Today is the anniversary of the first official baseball game played under the Knickerbocker Rules.  The game was played in Manhattan in 1845 and these rules evolved into the rules of modern baseball.

A St Marys connection to the history of baseball is through Dr Adam E Ford who lived at 157 Queen St W. (built in 1857).  He wrote a letter in 1886 to the Sporting Life that detailed a baseball game he witness in Beachville on June 4, 1838, Militia Muster Day.  It is the first documented evidence of a baseball game in Canada.

Ford was one of the town's first doctors and was St Marys Mayor in 1877.  The following year Robert Guest leader of the Temperance Society died after a drinking session at Ford's office.  Ford was charged with poisoning Guest but was cleared by the coroner.  Ford's reputation was ruined and he left St Marys in 1880 for Denver where he wrote his letter.