1865 Brooklyn Baseball Game

Baseball history illustration: Legend reads: “Grand match between the Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia, and the Resolute Club of Brooklyn, N.Y., Thursday, June 15th, at the Union Grounds, Brooklyn.” According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on June 16th, the match took two and a half hours and as won by the Athletic Club 39-14. A.J. Reach, Athletic Club, batted two balls over the “houses” in right field for two home runs, which has been said to be 350 feet from home base. A pioneer in changing early baseball, Brooklynite William Cammeyer, owner of the Union Skating Grounds (Williamsburg, in Brooklyn New York), filled in his skating pond, leveled the ground turned his property into the first enclosed ball field in America. The field was opened on May 15, 1862 and the Star Spangled Banner was played before the first match, marking the first time that music was played at a game. A few days later Cammeyer charged admission for a match and advanced the movement of the sport toward a viable business as opposed to a gentlemanly exercise.
The box score of the match taken from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of 6/16/1865 is reproduced below. Click illustration to return to previous page.