[On October 23rd, the MLB World Series got underway. I’ve been thinking about baseball history a ton over the last few years, including for the two seasons of my podcast, so this week I’ll offer some AmericanStudies contexts for baseball playoffs over time. Leading up to a weekend post on takeaways from my latest podcast season!]
On fascinating contexts for three legendary 19th-century championship games (all three of which I learned about through SABR’s excellent Games Project).
- Upton vs. Medway, October 1859: This iconic early game, played according to the newly-ratified Massachusetts rules about which I wrote at length in this post (which includes a brief mention of this October 1859 contest), was a much-anticipated rematch of a disputed July 1859 contest, both of which were perceived as deciding the current champions of Massachusetts (a title that Medway controversially claimed in July and Upton reclaimed at this October affair). But I have to admit being most fascinated by this sentence in Joanne Hulbert’s hyperlinked Games Project post: “The Upton players were renowned for their skill at catching a base by their hands, swinging around them with force enough to throw themselves completely through the air, and leaping flamboyantly forward to the next base.” I can’t pretend to really be able to visualize what the heck that all means, but, as Vaughn noted, maybe it’s the origin of “stealing” a base…
- Philadelphia vs. Brooklyn (and Brooklyn vs. Brooklyn), October 1867: That excellent hyperlinked Games Project post from Irv Goldfarb highlights the ambiguous status of this game (really a series of three round-robin games featuring three total teams: the visiting Philadelphia Excelsiors, the hometown Brooklyn Uniques, and the likewise-hometown Brooklyn Monitor) which was referred to by some contemporary commentators as “the First Colored Baseball Championship.” I’ve thought a lot in recent years about how much of baseball history can be found in local, regional, barnstorming, and semi-pro teams (and leagues, etc.), and one reality of those levels is that they don’t often have the same kinds of definitive championships (or playoffs) as professional leagues. Or maybe, just as we need to reframe our conversations away from a central emphasis on the professional/major leagues, we likewise need to think differently about what constitutes a “championship game”—in which case, this 1867 series could be important and compelling evidence.
- Chicago vs. Philadelphia, October 1871: Not long after that 1867 series, the first major leagues began to develop, with the 1871 National Association (of Professional Base Ball Players) the most successful and enduring (if we count the later associations into which it evolved) of them. The first hyperlink in this paragraph will take you to one more Games Project post, from Bob Tiemann, on the October 1871 pennant race that was the first in American professional baseball history, culminating in an October 30th game between the Chicago White Stockings and the Philadelphia Athletics that decided the championship. The aspect of the game that most fascinates me is that Philly, down a few of their regular players, brought in a famous but 40 year old (and possibly Jewish American!) amateur, Nate Berkenstock, to play the only professional game of his career. If that’s not a playoff baseball story that needs a film adaptation ASAP, I don’t know what is!
Next playoff contexts tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Baseball histories or stories you’d share?
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