Baseball club forms in Seattle in July 1872.
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In July 1872, the first baseball club forms in Seattle. The club is called Dolly Varden, after the common name of Salvelinus malma, a species of small anadromous (salmon-like) char found in North Pacific waters. The fish in turn was named for the colorful character in the Charles Dickens novel Barnaby Rudge. How's that for sports trivia?
Thomas Prosch, "A Chronological History of Seattle from 1850 to 1897" (typescript, dated 1900-1901, Special Collections, University of Washington Library), 220.; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Website ().