Baseball Fever in Snohomish: The Sport’s Dangerous Beginnings
Before the professional era, Snohomish locals engaged in the early, rugged version of the game, resulting in more black eyes than home runs.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
No Fucase on Base Ball yet. One member discovered several new planets by attempting to catch a sky flyer on the top of his head, and another, failing to jump high enough to reach the ball in his mouth, took it in the eye and saw clusters of stars not marked in the geography of the heavens, besides several new comets. Still another shows some of his digits up to his wrist, and another ornaments his dear mother with several linen handkerchiefs. The undertaker is waiting impatiently.
“One member discovered several new planets by attempting to catch a sky flyer on the top of his head.”
While baseball is now a quintessential, regulated pastime, these accounts from 1877 Snohomish highlight a period where the sport was physically hazardous and poorly organized. It echoes the way early frontier activities often blurred the line between recreation and genuine risk.
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