From the birthplace of baseball – a rare surviving season ticket from a New York club, 1879.
This is an original season pass to the Ballston Base Ball Club, and if graded would be the second-oldest graded baseball ticket registered (I think), and the earliest from a New York-based team.
Located in Ballston Spa, just north of Albany, the club was part of the early baseball corridor that included cities like Troy, Albany, and Schenectady—regions where the game flourished even before it became national. Fittingly, Abner Doubleday, long associated with baseball’s origins, spent his formative years in Ballston Spa, adding a deeper layer of folklore to the town’s connection with the game.
This ticket actually predates the formation of Major League Baseball, formed in 1903, which was a result of a merger between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL). While the NL was founded in 1876 and the AL in 1901, the two leagues formally joined forces in 1903 with the signing of the National Agreement, solidifying MLB as the oldest major professional sports league.
To find something like this intact at nearly
150 years old—and still beautifully preserved—is almost unheard of. It’s a time capsule from a forgotten era, offering a glimpse into the game as it once was: raw, regional, and on the rise.