One of my earliest Nineteenth Century baseball writing projects was four essays for Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the Nineteenth Century, published by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) in 2013. How little I knew about nineteenth century baseball can be seen by my volunteering to write an article about a June 3, 1851, game between the Knickerbocker and Gotham Clubs of New York City. Little did I know that the game was only available because the surviving information was limited to inning-by-inning totals of run scored. Fortunately, I figured something out.
There was, however, another game I volunteered to write about, knowing full well what I was doing. It was the story of a game played 150 years ago today, the first game in National League history and thereby the first major league game ever played. I'm not sure if it's part and parcel of being a Brooklyn Dodger fan, but I was, and still am, a National League fan. Writing about the senior circuit's first game was too good an opportunity to pass up. Since today marks the sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary of that game, I'm using this post to share the link to that story. I hope it's enjoyable reading.
Two prominent New Jersey players, Andy Leonard and Weston Fisler played in that game as did two future Hall of Famers George Wright and Jim O'Rourke. But perhaps the most interesting participant was Boston outfielder Bill Parks. All of the players on the field that day were playing in their first major league game. Parks, however, was also playing in his only major league game - the briefest major league career possible, putting him in the same category, if not league, with the legendary "Moonlight" Graham.
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