{"id":9061,"date":"2015-06-05T20:42:12","date_gmt":"2015-06-06T00:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=9061"},"modified":"2016-07-13T16:25:31","modified_gmt":"2016-07-13T20:25:31","slug":"who-will-put-the-ball-in-motion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2015\/06\/who-will-put-the-ball-in-motion\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWho will put the ball in motion?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Teachers<\/a>
Teachers Examination at the [Athletic] Recreation Center, 26th and Jefferson Streets,
April 1, 1930. Photograph by Charles L. Howell. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>In their very first season, the Pythians<\/a> proved themselves on the fields of Philadelphia, Camden, West Chester and Harrisburg. Later that same year\u20141867\u2014when the National Association of Base Ball Players met in Philadelphia, the Pythians applied for membership and soon heard the unanimous decision<\/a>: \u201cAny club which may be composed of one or more colored persons\u201d could not <\/em>join. And so, this all-African-American team led by Octavius Catto<\/a>, would be excluded from organized baseball.<\/p>\n

The decision didn\u2019t sit well with baseball organizer, journalist and reformer Thomas Fitzgerald. As mentioned in a recent post<\/a>, at the start of the 1869 season Fitzgerald proposed going \u201cagainst the rules\u201d and called for \u201ca game between one of our white clubs and the Pythians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho will put the ball in motion?\u201d he challenged.<\/p>\n

Working out the details took most of the season, but the Pythians and the Olympics arranged to play<\/a> and Fitzgerald agreed to serve as umpire on September 3, 1869 at Jefferson Street Ball Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps the first base ball game of the kind was played yesterday afternoon at Twenty-fifth and Jefferson streets reported the Inquirer<\/i>. The Pythians \u201cacquitted themselves in a very creditable manner, especially their outfielders, who made several very fine catches.\u201d The crowd was one of the largest that has been on those grounds for years\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

“A Novel Game in Philadelphia\u2014A Negro Club in the Field\u2026\u201d read a page-one headline in The New York Times.<\/i> \u201cThe novelty of the affair drew an immense crowd of people, it being the first game played between a white and a colored club.\u201d Word of this \u201cnovelty\u201d spread as far as Utah.<\/p>\n

The game between the Pythians and the Olympics was, it turned out, curiously off kilter.<\/p>\n

\"Above:
Two Historic Firsts
Above: Olympic vs. Pythian, September 3, 1869.
Below: Boston Red Caps vs. Philadelphia Athletics, April 22, 1876.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Pythian strategy was to not challenge any<\/em> calls. The Olympics, on the other hand, didn\u2019t hold back at all. And by the third inning, when the Olympics scored 14, including two home runs, the tone of the game was set. According to the Inquirer<\/i>, the Pythians then suffered \u201ctheir first whitewash, their men going out in rapid succession.\u201d They held up better in the fourth inning, when the Pythians scored one more run than did the Olympics. And, \u201cto the astonishment of all,\u201d according to the Inquirer<\/em>, \u201cthe whites were treated to a blank\u201d in the 7th<\/sup> inning.” But the Pythians were only able to add four runs during their turn at bat. And they went scoreless in the 8th<\/sup>. In the final inning, the Pythians made \u201ca desperate effort\u2026to reduce the disparity\u201d but only came up with two more runs than did the Olympics.<\/p>\n

The Olympics defeated the Pythians in that game, 44 to 23.<\/p>\n

A few weeks later, Fitzgerald\u2019s white team from The City Item<\/i> played the Pythians at another field on Columbia Avenue (now Cecil B. Moore) near 17th<\/sup>. That<\/i> game the Pythians won, 27\u201317.<\/p>\n

The New York Clipper<\/i>\u00a0appreciated the breakthrough, but worried about the showmanship. \u201cThe prejudices of race are rapidly disappearing.\u201d First \u201cwe chronicled a game between the Pythian (colored) and Olympics (white) clubs, of Philadelphia. This affair was a great success, financially and otherwise.\u201d They noted the second game with The City Item<\/i> and a third between white and black teams in Washington, D.C. But there’s more to baseball than displays of inter-racial gamesmanship, suggested\u00a0the writer from Brooklyn.\u00a0“The Unique Club, of Williamsburgh, composed of colored gentlemen, is anxious to get on a match with the Pythians. What say the Quakerdelphians?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"27th<\/a>
The Historic Field, from 27th and Master Streets (Google Street View)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Jerrold Casway<\/a> points out, the field where the Pythians and the Olympics met in 1869 could, in its earliest years, be described as fitting into the angle of two country roads: Turners Lane and Mineral (or Market) Street. By the 1870s, these roads disappeared, giving way to the city\u2019s ever-expanding grid. We may not be able to know the exact, original location of home plate, but one thing is for sure: the Jefferson Street Grounds (as it was first known) or Athletic Field (at it became known for the team that made its home there) or the Athletic Recreation Center (so named in the early 20th<\/sup> century) has been a baseball venue since May of 1864\u2014more than 150 years. Is there a field with a more venerable vintage?<\/p>\n

And there’s more: On April 22nd<\/sup> and 24th<\/sup> 1876 the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Caps played two games there. (Boston won the first<\/a>, 6 to 5: Philadelphia won the second<\/a>, 20-3.) The former was the first game of the National League played in Philadelphia, and, thanks to rainy weather elsewhere, the first National League game played anywhere<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Is there a historical place with more awesome associations?<\/p>\n

Walking the field today, we ask: Is there a reason this place is so understated? Now that we know a few of its secrets, the field itself is stirring. But there\u2019s nothing to remind, to inspire or to help us celebrate: no historical marker<\/a>, no public art<\/a>, no mural<\/a>, no monument<\/a>. Shouldn’t we make something<\/em> more<\/em> of this place?\u00a0It\u2019s time to again challenge ourselves with the big questions:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat say the Quakerdelphians?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho will put the ball in motion?\u201d<\/p>\n

[Sources include: \u201cBase Ball – Olympic vs. Pythian,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/i>, September 4, 1869; \u00a0\u201cA Novel Game in Philadelphia,\u201d The New York Times<\/i>, Sunday September 5, 1869; \u201cWhite vs. Colored Clubs,\u201d New York Clipper<\/i>, September 25, 1869; \u201cThe Boston-Athletic Game,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/i>; April 24, 1876; and \u201cAthletics vs. Boston\u2014The Latter Badly Whipped,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/i>; April 25, 1876.]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In their very first season, the Pythians proved themselves on the fields of Philadelphia, Camden, West Chester and Harrisburg. Later that same year\u20141867\u2014when the National Association of Base Ball Players met in Philadelphia, the Pythians applied for membership and soon heard the unanimous decision: \u201cAny club which may be composed of one or more colored […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}