Featured The Springfield, Massachusetts Pioneer Baseball Club Medal

As the Major League Baseball owners and players debate whether or not there will be a season, I thought it would be appropriate to look and one of baseball’s earliest collectables, the Springfield, Massachusetts baseball medal. This piece, which was issued in 1861 at the dawn of the Civil War, provides us with a glimpse of mid 19th century American life. In those days, baseball was not just a game that children and adult professional baseball players played that a much larger number of fans only watched. It was a sport that provided the nucleus for social clubs that gathered for recreational activities the year round. In fact some clubs spent so much time having parties, dances and dinners that they almost forgot about the games on the field!

Baseball has been popular in New England for many years. In the early 1800s, New Englanders played games such as rounders, town ball, and three old cat, which were early versions of the game.

In the 1830s and ‘40s the “Massachusetts” or “New England” game became quite popular. Although that game resembled modern baseball, there were some significant differences. The bases were 60 instead of 90 feet apart and were marked by wooden stakes not bags. There was only one out per half inning, and there were no foul lines or fixed fielding positions. A batter could move on any batted ball regardless of where it went, but if a fielder hit a runner with a thrown ball between the bases, the runner was out. This practice, which was called “soaking,” sometimes made baseball a painful game.

The pitcher or “feeder” was the least important man on the field. He was required to pitch the ball so that the batter or “striker” could hit it. The game ended, not after nine innings, but when one team scored 75 runs or “tallies” Given these rules it is conceivable that a Massachusetts game could have gone on for days, like the English game of cricket.



Alexander Joy Cartwright set down the rules for the modern game of baseball

In 1846 Alexander Cartwright developed the first set of rules for the modern game of baseball. Cartwright increased the length of the base paths to 90 feet and established foul lines. He outlawed the practice of “soaking.” That rule change allowed the game to be played with a harder ball that could be hit more sharply and for greater distances. Cartwright’s rules became quite popular, and soon his disciples were spreading the new game to other parts of the United States.



An early game of baseball played at the Elysian Fields in New Jersey.

In 1857 two New York players, Jack Shelden and Henry Griswold, moved into the Springfield, Massachusetts area. Shelden became the superintendent of the local Western Union office and Griswold had a job at the United States Arsenal. Both men introduced the local players to the new rules, and on April 30, 1858 the Pioneer Baseball Club was born. The team played their games at Hampden Park, which was known nationally as a site for bicycle and horse racing. The park was located at a site beside the Connecticut River, which is now known as the North End Bridge.

The team was formed into “three nines.” The first group was the starting players and the substitutes or bench came from the second and third teams. The players met every Friday during the season at 3 P.M. to practice and played their games on Saturday afternoons. The first official Pioneers game was played on July 4, 1858. The team quickly established a winning tradition and soon developed a reputation for baseball excellence.

By the fall of 1860 the Springfield Pioneers had defeated all of their opponents in western Massachusetts. That prompted the Boston Bowdoins who had defeated every team in the eastern part of the state to issue a challenge. The standard practice was to play a best of two out of three game series, but when the Pioneers sent their proposed schedule to the Boston team, the Bowdoins replied that they could only fit one game into their schedule.



An early baseball uniform

Therefore the one game for the unofficial Massachusetts state championship was played in Springfield on October 6, 1860. Although the weather was very cold, the game was a high scoring affair. When the last out was recorded, the underdog Pioneers had upset the Bowdoins by a score of 22 to 13. After the game the Bowdoins challenged the Pioneers to a two out of three game series, but the captain of the Springfield team replied that his team members “could not arrange their dates.”


The Springfield, Massachusetts baseball medal by John Adams Bolen.

Following the game, the club secretary, Charles Vinton, arranged with die sinker John Adams Bolen to produce a medal that would honor the team. Although this was Bolen’s first medal, he executed it with the same high degree of skill that would mark all of his work. The obverse featured a batter in long pants, not knickers, and the classic 19th century “wedding cake” style of baseball cap receiving a pitch. This design was partially surrounded by the legend, “Pioneer Base Ball Club,” and 13 stars. The die was signed “J. A. Bolen” below the ground where the batter stood. The reverse featured a pair of crossed bats, three baseballs and the words, “Organized April 30, 1858 / Play / Ground / on / Hampden / Park / Springfield / Mass.”

In the July 31, 1861 issue of The Springfield Republican, the newspaper reported that the members of the team had paid for a very handsome medal by J. A. Bolen. The paper went on to say that duplicates of the medal had been distributed among the team members and their friends. In all 75 medals were struck in copper and 125 pieces were issued in white metal.

There have been rumors that a few Springfield baseball medals were struck in silver or possibly even in gold, but none of those pieces have been confirmed. In the 19th century it was not unusual for a copper or white metal piece to be gold plated or given a silver wash. It is certainly conceivable that medals that had been plated in silver or gold could have been mistakenly attributed as precious metal pieces.

Today the Pioneer Baseball medal is a popular collectors’ item. High-grade examples are somewhat scarce because the team members and their fans carried many of the medals as pocket pieces. We also know that at least one of the copper piece has been lost to collectors because it was buried with one of the team members. Neil Musante, who provided me with much of the information for this article, told me that he knows the location of the grave but has refused to reveal that bit of information for fear that an over zealous collector might be prompted to commit an unseemly act.

The popularity of this attractive early baseball collectable has kept most of the surviving population in collectors’ hands and off the market. As a result the piece appears only sporadically in dealer inventories and major token and medal auctions.

 

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Nice write-up!

I looked them up and the last few that sold have been quite pricey.

$5,760 in 2019 (white metal)
https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/l...ub-silvered-tin-32-mm-musante-jab-1-ms-63-ngc

$3,290 in 2017 (white metal)
https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/l...32-mm-musante-jab-1-rulau-mass-528-ms-65-pcgs

$836.50 in 2009 (copper) and interestingly offered in a sports auction rather than a coin/token auction
https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball-...se-ball-club-medal-ngc-ms-63-bn/a/716-81941.s

 

That 2009 sale price was really low, perhaps because the item was offered in the wrong auction venue. I was getting almost $700 for the bronze pieces in the late 1990s. The white metal pieces were going for around $400.

 

Great Great piece. I love baseball. Never heard of three old cat. And I know my schlitzs