Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey

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Elysian Fields
Baseball1866.JPG
Early baseball game played at Elysian Fields, Hoboken (Currier & Ives lithograph)
Location11th and Washington Streets
Hoboken, New Jersey 07030
Coordinates 40°45′00″N74°01′39″W / 40.74995°N 74.02737°W / 40.74995; -74.02737 Coordinates: 40°45′00″N74°01′39″W / 40.74995°N 74.02737°W / 40.74995; -74.02737
Owner Col. John Stevens III, Edwin Augustus Stevens, John Cox Stevens, Robert L. Stevens
Capacity 20,000 (approx.)
Openedby 1845
Closed1880s
Tenants
New York Knickerbockers, New York Mutuals, New York Metropolitans (1880)

Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey is believed to be the site of the first organized baseball game, giving Hoboken a strong claim to be the birthplace of baseball. [1] [2]

Hoboken, New Jersey City in Hudson County, New Jersey, U.S.

Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005, having grown by 11,428 (+29.6%) from 38,577 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 5,180 (+15.5%) from the 33,397 in the 1990 Census. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the tri-state region.

Baseball team sport

Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two opposing teams who take turns batting and fielding. The game proceeds when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball which a player on the batting team tries to hit with a bat. The objective of the offensive team is to hit the ball into the field of play, allowing it to run the bases—having its runners advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners' advance around the bases. A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate. The team that scores the most runs by the end of the game is the winner.

Contents

History

In 1845, Knickerbocker Club of New York City began using Elysian Fields in Hoboken to play baseball due to the lack of suitable grounds across the Hudson River in Manhattan. On June 19, 1846, the Knickerbockers played the New York Nine on these grounds in the first organized game between two clubs; Alexander Cartwright was the umpire. By the 1850s, several Manhattan-based member clubs of the National Association of Base Ball Players were using the grounds as their home field.

New York Knickerbockers

The New York Knickerbockers were one of the first organized baseball teams which played under a set of rules similar to the game today. In 1845, the team was founded by Alexander Cartwright, considered one of the original developers of modern baseball. In 1851, the New York Knickerbockers wore the first ever recorded baseball uniforms.

Hudson River river in New York State

The Hudson River is a 315-mile (507 km) river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York in the United States. The river originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York, flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the Upper New York Bay between New York City and Jersey City. It eventually drains into the Atlantic Ocean at New York Harbor. The river serves as a political boundary between the states of New Jersey and New York at its southern end. Further north, it marks local boundaries between several New York counties. The lower half of the river is a tidal estuary, deeper than the body of water into which it flows, occupying the Hudson Fjord, an inlet which formed during the most recent period of North American glaciation, estimated at 26,000 to 13,300 years ago. Tidal waters influence the Hudson's flow from as far north as the city of Troy.

Manhattan Borough in New York City and county in New York, United States

Manhattan, , is the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state of New York. Manhattan serves as the city's economic and administrative center, cultural identifier, and historical birthplace. The borough consists mostly of Manhattan Island, bounded by the Hudson, East, and Harlem rivers; several small adjacent islands; and Marble Hill, a small neighborhood now on the U.S. mainland, physically connected to the Bronx and separated from the rest of Manhattan by the Harlem River. Manhattan Island is divided into three informally bounded components, each aligned with the borough's long axis: Lower, Midtown, and Upper Manhattan.

In 1856, Elysian Fields was the place that inspired pioneering journalist Henry Chadwick, then a cricket writer for The New York Times, to develop the idea that baseball could be America's National Pastime. As Chadwick relates:

Henry Chadwick (writer) American baseball writer and statistician

Henry Chadwick was an English-American sportswriter, baseball statistician and historian, often called the "Father of Baseball" for his early reporting on and contributions to the development of the game. He edited the first baseball guide that was sold to the public. He is credited with creating box scores, as well as creating the abbreviation "K" that designates a strikeout. He is said to have created the statistics of batting average and earned run average (ERA). He was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

"I chanced to go through Elysian Fields during the progress of a contest between the noted Eagle and Gotham Clubs. The game was being sharply played on both sides, and I watched it with deeper interest that any previous ball match between clubs I had seen. It was not long before I was struck with the idea that base ball was just the game for a national sport for Americans."

Chadwick went on to become the game's preeminent reporter developing baseball's statistics and scoring system. [3]

In 1859, an international cricket match was held with an All-England Eleven [4] as part of an English tour of North America.

Cricket Team sport played with bats and balls

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a 20-metre (22-yard) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striking the ball bowled at the wicket with the bat, while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this and dismiss each player. Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, and by the fielding side catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground. When ten players have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The game is adjudicated by two umpires, aided by a third umpire and match referee in international matches. They communicate with two off-field scorers who record the match's statistical information.

English cricket team in North America in 1859

The English cricket team in North America in 1859 was the first ever overseas cricket tour by an English team. The touring team is sometimes referred to as George Parr's XI.

A historical marker stands at the intersection of 11th Street and Washington Street, where Elysian Fields once stood. 1.20.10ElysianFieldsMarkerByLuigiNovi.jpg
A historical marker stands at the intersection of 11th Street and Washington Street, where Elysian Fields once stood.

In 1865, the grounds hosted a championship match between the Mutual Club of New York and the Atlantic Club of Brooklyn that was attended by an estimated 20,000 fans and captured in the Currier & Ives lithograph The American National Game of Base Ball.

New York Mutuals former American baseball club

The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York was a leading American baseball club almost throughout its 20-year history. It was established during 1857, the year of the first baseball convention, just too late to be a founding member of the National Association of Base Ball Players.

Brooklyn Atlantics former baseball team

The Atlantic Base Ball Club of Brooklyn was baseball's first champion and its first dynasty. The team was also the first baseball club to visit the White House in 1865 at the invitation of President Andrew Johnson.

With the construction of two significant baseball parks in Brooklyn enclosed by fences, enabling promoters there to charge admission to games, the prominence of Elysian Fields began to diminish. In 1868, the leading Manhattan club, the New York Mutuals, shifted its home games to the Union Grounds in Brooklyn. In 1880, the founders of the New York Metropolitans and New York Giants finally succeeded in siting a ballpark on Manhattan that became known as the Polo Grounds.

The last recorded professional baseball game at Elysian Fields occurred in 1873. The large parkland area was eventually developed for housing. A small remnant of the park remains bounded on the west by Hudson Street, on the north and east by Frank Sinatra Drive, and on the south by Castle Point Terrace. To the west of Elysian Park at the intersection of 11th and Washington Streets is where the original diamond is thought to have been located. In 2003 a civic improvement organization called the "Hoboken Industry and Business Association" renovated the intersection and placed concrete and bronze "base" monuments in the sidewalk corners at the intersection. [1] A bronze plaque denoting the connection to early baseball was placed in the median strip of 11th Street between first and second bases. [1] The restaurant and music club Maxwell's front door is adjacent to where third base was located.

An 1841 map showing location and layout Hamilton monument map.jpg
An 1841 map showing location and layout

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 O'Reilly, Charles (May 24, 2005). "Birthplace of Baseball Monument, Hoboken, N.J." Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved 2009-07-04.
  2. ↑ Angell, Roger; Anthony Hiss (July 5, 1976). "Bicentennial Beat". The New Yorker. Talk of the Town. Retrieved 2011-02-14.
  3. ↑ Accorsi, Ernie (February 28, 2008). "Book Review: Andrew Schiff's "The Father of Baseball" Hits a Home Run" . Retrieved 2012-03-17.
  4. ↑ Irving, John B. (1859). The international cricket match   Wikisource-logo.svg . New York: Vinten. p.  xi   [scan]   Wikisource-logo.svg .
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