Baseball in the 1890s according to Edward Teale

When I was researching for my book I found some interesting things about baseball in the 1890s. Before TV and easy entertainment many men played for the home team. It was a rowdy game, and women weren’t really welcome. By rowdy I mean sometimes down right dangerous.

Here is a description of baseball in the 1890’s that my husband’s Grandfather Edward M. Teale of Central Bridge NY wrote in his memoir

We had a Hadwin Base Ball Club, of men and a Junior Hadwin C.B.A.C. (Central Bridge Athelete Club). One time the diamond was across from our house and I was bat boy. Not allowed to play. Our baseball field was moved about every year, down by the pump shanty, over to Enders where the Northeast is now, once down on the back road almost directly back of the Hotels. Some game those days only the catcher and sometimes first base had mitts. The catcher had a mask and chest protector. Fred Frarquher (local undertaker and furniture) was generally catcher. He was the only one who could catch A.L. Brand (druggist and Post Master). He had speed but not control. O.J. Collins (proprietor of the Park Hotel) was another pitcher. He had good control but not the speed of Brand. Left-handed Jacob (Jake) Houck (carpenter by trade) played first base bare handed. The first spikes were mowing machine knives heated, the edges turned up exactly one half inch, drilled and fastened to the shoes. What a job you could do to a man with them. A man had to be rugged to play and most times a fight started that really was a fight. Sometimes not only the players but the grandstand joined in too. But the old Hadwin team could take it.

I couldn’t find a picture of Ed Teale’s team, but here is a school team from Virginia circa 1896 (By Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons).