Early Base Ball Timelines: The Catto Years

The first recorded baseball game in America. Originally, known as “base ball” (two words), in the mid-19th Century, this sport would grow in popularity, starting with amateur urban clubs. As young men, Catto and his associates first played cricket, but then in 1865 formed the Pythian amateur base ball club, supported by the African American Knights of Pythias fraternal organization, located at 19th and Addison Street in Philadelphia.