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PASTIME OF BROOKLYN
HISTORY
Like every club of the pioneer era, the Pastime Club of Brooklyn began to play
baseball with hopes of winning matches and even championships. A few of their
early matches suggested that such ambitions might be attainable, but it soon
became apparent that the club’s playing skill was not on a par with those of the
area’s top clubs. Although this reality was initially discouraging, the
Pastimes ultimately came to symbolize something more important then wins and
losses: that early baseball clubs were first and foremost social organizations
and that the camaraderie they built was more important than the on-field
results. “What jolly fellows they were at that time, one and all of them,”
Henry Chadwick later recalled, “and how fully they entered into the sport of the
game.” (“Old Chalk” [Chadwick], “Baseball in its Infancy,” Brooklyn Eagle,
December 15, 1889)
Exactly when the
Pastimes began playing baseball remains in doubt. The players themselves deemed
May of 1858 to be the date when the club was founded. (Brooklyn Eagle,
February 27, 1879, noting talk of a reunion game to mark the club’s twenty-first
anniversary) But a club called the Pastime was represented at a February 27,
1858, meeting that led to the formation of the National Association of Base Ball
Players. More important, the date remains imprecise because the Pastime Base
Ball Club was an offshoot of a group of young men who shared in many leisure
pursuits and for whom the camaraderie was more important than the particular
activity.
For example, John
McNamee would later recall that shortly before the organization of the Gothams
in 1852, he “used to get some of the ‘boys’ together on a good afternoon” on the
“old York street lot, near the station house.” The game they played was the
old-fashioned one by which, “you used to ‘sock’ one another with the ball” and
they “practiced regularly until the principal of the school (No. 7) complained
to the mayor that we interfered with the progress of the scholars in some way,
and we had to stop playing there.” McNamee subsequently “helped to organize the
Pastimes – the City Hall Club, as it was called.” Unfortunately, he does not
specify how many of “the ‘boys’” who played on the York Street lot became
members of the Pastime Club, but it seems likely that there were several
holdovers. (Brooklyn Eagle, January 14, 1876)
A more direct
antecedent of the Pastime Club was the Long Island Cricket Club. Precise
details are again hazy but the Pastimes played their matches on the grounds of
the Long Island Cricket Club in Bedford, and there was some overlap between the
two clubs. Moreover, the members of both clubs belonged to the same social
circle and often gathered for drinks and dinner at a hotel operated by John
Holder, Sr., or at one run by Billy Labon’s father.
Henry Chadwick was a
member of the Long Island Cricket Club in the mid-1850s and he later recalled
that during cricket sessions, “I frequently had my attention attracted to the
noisy work of the old Atlantic base ball nines who used to come out there to
practice.” (Brooklyn Eagle, May 11, 1888) The Atlantics soon moved to
Brooklyn but baseball play on the Bedford grounds continued and it was these
players who became known as the Pastime Club. So in essence this was a baseball
club that was made up primarily of members of the Long Island Cricket Club who
chose to play baseball instead of or in addition to cricket.
By May of 1858, the
Pastimes had become sufficiently organized to stage their first intrasquad
married-single match. (“Out-Door Sports: Base-Ball: Pastime Base-Ball Club,”
Porter’s Spirit of the Times, June 5, 1858, 212) Soon they pronounced
themselves ready to face outside competition and played home-and-home series
against the Osceolas of Brooklyn and the Atlantics of Jamaica (who are not to be
confused with the mighty Atlantics of Brooklyn).
Both series proved
highly successful. The Pastimes’ grounds at the cricket club were described as
being “unquestionably the best in Brooklyn. Ample shade is afforded, and a fine
green turf renders the field peculiarly attractive to the players, and far
superior to the dusty grounds of a majority of the clubs.” With the cooperation
of the weather, and from the hard work of a committee of club members in making
arrangements, the match in which the Pastimes hosted the Osceolas was attended
by “a large number of spectators, probably near a thousand altogether, among
whom were a large number of the fair sex.” (“Out-Door Sports: Base-Ball: Pastime
vs. Osceola,” Porter’s Spirit of the Times, July 31, 1858), 341)
After each of the
matches, both clubs joined together to share food, drink and merriment. The
visit of the Atlantics of Jamaica concluded with a trip to Holder’s
establishment, where the players of both clubs and their guests “partook of the
good things the host had made ready for them. Here the best of feeling existed,
and speeches made, jokes passed, toasts given, and songs sung, after which the
Atlantics started for home.” (Trom, “Out-Door Sports: Base-Ball: Pastime vs.
Atlantic,” Porter’s Spirit of the Times, August 21, 1858, p. 388)
The Pastimes also
acquitted themselves very well on the field, beating the Osceolas twice and
splitting the matches with the Atlantics of Jamaica. These successes, coupled
with victories over a couple of other Brooklyn clubs, the Nassaus and the
Orientals, convinced the Pastimes to set their sights farther afield. On
September 21, the club took a morning train to Trenton, spent the afternoon
defeating a picked nine of Mercer and Trenton players, and returned home on the
evening mail train. (Trenton Daily State Gazette and Republican,
September 22, 1858)
The Pastime Club
also scheduled three late-season matches against national powerhouses. These
contests proved that the Pastimes still had plenty to learn, as they were beaten
by the Adriatics of Newark by the lopsided margin of 45-13 and were twice
trounced by the Excelsiors of Brooklyn.
Yet there was no
reason for the Pastimes to be demoralized by these setbacks. Their players were
still new to baseball and there was every reason to expect that improvement lay
ahead. After one of the losses to the Excelsiors, an account in the New York
Clipper noted, “The Pastime also played well, but when pitted against such a
host of talent, it is not to be wondered at that they should come off second
best. Practice makes perfect, however, and it is possible that they may regain
the laurel … in their next encounter with the same club.” (New York Clipper,
undated same account. In another sign that suggests rising ambition, the
Pastimes formed a junior club that played a couple of matches in late 1858 and
at least one in 1859.)
There was thus
reason for optimism in the spring of 1859 that the Pastimes could break through
and join the ranks of the elite clubs. The new outlook was shown when matches
were scheduled against such strong opponents as the Atlantics and the Excelsiors
of Brooklyn and the Eagles and Empires of New York City.
The Pastimes did
indeed show improvement in 1859, most notably in closely fought losses the
Atlantics and the Excelsiors in mid-August. The relatively narrow margins
(22-13 and 20-12) prompted one sportswriter to comment that the Pastimes “are
not to be disposed of by any club without excellent play on the part of their
opponents” and another to remark that the Pastimes “have acquired a very high
position as players this year, and will soon rank as a first class club.”
(“Out-Door Sports: Base-Ball: Excelsior vs. Pastime,” Porter’s Spirit of the
Times, August 27, 1859), 404; New York Atlas, August 21, 1859)
Unfortunately, it
also became clear that the improvement of the Pastimes had not been as great as
anticipated. The club wasn’t able to beat any of the area’s top clubs and
suffered some embarrassing losses. Each new disappointment made it more obvious
that there were now higher expectations that the Pastime players were not going
to be able to meet.
An early season home
loss to the Neosha Club of New Utrecht in front of a huge crowd raised eyebrows.
(“Brooklyn Intelligence: Base Ball,” New York Times, May 28, 1859, 8.
This article claimed the attendance was nearly 5,000. But that figure should be
taken with caution, especially since the writer identified the winning club as
the “Oceans.”) “The Pastime club has always stood well as an effective playing
club,” wrote one sportswriter, “and a good many of their friends were a little
surprised to hear of their defeat by ‘the countrymen.’” (New York Atlas,
May 29, 1859) In September, a loss to the Eagles prompted the Clipper to
point out that it was the first time all year that a Brooklyn senior nine had
been beaten by one from New York City. (New York Clipper, September 10,
1859)
The players shared
these expectations and began to show their frustrations. One account of the
loss to the club from New Utrecht implied that the players were discourteous to
the umpire. (clipping of New York Clipper account, date not specified)
Even when the Pastimes kept their cool, they had to deal with the disappointment
of their supporters. The account of the loss to the Eagles noted that the
Pastimes expected to win “and the result was therefore anything but pleasant to
them. They took the matter pretty kindly though, and prepared themselves for a
thorough roasting when they get home, which they have ere this received.” (New
York Clipper, September 10, 1859)
Such “roasting” were
the result of a new perception of the shortcomings of the Pastime Club. In
1858, all losses could be excused by the expectation that better days lay
ahead. But the club from New Utrecht had been formed more recently than the
Pastimes, making it impossible to blame the loss on inexperience. (“Out-Door
Sports: Base-Ball: Neosho vs. Pastime,” Porter’s Spirit of the Times,
June 4, 1859, 213) A new explanation for losses had to be found and the most
obvious one was to blame them on a lack of commitment to practice and improve.
“The Pastime men,” concluded one analysis, “were evidently in want of practice,
as their poor fielding at times fully proved. They have the requisite material
to fill all points of the field creditably, but on this occasion they failed in
doing so.” (clipping of New York Clipper account of loss to the Neosha
Club of New Utrecht, date not specified)
The disappointments
of the 1859 season caused frustration to surface during several matches and it
was no surprise that it gave up baseball as season’s end. As Henry Chadwick
later put it, “the club became ambitious of winning matches and began to
sacrifice the original objects of the organization to the desire to strengthen
their nine for match playing … after their desire to excel in contests with
rival clubs had been aroused, then things changed, and finally the spirit of the
club, having been dampened by repeated defeats at the hands of stronger nines,
gave out and the Pastimes went out of existence.” (“Old Chalk” [Chadwick],
“Baseball in its Infancy,” Brooklyn Eagle, December 15, 1889)
Yet while the
members of the Pastime Club occasionally exhibited frustration while on the
field, it didn’t stop them from having fun. A perfect example occurred in
August of 1859 when the club hosted the Excelsiors. The members of the host
club “had an idea that the Pastimes could ‘down’ the Excelsiors” and were very
disappointed when the match ended in defeat. (“Old Chalk” [Chadwick], “Baseball
in its Infancy,” Brooklyn Eagle, December 15, 1889)
Despite the
difficult loss, the postgame festivities were even more lavish than usual, as
the members of the Pastime Club “were bent upon spreading themselves in the way
of a supper on the occasion, and they gave the good Mrs. Holder carte blanche to
prepare a feast.” Speeches followed the meal, but the delicious food still
remained on the mind of the Excelsiors and one gave this speech: “There’s one
thing, gentlemen, in which you beat us badly to-day, and that is in giving us
chicken pot pie.” Finally, drinks were called for and the hosts, “drank the
health of the guests in a bumper of the rosy which nearly filled a celery
glass. As the novelists say, ‘About two o’clock in the morning a party of jolly
roysterers might have been seen issuing from the portals of the hostelry at
Bedford.’” (Henry Chadwick, “Old Boys,” Brooklyn Eagle, December 2, 1877)
The Pastimes found
other ways to exhibit their unique style and sense of fun. A memorable example
was the match against the Eagles, which was played at the Elysian Fields. The
members of the Eagle Club made their way to Hoboken in parties of two or three
and were, “waiting for the Pastimes to turn up, when what should they see coming
up the roadway from the westward but a line of carriages. Sam Yates [of the
Eagles] thought it was a small funeral procession which had lost their way; but
it turned out to be the high toned Pastimes, all in carriages.” (Henry Chadwick,
“Old Boys,” Brooklyn Eagle, December 2, 1877)
When the Pastimes
stopped playing baseball at the end of the 1859 season, it was not so much a
case of a baseball club disbanding as it was of a social club moving on to other
leisure activities. The 1861 advent of the Civil War put a halt to most such
pursuits, but when the war finally ended many of the members of the Pastime Club
became passionate about harness racing. (Brooklyn Eagle, June 3, 1865, 2,
June 4, 1866, 2, April 26, 1873, 2, and December 23, 1888, 10) And of course,
as had been the case when these men had played cricket and baseball, the most
enjoyable part was the camaraderie that was shared afterward over food and
drinks.
The baseball chapter
of the story of the men who made up the Pastime Club ended on a sour note, but
these blithe souls soon forgot the wins and losses. One prominent club member,
Billy Barre, later looked back on those days and commented, “But didn’t we have
fun though on our practice days?” (Henry Chadwick, “Old Boys,” Brooklyn Eagle,
December 2, 1877) It was an apt summary of the spirit of the Pastime Club.
Indeed, by 1879, the
members of the club recalled their ball-playing days with such fondness that
they helped organize a series of reunion games designed to recall “the days when
ball-playing was more of a sport and less of science.” Naturally, the highlight
of the reunion game was “a grand supper, after the match, at the hotel adjoining
the grounds.” (New York Sunday Mercury, May 3, 1879) Just as naturally,
everyone who attended had a great time.
PLAYERS
William Barre:
William Barre was born in Brooklyn on November 18, 1826. He began working in
the office of the register of deeds for Kings County when it was formed in 1853
and became a mainstay at Brooklyn City Hall, ultimately becoming the Register
and reporting directly to Senator William Murtha. Barre was a widow with three
young children when he joined the Pastimes, but remarried in 1859 and began a
new family. He died on July 15, 1899, at Babylon, Long Island.
Francis A. Biggs:
Frank Biggs was born around 1830 and worked as a broker, street commissioner,
county auditor and paint manufacturer. He died in Brooklyn in March of 1889.
Bill Boyd: Like so
many members of the Pastimes, Boyd was connected with Brooklyn City Hall and one
account described him as a penitentiary official. He was still alive and living
in Brooklyn in 1889, but has not been positively identified.
Brock Carroll: Brock
Carroll played first base for the Pastimes and was reported to be already dead
in an 1877 article. A note in the Brooklyn Eagle on July 23, 1861, stated that
there were reports that Brock Carroll of the 12th Regiment had been killed.
Civil War records show a Brock Carroll serving as a private in the 3rd Regiment
of the New York Cavalry. But no other trace of this man has been found,
suggesting that Brock may have been his middle name or a nickname.
Augustus J. Dayton:
Gus Dayton pitched and played the outfield for the Pastimes. He was born around
1829 in New York and grew up in Brooklyn. His father was a real estate broker
and he too initially went into that profession. In 1861, though 32 and married
with several children, he enlisted in the Union Army, then reenlisted for two
more tours of duty. He later working as a clerk, a bookkeeper and a guard at
Sing Sing. He appears to have retired in the mid-1880s, and an 1889 article
mentioned that Dayton was still in town and had been “building model yachts the
past year or two.” Dayton died on October 29, 1897 in Brooklyn.
Horatio Eastmead:
Horatio Eastmead, who played first base for the Pastimes, was born around 1828.
He worked as an engraver and was also a member of the Long Island Cricket Club.
He died in Brooklyn on November 4, 1878.
Robert Furey: Bob
Furey was born around 1832 and became a prominent Brooklyn politician and
businessman. Furey served as an alderman and then as street commissioner, a
position that at the time had the power to make many patronage appointments. He
became a close friend and adviser of Brooklyn Democratic “boss” Hugh McLaughlin,
though he was disappointed when McLaughlin did not support his aspirations to
become a Senator. Furey was also a very successful businessman as one of the
main shareholders in the Cranford Company, an asphalt contractor. He never
married, so in his later years he gave much of his wealth to charity. He died
on March 12, 1913 at the age of 81.
Edward Hempstead
Holt: Edward Holt was born around 1838 and grew up in Brooklyn, where his father
worked as a custom house officer. Edward and his brother Guy both played for
the Pastimes and both enlisted in the Civil War. Edward enlisted as a Private
in the 51st New York Infantry on August 24, 1861, and served for seventeen
months before receiving a disability discharge. He returned home to Brooklyn,
where he died on July 8, 1864, at the age of 26.
Guysbert
Vandenbroeck Holt: Guy Holt, the younger brother of Edward, was born on February
17, 1841. He too enlisted in the Union Army and was assigned to the 13th
Regiment. On August 11, 1862, while doing picket duty in Suffolk, Virginia, he
was shot and killed.
Bill Labon: William
P. Labon was born in 1823 in England and immigrated to the United States around
1836. His father was a brewer who operated a roadhouse hotel on the county road
that was the site of many of the activities of the Pastimes. The younger Labon
was prominent in both the Pastimes and the Long Island Cricket Club. He never
married and was known as Bachelor Bob Labon. He was still alive as late as
1910, having by then retired to Suffolk County.
John McNamee: John
McNamee was born in Brooklyn around 1825. During the 1850s, he served as a
Brooklyn alderman and was subsequently elected sheriff. He was also a gifted
sculptor and around 1870, he moved to Florence, Italy, so that he could sculpt
in Italian marble. He also became the owner of the Villa Trollope, where George
Eliot stayed while writing Romola. Although far removed from his days as a
baseball player, he retained a passion for the sport and an obituary stated that
“his hobby was to make a statue of a first baseman in the act of receiving a
badly delivered ball, so that every muscle could be brought out. He made his
model in clay, but for some reason the statue was never attempted in marble.”
McNamee died in Florence on August 11, 1895.
Frank Quevedo:
Francis G. Quevedo was born around 1823 in New York and was described as being
the “life of the club and one of its most genial members.” He and Barre were
the club’s delegates at the NABBP convention of 1860. Quevedo was foreman of
one of Brooklyn’s volunteer fire departments at a time when that was a high
honor. He worked in the railroad business and later was secretary of the park
commission. He died in October of 1887 as the result of accidental drowning at
the Coney Island pier.
Bob Story: Bob Story
was the catcher of the Pastimes. It appears that he was a Robert R. Story, Jr.,
who was born in New York around 1834 and died on August 31, 1901.
Daniel M. Treadwell:
Daniel Treadwell was born around 1826 and worked as a hotel keeper, later
becoming a lawyer. He was very long-lived, dying in Brooklyn on November 10,
1921, at the age of 95.
Jake Uris: There was
only one Uris family in Brooklyn and there was no member named Jacob, so it
would seem that this has to be a nickname for John T. Uris, who was born in 1829
NY and became a dancing master. He died in Brooklyn on December 3, 1904, at the
age of 78.
Others: Beers
(shortstop for the club in a few games but first name never given), Bennett,
William Cole, William A. Brown (a member of the Eckfords who helped organize the
Pastime Club), Cornish, W. Devine, McKenzie, Reynolds, James Rogers, Saxton, Van
Wagner, Williams
Sources: Craig Waff
supplied me with a detailed summary of game accounts of the Pastimes. A series
of later articles added key details, including: Henry Chadwick, “Old Boys,”
Brooklyn Eagle, December 2, 1877 and “Our ‘Old Boys,’” Brooklyn Eagle,
December 3, 1877; “Old Chalk” [Chadwick]’, “Baseball in its Infancy,”
Brooklyn Eagle, December 15, 1889; Brooklyn Eagle, May 11, 1888;
Brooklyn Eagle, January 14, 1876, interview with John McNamee by John Clark;
“Veterans,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 19, 1879, 2.
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