On Thursday, May 3 at noon, students from Professor Greenwood’s Baseball in the Blackstone Valley Seminar will present “The Manly Pastime”: Early Baseball in Worcester, 1859-1879, at the Worcester Historical Museum.

Uncovering the fascinating beginnings of baseball in Worcester — from its first amateur clubs in the late 1850s to its first professional team in 1879 — the students will present their findings on a number of topics, including: the shift from cricket to baseball in popularity; the first wave of baseball fever that swept Worcester in the years before the Civil War; early promotion of the sport; the socio-economic profile of both the first amateur and the first professional team; the shift of rules from Massachusetts to New York rules; and gender and baseball.

The presentation is based on archival research conducted by the students — Shane Ellement ’13, Nina Hoey ’14, Carson Stevens ’13, and Ph.D. candidate Chris Tucker — at the Worcester Historical Museum and the Worcester Public Library over the past semester.