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Date
2025
Abstract
The first known baseball club in New Mexico was organized in Santa Fe in 1867 as the Santa Fe Base Ball Club (BBC). As the only club in the area, games were initially played between teams picked from the club’s members. In November 1868, the Bradley BBC at Fort Union in northeastern New Mexico challenged the Santa Fe BBC to a game. Given the distance between Santa Fe and Fort Union, they met for the game in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Originally scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, the game was postponed two days because of snow. This was the first known baseball game in New Mexico between clubs from different locations. Baseball clubs were organized sporadically in the territory during the 1870s, but baseball and intercity competition became more widespread after 1881. This essay was originally published in 2020 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume one of the anthology (Essays on Baseball Origins in the West, 1858–1883).
Keywords
New Mexico baseball, Santa Fe baseball, Santa Fe BBC, Albuquerque Browns, Bradley BBC, Fort Union.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
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© The Author (s)
Recommended Citation
Eberle, Mark E., "Baseball Takes Root in New Mexico, 1867–1883, Revised" (2025). Monographs. 24.
DOI: 10.58809/EATP8731
Available at:
https://scholars.fhsu.edu/all_monographs/24
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Originally Published 2020
Revised Edition 2025