The Northwestern Association Of Base Ball Players

The Convention At Chicago.

The Northwestern Association Of Base Ball Players.

The second annual convention of the Northwestern Association of Base Ball Players assembled at the Briggs House, Chicago, Dec. 19th, 1866...

Upon the call of the roll of clubs represented at the last meeting of the Association, the following delegates were found to be present...

Hope, St. Louis - James Reed and J.M. Williams...

The Committee on Nominations reported, and the following clubs were admitted...

Excelsior Base Ball Club, of St. Louis, Mo., organized first in 1861, and re-organized October 1, 1865.  Number of members, 20.  Delegates - G.H. Hoos, August Shoot...

Defiance Base Ball Club, of St. Louis, Mo., organized April 23, 1865.  Number of members, 29.  Delegates - F. McPhetridge...

The following resolution was offered by Mr. J.H. Mower, of Indiana: -

Resolved, That whenever two or more clubs shall signify to the President of the Association their desire to compete for the Championship of the Northwest, the officers of the Association are hereby instructed to arrange the details of a tournament to be held within thirty days thereafter, at which said championship shall be decided.

The resolution was adopted, when the Convention adjourned sine die.

The death blow was given to associations composed of clubs from several States like these of the Northwestern Association and that of the New England Association, by the official recognition of the State Associations made at our Convention [in New York,] and yet there were delegates present who talked pretty loud against this movement and in favor of a selfish and narrow minded policy, which, if it had succeeded, would have made the Northwestern Association a powerful rival to the National, and have led to a different code of playing rules for the West. 

-Mears Baseball Scrapbook, Volume 4, 1856-1907


This is beyond fascinating.  I had never heard of the Northwestern Association of Base Ball Players before and I'm amazed that neither the Empires or the Unions were represented in the organization.  Perhaps I shouldn't be as both were involved with the NABBP and the Missouri baseball association and the article makes it clear that the NWABBP was a rival to both the national and state associations. 

The really interesting thing here is that idea of a rivalry between regional baseball associations.  The NABBP was dominated by New York clubs who were promoting their specific version of baseball.  Merritt Griswold had written, in 1860, that unless the game was played by the rules of the National Association, it was not "base ball."  The New York clubs had made up their minds what baseball was and that vision was spreading across the nation.  A point that I've made before is that there was nothing predetermined about the spread of the New York game or the domination of American baseball by Eastern clubs.  While there are many good reasons for the spread and acceptance of the New York game, it didn't have to drive out local variants and it's possible to imagine a scenario where local variants survived, competed against the New York game and thrived.  The NWABBP looks, to me, like the last gasp of Western clubs to stave off domination by the Eastern clubs.  The Eastern clubs had decided what "base ball" was, what the rules to the game were and were in the process of imposing that vision of the game on the rest of the nation.  The NWABBP had fought a losing battle against Eastern dominance.