (95) * Innings – Bobby Mathews (1,647)

Notable alumni

* Lip Pike, major league baseball 4× home run champion * Rynie Wolters, first Dutch 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