As a book collector on Latin American baseball, I’m always looking for the rare item that might provide a clue about how the game arrived to this part of the world. And I’m always hunting for books that refer to countries in which baseball is a favorite pastime such as Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, etc. But, frome time to time, you can expect jewels from unexpected places.
Some weeks ago, a rare item appeared on sale in an internet based shop. It was a book about the history of baseball in Argentina. Yes… Argentina! It was odd enough to find a book on Argentinian baseball, but it was absolutely amazing to read in its pages that the game is being played in that South American country since 1888.
The title of the book is “BEISBOL. Reseña histórica internacional y argentina.” by Héctor Pastrian. The book was published in 1977 by the Argentinian Baseball Federation (yes! there is one since 1954, but there was an association since 1925.)
A chapter is dedicated to the origin of the game in the country that provides interesting information “having as the only source of information” the sporadic reports by the newspaper “La Prensa” which was edited in the capital city of Buenos Aires since 1869.
According to the book, baseball was an amusement for the employees and workers of the numerous American industries based in the country.
It was Jorge Newberry who made the first attempt to implant the game in the country with the help of executives, employees and workers of the different industries, specially those of American origin.
One of them, Jorge MacNally, contributed the sum of 5,000 argentinian pesos that were used to acquire “complete equipment from the United States for the effective practice” of the game.
Several Americans formed, in 1888, the Buenos Aires Base Ball Club, that played its first match against the Rosario Cricket Club in an open field located in Cabildo street, in the neighborhood of Belgrano. The game was not finished, because of the disparity of intepretation in the rules. Soon, the Buenos Aires B.B.C. disappeared.
The American citizens continued to play the game, without official competition, until 1908 when Thomas Newberry and Dr. Homer Prettyman formed a team and played several intrasquad games in the Palermo Sports Society.
Due to the economic capability of this men, they decided to form a new club in 1909 and challenged the American Base Ball Club, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, to a three game series that went undefined, since each side won a game and the other ended in a tie. The series was played in the grounds of the Buenos Aires Cricket Club in Palermo.
Not as popular as soccer, of course, but our favorite game has a rich history in Argentina, where it has been played for more than 120 years.
Latin BaseBall Archaeology 