In Search of New Jersey's Lost Ballparks

For Christmas one year, I presented my father with a sweatshirt that had emblazoned across the chest the words - "Voice of Doom" because of his uncanny ability to identify and, all too often accurately predict, the worst possible thing that could happen.  The best or worst example was the time we were watching an indoor track meet on television where the lead runner had almost lapped the field, prompting my father to say "If he doesn't fall down, he'll win the race."  No sooner were the words out of his mouth when, in what was probably a foregone conclusion, the unfortunate runner indeed fell down and lost the race.  What brought this to mind is that I'm starting to wonder if I've inherited that trait.  Two weeks ago when I said the Neshanock's 2018 season could be summed up in one word - "cancellations," it was meant to be analytical not prophetic.  Since then, however, the two succeeding matches have been cancelled and I'm starting to wonder what this means for the rest of the season especially next weekend's visit to New England.  The schedule calls for participation in a Saturday event sponsored by the Essex Base Ball Association at the Spencer-Pierce-Little farm in Newbury, Massachusetts, followed by a Sabbath visit to Rhode Island to take on the Providence Grays.  For me, it's a combination of base ball and grandchildren (not necessarily in that order) so I'm hoping I haven't jinxed the Neshnock's entire season.

   

Readers of this blog may recall that I have been in discussions with the Morven Museum and Gardens in Princeton about a possible exhibit on 19th century New Jersey base ball and the good news is that the exhibit is going ahead and is scheduled to open in June of 2019.  Originally, the idea was to cover the first 25 years of New Jersey base ball, but we've since decided to extend the period through 1915 which will allow us to tell the story of New Jersey's sole major league team, the short lived Federal League's, even more short lived, Newark Peppers.  Another possibility under consideration is to show through maps and other media, the location of some of the state's earliest base ball grounds or fields.  Locations which for the most part have long since been consumed by some kind of urban development.  It's an idea not without its challenges since like player identification, the contemporary media wasn't always that precise in describing the specific locations, but it should be possible to identify at least some of these lost base ball fields.  Jersey City, for example, where the Neshanock were supposed to play the Hoboken Club this past Saturday has a number of interesting possibilities.

Although there are claims Jersey City had a base ball club as early as the 1830's, the first two well documented teams, the Pioneer and Excelsior Clubs took the field, wherever it was, in 1855.  The description of the two clubs' first match unhelpfully listed the location as the "field between Hoboken and Jersey City," thereby rendering identification impossible.  Despite some on-the-field success, the two charter clubs lasted only one year, supposedly to some degree to the difficulty in securing grounds, but more likely because the best players on the two teams defected to the Eagle Club of New York.  The next Jersey City senior team was the Hamilton Club, probably the most well-documented antebellum New Jersey club, which will likely play an important part in the exhibit in its own right.  From 1858 to 1860, the Hamiltons played and practiced on a field near the Long Dock in Jersey City which can be seen in the 1867 lithograph of New York harbor at the top of the post, helpfully pointed out to me by John Ward Beekman of the Jersey City Public Library.  The Long Dock and the adjoining fields can be seen left center of the full picture at the beginning of the post and/or at the center of the smaller version immediately above.

Although the Hamilton Club intended to play base ball in 1861, there's no record of club activities after their annual meeting in April of that year where they discussed the problem of finding adequate grounds, suggesting the field near the Long Dock was no longer available.  While it took a few years, a number of clubs filled the gap, especially the Champion Club which became Jersey City's premier base ball team of the pioneer period.  The Champions, as they liked to call themselves, played their matches at "the head of Erie Street."  Review of a contemporary map of Jersey City suggests a vacant lot within the trapezoid shape marked in red above, with Erie Street on the left, Grove Street on the right and Jersey Avenue at the bottom.  Interestingly the field was located only a few blocks east or to the right of one of the city's minuscule African-American community which helps explain how an impromptu 1870 pickup game included some black players in what appears to have been New Jersey's first integrated base ball game.  Identifying early base ball grounds will have its challenges, but stories like these make it well worthwhile.