Eckford of Brooklyn
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Eckford of Brooklyn or just Eckford was an American baseball team from the mid-1850s through the early 1870s. Modern convention has tended to call them the "Brooklyn Eckfords", but that is not technically correct. They were called "The Eckfords" in the same sense that a team from Chicago was called "The Chicagos" or a team from Boston was "The Bostons".
The Eckford club was named for a shipbuilder named Henry Eckford whose base of operations from the late 1790s until the early 1830s was Brooklyn, New York. He designed many of the American warships for the War of 1812, among others.
Although not well known now, Henry Eckford was famous in his day, and his name was chosen as the symbol of one of the amateur baseball clubs in the New York City area. The Eckford club was formed in 1855, as part of the amateur organization called the National Association of Baseball Players. Eckford saw some success, winning the championship of the loosely formed amateur league in 1862 and 1863.
The Eckfords participated in the first professional league, National Association of Professional Baseball Players, the successor of the old NABBP, in 1871, but failed to pay their entry fee and their records were not counted. They paid the fee in 1872, but had a poor year on the field, and soon faded from history.
Eckford was an early tenant at the new enclosed Union Grounds when it opened in 1862, and played the remainder of their years there.
Source
- Baseball: The Early Years, by Harold Seymour, 1960.
- Green Cathedrals, by Phil Lowry.
- Baseball Parks of North America, by Michael Benson.
External link
- [Some info about the Eckford club]
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