ALLEGHENY WEST — A celebration of the 150th anniversary of the first professional baseball game in Pittsburgh took place on the Northside on April 15.
A group of baseball historians and fans gathered at The Lion, a bar located along Allegheny Avenue, to pay observance to the sesquicentennial of the game between the Allegheny Base Ball (sic) Club and local amateur club Xantha, which took place on April 15, 1876. The game was played at Union Park, which was located near the southeast corner of Allegheny and Pennsylvania avenues, hence the choice of The Lion as the celebration location.
According to Mark Fatla, author of the book Pittsburgh’s Historic Ballparks, Allegheny beat Xantha 7-3 and there were between 1,500 to 2,000 spectators at the game.
Some of the players there would go on to compete with the Pittsburgh Pirates when they eventually formed as a team.
In addition to the celebration, the gathering served as the founding for a new organization, the Sports History Education and Markers Project, or SHEMP.
Fatla, who is a member of this new group, explained that the goal of SHEMP is to promote the establishment of historical markers for major moments in sports history across Pittsburgh.
“Nobody has been focused on this,” he said. “There have been some individual projects” but nothing large scale.
The group’s abbreviation is a reference to Shemp Howard of “The Three Stooges.” Fatla explained that in one of the Stooges’ films, Shemp was a baseball manager, inspiring the name for the organization.
For anyone interested in joining SHEMP, Fatla said to contact him either via email ([email protected]) or by phone (412-520-4888).
