During the post-Civil War era, base ball was helping to unify the United States. With increasing popularity, fans demanded closer coverage. In 1866, The Bat and Ball became the first known baseball periodical. The publication sold for 5 cents a copy on the streets of Hartford, Connecticut. For subscribers, 14 issues were delivered throughout the year for 50 cents. The publication enlightened readers about local and national matches and a few columns on the game of cricket.

A rare copy of The Bat and Ball was uncovered in 1990 at the Connecticut State Library. Linda Grodofsky, the reference and government documents librarian, said she found the issue on a shelf in a reading room among old newspapers. This rare copy of The Bat and Ball is preserved and stored in a secure area and available for visitors to view.

Before the discovery of The Bat and Ball, historians acknowledged The Sporting News as the first periodical to feature baseball – debuting March 17, 1886. However Hartford’s The Bat and Ball preceded The Sporting News by twenty years. Authorship of The Bat and Ball is unknown because the periodical was written anonymously, though a possible author may have been Gershom B. Hubbell, President of the Hartford Base Ball Club and a telegraph operator for Western Union.

The issue at the Connecticut State Library, dated May 1, 1867, was the paper’s Second Season—No. 1:.

”This season, which is now opening, bids fair to be one of the most exciting that our National Game is likely ever to know,” a story on page one of the four-page paper said, nine years before the first major league was formed. ”And it is well that it should be so, for there is no more worthy object of public attention now before the American people than this same national game.”

The Bat and Ball issue also outlined rules agreed upon by local base ball dignitaries:

Rules of the Connecticut Base Ball Player’s Association. 

1. All match games for the championship shall be played in accordance with the rules adopted by the National Convention. 

2. The season for play shall commence on the first day of May, and continue until the first day of November. 

3. All challenges shall be sent to the secretary of the club at the time holding the emblem. 

4. The champion club must be prepared to play within fifteen days after receipt of a challenge, provided that they be not required to play a game oftener than once in ten days, and shall play clubs in the order of the dates of their challenges, the champions being allowed choice of time, ground and ball for the first game, the challenging that for the second game; and the third game, if such game be necessary, shall be played upon neutral ground in the State, with a ball furnished by the cham­ pion club. In case of any dispute relative to grounds or rules, the difficulty shall be referred to the committee on rules and regulations, and their decision when given shall be final. 

5. The expenses of every champion game must be defrayed by the challenging club. 

7. No challenging club, being defeated, shall challenge again the same champions during the same season. 

8. The champions, being defeated, may chal­lenge immediately after the defeat, and be allowed a match in the order of their challenge. 

9. In case the champions shall change bands during the season, all outstanding challenges shall be assumed by the new champions. 

President – John A. Sterry of Norwich. 

Vice President – lst, Gersbom B. Hubbell of Hartford; 2d, S. M. Knevals of New Haven. 

Recording Secretary – R. E. Crane of Agallian Club, Middletown. 

Corresponding Secretary – Thomas M. Haven of Pequot Club, New London. 

Treasurer – Alexander Hawley of Bridgeport Club, Bridgeport.“

At the time, baseball rules varied widely. This included clubs who used a different number of balls and strikes allowed to a ”striker” (batter). “The Bat and Ball” called for ”a uniform manner of playing.” Another column urged umpires to be more diligent to ensure that pitchers (who threw underhanded from a distance of 45 feet) tossed pitches where the striker, or batsman, wanted the pitched – a rule during the vintage days of ”base ball.”

Game rules of early base ball often resulted in high scores. A column in The Bat and Ball headed ”Match Games” reported on a game in San Francisco played on ”the birthday of the father of his country” (Feb. 22, 1867) in which the Eagles routed the Pacifics, 70-32.