Cool Civil War Era Baseball Pickup from those who played in the first baseball games ever!

mouschi

Kinda pumped about this one I love baseball history! This is a Civil War Era (1862) letter to purchase US Treasury notes. This is from William & John O'Brien, who played in the first baseball games ever! They played for the New York Knickerbockers in 1845. Just wanted to share it here!

doubledragon

Very Cool letter. I also love historical stuff.🖒

Halos2002

Very interesting. That is a great find!!!

FINESTKIND

That's awesome. A great piece of history.

Stone193

Thanx Tanner - to have anything connected with pioneers of BB is really cool! Congratulations on your pickup buddy.

While there is evidence they did play for the Knicks, I can't find any "game" stats as such.

Here's a copy of a roster where one of the O'Briens played as catcher.

mouschi

Thanks for posting, Mike! Any ideas at all as to which year this is? From what I can tell, the first "official" game where stats were kept was in 1846, though a handful of games were played in 1845 ... I'm just drawing this from memory. I love the graphic you posted! Where is it from?

@Stone193 said:
Thanx Tanner - to have anything connected with pioneers of BB is really cool! Congratulations on your pickup buddy.

While there is evidence they did play for the Knicks, I can't find any "game" stats as such.

Here's a copy of a roster where one of the O'Briens played as catcher.

Stone193

Gonna have to say "never mind" on this one Tanner.

Here's a quick thing on the Excelsiors:

The Brooklyn Excelsiors were an amateur baseball team that played in Brooklyn, New York. Formed in 1854, the Excelsior ballclub featured stars such as Jim Creighton, Asa Brainard, and Candy Cummings. The team is known for originating the "Brooklyn-style" baseball cap, precursor to the modern cap

I'm gonna guess the O'Briens were long gone from BB by this time?

And I'm not sure what year that game was played.

mouschi

I don't think 1854 is a stretch, but I don't believe Creighton played but for a few years, and his last one was in 1862 oddly enough, the year this letter was written!) so yeah, the brothers O'Brien were probably long gone at that point.

@Stone193 said:
Gonna have to say "never mind" on this one Tanner.

Here's a quick thing on the Excelsiors:

The Brooklyn Excelsiors were an amateur baseball team that played in Brooklyn, New York. Formed in 1854, the Excelsior ballclub featured stars such as Jim Creighton, Asa Brainard, and Candy Cummings. The team is known for originating the "Brooklyn-style" baseball cap, precursor to the modern cap

I'm gonna guess the O'Briens were long gone from BB by this time?

And I'm not sure what year that game was played.