"Base Ball Matters"

The Olympic - Tyrolean Rivalry of 1876

Baseball was well on its way to becoming the national pastime little more than a decade after the end of the Civil War. Many cities and large towns fielded several amateur teams, or "clubs," who played games with cross-town rivals or traveled to nearby towns for a "match." Professional play, for most, was still a decade or more away--the ball clubs of the 1860's and 1870's tended to be social organizations--as these local men from various occupations competed for the excitement and fun of the game, and for occasional glory.

The clubs were also generally segregated by race. The color line became official as early as 1867, when the National Association of Base Ball Players voted to deny membership to any team that included "one or more colored persons." White teams, thereafter, tended to remain all white, and African Americans were forced to form separate teams. White and African American teams did sometimes compete in matches, but most games were between either all white teams or all African American teams, although the spectators often were of both races.¹

Just as baseball fans have favorite teams today, fans in the early decades also followed favorite local clubs. As a result, newspapers began reporting on games in their local news sections--the sports section had not yet made an appearance--with Harrisburg's Daily Patriot writing about local games under the headlines "Base Ball Matters," and "The Bat and Ball." On April 11, 1876, the Daily Patriot reported on the first game of the season between an African American and a white team:

"The baseball fever has not yet broken out in earnest.
Several scrub games have been played on different grounds this spring but no record has been kept of the games.
Yesterday the first match game of the season was played on the North street grounds, between the Olympic nine (colored) and a picked nine of white amateurs--four of whom belonged to the Experts last season. At the end of nine innings the game stood 19 to 9 in favor of the Olympic."²

Two days later the paper reported a similar match, with a resulting tie score of 10 to 10. It noted "The Olympics announce that they are open to challenges from any other club in the city."³ Apparently even regular season play did not yet feature a pre-determined schedule.

Two other Harrisburg African American ball clubs, the Tyroleans and the Mystics, began playing games a little later in the spring, the first on May 8, which resulted in a win for the Tyroleans. As the Patriot reported it, "The Tyroleans defeated the Mystic club (both colored) on the North street grounds, yesterday afternoon by a score of 40 to 15." A rematch was played ten days later, with the Mystics getting their revenge in a much closer game, besting the Tyroleans 22 to 17. The North Street field, where these games took place, was located in the notorious Eighth Ward, probably just east of the intersection of North and Seventh Streets.⁴

On June 5th, the Tyroleans won another game against the Mystics, beating them in a tight game, 2 to 1. It was not until June 7th that the Mystics played the Olympics, at an Allison Hill field. Under "Miscellany," the Patriot reported "The Mystic and Olympic nines, two colored clubs, played a match game yesterday at the Kittatinney park, the score resulting 16 to 14 in favor of the Mystic."⁵

Obviously not all games between African American baseball teams were being reported. Much column space went to coverage of games between the local white teams, the America Club and the Harrisburg Club. It is not known how many times the Olympic team met the Tyrolean team at this point in the season, but by mid-June the two clubs were emerging as the game leaders, and had become famous rivals. On June 19th, the Patriot ran a comparatively lengthy article under the headline "Base Ball Matters:"

"The friends of the Olympic and Tyrolean base ball clubs are making arrangements for a grand match of base ball for a purse of twenty-five dollars and the championship. Great rivalry exists between these clubs for superiority of playing. The Tyroleans have never been able to cope with the Olympic although their games have been hotly contested. They have recently added several new players to their nine, which tends to increase their strength and they now feel able and willing to cope with the latter named club. The Olympics having been successful in every game they have played with the several clubs in the central portion of the state, feel they are second to no club in this vicinity, and will contest the Tyroleans as soon as the arrangements for a game can be completed. Those who are desirous of witnessing a hotly contested game of base ball should not miss the proposed game between the colored nines.
"Allen, the catcher of the Olympics is immense, and is said to have no superior in this vicinity. The game will be announced some day this week."⁶

This announced "grand match" featured quite a few dramatic aspects--the "great rivalry," the Tyroleans' role as underdog hoping to topple the confident Olympics, new players, and the "immense" catcher, Allen, playing for the Olympics--all which no doubt convinced the Patriot editor to devote several extra column inches to a subject which was usually only lightly covered. Of no little interest was the glory of the championship, and particularly the twenty-five dollar purse. Divided between nine men, that was $2.77 each, an amount equal to several days of pay for most laborers.⁷

The much anticipated grand match took place on June 22nd at Union Field. It was a well attended and exciting game, as the Patriot had predicted:

"An assemblage of probably four hundred spectators was present, yesterday afternoon, to witness the game between the Olympic and Tyrolean clubs (colored) at the Union grounds. The contest was for a purse of $25 and the championship. The game was a spirited one from beginning to end, and was hotly contested. The batting of the Olympics was immense, one of the batters sending his balls far beyond the seats on the rising ground on the west side of the enclosure.
"One of the Tyrolean members made two fine home runs-the only home runs made by either club. Following are the names of the players:
"Olympic club-D. Brown, 2b; W. Shadney, p. and captain; A. Jackson, 1b; W. Rideout, s.s.; T. Brown, c.; W. Jackson, l.f.; G. Jackson, c.f.; R. Humphrey, 3b; H. Murray, r.f.
"Tyrolean club-G. M'Mullen, 1b; A. Wilson, 2b; J. Murray, 3b. and captain; J. Barton, c.f.; S. Burrows, p; E. Early, ss; D. Allen, c.; H. Miller, l.f.; B. Boone, r.f.
Following is the score:

        Innings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Tyroleans         1 7 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 12

Olympic         4 0 2 0 4 1 0 1 4 16

Umpire-Mr. W. Carrigan, of the Harrisburg club.
Scores-J. Stewart, for Tyrolean; C. Harly, for Olympic club.⁸

True to their reputation, the Olympic club had taken the championship and the purse, but the Tyroleans were anything but beaten in spirit. The next day, under the headline "The Bat and Ball, the Patriot made this brief but tantalizing announcement: "The Tyrolean and Olympic will have another rough-and-tumble fight for the championship in a short time. The game will doubtless be an interesting one."⁹ If the rematch took place, it was most certainly "an interesting one," but we may never find out. The Patriot dropped coverage of the African American base ball club games in favor of the games involving the white Harrisburg and America clubs through the remainder of the season.

Notes:

1. A good discussion about the role of early ball clubs and the color line is in the article by Ted Knorr and Calobe Jackson, Jr., "Blackball in Harrisburg." 1998 Commemorative Program: 2nd Annual Negro League Commemorative Night. Harrisburg, PA, 1998. n.p. To read Knorr and Jackson's original article, click here.

2. All of the articles taken from the Harrisburg Daily Patriot are from the Pennsylvania State Archives, microfilm role 3081 (Daily Patriot, April 11, 1876)

3. Daily Patriot, April 13, 1876.

4. Daily Patriot, May 9, 19, 1876 (The North Street Grounds were probably located on the northeast corner of North and Seventh. The second game was reported as being played "at the North street and Pennsylvania avenue grounds." Seventh Street, bordering the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks, was for a while officially named Pennsylvania Avenue, according to Boyd's Harrisburg and Steelton Directory, 1889 edition. It identifies "Pennsylvania av(enue) or 7th st (as extending) from North...to city limits." A check with Roe's 1889 Atlas of the City of Harrisburg shows longstanding buildings on all corners of that intersection, with the only open space being on the northeast corner, just to the east of a meat packing plant.

5. Daily Patriot, June 8, 1876.

6. Daily Patriot, June 19, 1876

7. The panic of 1873 had severely depressed wages, which steadily fell through the decade. Common laborers at the Wister Anthracite Furnace in Harrisburg were earning $1.10 per day in 1876 and the average daily wage at the Cotton Mill in 1877 was 72 cents. However neither of those businesses employed African Americans, who were usually forced to take even lower paying servant and labor jobs. (Harrisburg Industrializes, Gerald G. Eggert, 1993, p. 269-270.)

8. Daily Patriot, June 23, 1876. Thanks to Calobe Jackson, Jr. for identifying the location of this championship game. He writes "The Union field was well known. It was located at Third and Delaware and is shown on a map at Dauphin County Historical Society. The field extended from Third to Fourth Streets and was later fenced in. It was used at least until 1885." (Correspondence, Calobe Jackson, Jr. to George F. Nagle, September 24, 2003)

9. Daily Patriot, June 24, 1876.

Works Cited:

Daily Patriot (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), April 11,1876 to July 6, 1876, newspaper microfilm, number 3081. Pennsylvania State Archives, Microfilm Reader Room, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Eggert, Gerald G., Harrisburg Industrializes: The Coming of Factories to an American Community. The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pennsylvania, 1993.

Knorr, Ted and Calobe Jackson, Jr. "Blackball in Harrisburg." 1998 Commemorative Program: 2nd Annual Negro League Commemorative Night. Harrisburg, PA, 1998. n.p.

"Base Ball Matters"

The Olympic - Tyrolean Rivalry of 1876

Notes:

Works Cited:

Further Reading: