When Tigers prowled in Tombstone

The photo in this article was reportedly taken in 1883 of the Tombstone Tigers baseball club. For those keeping score, that’s only two years after the shootout at the OK Corral.

Here’s a bit of history about the team and Tombstone baseball from an article written by Arizona Historian Marshall Trimble for True West magazine:

Art Austin, of the Tombstone State Park says Mining Superintendent George Staple Rice introduced the sport to the city’s mining district in March 1880. “His team of mill workers from the Stone Wall mine/Boston Mill, known as the San Pedro Boys, played the other teams from nearby mill works,” he says. “In March 1882, Rice decided to see if the Tombstone men would field a team. On April 26, at least nine men showed up to discuss the possibility of a game. On April 29, 1882, an exhibition game against Rice’s San Pedro Boys was played. The outcome must have been favorable for on May 5, 1882, the Tombstone Baseball Association was formed.”