Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

67 The entertainment did not stop there though. Harry Wright picked eight of the eleven to be on his side in an impromptu baseball match against a team cobbled together from five of the St George’s Club and various waifs and strays, ‘decided muffins’ according to the New York Times . Failing light limited play to five innings, but the English had plenty of time to show their prowess in the new-fangled sport. Rowbotham proved an able pitcher, and with the fielding rediscovering its usual sharpness, Wright’s team ran out easy winners by 39 to 14. Next time the hosts would have to take the event rather more seriously. Indeed, three days later, the following advertisement appeared in the Brooklyn Eagle : TO THE ALL ENGLAND ELEVEN … We do hereby challenge you to play the Atlantic nine a game of base ball … An early reply would … set to rest the many rumors that are talked about among the base ball public concerning your purpose to play the game. If this challenge is accepted the game will be one of the sensations of the season. The Atlantics were the top side in the country in 1868, and so such a match would truly decide who were the superior ball players in the eyes of all right-thinking Americans. Captain of England The Brooklyn Atlantics baseball side of 1869. The club issued a public challenge in 1868 to Willsher’s side to play baseball, but nothing came of it.