Baseball During The Civil War

The National Association of Base Ball Players held its annual convention December 11^th 1861 in New York City.

The National Association of Base Ball Players or the NASSP held there annual convention at the Mercantile Library in New York City December 11^th 1861.  Do to the Civil War it was not well attended.  All 61 teams sent representatives and three new clubs from Brooklyn, the Constellations, Favorita and Resolutes were admitted to the club.

The NABBP was the first governing body of baseball, and was founded in 1857.  Their founding was based on developing rules for the game.  It was made up of ball clubs in the five boroughs of New York City.  It was found by the NABBP that players were being paid under the table in the early 1860’s, and so they helped open Brooklyn’s Union Ground, the first enclosed ballpark.  This allowed teams to charge, and so could begin to make money and pay professional ball players.

When the Civil War ended the NABBP had grown to include Base Ball Clubs from all over the United States and numbered over 100 teams.