Morven Preview - Part I

After a promising start, the 2019 Neshanock season has reverted to the all too familiar pattern of last year - rain, rain, and more rain.  Not only was last week's visit to Elkton, Maryland washed out, rain canceled today's scheduled doubleheader at New Jersey's historic Ringwood Manor State Park. Flemington is off next weekend, but wind and weather permitting will get back on the field in Nutley on Saturday, May 18th.  It is not clear when Ringwood, the site of today's aborted games, had its first organized baseball club, but it was no later than 1874. In June of that year, the Hewitt Club of Ringwood took part in a historic moment in New Jersey baseball history, the rebirth of the Olympic Club of Paterson.  Founded in 1864, the Olympic Club quickly became the city's top team and enjoyed some noteworthy success including an 1866 upset win over the Irvington Club the same year that upstart club burst on to the national scene.  Playing primarily lower level amateur clubs, the Olympics enjoyed further success but disbanded in 1869 when baseball fell into disfavor in Paterson supposedly because of its supposed negative impact on business.  On that June day in 1874, however, the Olympic Club came together again to play and defeat the Hewitt Club giving added motivation to those interested in re-organizing the Olympic.

Mike "King" Kelly and Jim McCormick as members of the 1886 National League champion Chicago White Stockings 

Not long after that, a group of 50 interested supporters of baseball in Paterson met to make the rebirth a reality and they were willing to back their interest with more than good intentions.  Recognizing the players would lose time from their "shops" to practice and play, the organizers agreed to make good their lost wages.  Drawing on an informal system of junior teams for talent, the rejuvenated Olympics became a highly successful semi-pro team and gave a dramatic illustration of how New Jersey could and would develop major league players.  Four young Paterson residents, Jim McCormick, Mike Kelly, Edward Nolan, and William Purcell took full advantage of the opportunity to play for the reorganized and revitalized Olympic Club.  By 1880 all of them were on major league rosters at a time when there were only about 100 such positions.  McCormick and Kelly had the most success and will be a focal point of the new exhibit on New Jersey baseball opening at Morven Museum & Garden in Princeton on June7th. (https://morvenmuseum.squarespace.com/new-jersey-baseball).

Playing three games for the Olympic Club against the professional Columbus Buckeyes (and former Olympic teammate, Edward "The Only" Nolan) in September of 1876 gave Kelly and McCormick the kind of visibility that got them started on their journey to the major leagues.
New York Clipper September 30, 1876

McCormick, a right-handed pitcher, reached the major leagues in 1878 and was a workhorse over an 11-year career, with a 265-214 overall record and a lifetime 2.43 ERA while pitching almost 4,300 innings.  At the time pitchers, were expected to pitch almost every day and McCormick was no exception throwing over 500 innings five times including a mind-boggling 657 innings in 1880.  Visitors to the exhibit will have the opportunity to see a scorecard of a memorable game from the 1880 season, a year McCormick went 45-28 with a 1.85 ERA.  The scorecard, however, is not from one of his wins, but rather a loss.  On June 14, 1880, McCormick dropped a 1-0 decision to Lee Richmond of the Worcester Club.  Although McCormick only allowed three hits and a single run, Richmond was even better, perfect in fact, pitching the first perfect game in major league history.

Towards the end of his career, McCormick was part of two Chicago White Stocking pennant-winning teams where he rejoined former Olympic teammate, Mike Kelly, by then better known as "King" Kelly.  Whether or not he was the king of all baseball, Kelly was certainly baseball royalty, hitting .307 over a 16-year career on his way to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.  But Kelly was more than just a great ball player.  Described as baseball's first matinee idol, the Paterson product received rock star adulation especially after he moved to Boston in 1887.  Some examples of that popularity will be part of the Morven exhibit including the sheet music from the song "Slide Kelly, Slide, and a picture of the same name that supposedly supplanted the famous picture of Custer's Last Stand in Irish bars throughout Boston.  These are just a few examples of the major league section of the exhibit which will also inform visitors about other great nineteenth-century New Jersey players including Mike Tiernan, Weston Fisler, and  Hardy Richardson who was known as the Babe Ruth of the 1880s.  Also part of the exhibit is the story of the state's one major league team - the 1915 Newark Peppers.  Stay tuned for more previews of an exhibit I hope visitors will find both interesting and informative.