In a recent post, I mentioned that I had the good fortune to be at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia for Kevin Millwood's no-hitter early in the 2003 season. It's one of my favorite baseball memories. There was, however, one sad aspect to it. On the drive home, I realized I could no longer share such moments with my father, Hank Zinn who died the previous November (after the baseball season ended, of course). Baseball in our family goes back to at least 1909 when my grandfather, John Zinn played for the Friendship Club of Hackensack. That makes it hard to think about Father's Day without remembering the game we've loved for so many generations. Each generation has had their share of memorable moments, especially my father who achieved the most success on the field.
Aerial view of Sing Sing Prison about 1920 - the baseball field was to the right of the smokestack
After beating out almost 100 other candidates to make the Bogota High School baseball team in 1932, Hank was an All-Bergen County outfielder a year later. He then went on to nearby Montclair State where he was a four-year letter winner in baseball, possibly the first in school history (he was definitely the first four-year football letter winner). Graduation from college was followed by teaching and coaching at High Bridge High School where his baseball team won the 1939 Hunterdon County Championship.
1937 Montclair State Baseball Team - Hank Zinn is fourth from the left, second row
These are certainly noteworthy accomplishments, but this post is about another of his memorable baseball days, one of the few he ever talked about. It's an experience not many people have ever had and probably even fewer will have in the future. In 1922 at the tender age of eight, Hank Zinn became the mascot of the Maywood Athletic Association baseball team – a local semi-pro team. Three years later he was still the mascot when the team took a bus from Maywood with 30 of their “royal rooters” to Ossing, New York for a game at a very different kind of venue. Ossing is the location of Sing Sing Prison where the Maywood team had been invited to play the prison team. (For some reason, the inmates didn’t play road games).
1922 Maywood Athletic Association baseball team with Hank Zinn as the mascot
The prison baseball team was part of a program introduced by Warden Lewis Lawes who worked his way up from guard to warden. He believed that recreation could be a tool in rehabilitation and the baseball team was part of that effort. In addition to amateur and semi-pro teams like the Maywood A. A., the New York Giants played at Sing Sing a number of times. An especially memorable moment for the inmates was when Babe Ruth and the Yankees paid a visit in 1929.
Sing Sing Penitentiary Baseball Field - note the difference in the size of the crowds on the two sides of the field
Naturally the experience was somewhat different from other baseball games. The Maywood “royal rooters” sat in the bleachers along the right field line which they entered through one gate as a group and left as a group. Hopefully they brought their own refreshments since there were no concessions. The 30 Maywood fans were far outnumbered by an estimated 400 inmates sitting in bleachers on the left field line. Possibly among the guards was Bill Leith, who had a Moonlight Graham like career with the Washington National League team in 1899. At least he got up to bat once.
Hank Zinn (left) and his father enjoy a Field of Dreams moment about 1929. The farm is in Michigan not Iowa, but you can't have everything
The 1925 Sing Sing team was having an excellent season with a 43-7-1 record at the time of the Maywood game. No score of that game survives suggesting the home team won easily. But Maywood did score at least one run. In the ninth inning, eleven-year-old Hank was put in as a pinch runner and scored to “the applause of the four hundred fans.” It wasn’t until “late in the night” that the Maywood party returned home. It wouldn’t be surprising if young Hank had fallen asleep by then. But it’s also very possible he was far too excited to sleep after such a memorable baseball moment. One he discussed with his father and eventually with his son. Happy Father's Day!
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