Home >
First printing of baseball rules and regulations formalized by the first baseball convention...
First printing of baseball rules and regulations formalized by the first baseball convention...
Item # 673909
Currently Unavailable. Contact us if you would like to be placed on a want list or to be notified if a similar item is available.
March 07, 1857
(was $1,350) PORTER'S SPIRIT OF THE TIMES, New York, March 7, 1857
* Birth of organized baseball
* First convention of clubs
* 1st printing of rules and regulations
An extremely significant issue on the history of baseball, as inside has nearly two-thirds of a page taken up with: "Base Ball" "Base Ball Convention". It includes the very first periodical publication of the adopted rules and regulations of baseball.
The introductory paragraph notes in part: "The final meeting of the delegates from Base Ball Clubs to the above Convention met at Smith's Hotel...on February 25 and adopted the report of the committee of one from each club, which was appointed...to draw up a code of rules for the government of the game of Base Ball. The following clubs were represented:..." with the list.
This is followed by a wealth of interesting reporting on this significant convention, including comments & discussions of several of the rules which were proposed to the convention.
This is then followed by the most significant report in this issue, the "Rules and Regulations as Adopted By the Convention of Base Ball Clubs, Held February 25th, 1857" listing the 35 sections verbatim.
They are essentially unchanged from the 34 proposed with the exception to a change in sections 5, 6, 8, 16, 17 and 27, and the addition of a new section 35 as printed here.
One source notes that the 1857 Convention of Base Ball Players was perhaps the most important meeting in the history of baseball. It was a meeting of the baseball clubs of New York City, and unlike the previous meeting in 1854, it became the basis for a permanent organization that a year later would take the name the National Association of Base Ball Players.
Complete in 16 pages, 10 3/4 by 15 3/4 inches, very nice condition.
Category: Pre-Civil War
No Longer Available
