A Summer on the Newark Sandlots

In any normal year (that qualification again), the Neshanock's annual trip to Gettysburg would have produced not only blog content, but also plenty of pictures especially those of Dennis Tuttle and official blog photographer, Mark "Gaslight" Granieri.  To help fill the latter gap, this post will offer some drawings that I stumbled upon while researching last year's New Jersey baseball exhibit at the Morven Museum.  We decided to extend the period covered by the exhibit through 1915 so we could include the state's one year as home to a major league baseball team, the short-lived Newark Peppers of the also short-lived Federal League.  In what proved to be the last season of the Federal League's existence, the circuit's 1914 championship Indianapolis franchise was transferred to Newark, although home games were played across the Passaic River in Harrison.  Throughout that season, Louis Wisa, cartoonist for the Newark Evening News did a series of drawings capturing the experiences of a local sandlot team with the somewhat unappetizing name of the (or "de") Skeletons.   What follows is just a sample of those drawings (click on the picture to enlarge).

 

During the 1914-15 off season, it seemed likely Newark would get a Federal League team, but just which one wasn't clear.  Another candidate was the Kansas City franchise, leading to the possibility that the team's playing manager, George Stovall might send the Skeletons a baseball.  

As noted earlier, the Peppers played their home games in neighboring Harrison, in the aptly named Harrison Park, a classic Deadball Era ballpark built just for the Peppers.    Harrison Park opened in April of 1915 with great fanfare and initially drew large crowds aided by the Peppers ability to play on Sunday.  Attendance quickly dropped off, however, leading ownership to cut the admission price from the standard 25 cents to a mere dime which should have allowed at least some of the Skeletons to find an easier way to see a game.

Although the Peppers were in first place in late August, a poor finish dropped them to fifth place and by year end the club and the Federal League had gone out of existence.  Harrison Park burned down in 1923 and was never rebuilt.  The Skeletons had to settle for minor league baseball or the longer and more expensive trip to New York City.