If ever a spring could inspire confidence in the summer to come, the spring of 1875 was the year. Editor Maj. Henry Inman reflected the opinion of most everyone in the Ellsworth Reporter with a piece entitled “June”.

“We have crossed the margin of sweet leafy June — beautiful gateway of the summer. Month of long hours, and balmy nights. ‘Then, if ever, come perfect days,’ says the poet. The grain turns into gold, and the harvest is assured — if the grasshoppers will only keep their ‘passover’ as religiously for the next months as they have in the last.” In the same issue

In the same issue Inman reported on Ellsworth’s baseball “match” with the Smoky Valley club from Salina. The “Salina nine” prevailed 31-29 in the game of “remarkably fine playing.”

The sport of “Base Ball” was taking the entire country by storm following the formation of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in 1871.

By 1875 Base Ball was recognized across the country as the “National Game”. Base Ball had come a long way from the early “bat and ball” games that were played by immigrant kids in New York City.

In 1837 William R. Wheaton drew up rules for the newly formed New York Gothams. Wheaton’s rules advanced the sport beyond that of the mere playground activity played by children into a game enjoyed by all ages.

In 1842 volunteer firefighters from the New York Knickerbocker Engine Company organized the New York Knickerbocker followed by a new set of amended rules in 1845.

The first mention of Base Ball in Kansas newspapers is found in the Jan. 1, 1859, Emporia Weekly-News Democrat. The game took place in Emporia’s public square on Christmas day, 1858, under an overcast but mild sky.

The story reflects the popularity of the pastime in the editor’s “days of youth.” Young and old participated in the game from morning until night.

“All were ‘boys again’ and entered into the spirit of the game with a relish and vigor that would have done credit to their younger years.” The enthusiastic editor

The enthusiastic editor continued, “The discussions grew out of this revival of ‘the days when we were young,’ have been very numerous, covering the whole range of ‘ball science,’ and many are the learned disquisitions we have listened to in regard to the merits and demerits of ‘Base Ball,’ bull-pen, cat-ball, etc., with the proper mode of conducting the game.”

The great American Civil War was more than two years away when “the boys” played ball that happy Christmas Day. When young soldiers went off to war they took their love of base ball with them.

There were moments when the horrors of war were left behind and battle-hardened warriors became boys again, batting balls and running the bases of the game of their youth.

Baseball’s popularity spread across the old campgrounds and after the war marched with the army to the Indian wars on the frontier. Base ball was played at Fort Hays and Fort Wallace in 1868.

Later that summer during the Cheyenne raids in the Solomon Valley two companies of the Seventh Cavalry happened to meet while on patrol. Sentries were posted while the boys took up their teams of nine on the open prairie. The 1875 Ellsworth team was quite naturally

The 1875 Ellsworth team was quite naturally dubbed the “Border Ruffians,” given the town’s wild past as a frontier “border” town. Prior to the match with Salina’s Smoky Valley club, Maj. Inman reported with enthusiasm that, “An intense interest has manifested itself in this coming friendly contest of science and expertness, and we predict such an influx of strangers to witness the game as Ellsworth has never seen. — A hop (dance) will end the festivities in honor of the Salina club who have so cheerfully accepted the Border Ruffian’s proviso to play them on their grounds in this city.”

The game was distinguished by one particular incident that warranted a separate report elsewhere in the Reporter.

“Judgment on that ball’ yelled the ‘center fielder,’ in the game at the city park last Friday, as ‘a daisy cutter’ fresh from the bat of one of the Salina nine took the head neatly off of Dr. Minnick’s favorite rooster, who was quietly discussing a few native grasshoppers close to the garden fence. — ‘Fowl’ replied the umpire as he gently turned his umbrella in the direction of the setting sun.”

The Border Ruffians won the return match 33 – 22 in Salina on June 11 in front of “an immense concourse of spectators,” inspiring confidence in the perfect days of summer and speculation that perhaps the renowned Chicago White Stockings should be added to their schedule. The boys of summer had arrived, and were ready for action on The Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, Ks. Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st Road, Geneseo, Kan. Phone: (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.