V1 Vault: Feb. 19, 2009 | Covering All The Bases, The Historical Sport Of Indoor Baseball
on the very same day 17 years ago, Volume One contributors published a deep dive into a century of "base ball" and the game which caught on quickly in the Chippewa Valley
V1 Staff |
Periodically, we dive into our archives to see what we were writing about back in the day. Here's an excerpt from our Feb. 19, 2009 issue (no. 120), in which contributing writer Joe Niese offers readers a deep dive into the sport of indoor "base ball" (as they called it before the 1900s).
With the the recent local happenings tied to Eau Claire's historic love of the sport, one might wonder how this version of baseball arrived to the Valley and shaped its players (and fans) in the decades which followed.
Over a century ago, an indoor winter sport was taking on a life of its own in the Chippewa Valley. It was played in front of large audiences at gymnasiums, auditoriums, armories, and opera houses. The games were heavily covered by local press, often followed by a dance with orchestral accompaniment, and attended by a large fan base including, as one paper put it, a “who’s who of society people.”
The game was a modified version of baseball, called “indoor baseball,” and colorfully known as: kitten ball, diamond ball, mush ball, and pumpkin ball. It was touted as an equivalent of the outdoor game and a means of exercise for males and females alike. For close to four decades, indoor baseball was played throughout the Chippewa Valley.
The indoor variety of baseball, or “base ball” as it was often referred to at the time, was invented on Thanksgiving Day, 1887 by George Hancock at the Farragut Boat Club in Chicago. While waiting for updates of the Harvard-Yale football game, the makeshift game of baseball was assembled. Hancock chalked out a baseball diamond, bound a boxing glove with its strings, and used a broom handle as a bat. The game ended with a score of 41-40. Shortly thereafter, Hancock would put together a set of rules and create a ball and bat that were conducive to indoor use. The sport spread throughout Chicago, and by 1889 indoor baseball leagues were being formed.
Indoor baseball continued to be played in the Chippewa Valley, but not to the grand extent of the early 1900s. In the 1910s the Eau Claire YMCA had an indoor league. The early 1920s saw the “Y” host a grade-school league held between the wards in town. The 1923 champion was the Third Ward, their prize being a bronze miniature indoor baseball suspended from a black silk ribbon. The girls of the Normal school played games against the faculty at that time.
On a national level, interest in indoor baseball became less and less, and shortly thereafter basketball moved out of its peach basket phase, and soon took over as the most popular indoor winter sport. Those still interested in playing the game could get their fix with the outdoor version of indoor baseball, which was named “softball” in the mid-20s...
Read the complete "Covering All The Bases" feature story online and view the entire Feb. 19, 2009 issue here. Itching for more local history? Visit the entire Volume One digital archive online at tinyurl.com/VolumeOneArchive.
