The Atlantic Base Ball Club of Brooklyn ("Atlantic" or the "Brooklyn Atlantics") was baseball's first champion and its first dynasty . The team was also the first baseball club to visit the White House in 1865 at the invitation of President Andrew Johnson .
17-493: Established on August 14, 1855 , Atlantic became a founding member of the National Association of Base Ball Players , the amateur sport's first governing body, in 1857 . (There were no professional clubs at the time.) In 1859 , with a record of 11 wins and 1 loss, Atlantic emerged as the recognized champions of baseball. Atlantic held the championship through the 1861 season, albeit in controversial fashion. In
34-723: A few others. For the nine listed clubs in Greater New York, no city is named in the first column; the comment gives their locales. Star (*) marks ten clubs among twelve who would go pro in 1869. Excelsior of Chicago and Buckeye of Cincinnati are listed because they were probably the strongest teams in the west after the Cincinnati Red Stockings. Marshall Wright publishes 1866 season records for 58 of 93 association members, said to be complete for games between two member clubs. Bill Ryczek calls 20 of that season's teams "major" including three old New York rivals of
51-624: A piece to see Atlantic win 8–7 in extra innings in one of the most significant games in baseball history. Atlantic surrendered the title later in the year, though, to Mutual . After the 1865 season, the Atlantics became the first baseball team to visit the White House. Arthur Gorman , one of the founders of the Washington Nationals Base Ball Club and an acquaintance of President Andrew Johnson, organized
68-570: A team. As a result, their best players, including George Zettlein , Bob Ferguson , Joe Start and Lip Pike , jumped to other clubs. When Atlantic did join the professional circuit in 1872 , it was unable to reestablish itself as a leading club, suffering losing records in each of its four seasons in the league. Atlantic was not invited to join the National League when that circuit was formed in 1876 , but continued to play an independent schedule until at least 1882 . A remnant Atlantic
85-538: A third and deciding game with Excelsior of Brooklyn , Excelsior was leading 8–6 and had men on base, but was forced to withdraw by a rowdy crowd of Atlantic partisans and gamblers. The game was declared a draw, and the championship retained by Atlantic. Atlantic held the championship again through the 1861 season, which was shortened due to the American Civil War , before finally surrendering it to archrival Eckford of Brooklyn in 1862. Atlantic recaptured
102-648: A tournament featuring his team, the Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia and the Atlantics. Philadelphia refused to play in the final game as they would not receive any of the gate revenue and left. Having known President Johnson since his days as a page in the United States Senate , Gorman offered to take the visiting team to the White House to meet the President. Brooklyn accepted and visited on August 30, 1865. A daguerreotype of
119-536: The Knickerbockers . This table covers all of those "majors", all 14 members with at least eight wins on record, and a few others. For the fifteen listed clubs in Greater New York, no city is named in the first column; the comment gives their locales. Star (*) marks eight clubs among twelve who would go pro in 1869, three seasons later. For the preceding 1865 season Marshall Wright lists 30 members with supposedly complete records for most of them. Twenty-two of
136-518: The baseball events of the years 1845 to 1868 throughout the world. At its December 1868 annual meeting, the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) permitted professional clubs. Twelve existing members did "go pro" and constitute the professional field for 1869 . Marshall Wright publishes 1868 season records for 98 teams, many of them incomplete ("(inc)" in the table). Bill Ryczek calls 15 of that season's teams "major" (not marked). This table covers all of those "majors" (not marked), all of
153-548: The 1869 "pros" (*), all 14 member clubs with at least twelve wins on record, and a few others. For the seven listed clubs in Greater New York, no city is named in the first column; the comment gives their locales. At least four Association clubs not listed here would someday try professionalism: Riverside of Portsmouth, Ohio (1870); Kekionga of Fort Wayne, Indiana (1871); Middletown of Mansfield, Connecticut (1872); Resolute of Elizabeth, New Jersey (1873). Meanwhile, only two brand new professional baseball clubs would be established in
170-568: The Atlantics presenting an official team jersey to the President bearing the number “65” is on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown , New York . Atlantic had been among the first clubs to declare themselves professional when allowed to do so in 1869 . However, when the major professional clubs formed the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in 1871 , Atlantic declined to field
187-489: The championship over the undefeated Cincinnati club under the "challenge" format of the National Association of Base Ball Players , which resembled modern boxing championship rules rather than a league or tournament format. This outcome undoubtedly contributed to the tremendous anticipation when Cincinnati came to Brooklyn with an 89-game winning streak to meet the Atlantics on June 14, 1870 at Atlantic's home Capitoline Grounds . An estimated crowd of 15,000 paid 50 cents
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#1732773120674204-616: The first ever baseball card . The only known card was archived at the Library of Congress since the 1880s, when the photographer Charles Williamson submitted the photo for copyright. It remained the only copy of this "card" known to exist until 2013, when another card was found in an old photo album at a yard sale. The 148-year-old team photo was sold to an unnamed bidder for $ 92,000.00 when it went up for auction on February 6, 2013 in Maine . 1855 in baseball The following are
221-682: The next three years, the Chicago White Stockings for 1870 and the Boston Red Stockings for 1871. Their commercial origins may be related to their survival alone by 1877, and on to 2010, while all of their rivals with older and amateur roots fell away. Marshall Wright publishes 1867 season records for 89 teams, many of them incomplete ("(inc)" in the table). Bill Ryczek calls 17 of that season's teams "major" (not marked). This table covers all of those "majors", all 13 member clubs with at least fourteen wins on record, and
238-417: The pennant in 1866 with a season record of twenty wins, no defeats, and a single tie as the only blemish on its record. Atlantic went undefeated in 1865 with an 18–0 record, sweeping series against chief rivals Mutual of New York and Athletic of Philadelphia . Great players of this era included Joe Start , Dickey Pearce , Charlie Smith , Fred Crane , and Tom Pratt . Atlantic's 36-game winning streak
255-539: The thirty were in Greater New York. Bill Ryczek calls 19 teams "major" in the first season that he covers: sixteen of the members and three others (Lowell, Harvard, and Camden). No one traveled much and membership was still depressed by the Civil War. There had been 59 delegates at the March 1860 annual meeting, and 55 at the next annual meeting that December (on a new baseball calendar), who thereby intended to play during
272-560: Was finally broken in June, 1866 by Irvington, NJ. Atlantic retained the pennant that year by splitting a two-game series with Athletic of Philadelphia and declining to schedule a series with Union of Morrisania . Atlantic did surrender the title to Union in 1867 . When Atlantic defeated Eckford to regain the pennant in 1869 , Atlantic had already lost to the Cincinnati Red Stockings . This allowed Atlantic to claim
289-653: Was invited to join the upstart American Association in 1882 but failed to satisfy the requirements for doing so. For many years afterwards, the term Atlantic batting referred to a big inning, especially late in the game. Source for season records: Wright (2000) has published records for dozens of NABBP teams each season, relying on a mix of game and season records in contemporary newspapers and guides. Dozens of leading clubs by number of matches are included, as are many others. The records do not consistently cover either all games played or all championship matches between NABBP members. The 1865 Atlantics are said to have been on
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