College Base Ball 1883-1884
[4]
WCA and ICA, 1883 and 1884 - game logs

Beside everyone's keen interest in methodology, some may be interested
in the game-by-game record of the collegiate leagues covered by
Spalding's Guide. Here are complete game logs for the four
league-seasons in slightly different formats from the recommended
family. Read about game logs if necessary.

Before combining these four logs in one file, the columns would be
rearranged in uniform order and two columns identifying year and
league ("season" status) would be added. Extra data such as the
"ump" column for ICA 1884 would be omitted or moved to the far right.


Western College Base Ball Association

WCA 1884
Spalding's Guide 1885, p80-83

Spalding's reports every game in one table with no data missing,
in precisely this format:
May 3 U. of W. vs. B. C., at Beloit 3-2
This is equivalent but punctuated for clarity:
May 3 UofW vs BC, at Beloit 3-2

Date TeamA HomeA TeamB Site RunsA RunsB Note
0503 uwi v bel bel 3 2 "the best-played game"
0503 nwu v rac rac 19 1
0510 rac v bel bel 14 6
0512 uwi h rac mad 4 3
0517 nwu v bel bel 24 8
0519 uwi h nwu mad 14 6
0523 uwi v nwu eva 12 10
0528 rac h uwi rac 19 8
0531 rac v nwu eva 13 5
0531 uwi h bel mad 10 5
0606 rac h bel rac 10 1
0607 bel v nwu eva 9 7


WCA 1883
Spalding's Guide 1884 p72-74

Spalding's reports every game in one prose paragraph, using variable
language but consistently giving the run score at the end of the
clause, winner first ("17 to 5" not "5 to 17"). I chose to record the
runs in that order and match the teams to them but I might as well
have recorded teams in given order and matched the runs to them.
(Much of the report is in terms capsulized by my Notes, such as
"N.W.U. went on its northern trip and took in the Beloits. . . .")

Date TeamA HomeA TeamB RunsA RunsB Site Note
0507 nwu H rac 17 5 eva opening
0507 uwi H bel 10 2 mad opening
nwu .V rac 13 9 .rac now at Racine?
uwi .V bel 10 3 .bel now at Beloit?
nwu V bel 11 7 bel nwu, one trip N
nwu V uwi 13 6 mad nwu, one trip N
bel H rac 8 3 bel rac, one trip N
uwi H rac 29 0 mad rac, one trip N
nwu H uwi 10 4 eva prev day
uwi V rac 12 7 .rac next day
rac H bel 13 4 .rac bel, one trip S
nwu H bel 14 10 .nwu bel, one trip S

The prose gives dates for the opening games only, so the table
practically needs row numbering --1 to 12, top to bottom-- in order to
secure record chronological order. A collegiate base ball project
should of course research newspapers to supplement information from
the annual guides and eventually to confirm it.

Some of the data in my desktop database is inferred with confidence
but it does go beyond Spalding's report. My inferences are founded on
supposing that complete home-and-home series were played and that all
games were played on campus unless stated otherwise (as for ICA games
played in New York). Here I have marked the inferred data with dots
(".") in the HomeA and Site fields; a working group would discuss how
much inference to use during data-gathering.

The "Note" is free format and may be used for any purpose; most of
these notes capsulize the partly chronological, partly geographical
information that Spalding's gives instead of dates. The table also
shows how a Note may be used under uncertainty ("now at Racine?"); in
practice, that would probably be combined with listing a Site or not
depending on the degree of uncertainty.


Inter-Collegiate Base Ball Association

ICA 1883
Spalding's Guide 1884 p74-78

Spalding's reports every game in one table, consistently
winner first (as for WCA 1884), in this format:
May 5. Yale vs. Amherst, at New Haven ....... 3-1

Date TeamA homeA TeamB Site RunsA RunsB Note
0505 Yale h Amh nh 3 1
0511 Amh h Brown amh 9 6
0512 Yale h Harv nh 3 0
0514 Amh h Harv amh 8 1
0518 Prin h Harv pri 6 5
0519 Yale v Brown pro 6 4
0523 Harv h Brown cam 16 2 or 14-2
0523 Prin n Amh ny 6 3
0524 Amh n Prin ny 4 3
0526 Yale v Harv cam 5 1
0528 Prin h Brown pri 7 6 10 inns; or 0526
0530 Harv h Amh cam 6 4
0530 Yale n Prin ny 5 4
0602 Prin v Harv cam 5 3
0602 Yale h Brown nh 8 0
0604 Prin v Brown pro 12 1 or 2-1
0608 Amh v Brown pro 9 4
0613 Yale v Amh amh 4 2
0620 Brown h Harv pro 10 5
0623 Prin n Yale ny 3 2

The wrinkle is that everything but home or site is also reported in
two other formats and there are some discrepancies. The Notes give
the alternative dates (one) and scores (two). After learning the
truth, perhaps from daily newspaper research, I might note "not 14-2"
or "not 16-2" to show that an alternative has been investigated.


ICA 1884
Spalding's Guide 1885 p71-80

Spalding's reports every game in one table, mainly visitor first,
in this format:
May 1. Brown vs. Harvard, at Cambridge; Umpire, Gaffney ..... 3-1

The exceptions to visitor first are recorded without rearrangement in
the recommended format where they show up as exceptions to "homeA=V".

Date TeamA homeA TeamB Site Ump RunsA RunsB Note
0501 Brown V Harv cam gaf 1 8
0503 Yale V Brown pro gaf 8 3
0507 Amh V Harv cam til 9 8
0509 Brown V Dart han til 5 3
0510 Prin V Amh amh gaf 4 5
0512 Prin V Harv cam don 4 5
0513 Prin V Brown pro gaf 5 10
0514 Yale H Dart nh gaf 6 2
0516 Prin H Dart pri don 11 2
0517 Harv V Yale nh gaf 8 7
0517 Dart V Prin pri don 6 3
0519 Harv V Amh amh til 13 1 or 13-10
0521 Amh V Brown pro til 5 4
0523 Harv V Brown pro gaf 6 10
0524 Yale V Amh amh don 17 4
0524 Harv V Prin pri til 15 3
0530 Yale n Prin ny cro 16 3
0531 Dart V Amh amh gaf 3 12
0602 Dart V Yale nh til 11 12
0604 Brown V Prin pri til 5 3
0605 Amh V Yale nh cro 3 4
0606 Amh V Prin pri gaf 3 6
0611 Dart V Harv cam don 1 6
0612 Dart V Brown pro don 8 14
0614 Harv H Dart cam til 14 2
0616 Brown V Amh amh don 1 6
0617 Brown V Yale nh cro 6 9
0619 Prin n Yale ny cro 0 9
0621 Yale V Harv cam don 4 17
0624 Amh V Dart han gaf 10 8
0627 Yale n Harv bro gaf 4 2 playoff

0510 Yale V Harv cam 8 1 exhibition
0618 Harv V Brown pro 14 2 exhibition
0624 Yale n Harv ny 6 2 exhibition

For this league only, Spalding's reports a few exhibition game results
which I have displayed at the bottom of the table. They are not part of
the "ICA 1884" league-season.

For this league only, Spalding's names the umpire for each game.
Before combining this with other season logs, extra data such as the
"ump" column for ICA 1884 would be omitted or moved to the far right.

A note gives full mailing addresses for "the umpires appointed by the
Judiciary Committee," which is the data for another table.

Umpires
ump surname name address
gaf Gaffney Jno. H. No. 377 Main St., Worcester, Mass.
til Tilden Otis Brockton, Mass.
don Donovan T.H. Letter Carrier 74, Boston P.O.
cro Cronin D. No. 765 Washington St., Boston, Mass.


Paul Wendt