The organization of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club was the beginning of a most important era in the history of the game, for it was the first recorded movement of that kind. The right and title to the distinction of being the first organized Base Ball club in the world belongs to the old Knickerbocker Club. That honor has never been called in question. For more than thirty years the Knickerbocker Club maintained an amateur organization, and as such was regarded as a model in every respect.
But the claim to be the "only" club of ball players, was not long to remain unchallenged. The organization of the Knickerbockers soon bore fruit. In 1846 a party of players, styling themselves "The New York Nine," issued a challenge to the Knickerbockers to play a match—for a dinner, of course. The event came off at Hoboken, N. J., on the 19th of June, and it was the first contest of the kind ever played on those grounds.
The Knickerbocker team included Messrs. Turney, Adams, Tucker, Birney, Avery, H. and D. Anthony, Tryon and Paulding. The New York Nine comprised Messrs. Davis, Winslow, Ransom, Murphy, Case, Johnson, Thompson, Trenchard and Lalor.
The contest was a very one-sided affair. The challengers won by a score of 23 to 1, only four innings being necessary to secure the required 21 runs, and to teach the Knickerbockers that Base Ball is a game not simply for the cultivation of the social amenities. It was five years before the Knickerbockers engaged in another Base Ball match, but the annual banquets and occasional practice games continued as before.
