New ABLE exhibit opens at Little Red School House Museum: “How Baseball Won the West”

Arizona and baseball have been intertwined since the post-Civil War migration.

A new exhibit at Scottsdale’s Little Red School House Museum tells the story of how baseball helped settle the frontier. The exhibit highlights little-known chapters in Arizona’s evolution and features rare baseball memorabilia from the 1800s and early 1900s. Admission to the museum, located at 7333 East Scottsdale Mall, is always free.

It started with the U.S. Cavalry. The Army loved baseball. It was good for morale. It kept troops active. And perhaps most importantly, it helped keep soldiers away from saloons and other diversions cropping up in settlements.

Eventually, baseball games began to pit Army teams against nearby civilian towns. They were special occasions, usually held on holidays or around community celebrations.

By the mid-1870s, baseball games were reported regularly in the newspapers of Yuma, Prescott and Phoenix.

The School House exhibit will trace the history of those early games, how they grew into the highly competitive – and controversial – “Outlaw Leagues” and how those contests eventually led to today’s Cactus League.

The exhibit is a joint project of the Scottsdale Historical Society and the nonprofit Arizona Baseball Legacy and Experience.

Subscribe to ABLE’s Facebook page to get updates on the exhibit and special events.

For more information on the museum, including hours of operation, visit ScottsdaleHistory.org