[Broadsheet]: Base Ball Bulletin - Extra. Great Tournament at Washington. Excelsior of Brooklyn vs. National of Washington. Excelsior of Brooklyn vs. Union of Washington. Full Particulars by a Special Reporter

1866. Unbound. Very Good. A double-sided 6000+ word report of a trip by the Excelsior Baseball Team of Brooklyn, New York to play the National and Union teams of Washington, DC on September 29 and 30, 1866, almost certainly written by Henry Chadwick, the Hall of Fame sports writer known as the Father of Baseball. Broadsheet. Measuring 9" x 18½". Printed in two columns on both sides with box scores for each of the two games printed in the text, listing players from the three teams, including both individual and team scoring. Very good with horizontal and vertical creases from being folded, nicks at the folds and some offsetting from an ink note at the bottom edge ("give this to Jack").

The broadsheet begins with an account of the Excelsior's journey from New York, through Baltimore, to their arrival at Willard's Hotel in Washington, and a day of sightseeing at Mount Vernon, before beginning an account of the games played over the next two days. The featured game between the Excelsiors and the Nationals consists of a highly detailed inning by inning account that occupies roughly half of the contents of this broadsheet. The high scoring, back-and-forth game ended in dramatic fashion with the Excelsiors pulling ahead in the bottom of the 9th inning for a 33 to 28 victory over the Nationals in front of a crowd of more than 6,000 spectators, including President Andrew Johnson. The recap is followed by a box score of the game (a still relatively new format created by Chadwick just a few years before) and a four-paragraph analysis of each player's performance.

The remainder of the broadsheet recounts the next day's lopsided Excelsior victory over the Union of Washington 40 to 23, with pitching duties handled by the rookie hurler and future Hall of Famer, Candy Cumming. Cumming, the creator of the curveball, took over pitching duties for the Excelsiors from Asa Brainard, who threw for the victory the previously day. Cumming had also pitched a game for the Excelsior Junior Club earlier the same day, which presaged his feat of becoming the first pitcher to finish two complete professional games in a day, which he would achieve in a double-header 10 years later against the Cincinnati Reds in 1876.

The broadsheet is unsigned but the writing style and attention to detail point inevitably to Chadwick as the author. He was already widely known as a baseball journalist for newspapers such as the *New York Clipper*, and had served as editor of *The Beadle Dime Base-Ball Player* published in 1860. If that wasn't enough, strong evidence of Chadwick's involvement in this notable game can be found in a photo (not present) of the Excelsior and National teams taken the morning of their game which includes Chadwick and is documented in the broadsheet: "At 2 P.M. the first nines repaired to the grounds, where they and the umpire were taken in a group by the photographer." The image shows Chadwick kneeling on the ground in the center between both teams and their manager. (Two copies of this image appear to exist, one sold by Robert Edward Auctions back in 2011 for more than $21,000; the other is in Chadwick's own scrapbook at the New York Public Library.)

Baseball broadsheets from the mid-19th Century, like unassisted triple plays, are exceedingly rare. We know of one earlier broadsheet for an 1859 baseball game between Amherst and Williams College but have not seen or heard of another, and don't expect to. An exceptionally important early baseball broadsheet and likely unique.