By Jeb Stuart Rosebrook, Ph.D
The following article was adapted from an article initially published by the Society for American Baseball Research in "Mining Towns to Major Leagues: A History of Arizona Baseball." It is re-printed by the author's permission.
In January 1873, a Prescott paper, the Arizona Miner, reported one of the first games played in the Arizona Territory, a Christmas day match at Camp Grant in southeastern Arizona. "In the afternoon, an exciting game of base ball took place. This occupied the attention, [of] both of the combatants, until one o'clock, when the welcome call to dinner was wafted to our ears, and readily responded to." No score or outcome of the game was reported. With the first professional league organized in the East in 1871, and baseball being played in the far corners of the Western Territories, the game of baseball was on its way to becoming ingrained in America's consciousness - and Arizona's - as the national pastime.
Between the founding of Arizona as a territory in 1863 and 1873, baseball had transformed from a gentleman's amateur game to a professional game with an official league and salaried players. During those ten years, with the assistance of the U.S. Army, settlers and families began to transform the Arizona Territory from army camps to town squares. Fortune seekers came from around the nation and the world staking out their fortune in mining and ranching; homesteaders and railroaders, merchants and bankers followed, with farms and towns dotting up across the rugged territory. While history records the infamous activities of the territorial mining and railroad towns of Arizona as denizens of drinking and gambling halls, Arizona's miners and cowboys did put their cards and whiskey down long enough during holiday celebrations to play the occasional "pickup" game of baseball, especially on Christmas Day.
As communities in Arizona Territory developed in the 1870s and early 1880s, baseball became evident in many of Arizona's young communities as a fixture at Fourth of July and Christmas Day celebrations, or as a leisure activity in mining and military camps. With the heat of the Sonoran Desert dictating much of day-to-day life in the lower elevations of Arizona, early baseball matches in the territory tended to be played in the winter or early spring. Christmas seemed to be an especially favorite day for baseball.
By the mid-1870s, baseball games were reported regularly in the newspapers of Yuma, Prescott, and Phoenix. Yuma was witness to one of the earliest matches with a game played on Main Street in February 1874. In Phoenix, following a Christmas Eve of dancing, celebrating, and feasting, the Norvall Club of McDowell and Phoenix Club played on Christmas Day 1880, with Phoenix winning 13 to 9. The game was described as "well played by both clubs, and was witnessed by a large audience, many of whom were ladies." A box score accompanied the brief article. The organization of baseball clubs in the youthful town of Phoenix was fleeting for the following year there is no mention of a baseball match on Christmas Day. While professional baseball was decades away from being organized in the Southwest, baseball in Arizona would eventually follow New York's evolutionary progression from pickup teams, amateur clubs, and semi-pro squads to professional teams and leagues.
In 1880, Arizona Territory had a scant 40,441 residents, less than half of the 118,430 located in its eastern neighbor, New Mexico. In the West, only Idaho (32,611), Montana (39,157), and Wyoming (20,788) had fewer settlers. As Arizona grew in the 1880s, so did the organization of baseball clubs across the territory. Baseball and the creation of local clubs became one of the cultural icons of Americanization in territorial Arizona and baseball teams organized in Prescott, Phoenix, Tombstone, Tucson, and Yuma.
By the time the Apache wars ended in September 1886, two transcontinental railroads had been built through the territory, attracting more American settlers and immigrants from Europe, Asia, and Latin America to seek their opportunity in Arizona. Town boosters, newspaper editors, railroaders, and moneyed investors promoted the territory and the future wealth of the region as a wholesome, safe place to settle your family. At the same time, baseball's popularity spread across America and settlers of all ages brought the love of the game to the growing territory.
One match in Phoenix in April 1887 appears to have been inspired by a championship series in St. Louis. On April 8, 1887, the Arizona Gazette reported that a baseball championship series had begun in the "Gateway City" between St. Louis and Chicago. At the first game, 8,000 kranks (as 19th century fans were nicknamed) were present at the match with Chicago winning 6 to 3. Four days later, on April 12, 1887, the Arizona Gazette published that on the previous Sunday, April 10, the Phoenix baseball club, with a number of its players from Ft. McDowell, played Fort Lowell from Tucson at the territorial fairgrounds with an audience of around 200 people. Scheduled to begin at two o'clock, a severe wind and sand storm delayed the match for a half hour, and blowing sand remained a problem during the first few innings. The Phoenicians, outfitted with "considerable good material here in ball tossers" defeated the "boys in blue" 14 to 7. At one point in the eighth inning, the crowd, surrounding the field, made so much noise, the local players couldn't hear their coaches' directions and instead of scoring a possible three runs only marked a single tally. The box score reported player's last names, positions played, runs scored, score by innings, and the name of the umpire and scorers.
The excitement which surrounded such a successful match, in which the paper anticipated more games at the fall fair, ended in tragedy. Three Phoenix players were from Fort McDowell and upon return to their camp on Tuesday morning, one of the men, Muntz, who had played third base, was thrown from his galloping horse, which had slipped on a steep incline after crossing the bridge across the Maricopa canal. The shortstop, Cody, also on horseback and the second baseman Casey and his wife followed in a carriage. Unfortunately, Muntz suffered a terrible blow to the head which proved to be a mortal wound.
From 1890 to 1900, Arizona remained a territory struggling to become a state. For baseball promoters in Arizona, the national pastime remained a very competitive club sport which saw communities around the territory playing each other in popular challenge matches. Professional baseball scores from around the country were regularly published in the newspapers and in most springs, baseball clubs organized in every town. Local boosters issued challenges between communities, usually settling the grudge-match on the Fourth of July. By 1900, however, amateur football had also become popular across the United States, and in Phoenix, football replaced baseball as the traditional game played on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Baseball grew both in Arizona and on the West Coast during the first decade of the new century. Across the desert territory, baseball operated on a semi-pro and amateur level while in California the major leagues had started spring training in 1903 and the Pacific Coast League had established the highest standards for minor league competition in the nation. As baseball gained popularity, the national scores were even published on the front pages of Arizona newspapers. In one instance, local baseball clubs held a charity game to raise money for the residents of San Francisco after the devastating earthquake of April 18, 1906. On March 30, 1909, the first major league exhibition was played in Yuma beginning the tradition of spring training matches in Arizona. The Chicago White Sox, en route back to the Windy City from their spring training home in San Francisco, played the Commercial Club of Yuma for the fee of $300, winning in front of a thousand fans, some of whom had come as far as El Centro, Calif., to watch the south side nine play the local boys from Yuma.
In 1912, the year of Arizona and New Mexico statehood, every region of the country had a recognized minor league baseball circuit except the youthful Southwest. Leaders of the neighboring states understood the importance of baseball to their communities and their national image. If they had a sanctioned professional minor league in their states, their growing towns would receive national publicity in the sports pages across America. Leaders in Douglas clamored for a professional team but promoters in New Mexico succeeded in joining the first professional league in the Southwest.
The Rocky Mountain League, a 'D' class circuit was located along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains in east-central Colorado. Initially, New Mexico did not have any entries into this ill-fated league, but as teams ran into financial difficulties, the Canon City Swastikas moved their home to Raton, New Mexico on June 4, 1912. Three days later, the Colorado Springs Millionaires moved to Dawson, New Mexico. The two other teams, the La Junta Railroaders and the Pueblo/Trinidad/Cheyenne Indians, made up the remainder of the league, which collapsed and folded on July 15, 1912. While unsuccessful in their first venture, New Mexican boosters were ready to try again and so were Arizonans. They would soon receive their second chance when baseball promoter and Texas league founder, John McCloskey, organized the Rio Grande Association, a 'D' class circuit that would begin play in 1915 across three states, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Phoenix dubbed the Senators or "Solons" would retain that nickname for most of its history as a miner league team. Unfortunately for local baseball fans, Arizona's first professional circuit did not survive the heat of its first summer and folded in mid-July.
Despite the early failure of the professional game in Arizona, baseball remained a popular community sport during Arizona's early years. As the twentieth-century progressed, baseball became America's pastime and an integral part of our popular culture, a recognized symbol of community identity, success and pride. In the decades following statehood up to the present, boosters across Arizona have turned to baseball again and again as a way to bring national attention to our desert state and assure the rest of the world that Arizona is more than a land of cactus and sand, but a championship state of diamonds in the desert.
J. Stuart Rosebrook, Ph.D., will present "Diamonds in the Desert: Arizona, Baseball and America in 1928" on Saturday, October 25t at 1 p.m. in the Sharlot Hall Museum Lawler Gallery. The lecture is presented in conjunction with the Arizona Vintage Baseball Classic October 26, 2008 at 1 p.m. at Ken Lindley Field.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number # (misc107p)
Reuse only by permission.
The Prescott baseball team shown here lost the game to Flagstaff on September 7, 1893.