On April 22, 1876, the Hartford Dark Blues hosted the Boston Red Caps in Hartford, Connecticut, in what is widely recognized as the first recorded game of the National League, the organization that established professional baseball as a stable league system. The National League had been founded earlier that month, on February 2, 1876, by team owners seeking firmer control over schedules, player contracts, and gambling issues that had plagued earlier professional clubs and the short-lived National Association (1871–1875). The 1876 season marked a transition from loosely organized professional clubs to a formal league with a constitution, membership rules, and agreed schedules. That opening game is documented in contemporary newspapers and box scores, which recorded the Hartford club defeating Boston. Records from the period can vary in detail and sometimes conflict on specifics of lineups or exact attendance, but the date and the significance of the match as part of the National League’s inaugural season are well established by historians. Baseball in the 1870s looked different from the modern game: pitchers delivered underhand until rule changes later in the decade and into the 1880s; fielding gloves were minimal or absent; and ballparks were smaller and less standardized. Teams traveled by rail between cities, and gate receipts and local patronage were essential to club survival. The National League’s formation aimed to regularize these practical and financial matters by creating binding agreements among clubs. The 1876 National League season began with eight charter clubs: Boston (often referred to then as the Red Caps), Chicago, Cincinnati, Hartford, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. The league’s debut season set precedents for scheduling, standings, and a measured move toward centralized governance—developments that gradually shaped modern professional baseball. The National League endured and expanded, becoming the senior circuit of Major League Baseball; its establishment in 1876 is therefore treated by historians as a foundational moment in the sport’s professional history. Because contemporary record-keeping and reporting varied in accuracy and focus, some details from early games (such as precise attendance figures, exact playing conditions, or complete play-by-play accounts) remain incomplete or debated among researchers. Nonetheless, April 22, 1876, is reliably cited as the date of one of the first documented National League games, symbolizing the start of baseball’s long era as an organized professional sport.