The B. B. Grounds are about one mile from town. A fine road, beautifully shaded, leads out to them.

The ground is not as well fitted up as it should be. There is no convenience for spectators. It is not level. The brush is too near, and the deep gulch in rear of the home base is a great draw back. This is no fault of the club. Suitable grounds are hard to be found anywhere. Snohomish Northstar, 9-22-1877

Sabrpedia

Spread of baseball project

Mapping the Spread

Washington State early games

Protoball and Spread Theories

-Baseball and the Civil War -How and why the game propogated -Patterns and diffusion models

Part 2: The Growth of Baseball and the Settlement of the Northwest

1791 to 1846

1848 to 1869
1848-California gold rush starts, Oregon Territory established 1853-Washington Territory established 1857-NABBP formed with 16 clubs 1858-Fraser River gold rush, 1861-Cariboo gold rush, etc., etc., 1859-Oregon Statehood 1860-Idaho gold rush; 1861-first Transcontinental Telegraph 1863-Idaho Territory established 1861-1865-Civil War 1863-1869-first Transcontinental Railroad 1866-first known clubs formed in Portland and Oregon City 1866-NABBP convention Dec. 1866 with over 200 clubs including Pioneer Base Ball Club of Portland 1869-NABBP makes rules changes regarding professionalism

Settlements and Populations

Spokane, 1810; Astoria, 1811; Walla Walla, 1818; Vancouver, 1824; Oregon City, 1829; Nisqually, 1833; Boise, 1834; Victoria, 1843; Tumwater, 1845; Portland, 1845; Olympia, 1850; Steilacoom, Port Townsend, 1851; Seattle, 1852; Lewiston, 1861; Fort Boise resettled 1863; Spokane resettled late 1860s. 1850-Oregon Territory 12,093; 1860- 52,465; 1880- 174,768 1853-Washington Territory 3,965; 1860- 11,594; 1880- 75,116 1860-Portland 2,917; Walla Walla 722; Vancouver 660; Colville 627; Fort Walla Walla 320; Port Townsend 264. 1860-Manhattan 813,699; Brooklyn 266,661; Newark 71,941. 1883- Northern Pacific Railroad 1893- Great Northern Railroad

Part 3: The Spread of Early Base Ball in the Pacific Northwest

Walla Walla Statesman, July 27, 1867

Two Recollections Predating 1866

Medford Mail Tribune, August 1, 1910

On the Victoria and District Baseball Association website, they trace the history of baseball in Victoria to when the VCC plays Base Ball in San Francisco in 1849 while on a trip to play cricket. Have not been able to verify that match, but....

Protoball Activity in Victoria, 1863

British Colonist, April 3, 1863 British Colonist, March 30, 1863

1866-1869 Baseball Fever in the Northwest

Victoria: Olympic Base Ball Club, 1866, adopts "NABBP rules. Also in Victoria by 1869: Dominion BBC, Collegiate BBC, and Van. Island. Portland: Pioneer Base Ball Club, 1866; Portland hosts Baseball Convention February 21, 1868; Robert H. Law from the Pioneer's attended the 10th NABBP Convention on 12/12/66 at Clinton Hall; Highland Base Ball Club, 1868. Oregon City: Clackamas Base Ball Club, 1866 Vancouver: Occidental Base Ball Club, 1867; Sherman Base Ball Club, 1867; Washington Base Ball Club, 1868; Oriental Base Ball Club of the Fourth Plain, 1868 Roseburg: unknown name of club, 1867 Walla Walla: Walla Walla Base Ball Club, 1867; Excelsior Base Ball Club, 1867 Boise: Pioneer Base Ball Club, 1868; Capitol Base Ball Club, 1869 Olympia: Rainier Base Ball Club, by at least 1869

Challenge Matches

Vancouver Register, May 30, 1867

From the Puget Sound Weekly Argus in 1882, we have another example. Note the initial challenge is issued in March for a game to be played in May. Usually a return game would be scheduled as well. In the Puget Sound, unlike Portland, these games would often be months apart.

Oregon in the 1870s and 1880s

By 1875, there is a regular baseball column in the Morning Oregonian. We find reports of The Athletics, The Academy Base Ball Club, The Multnomah Base Ball Club, the High School Club (champions "of all the school clubs"), the Crescents, the Arcadian, Young Americas, Alerts of Milwaukie, and the Pioneer. By this time the Pioneer also makes an annual trip to play in Astoria. There are also teams going to play in Olympia. By the mid-1880s, the Pioneer club is the main club in Portland, and travels regularly to meet the Victoria Amities, Seattle Reds, and Tacoma BBC, as well as a team called the Shoshone. At W.M. Beck & Sons in Portland you can buy "Base Ball styles for 1875, just received. BOSTON CLUB, CHICAGO CLUB, WHITE and RED DEAD BALLS. 'BOUNDING ROCK' 'ATLANTIC' AND 'RED STOCKING'. Clubs are seen in Portland, Jacksonville, Salem, Fort Stevens, Cornelius, Glencoe, Astoria, Sublimity has two clubs, and one article states there are 8 clubs in Salem. In short, wherever you find a newspaper and population, you find baseball.

Idaho and Eastern Washington

In Idaho, there were at least two clubs in Boise during the period of baseball fever, the Pioneer and the Capitol. However, after that there is little activity until an Army team forms and posts a challenge in 1878, and the Editor of the Idaho Statesman writes "we know of no other team in Boise". The She-me-ne-kem Base Ball Club of Lewiston is in place as of 1873 and either that or another team is active in 1881. The First Idaho Base Ball Club of Lapwai, 1873 Also, Mt. Idaho, 1878; another club at Boise, 1878; Spokane Base Ball Club, 1879; Couer D'Alene, 1881; Colfax Base Ball Club, 1881; Pocatello Base Ball Club, 1885; Shoshone Base Ball Club (probably from Blackfoot, ID), 1885; Yakima Base Ball Club, 1889; Ellensburgh Base Ball Club, 1889; DeLamar, ID, 1891; Caldwell, ID, 1892

Baseball around the Salish Sea

Outside of Victoria and Olympia (1869), we don't see any baseball in the Puget Sound region until 1871 and 1872. 1871-Port Townsend, Red Rover Base Ball Club vs. Old Union Base Ball Club, teams from PT/FT will travel to play Port Gamble, Victoria, Olympia, and Seattle 1872-Washington Base Ball Club of Olympia accepts challenge from Olympic Base Ball Club of Victoria 1874-Tacoma Base Ball Club is formed 1877-Port Gamble Unknowns Base Ball Club plays home and away with Snohomish City Pacific Base Ball Club 1881-at the Lummi Village, Semiahmoo vs "River Boys" 1882-Chimacum challenge matches with Port Townsend Teams in Steilacoom, Newcastle, Renton, and at UW (1880)

The Seattle Alkis 1876-1879

In this picture, top row: George Snow, 2b; Loren B. Hastings, Jr, SS; Jack Levy, Manager; George Rudge, LF; Edwin S. Briscoe, RF. Bottom row: Samuel L. Crawford, CF; Jack Wilson, P; Curry Chase, C; Jim Warren, 1b; Ed K. Coryell, 3b. Not pictured: Frank Treen, Sam Percival, F. Dunham, G. S. Jacobs, S. C. Lowe, Laurence Booth, W. G. Jamieson, F. Osborne, Fletcher Coulter, J. S. Spencer, George Rudge.

It is doubtful if there was another level piece of ground clear of stumps then in the town of Seattle large enough for a ball game. History of Seattle, Clarence Bagley

Samuel Crawford's story, in his own words:

When I came to Seattle I brought a baseball and bat with me and at odd times would go out on what was then known as Occidental Square and pass the ball around. I soon found a number of congenial spirits, but no organization of a nine was effected for several weeks. One day a challenge appeared in a paper from an organization in Newcastle, offering to play any nine in King County, Seattle preferred, on any day in the future on any grounds selected by the challenged team. I called this to the attention of my friends of Occidental Square who arranged for some practice games on the old University grounds, and we found we could play some ball. They authorized me to accept the challenge, on behalf of the Alki Base Ball Club of Seattle. The game was played two weeks from the following Saturday. I do not. remember the score, but I do remember that no one of the challenging team ever got beyond second base. The Alkis at once sprung into prominence, and for years met all comers from Olympia to Victoria. Samuel Leroy Crawford, 1914

"Sam Crawford, our center fielder, and I were working together in a foundry in Seattle in 1875, when Jack Levy, a friend of mine, received a challenge from Newcastle for a ball game. There were no Seattle baseball teams in those days so Levy intended to turn down the challenge. Then we got to talking about it and decided we could get a team together. I knew a few fellows who could play ball. So did Crawford and so did Levy. We gathered them together, practiced a few times, and then took on the Miners on the old University of Washington field. After seven innings we were leading Newcastle 51 to 0, when the Miners became discouraged and quit." James Warren, 1931 "In 1876.... Sam Crawford came to town with his baseball and bat....The following year, Jack Wilson, a professional ball player, arrived. Crawford was editor of the Weekly Intelligencer and ran an article stating that the coal miners at Newcastle wanted to play any nine on the Pacific Coast, Seattle preferred. Wilson called on Crawford and the two got a team together and sent word to Newcastle that they were ready." Jack Wilson and the Seattle Times, 1947

Regarding the name, on June 1 of 1877 it was reported the Seattle Base Ball Club would now be called the Alki Base Ball Club. At this point Jack Levy was elected President, W. G. Jamieson, Secretary, and Curry Chase was elected Captain. Here is the preview for the May 24, 1878 game. Seattle and Victoria appear to have had this May 24/July 4 series from 1877 to 1886. No games seen yet for 1879 or 1883. By 1887, the teams were playing a very active schedule between all the future members of the NW and Pacific Leagues.

Seattle Alki and the Spread

The Seattle Alkis encapsulate many features of the Spread of Baseball: They were mainly white collar workers, although this doesnt explain Newcastle (although it might explain why we know nothing about the Newcastle Miners) They spread the game incrementally, from town to town Their games involved commercial pathways. They played Newcastle as Seattle was building its first railroad to transport coal; they played Victoria, the major transportation and commercial hub towards SF They all appear to have come from places that had teams spring up during the fever of 1867-71: Oregon City, Portland, Port Townsend, Walla Walla, and Victoria The team essentially is comprised of people who relocated to Seattle

Migration of the players

Samuel Crawford was born in Oregon City, and moved from there to Walla Walla, back to OC and Salem, then to Olympia. Each of these locations exposed him to organized baseball. Organized base ball in Oregon was established by 1866, when Crawford was 11. He moved to Olympia in 1869 when he was 14. That is also the first year we see a Base Ball club there, when it travels to Victoria to take on the Amities. Crawford then moves to Seattle with his bat and ball in 1876. His previous exposure to a system of organized base ball should be considered a significant factor in the formation of the Alkis. Prior to becoming wealthy in real estate, he was part owner of the Seattle Intelligencer.

Jack Wilson claimed to have been a professional ball player from New York. I havent been able to find records of that. He left Seattle in 1879 at the same time as Curry Chase. Wilson went to work a cattle drive first in Walla Walla, and then east. He later opened up a hardware store in Kettle Falls, and is on the Stevens County census from 1900 on. He was the last living member of the Alkis, and his story and photograph appeared in the September 7, 1947 edition of the Seattle Times.

Jack Levy, President, was from Victoria, where base ball had been played since 1866. Levy was also promoter of the Seattle Rifle Club, and ran the Grotto cigar stand in front of the Grotto Tavern on Mill Street. He moved to Seattle from Victoria in the 1860s along with Alkis Secretary William Jamieson, who was a jeweler and owned shops in Victoria, Seattle and Tacoma. Interestingly enough, several of Victorias early BB players were also members of the Jewish community there. Like Crawford, he had been around organized baseball for a decade by 1876.

George Rudge, LF, was was born in 1854 in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. He lived in San Francisco in 1875 before moving to Seattle. Like his father he was a marble cutter, and was in that business in Seattle with James Carkeek. He moved to Victoria in 1879, and is listed as playing and managing teams there in the 1880s. He became a very successful businessman. St. Stephen had organized ball in the 1880s. Edwin Sebastian Briscoe moved to Seattle in 1875 with his mother, Elizabeth Foss. He was born in 1860 in Boston, and died in November of 1888. His mother funded the gym at the Knights of Columbus and the building of the Briscoe Boys School in Kent in his honor. He founded Briscoe and Booth, doing title abstracts, with L. S. Booth.

George D. Snow, 2B, lived from c. 1850 to 1925. He was the first engineer for the City of Seattle. He came to Seattle around 1875. The Pioneer Club of Portland also had a 2B named Snow in 1874-75. Snow later helped organize the Seattle Reds and played 2B for them through the 1880s. He lived at where City Hall Park is now, 3rd and Yesler. Loren Hastings is listed as a member of the Red Rover Base Ball Club in its contest with the Old Union BBC in Port Townsend in 1871. His father was from Vermont, mother from Illinois, and they moved to Portland in 1847. His father left for the California gold rush, making it rich selling supplies to miners. In 1852, the family founded Port Townsend, having rejected Alki Point on an expedition the previous summer. Lote Hastings ran a steamboat company.

Curry Chase was the Captain by 1877, and the corners were Jim Warren, 1B, and Ed Coryell, 3B. Warren lived in Seattle and was a shipbuilder until around WW1, when he was in an accident. Warren lived at 414 Spring Street, which would be 1 block from the original UW grounds where Seattle played the Newcastle team in 1876. I have no real information about Coryell. Curry Chase is also mysterious, but I have a theory. It requires someone who is about the same age as the other players and has a history of baseball. This man is Charles Curry Chase, originally from Otsego, NY, a 15 mile drive from Cooperstown. He helped manage the 1886 Oshkosh team featuring rookie William Hoy. He played ball at Cornell, graduating in 1883 at the age of 24. Hes referred to in an alumni game of 1896 as Curry Chase. Cant place him in Puget Sound, though. Not yet, at least.

Rudge, Jamieson and Levy: Canada to Seattle, 1875 Hastings, Port Townsend to Seattle, 1875 Crawford, Treen, Snow, Dunham, and later Bagley: Olympia, Oregon before that, to Seattle, 1876

Snow and Briscoe, Massachusetts to Seattle, 1875

Chase and Wilson, New York to Seattle, Unknown

Each of these players ended up living in Seattle having had previous experience of organized baseball. They brought this cultural framework with them. They were impacted by events causing mass relocation, but not entirely because of the Civil War. Additional factors to consider include the gold rushes and railroads. Several of the players would follow the contagion model: the game came to Oregon, and then the game moved to Port Townsend and Olympia, and from there to Seattle. On the other side, someone brought the NABBP game to Victoria, and it migrated with Levy and Jamieson to Seattle. This town to town model also followed the major emigration routes. Finally, other than Levy and Jamieson, every player was a teenager when Baseball Fever struck in 1867, and they carried the game forward with them, part of making the fad stick.

Baseball in Seattle in the 1880s

April 17, 1889

June 14, 1885

As the 1880s came to a close, Seattle prepared for the coming of the first professional league in 1890.
April 6, 1887

The End, Thanks. Questions?

Photograph Courtesy of MOHAI