What can you tell me about the Tombstone Tigers baseball team?

What can you tell me about the Tombstone Tigers baseball team?

Kit Hussey

Arlington, Texas

The photograph is circa 1887. Our archival label of the photo states the team is known as the Tombstone Tigers, but Art Austin, of the Tombstone State Park says the photo in their archive has no team name attached to it.

Austin does share the background on baseball’s introduction in Tombstone. He says that Mining Superintendent George Staple Rice introduced the sport to the city’s mining district in March 1880. “His team of mill workers from the Stone Wall mine/Boston Mill, known as the San Pedro Boys, played the other teams from nearby mill works,” he says. “In March 1882, Rice decided to see if the Tombstone men would field a team. On April 26, at least nine men showed up to discuss the possibility of a game. On April 29, 1882, an exhibition game against Rice’s San Pedro Boys was played. The outcome must have been favorable for on May 5, 1882, the Tombstone Baseball Association was formed.”