Earliest Photo of a Big Time Baseball Game

16.-Base-Ball-Game-at-Newburgh-NY-18651.jpg

This could well be the earliest photo of a big time baseball game. The huge pennant of the Hudson River Base Ball Club flies above the field near Newburgh, New York. In this summer of 1865 a large crowd had gathered, and the Elmira, NY photographer traveled with the home city team to play this match against one of the state's finest clubs. Buggies, carts, wagons, and lots of people surround the playing field. This is a big game.  In fact, this game is the earliest recorded by photography now extant. There are other photos of other contests, practices, and lower level baseball activity in the mid-1860s, but there is nothing else of this caliber. Newburgh was a prosperous port town on the Hudson River and the locals could afford a top-flight club to compete up and down the river. The club's activities were well recorded through the middle years of the 1860s.Do you know of an earlier photo of a “Big Time” baseball game?

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Demaree and Mathewson in Marlin Springs, TX

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Joe Jackson in His Indians Uniform Looking On