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National Association of Base Ball Players

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The National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) was an organization founded in 1857 by sixteen baseball clubs located in the New York metropolitan area. The organization's name was adopted at its second annual meeting prior to the 1858 season. Among the founding members was the Knickerbocker Club, whose rules of 1845 provided a basis for defining and organizing the sport, and who continued to play a leadership role in baseball development. The NABBP was the first organization to govern the sport and the first to establish a championship.

Contents

Growth

Prior to the Civil War, baseball competed for public interest with cricket and regional variants of baseball, notably town ball played in Philadelphia and the Massachusetts Game played in New England. In the 1860s, aided by the War, "New York" style baseball expanded into a national game and the NABBP, as its governing body, expanded into a true national organization, although most of the strongest clubs remained those based in New York City, Brooklyn and Philadelphia. By the end of 1865, almost 100 clubs were members of the organization. By 1867, it had over 400 members, including some clubs from as far away as San Francisco and Louisiana. Because of this growth, regional and state organizations began to assume a more prominent role in the governance of the sport.

Teams

Champions

The 1857 Atlantic Club of Brooklyn and the 1858 Mutual Club of New York appear to have been recognized as the best clubs of these respective seasons, but scheduling was insufficient overall between New York and Brooklyn clubs to establish a definitive champion. In 1859, though, Atlantic did emerge as undisputed champions of baseball with an overall record of 11 wins and 1 loss and series victories over both Eckford of Brooklyn and Mutual. Thereafter, a formalized challenge system developed whereby the championship, symbolized by a "pennant", would change hands upon the defeat of the existing champion in a two out of three series. Such "series" could actually occur over several weeks or months, with games against other clubs played in between. This series format presages the modern format of the World Series in determining baseball's champion.

Since scheduling was frequently uneven, achieving the most wins or even the highest winning percentage was not necessarily an accurate gauge of the best team. Therefore, a challenge format, resembling that of modern professional boxing, made a certain amount of sense. However, this format occasionally led to situations where the strongest team in a given year did not have an opportunity to play for the championship. This appears to have occurred, for instance, in both 1868 to Athletic of Philadelphia and 1869 to the Cincinnati Red Stockings. The 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings were undefeated with victories over all of the leading clubs, including 1868 champion Mutual and ultimate 1869 champion Atlantic. However, Cincinnati never faced a reigning champion in a deciding game for the championship.

Disputes also occasionally arose. In 1860 reigning champion Atlantic of Brooklyn and challenger Excelsior of Brooklyn split their first two games. In the deciding game, Excelsior was leading 8-6 and had men on base, but were forced to withdraw by a rowdy crowd of Atlantic partisans and gamblers. The game was declared a draw, and the championship retained by Atlantic.

In 1870, Mutual of New York was leading 13-12 in the deciding game of its series with the Chicago White Stockings when Mutual left the field in protest. Officials decided to revert the score to the end of the last completed inning and awarded the game, and thus the championship, to Chicago. Mutual, however, declared itself champions for the year.

First game of the 1865 championship series between Atlantic and Mutual, played at Elysian Fields (Currier & Ives lithograph).
Enlarge
First game of the 1865 championship series between Atlantic and Mutual, played at Elysian Fields (Currier & Ives lithograph).

End of Year Champions

Teams with most wins

Professionalism

The NABBP was initially established upon principles of amateurism. However, even early in its history some star players, such as James Creighton of Excelsior, received compensation, either secretly or indirectly. In 1866, the NABBP investigated Athletic of Philadelphia for paying three players in violation of its rules, including Lip Pike, but ultimately took no action against either the club or the players. To address this growing practice, and to restore integrity to the game, at its 1868 meeting the NABBP established a professional category to begin in the 1869 season. Clubs desiring to pay players were now free to declare themselves professional.

Cincinnati was the first to so declare and among the most aggressive in recruiting the best available players. Twelve, including most of the strongest clubs in the NABBP, ultimately declared themselves professional for the 1869 season.

Conflict arose, however, between amateur and professional interests. Important issues included how the championship was to be decided and regulating players jumping from one team to another. As a result, in 1871 most of the leading professional clubs broke away to found the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. The NABBP continued for approximately two years thereafter in a diminished status before disbanding into state and regional organizations.

References

 

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