Batter Up Baseball Exhibit

Great Excursion and Base Ball Match

Just two weeks before the Battle of Gettysburg, a fight of another sort took place in Saratoga Springs. From The Daily Saratogian of Tuesday, June 23, 1863, came notice that a championship baseball game was played between the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of Albany and the Victory Club of Troy, hosted by the Saratoga Base Ball Club. A silver trophy was awarded to the winner by Engine Company No. 8 of Albany. The newspaper account is as follows:

"GREAT EXCURSION AND BASE BALL MATCH. - The excursion of Engine Company No. 8, of Albany, yesterday, to this place, was a huge affair, embracing, probably, two thousand persons. They were accompanied by the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, of Albany, and the Victory Club of Troy, who came to play a match for the championship, and for a silver cup offered by Engine Company No. 8.

The match between the Victorys and the Knickerbockers took place on the grounds of the Saratoga Club, and attracted a large crowd of spectators. W.R. Winchell, of the Saratogas, acted as Umpire. The playing was splendid throughout, on both sides, with the odds decidedly in favor of the Victorys, when they closed their last innings, the score standing then: Victory 21, Knickerbocker 13. But the Knicks went to work bravely, and soon raised their score to 20; but an unlikely slip - a careless kick of the ball by a boy, brought it sooner into the pitcher’s hand - and the game was decided in favor of the Victorys, 21 to 20. The Silver Cup was then presented to the winners by J.C. Cuyler, Esq.; acting on behalf of Engine Co. No. 8 of Albany."

The Albany newspapers obviously printed their objections to the final score of the game, and must have pinned the blame for their team’s defeat on - who else but the Umpire? On the following day, William R. Winchell, the proprietor of a clothing store on Broadway in Saratoga, team member of the Saratoga Base Ball Club, and Umpire of the championship game, submitted his response in a letter to the Editor:

"Having acted in the unpleasant capacity of Umpire in the match between the Victory and Knickerbocker Base Ball Clubs on the 22nd inst., and hearing that some persons have been pleased to express dissatisfaction with my decisions, I deem it but justice to myself to make a few explanations. An Umpire has to make his decisions from his own observations, and the first impression is allowed to be the best by all Base Ball Players. If I erred I did nothing more than every Umpire is liable to do. There were complaints made to me by both parties, as is always the case when the players forget that it is expected Base Ball Players will be gentlemen. I don’t wish to get into a newspaper controversy with any one, for that is not my forte; nor do I wish to enter into a full explanation of my decisions; but for the benefit of those who do not belong to any club - those who are members of clubs and don’t know the game - and those who do know the game and still refuse to stand by an umpire when he decides according to its rules, I will here insert the rule on which I based my last decision, which closed the game and gave the Cup to the Victorys. The rule may be found by any skeptic in the Rules and Regulations of the National Association of Base Ball Players, section 22: -

"If any adversary stops the Ball with his foot or cap, or takes it from the hands of a party not engaged in the game, no player can be put out unless the ball shall first have been settled in the hands of the pitcher."

Now, the ball was settled in the hands of the pitcher, as no one will deny, and he put the player out - thereby closing the game in favor of the Victorys.

Now a word for the Saratoga Club, and I have done. The Saratoga Club hired the grounds almost solely to have control of them and keep them in order for this match; they procured the bases, seats, and other requisites for the occasion; mustered their whole force not now in the army, and worked all day for the benefit of the visitors, and came very near getting "thank you sir", for their pains, beside the intense satisfaction of knowing that one of their number was abused for standing all through a long game, trying to do his duty as an impartial umpire.

Hoping that the spirit of fairness and gentlemanly deportment which should, and I believe does, actuate the members of the Knickerbocker Club, will induce them to stop the low, mean and cowardly insinuations, in the Albany papers,

I am yours,

W.R. WINCHELL.

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