Category: Baltics

1870: A Peerless Victory

4/13/2016

A spirited game of base ball was played yesterday on the grounds of the Baltic club, between the Peerless and the Atlantic clubs, in which the Peerless were the victors, the score being 33 to 24.

-Missouri Republican, June 6, 1870

There's nothing in the Republican regarding St. Louis clubs following the visit by the Chicagos until this squib in early June. However, Tobias does mention a few other games during that period, specifically a match between the Lone Stars and the St. Louis Club on May 1, a match between the Aetnas and the Atlantics on May 22, and a match between the Aetnas and the Unions on May 26. So we know that there was baseball being played in St. Louis during May of 1870 but, for some reason, the Republican was not covering it.

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St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: A Game at the Laclede Ball Grounds

8/19/2014

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A game of base ball came off yesterday morning on the Laclede Ball Grounds, between the Commercial, Jr., and the Baltic Base Ball Clubs, which resulted in favor of the former.

-Missouri Republican, May 24, 1863

According to Tobias, the Laclede Grounds were "on a lot one block north of Easton Avenue between Jefferson and Garrison."

Five days before this game was played, the Siege of Vicksburg began and Edward Bredell, co-founder of the Cyclone Club, was there, serving as aide-de-camp to Confederate General John Bowen. Also there, serving as aide-de-camp to Union General U.S. Grant, was Bredell's former club-mate, John Riggin. I have no idea if either of the two men was aware that the other was there.

Vicksburg under siege

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St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: Captain S. Barclay

8/18/2014

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A match game of base ball came off yesterday on the old Commercial grounds, between the Baltic (second nine) and the Independent Base Ball Clubs, which resulted in the defeat of the latter.

-Missouri Republican, June 5, 1863

There's a lot of stuff going on here so I'm going to the bullet points.

The Baltic Club had a second nine, which is useful information. I'm operating here under the assumption that there was a serious lack of manpower in St. Louis. I believe that the war took tens of thousands of young men out of the city and that this depleted the available player pool. That's why I think we're seeing all of these Junior clubs and Young clubs - there wasn't enough "older" players to fill up the club nines. The clubs had to grab younger players and put together juvenile clubs. But a club had to have a first and second nine. If they didn't, who was playing on the club days? When a club got together, they had to have at least 18 guys so they could play a game, which was what a club day was all about. So a club had to have, at minimum, 18 members and, to be on the safe side, a club really needed about 30 guys - just to make sure they could put two teams together any time the club was scheduled to meet. A first nine, a second nine, and a junior nine is twenty-seven players. Feel free to check my math but I think that's probably how these clubs were operating. They were using the juniors to make up a thirty percent reduction in the number of baseball-playing-aged males that was caused by the war.
This is the first and only reference I have to the Independent Club so give them a big round of applause and thank them for playing because we aren't going to see them again.
We have a reference to "the old Commercial grounds," which I have to believe is a reference to Lafayette Park. That was, prior to the occupation of the park by Union troops in August of 1861, the old Commercial grounds. I can't imagine what else that could mean.
Shepard Barclay makes an appearance as secretary of the Baltic Club and the captain and pitcher for their second nine. Barclay is a favorite of mine. He was, for a rather brief moment, the Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court and is responsible for the creation of the Fruin Myth, which is a rather widespread canard stating that Jeremiah Fruin was the first to bring the New York game to St. Louis. God bless Shepard Barclay, who was a pretty darn good ballplayer, but his memory failed him with regards to the early history of the game in St. Louis.
And we're into June of 1863 with still no reference to Jeremiah Fruin playing baseball in St. Louis. Without looking it up, I'm pretty sure that Fruin was in St. Louis by 1861 but I don't think I have any contemporary references to him playing with the Empire Club until 1865. He was serving in the Quartermaster Corps in St. Louis during the war so it may be possible that he didn't start playing baseball in the city until after the war ended. I'll wait until I get to that first Fruin reference to really get into this but the idea that Fruin didn't play baseball in St. Louis until after the war was over really changes his historical legacy. But let's wait on that one.

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St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: The Baltic Base Ball Club

8/15/2014

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A match game of base ball was played at Gamble Lawn, Saturday evening, between the "Baltic" and "Young Commercial" base ball clubs, which was decided in favor of the latter.

-Missouri Republican, May 10, 1863

This is the first mention of the Baltic Club that I have in my notes and it must be taken as a positive sign that we have a new club in 1863. The war had really slowed the momentum of baseball's growth and evolution in St. Louis but it didn't kill the game in the city. Even at the height of the war, we still had new clubs forming. Older clubs, like the Commercials, soldiered on. Matches were being played. It was subtle but there was still some growth.

The one thing I always like to point out about this particular game is that the Battle of Chancellorsville ended three days before it was played and that Stonewall Jackson died the day after. For some reason, the juxtaposition of this game and Jackson's death put everything into context for me. It flipped a switch in my head that allowed me to look at baseball during this era in a new way. Before, the war and the baseball of the war-era were two separate things. But it was discovering things like the fact that a game in St. Louis was played the day before Jackson died or the day after Gettysburg ended and the day Vicksburg surrendered that allowed me to place St. Louis Civil War-era baseball within the context of the war itself - at least in my mind. For some reason, that just made it all very real to me and made me think about the fact that this was the world in which these people lived.

The war was the reality for our baseball players in 1863. It was a huge part of their lives and, in many ways, it defines them. I can't think of E.H. Tobias or Edward Bredell without thinking about the war. I can't think about the Cyclones or the Commercials without thinking about the war. You can't understand baseball in this era without understanding the war. And that's what this series is about. It's about 19th century St. Louis baseball in the context of the American Civil War. If you want to learn about early St. Louis baseball and understand the history of the game in St. Louis, you're going to have to learn about the Civil War. There is no other way.

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1870: A Peerless Victory

St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: A Game at the Laclede Ball Grounds

St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: Captain S. Barclay

St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: The Baltic Base Ball Club

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