Label
Very little survives from Vermont's earliest baseball teams except for their colorful names, such as the Essex Junction Edmonds, the Cambridge Lone Stars, the Jericho Muffs, and the Ridley Sunflowers.
This baseball's just barely legible written label reads- "July 4, 1867/score 75-52/…. Champlains vs. …sp BBC." Vergennes fielded both the First Champlains and Second Champlains in the late 1860s. The other team name isn't clear enough to decipher. Does BBC indicate a Burlington Baseball Club? High scoring games like this one, often with over fifty runs, reflected earlier playing styles such as underhanded pitching and barehanded fielding. Connections by railroads and trolleys between towns and on Lake Champlain by ferries made it possible for the players and a growing number of spectators to enjoy what would become a favorite summer pastime, especially on the Fourth of July.