Seasons 1869 (Previous) 1871 (Next)

1870 Baseball Season

By Patrick Mondout

The championship of the 1870 season was not without controversy. Mutual of New York was leading 13-12 in the deciding game of its series with the Chicago White Stockings when Mutual left the field in protest. Officials decided to revert the score to the end of the last completed inning and awarded the game, and thus the championship, to Chicago. Mutual, however, declared itself champions for the year. 

At a glance... 1870 NABBP SEASON Standings (Pro Teams/Games Only) Team W L T % Red Stocking (Cincinnati) 27 6 1 .809 White Stocking (Chicago) 22 7 0 .759 Athletic (Philadelphia) 26 11 1 .697 Mutual (New York) 29 15 3 .649 Atlantic (Brooklyn) 20 16 0 .556 Union (Troy, NY) 11 13 1 .460 Forest City (Rockford, IL) 10 13 1 .438 Forest City (Cleveland) 9 15 0 .375 Olympic (Washington) 10 18 0 .357 Union (Morrisania, NY) 7 18 0 .280 National (Washington) 2 9 0 .182 Eckford (Brooklyn) 2 12 1 .167 Maryland (Baltimore) 2 14 0 .125 Tri Mountain (Boston) 0 4 0 .000 Riverside (Portsmouth, OH) 0 6 0 .000 1870 SEASON Standings (Amateur Teams/Games Only) Team W L T % RS RA Lone Star (New Orleans, LA) 32 17 0 .653 1369 837 Harvard (Cambridge, MA) 31 11 0 .738 1142 611 Star (Brooklyn, NY) 24 9 0 .727 726 281 Mansfield (Middleton, CT) 21 13 0 .606 875 779 Indianapolis (Indianapolis, IN) 17 10 0 .630 889 625 Resolute (Elizabeth, NJ) 14 11 0 .560 518 497 Southern (New Orleans, LA) 13 8 0 .619 582 521 Aetna (Chicago, IL) 12 4 0 .750 425 312 Amateur (Newark, NJ) 12 8 0 .600 538 356 Expert (Philadelphia, PA) 11 9 0 .550 606 412 Athletic (Brooklyn, NY) 11 11 0 .500 532 416 Eagle (San Francisco, CA) 10 1 0 .909 404 236 Kaw Valley (Lawrence, KS) 10 3 0 .7869 448 284 Washington (New Orleans, LA) 10 5 0 .667 425 415 Cornell (Ithaca, NY) 9 2 0 .818 417 192 Osceola (Pittsburgh, PA) 9 3 0 .750 318 227 Trenton (Trenton, NJ) 9 5 0 .643 450 299 R.E. Lee (New Orleans, LA) 9 8 0 .529 359 266 Pastime (Baltimore, MD) 9 22 1 .297 516 652 Lone Star (Catskill, NY) 8 4 0 .667 414 378 Mutual (Meadville, PA) 7 7 0 .500 486 356 Social (New York, NY) 6 2 0 .750 252 191 Live Oak (Cincinnati, OH) 6 4 0 .600 196 221 Kekionga (Fort Wayne, IN) 6 6 0 .500 236 335 Lowell (Lowell, MA) 6 13 0 .316 358 425 TOP 25 TEAMS ONLY NABBP Membership CLUBS 15 (pro)/500+ (amateur) CITIES 1 13 (pro)/300+ (amateur) Notable new cities include: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Oakland, California Sacramento, California STATES (Pro in bold) Alabama California Connecticut Delaware (District of Columbia) Florida Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Missouri Nebraska New Hampshire New York New Jersey Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Vermont Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin CONVENTION December, 1869 CHAMPION Chicago White Stockings

When looking at the "standings" for the 1870 season on the right, please note that such a listing would have been a novelty at the time and would not have had any meaningful relevance as the championship was not determined by such a listing. It is worth considering that once such standings did matter, it was only the total number of victories (and losses if there was a tie for the most victories), and not winning percentage that determined the winner (thus Mutual would be on top if this were the 1871 standings).

See also: National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, Other Defunct Leagues.

Wes Fisler led the association with 85 hits and 139 total bases (only counting games involving two pro teams). Not bad for a guy who played 36 games. A modern player who played 162 games would have to have 383 hits to match his production! If the lack of meaningful statistics from 1870 troubles you, take consolation in the fact that they average score of the Red Stockings game was 37-9 and that comparisons to players from later years would be laughable in any case.

All Teams Extinct

If you are searching the standings for any teams that might still exist today, you're doing so in vain. The White Stockings did not survive the Great Chicago Fire (the Cubs debuted as the White Stockings in 1874) , the Athletic of Philadelphia got kicked out of the National League in 1876 and have nothing to do with the later Philadelphia A's, and Cincinnati folded after the season ended, sold off all its assets, and the city did not field another pro team until the mid 1870s.

Rosters

As the 1870 NABBP is the real predecessor to the major leagues, we are providing partial rosters for that season:

NOTES:
Prior to 1883, a club's standing was determined by the number of games won, not by its winning percentage.
The source of the standings are from Marshall Wright's unequaled book, The National Association of Base Ball Players 1857-1870 (see bibliography below).
We do not have access to complete NABBP records that would show all amateur teams that were members in 1869 or 1870, but we know it is over 500 for both years.

1. Oliver's Optics Magazine: Our Boys and Girls. February 13, 1869. page 109.

National Association of Base Ball Players sources/bibliography:
Baseball: The Early Years by Harold Seymour.
Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search For The Roots Of The Game by David Block.
Baseball in Blue and Gray: The National Pastime during the Civil War by George B. Kirsch.
Early Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1825-1908 by Dean A. Sullivan
The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870 by Marshall D. Wright.
Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball by Warren Goldstein.
When Johnny Came Sliding Home: The Post-Civil War Baseball Boom, 1865-1870 by William J. Ryczek

General Baseball History sources/bibliography:
Baseball: A History of America's Game by Benjamin G. Rader.
Baseball: A Film By Ken Burns (PBS DVD)
The Formation, Sometimes Absorption and Mostly Inevitable Demise of 18 Professional Baseball Organizations, 1871 to Present by David Pietrusza.
The Great 19th Century Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball, 2nd Edition by David Nemec.
Early Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1825-1908 by Dean A. Sullivan.
Middle Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1900-1948 by Dean A. Sullivan.
Late Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball 1945-1972 by Dean A. Sullivan
Past Time: Baseball as History by Jules Tygiel
America's National Game: Historic Facts Concerning the Beginning, Evolution, Development and Popularity of Baseball by Albert Spalding
Total Baseball: The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia by John Thorn, et al.