Baseball on the Princeton campus dates back more than 150 years. In 1858, the first “organized” games began thanks to a group of freshmen from Brooklyn, where the game was already being played on a fairly high level. Other Princetonians joined in and, by 1860, the school had a team—known as the Nassau Base Ball Club—that was ready to play other local clubs. Its first game came against a team from Orange. It ended in a gentlemanly 42–42 draw.
During the Civil War, Princeton was unquestionably the nation’s finest collegiate team. They regularly defeated big-name clubs in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Newark and Philadelphia. In 1864, Princeton played its first intercollegiate match, beating Williams by a score of 26–16. After the Civil War, the Princeton base-ballers went on a tour of New England.
During the 1870s, Princeton players were at the forefront of the college game. William Gummere was the first player to perfect the hook slide. Joseph Mann was the first collegiate hurler to throw an effective curve. He learned it from future Hall of Famer Candy Cummings. In 1875, Mann pitched baseball’s first recorded no-hit game, against Big Three rival Yale. Bill Schenck, a catcher on the 1880 squad, stuffed copied of The Princetonian into his uniform to create a homemade chest protector. Within a few weeks, commercial chest protectors were being manufactured. In 1897, Princeton became the site of the first successful test of a pitching machine, designed by a math professor, Charles Hinton.
That same spring, Bill “Boileryard” Clarke began informally coaching the Princeton players while recuperating from a broken finger. He was the catcher for the Baltimore Orioles, a team known for its clever play. Clarke continued to give the Tigers tips, helping them capture several Big Three titles. After his retirement from pro ball in 1909, he signed on as the school’s full-time coach. Clarke held the job through 1926, developing several excellent players including Moe Berg, who played shortstop for the Tigers before becoming a big-league catcher. Although several of Berg’s Princeton predecessors had dabbled in pro baseball, he was the first to make a career in the national pastime.
In the mid-1920s, Princeton’s teams were among the best in college baseball. Clarke returned to Princeton in 1934 and coached until 1943. In the postwar years, Emerson Dickman—a former big-league hurler—guided the Tigers to three Eastern Intercollegiate titles and their lone trip to the College World Series, in 1951. Their star pitcher was Dave Sisler, son of Hall of Famer George Sisler. He went on to enjoy a seven-year major-league career, mostly as a relief pitcher.
The following spring, Eddie Donovan began a 24-year run as Princeton baseball coach. During his reign, the school enjoyed success against Ivy League opponents, but the sport took a back seat to football and basketball. During this time, the school did not attract players of any national prominence.
That started to change with the new millennium. Under coach Scott Bradley (left)—a former Yankees catcher—the Tigers produced three high draft picks who went on to enjoy success in the pros: pitchers Russ Ohlendorf and Chris Young, and outfielder Will Venable. In 2013, this trio was joined in the majors by pitcher David Hale. Only 12 other four-year schools had sent four players to the majors, and no other Ivy League university had a player in the big leagues. Young and Venable had originally come to Princeton as basketball players. In 2013, Mike Ford was named Ivy League Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year. He was among the league leaders in homers and RBIs, while going 6–0 on the mound with a 0.98 ERA. Ford had a terrific rookie year with the Yankees in 2019 and went on to play for the Giants, Mariners, Braves, Angels and Mariners, clubbing 16 homers in 84 games in 2023.
Under Bradley—who was named coach in 1998 after working as an assistant under Fred Hill at Rutgers—Princeton qualified for seven NCAA Tournaments between 2000 and 2016. One of Bradley’s early players was shortstop Mike Chernoff, a Pingry School graduate who took a summer internships with the Mets and Indians while attending Princeton. Chernoff went on to become Cleveland’s General Manager in 2016.