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made its way West as far back as 1857. Chicago had a crack team called the Excelsiors, which went to Rockford, Illinois, in 1864, and won glory by defeating the Forest Citys of that place. The Atlantics was another Chicago club that played on the North Side, but did not have the prestige of the Excelsiors. Baseball got a great boom in that region from the tournaments held there. The Excelsiors were victorious in those held in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1866, and in Rockford, in 1867. To return to the East. In 1862 the Eckfords, of Brooklyn, won the supremacy from the Atlantics, and held it through the season of 1863, during which they did not lose a single game--a feat since duplicated only by Harry Wright's Cincinnati Reds in 1869. The Atlantics regained their lost honors, however, in 1864, and held them for three years. Their chief competitors were the Athletics, of Philadelphia, and the Mutuals, of New York. The Atlantics did not lose a game in 1864 and 1865--a feat that has never been equaled. The Athletics, of Philadelphia, gained renown by going through the season of 1866 with only two defeats--those at the hands of the Atlantics, of Brooklyn, and the Unions, of Morrisania, then a suburb of New York City. The feeling between the Brooklyn and the Philadelphia boys ran so high that when they met in Philadelphia, October 1, 1866, it was estimated that the contest was witnessed by more than forty thousand persons, the largest crowd ever known to have gathered to see a ball contest. The crush was so great that after one inning had been played it was found impossible to continue, and the game was postponed until October 22. To prevent a repetition of the crowding, an admission of one dollar was charged, the largest up to that time asked for a ball game, yet more than two thousand persons passed through the gates, while several thousand remained outside. The Athletics rolled up 31 runs to 12 of their opponents in seven innings, when the umpire called the game on account of darkness. A dispute about the gate money prevented the clubs from playing any more that season. Baltimore became a great center of baseball in the very early days of the game. The Excelsiors were in the field in 1857, the Waverlys in 1858, and the Baltimores in 1859. Another club disputed the latter's right to the title, and in a game played for the name the first formed club won. As early as 1861 the Pastimes, of Baltimore, defeated the Nation
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