Baseball's First Recorded Organized Game

On June 19, 1846, a team representing the New York Base Ball Club defeated the New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club 23–1 at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, in what is considered the first game of baseball played under a formal, written set of rules. Knickerbockers member Alexander Cartwright, who had helped draft the rules the previous year, umpired the game.

Cartwright's rules established a diamond-shaped infield with bases 90 feet apart, three-strike outs, and the practice of tagging or forcing a runner rather than throwing the ball at him to record an out, foundational elements that still define the sport today.

The Knickerbockers themselves lost badly that day, but their codified rules spread to other New York-area teams over the following years and became the basis for the modern game, eventually earning Cartwright a place in the Hall of Fame as one of the sport's founding figures.