People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1896 — The National Game. [ARTICLE]

The National Game.

The game of baseball was fifty years old last week, the first match game having been played at Hoboken. N. J., bn June 19, 1846, between the Knickerbocker and New York clubs Previous to that time townball had been the grpai game, but some of the devotees got their heads together and evolved a series of rules which changed the sport so materially that they decided to call it baseball. The first team was organized on Sept. 23, 1845, but it was not until the following June that a match game was played.