Brooklyn Atlantics

The Atlantic Base Ball Club of Brooklyn ("Atlantic" or the "Brooklyn Atlantics") was baseball's first champion and its first dynasty. The team was also the first baseball club to visit the White House in 1865 at the invitation of President Andrew Johnson. Era before league Established on August 14, 1855, Atlantic became a founding member of the National Association of Base Ball Players, the amateur sport's first governing body, in 1857. (There were no professional clubs at the time.) In 1859, with a record of 11 wins and 1 loss, Atlantic emerged as the recognized champions of baseball. Atlantic held the championship through the 1861 season, albeit in controversial fashion. In a third and deciding game with Excelsior of Brooklyn, Excelsior was leading 8–6 and had men on base, but was forced to withdraw by a rowdy crowd of Atlantic partisans and gamblers. The game was declared a draw, and the championship retained by Atlantic. Atlantic held the championship again through the 1861 season, which was shortened due to the American Civil War, before finally surrendering it to archrival Eckford of Brooklyn in 1862. Atlantic recaptured the pennant in 1866 with a season record of twenty wins, no defeats, and a single tie as the only blemish on its record.