A hush fell over the field as the boys watched the baseball sail toward the window of a nearby building. At the sound of shattering glass the boys scattered.

If you go to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, you’ll see baseball player sculptures lining the street, as well as chairs made to look like baseball gloves in front of shops, and even a huge metal baseball bat and ball in front of the high school. 

“What’s the big deal with baseball?” you ask.  The big deal is the Broken Window By-Law of 1791.  This document is the earliest known reference to baseball being played in our country, and Pittsfield’s claim to baseball fame.

Some History

It was the summer of 1791 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where broken windows and baseballs were becoming a problem for the town’s officials.

A famous architect, Charles Bullfinch, had designed plans for a beautiful new Meeting House overlooking Park Square -Park Square was, and still is, a grassy area in the center of town where folks can rest from the city’s hustle and bustle. However, in 1791, Park Square was also where boys played baseball.  Concerned town officials wanted to protect the expensive windows in the new building.  They decided to make a special by-law to prevent baseballs from shattering the Meeting House windows. 

By the Law

At a town meeting on September 5, 1791, people voted to pass a by-law.  No one could play any game including “…Baseball, Batball, Footfall, Cat, Fives, or any other game or games with ball, within the distance of eighty yards from said Meeting House…” Anyone caught playing baseball would have to pay a fine of five shillings, which is about $27.75 today.  The document, known as the Broken Window By-Law, is the earliest known reference to baseball being played in North America.

Baseball's Claim to Fame?

The first officially recorded, organized baseball game was played in Hoboken, New Jersey on June 19, 1846.  Legend says that a man named Abner Doubleday invented the game in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839.  A classmate of his claimed he was there when Doubleday drew the first baseball diamond with a stick in the dirt. Research later showed that Abner Doubleday wasn’t in Cooperstown in 1839.  However, Pittsfield, Massachusetts has proof that people played baseball in their town in 1791 – just 15 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed and while George Washington was president.  Who knows, maybe George Washington played baseball too and broke a few windows.

You Can See It

Today a copy of  'The Broken Window by-law' is part of an exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

 This document proves that baseball has been popular in our country from the very beginning.  After the law was passed, I’m sure the early baseball players of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, kept playing – just in a different spot.   After all, baseball is “the great American past time.”