The Atlantic Base Ball Club of

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 ...

("Atlantic" or the "Brooklyn Atlantics") was baseball's first champion and its first

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

. The team was also the first baseball club to visit the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

in 1865 at the invitation of President Andrew Johnson.

Era before league

Established on August 14,

1855 Events January–March * January 1 – Ottawa, Ontario, is incorporated as a city. * January 5 – Ramón Castilla begins his third term as President of Peru. * January 23 ** The first bridge over the Mississippi River open ...

, Atlantic became 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 ...

, the amateur sport's first governing body, in 1857. (There were no professional clubs at the time.) In

1859 Events January–March * January 21 – José Mariano Salas (1797–1867) becomes Conservative interim President of Mexico. * January 24 ( O. S.) – Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexandru Ioan Cuza (Romania since 1866, final ...

, with a record of 11 wins and 1 loss, Atlantic emerged as the recognized champions of baseball. Atlantic held the championship through the

1861 Statistically, this year is considered the end of the whale oil industry and (in replacement) the beginning of the petroleum oil industry. Events January–March * January 1 ** Benito Juárez captures Mexico City. ** The first stea ...

season, albeit in controversial fashion. In a third and deciding game with

Excelsior of Brooklyn The Brooklyn Excelsiors were an amateur baseball team that played in Brooklyn, New York. Formed in 1854, the Excelsior ballclub featured stars such as Jim Creighton, Asa Brainard, and Candy Cummings. The team is known for originating the "Brook ...

, Excelsior was leading 8–6 and had men on base, but was forced to withdraw by a rowdy crowd of Atlantic partisans and gamblers. The game was declared a draw, and the championship retained by Atlantic. Atlantic held the championship again through the

season, which was shortened due to the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, before finally surrendering it to archrival

Eckford of Brooklyn Eckford of Brooklyn, or simply Eckford, was an American baseball club from 1855 to 1872. When the Union Grounds opened on May 15, 1862 for baseball in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, it became the first enclosed baseball grounds in America. Three clubs cal ...

in 1862. Atlantic recaptured the pennant in 1866 with a season record of twenty wins, no defeats, and a single tie as the only blemish on its record. Atlantic went undefeated in 1865 with an 18–0 record, sweeping series against chief rivals Mutual of New York and

Athletic of Philadelphia Athletic may refer to: * An athlete, a sportsperson * Athletic director, a position at many American universities and schools * Athletic type, a physical/psychological type in the classification of Ernst Kretschmer * Athletic of Philadelphia, a ba ...

. Great players of this era included

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 ...

Dickey Pearce Richard J. Pearce (February 29, 1836 – September 18, 1908) known as Dickey Pearce was an American professional baseball playerCharlie Smith, Fred Crane, and Tom Pratt. Atlantic's 36-game winning streak was finally broken in June,

1866 Events January–March * January 1 ** Fisk University, a historically black university, is established in Nashville, Tennessee. ** The last issue of the abolitionist magazine '' The Liberator'' is published. * January 6 – Ottoman t ...

by Irvington, NJ. Atlantic retained the pennant that year by splitting a two-game series with

and declining to schedule a series with Union of Morrisania. Atlantic did surrender the title to Union in

1867 Events January–March * January 1 – The Covington–Cincinnati Suspension Bridge opens between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, in the United States, becoming the longest single-span bridge in the world. It was renamed a ...

. When Atlantic defeated Eckford to regain the pennant in

1869 Events January–March * January 3 – Abdur Rahman Khan is defeated at Tinah Khan, and exiled from Afghanistan. * January 5 – Scotland's oldest professional Soccer, football team, Kilmarnock F.C., is founded. * January 20 & ...

, Atlantic had already lost to the

Cincinnati Red Stockings The Cincinnati Red Stockings of were baseball's first all-professional team, with ten salaried players. The Cincinnati Base Ball Club formed in 1866 and fielded competitive teams in the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) 1867� ...

. This allowed Atlantic to claim the championship over the undefeated

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

club under the "challenge" format of the

, which resembled modern boxing championship rules rather than a league or tournament format. This outcome undoubtedly contributed to the tremendous anticipation when

came to

with an 89-game winning streak to meet the Atlantics on June 14, 1870 at Atlantic's home Capitoline Grounds. An estimated crowd of 15,000 paid 50 cents a piece to see Atlantic win 8–7 in extra innings in one of the most significant games in

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 ...

history. Atlantic surrendered the title later in the year, though, to Mutual.

White House Visit

After the 1865 season, the Atlantics became the first baseball team to visit the White House. Arthur Gorman, one of the founders of the Washington Nationals Base Ball Club and an acquaintance of President Andrew Johnson, organized a tournament featuring his team, the Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia and the Atlantics. Philadelphia refused to play in the final game as they would not receive any of the gate revenue and left. Having known President Johnson since his days as a page in the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

, Gorman offered to take the visiting team to the White House to meet the President. Brooklyn accepted and visited on August 30, 1865.

League era

Atlantic had been among the first clubs to declare themselves

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

when allowed to do so in

. However, when the major professional clubs formed the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in 1871, Atlantic declined to field a team. As a result, their best players, including George Zettlein, Bob Ferguson,

and Lip Pike, jumped to other clubs. When Atlantic did join the professional circuit in

1872 Events January–March * January 12 – Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 500 years. * February 2 – The government of the United Kingdom buys a number of forts on ...

, it was unable to reestablish itself as a leading club, suffering losing records in each of its four seasons in the league. Atlantic was not invited to join 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 ...

when that circuit was formed 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 is ...

, but continued to play an independent schedule until at least

1882 Events January–March * January 2 ** The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates. ** Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in t ...

. A remnant Atlantic was invited to join the upstart American Association in

but failed to satisfy the requirements for doing so. For many years afterwards, the term ''Atlantic batting'' referred to a big inning, especially late in the game.

Record

Source for season records: Wright (2000) has published records for dozens of NABBP teams each season, relying on a mix of game and season records in contemporary newspapers and guides. Dozens of leading clubs by number of matches are included, as are many others. The records do not consistently cover either all games played or all championship matches between NABBP members.

Baseball card

The 1865 Atlantics are said to have been on the first ever

baseball card A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, stad ...

. The only known card was archived at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

since the 1880s, when the photographer Charles Williamson submitted the photo for copyright. It remained the only copy of this "card" known to exist until 2013, when another card was found in an old photo album at a yard sale. The 148-year-old team photo was sold to an unnamed bidder for $92,000.00 when it went up for auction on February 6, 2013 in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

Bibliography

*Baseball-Reference
"Brooklyn Atlantics Team Index" (1872–1875)
Retrieved 2006-09-17. *Retrosheet

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

References

External links

Brooklyn Atlantics
– a vintage base ball club
Brooklyn Atlantics
at Baseball Reference {{Authority control Defunct National Association baseball teams National Association of Base Ball Players teams Defunct baseball teams in New York City Baseball teams established in 1855 1875 disestablishments in New York (state) Sports in Brooklyn 1855 establishments in New York (state) Sports clubs disestablished in 1875 Defunct baseball teams in New York (state) Baseball teams disestablished in 1875