1872 in baseball: Map

Champions

March 4 - At its annual convention being held in Cleveland , the NA adopts a rule change to allow the use of the wrist in the pitching delivery.

April 22 - Candy Cummings makes his debut with the New York Mutuals.
April 26 - "Orator" Jim O'Rourke makes his debut with the Middletown Mansfields.
May 24 - The Washington Olympics play their last game before dropping out of the NA. Poor talent and financial difficulties combine to do in the Olympics.
May 29 - Despite not having a team in the league in 1872, the city of Chicago hosts its first NA game since the Great Chicago Fire as the Baltimore Canaries defeat the Cleveland Forest Citys in front of 4,000 fans.
June 26 - The Washington Nationals, with an 0-11 record, disband after losing 9-1 to the Baltimore Canaries.

July 6 - Sporting a 22-1 record, Harry Wright takes the Boston Red Stockings on vacation to an island in Boston Harbor.
July 9 - The Brooklyn Eckfords commit 13 errors in their 15-3 loss to the Troy Haymakers. It is the fewest errors committed by the 0-11 Eckfords in a game thus far this season.
July 23 - Despite a winning record, the Troy Haymakers disband due to financial problems. Half of the Haymaker's roster will move to the Brooklyn Eckfords, which saves them from dropping out of the NA.
July 26 - In an emergency meeting, the NA revises their scheduling requirements from 5 to 9 games versus each opponent competing for the championship. This is in response to the number of teams that have disbanded and comes 3 days after the first-division Troy Haymakers had called it quits.
August 13 - The Middletown Mansfields announce that they have disbanded the club and drop out of the NA.
August 19 - The Cleveland Forest Citys disband their club after a loss to the Boston Red Stockings. This drops the number of teams still playing in the NA to 6.
September 1 - Al Thake, left-fielder batting .295 for the Brooklyn Atlantics, drowns in New York harbor after falling from a fishing boat. Thake is the first active major league ballplayer to die. (But Elmer White, active in 1871, had died in winter.)

October 22 - The Boston Red Stockings clinch the pennant with a 4-3 win over the Brooklyn Eckfords.

March 17 - Elmer White, 22, right fielder who batted .257 with the 1871 Cleveland Forest Citys.
September 1 - Al Thake, 22, left fielder batting .295 with the Brooklyn Atlantics.

Ryczek, William J. (1992). Blackguards and Red Stockings; A History of Baseball's National Association 1871-1875. Wallingford, CT: Colebrook Press ISBN 0-9673718-0-5
Nemec, David (1997). The Great Encyclopedia of 19th-Century Major League Baseball. New York: Donald I. Fine Books ISBN 1-55611-500-8

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