{"id":9492,"date":"2010-03-31T10:11:56","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T15:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=9492"},"modified":"2020-02-15T21:47:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T03:47:03","slug":"dean-james-jenkins-baseball-pioneer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2010\/03\/dean-james-jenkins-baseball-pioneer\/","title":{"rendered":"Dean James Jenkins: Baseball Pioneer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Next week marks both the opening day of the baseball season in Milwaukee and the finals of the Jenkins Moot Court competition.\u00a0 Few recognize the historical connection between these two events.<\/p>\n

The moot court competition is named for James G. Jenkins, the first dean of the Law School whose bust adorns the waiting area outside the elevator stop on the second floor of Sensenbrenner Hall.\u00a0 What is not very well known is that Jenkins was also instrumental in the re-establishment of baseball in Milwaukee after the Civil War.<\/p>\n

The first modern baseball club, i.e., one playing by the so-called New York rules that mark the beginning of baseball as we now know it, was established in Milwaukee in 1860.\u00a0 This amateur organization, known as the Milwaukee Baseball Club, featured more members of the bar than any other occupation.\u00a0 Jenkins arrived in Milwaukee (from New York) in 1857, and was probably a member of this first club.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Milwaukee Baseball Club folded during the Civil War, and Milwaukee reverted to the status of a \u201ccity with no modern baseball club.\u201d\u00a0 However, baseball was restored on August 17, 1865, when a new club was organized headed by stationer H. H. West and lawyers Samuel Howard and\u00a0 James G. Jenkins. \u00a0When the club reorganized in October with a written constitution and by-laws, West and Jenkins were elected president and vice-president of the club, now dubbed the Cream City Baseball Club of Milwaukee.\u00a0 (Cream city referred to the distinctive color of bricks widely used in the construction of mid-nineteenth-century Milwaukee.)<\/p>\n

The new club\u2019s first game was played on November 7, 1865, and was the result of a challenge from a group of young baseball enthusiasts (many of which were also members of the Cream City club).\u00a0 The challengers batted first, and when the Cream City club took the field, who should be on the mound but our own James G. Jenkins?\u00a0 When it was the home team\u2019s turn to bat, Jenkins also led off the batting order.<\/p>\n

The game was scheduled for nine innings, but was called after seven because of darkness.\u00a0 Pitching underhanded in the style of the time, the 31-year old Jenkins took a 14-10 lead into the\u00a0fourth inning before his opponents really figured out his pitching.\u00a0 Jenkins gave up\u00a0ten runs in the\u00a0fourt and\u00a0eleven more in the sixth, and while the Cream City players had no trouble scoring runs themselves, they ended up on the short end a 36-30 score.<\/p>\n

Early box scores recorded only name, position, runs, and outs made, but Jenkins appears to have had a successful day at the plate (which was square), scoring four runs and making only 2 outs.<\/p>\n

A number of additional matches were played that November, and in April of 1866, the club organized for the new season in Jenkins\u2019 office.\u00a0 (He was then the Milwaukee city attorney.)\u00a0 However, the level of Jenkins’ involvement with the club as both an official and a player began to wane after that.\u00a0 His focus increasingly turned to politics, and though unsuccessful, he was later the candidate of the Democratic Party for governor and the United States Senate.\u00a0 He did go on to a lengthy career as a federal judge and ended his public career as the dean of the Marquette Law School from 1908 to 1916.<\/p>\n

Much of this information is taken from Dennis Pajot\u2019s wonderful new book, The Rise of Milwaukee Baseball: The Cream City from Midwestern Outpost to the Major Leagues, 1859-1901 <\/em>(McFarland & Company 2009).\u00a0 For a biographical profile of Jenkins, see\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Next week marks both the opening day of the baseball season in Milwaukee and the finals of the Jenkins Moot Court competition.\u00a0 Few recognize the historical connection between these two events. The moot court competition is named for James G. Jenkins, the first dean of the Law School whose bust adorns the waiting area outside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,47,63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marquette-law-school-history","category-milwaukee","category-sports-law","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28987,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492\/revisions\/28987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}