Madison Avenue Grounds

Last updated

Madison Avenue Grounds (later known as Monumental Park) was a baseball ground located in Baltimore, Maryland. It was built by the Waverly Club as the first enclosed ballpark in Baltimore, with spectator seating and player clubhouses, and was the site of the first intercity game played in Baltimore (Brooklyn Excelsiors 51, Baltimore Excelsiors 6) on September 22, 1860; [1] it was the site of a 47-7 defeat of the local Marylands by the undefeated Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869, [2] and it was used by the Washington Olympics for a professional game in 1871. [3] On August 16, 1870, it was the site of an intercity game between black teams. [4] It would continue to be used for games staged by black teams, in a time before there were any organized Negro leagues.

The ballpark was home to the Maryland club of the National Association, who had a brief fling as a professional club in 1873. Retrosheet differs from Michael Benson's Baseball Parks of North America, in that Benson states the Maryland club lasted until July 11 at the ballpark. Retrosheet indicates that only one game was played there and that the July 11 game was at Newington Park, the home of the relatively established Lord Baltimore club. The Maryland club, in fact, played only six games as professionals: the first two against Washington, and the last four against their intra-city rivals. [5]

A short-lived Baltimore entry in the Eastern League in 1884 played their games at what by then was known as Monumental Park.

The park was also the home to Baltimore's Union Association entry in 1884, again for only one game as the club owners decided the grounds were unfit for use. Although Retrosheet indicates all home games were at the club's Belair Lot field, [6] there was, in fact, one Union Association game at the grounds. The Baltimore Sun for August 25, 1884, reported that the Unions were shifting to "Monumental Park, at Madison and Boundary Avenues", because "Union Park, Belair Lot, was deemed rather too small." However, in the game report in the paper the next day, it said that "the ground was found to be uneven, and the Union clubs will play no more there, going back to Union Park, Belair Lot" for their remaining home games.

James H. Bready, in his book The Home Team, a history of the Baltimore baseball clubs, places the location (based on old maps) on a block roughly bounded by what is now Madison Avenue (southwest); Boundary Avenue (later North Avenue) (north); Linden Avenue (northeast); and an old, unnamed road (southeast). The location has also been given as "the end of Eutaw Street near the corner of Madison Avenue and North Avenue." Eutaw cuts through what was once the ballpark property and, coincidentally, passes by the right field side of Oriole Park at Camden Yards a couple of miles to the south.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oriole Park at Camden Yards</span> Baseball stadium in Baltimore, Maryland

Oriole Park at Camden Yards, commonly known as Camden Yards, is a baseball stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles, and the first of the "retro" major league ballparks constructed during the 1990s and early 2000s. It was completed in 1992 to replace Memorial Stadium. The stadium is in downtown Baltimore, a few blocks west of the Inner Harbor in the Camden Yards Sports Complex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Side Park</span> Former baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois (USA)

South Side Park was the name used for three different baseball parks that formerly stood in Chicago, Illinois, at different times, and whose sites were all just a few blocks away from each other.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Park (Baltimore)</span> Former baseball ground in Baltimore, Maryland, US

Union Park is a former baseball ground located in Baltimore, Maryland. The ground was home to the Baltimore Orioles during their first "glory years" in the 1890s. It was located in an area bounded by East 25th Street to the north, 24th Street to the south, Hunter Street to the west and Barclay Street to the east. Guilford Avenue teed into 24th from the south, behind right-center field.

Union Grounds was a baseball park located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. The grounds opened in 1862, its inaugural match being played on May 15. It was the first baseball park enclosed entirely by a fence, thereby allowing proprietor William Cammeyer or his tenant to charge admission. This permitted paying customers to watch the games from benches in a stand while non-paying spectators could only watch from embankments outside the grounds.

Newington Park was a baseball grounds in Baltimore, Maryland. It was home to the Lord Baltimore baseball club of the National Association from 1872 to 1874 and to the Baltimore Orioles of the American Association for the 1882 season. There are apparently no surviving photographs of the grounds. Its location was on Pennsylvania Avenue "extended," on the northwest side of West Baltimore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ridgewood Park (baseball ground)</span> Baseball ground in Queens, New York, US

Ridgewood Park, also known as Wallace's Ridgewood Park or the Wallace Grounds, and frequently confused with Grauer's Ridgewood Park, was a baseball ground in Ridgewood, Queens, New York. Both Wallace's and Grauer's are shown in Belcher Hyde's Map of Newtown in 1915. The baseball field was part of a larger entertainment area bounded Wyckoff Avenue, Covert Street, Halsey Street, and Irving Avenue. The baseball field was southwest of the Long Island Rail Road's Montauk Branch tracks. Eldert Street, although depicted on the map as running through the baseball grounds, was not cut through southwest of the railroad tracks and the road remains interrupted there today. Originally the park was in Queens County, before its incorporation into New York City in 1899. This facilitated Sunday baseball playing, including the charging of admission, beyond the reach of Sabbath enforcers from the then-city of Brooklyn.

Union Base-Ball Grounds was a baseball park located in Chicago. The park was "very visibly downtown", its small block bounded on the west by Michigan Avenue, on the north by Randolph Street, and on the east by railroad tracks and the lake shore, which was then much closer than it is today. The site is now part of Millennium Park.

The Wilmington Quicksteps were an 1884 late-season replacement baseball team in the Union Association. They finished with a 2–16 record and were managed by Joe Simmons. The team played their home games in Union Street Park in Wilmington, Delaware.

The Chicago Browns/Pittsburgh Stogies were a short-lived professional baseball team in the Union Association of 1884. They were to battle the Chicago White Stockings, of the National League, for the Chicago baseball market; however, the Browns lost that battle to the White Stockings. After a Baltimore mattress maker gave the club a degree of financial support, the Browns then tried to entice the White Stockings' Larry Corcoran, one of the 1880s top pitchers, to join the team. However, the club did not succeed in doing so. The Chicago Browns disbanded after a game on August 22, 1884. The club then moved to Pittsburgh and became the Stogies, which disbanded after a game played on September 18, 1884. Many of the club's players then joined the Baltimore Monumentals. Altogether, they won 41 games, lost 50, and tied 2, finishing sixth in the twelve-team league.

The Baltimore Monumentals were an American baseball team in the short-lived Union Association. In their lone season of 1884, they finished fourth in the UA with a 58–47 record.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbia Park (Altoona)</span> Baseball field in Altoona, Pennsylvania, US

Columbia Park was a baseball field in Altoona, Pennsylvania, which was the home field for the Altoona Mountain Citys of the Union Association (UA) during the league's only season in 1884.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belair Lot</span>

Belair Lot is a former baseball ground located in Baltimore, Maryland. The ground was home to the Baltimore Unions of the Union Association in 1884, with the exception of one game at the Madison Avenue Grounds. The ballpark was also called Union Park or Union Association Grounds.

The Baltimore Marylands were a short-lived professional baseball team that existed in the 1873 National Association season. Their existence consisted of a six games from April 14 to July 11, and finished with a win–loss record of 0–6. In those six games, two of which were against the Washington Blue Legs and four versus the Baltimore Canaries, the team allowed 152 runs to score, while scoring 26 for themselves. The team was managed by Bill Smith, who also played in the outfield and at catcher. They played their one and only home game on April 14, at Madison Avenue Grounds, and officially folded after the July 11, 1873 game.

The Lincoln Park Grounds, commonly known as Union Grounds, was a former baseball park, part of Lincoln Park, located in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Grounds were built for the Union Cricket Club in 1856; they "were used for cricket and baseball in the summer and were flooded for skating in the winter." In 1865 Harry Wright became the professional of the Cincinnati Cricket Club, which also used the grounds, and the next year Aaron Champion, president of the new Cincinnati Base Ball Club, "approached Wright to propose a limited use of the grounds if the CBBC and Live Oaks club would put in $2000 each to revamp the Lincoln Park Grounds."

A year later the [Red Stockings] leased the grounds of the Union Cricket Club for its home tilts. Most club members referred to the field as the Union Grounds, although it also was known as the Union Cricket Club Grounds and the Lincoln Park Grounds, given the fact that the eight-acre, fenced grounds were located in a small park behind Lincoln Park in Cincinnati, near the Union Terminal. It was a twenty-minute ride by streetcar to the Union Grounds from the heart of downtown Cincinnati. Aaron Champion ordered that approximately $10,000 worth of improvements be made to the home grounds for the 1867 season, including grading and sodding of the field and building of a new clubhouse and stands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oriole Park</span> Baseball stadium in Baltimore, Maryland

Oriole Park was the name of multiple baseball parks in Baltimore, Maryland, all built within a few blocks of each other.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oriole Park (V)</span>

Oriole Park (V) is the name used by baseball historians to designate the longest-lasting of several former major league and minor league baseball parks in Baltimore, Maryland, each one named Oriole Park.

References

  1. ↑ James H. Bready, Baseball in Baltimore (JHU Press, 1998: ISBN   0-8018-5833-X), pp. 6-7.
  2. ↑ Bready, Baseball in Baltimore, p. 9.
  3. ↑ Retrosheet: Madison Avenue Grounds in Baltimore, MD.
  4. ↑ Bready, Baseball in Baltimore, p. 36.
  5. ↑ Retrosheet: Madison Avenue Grounds in Baltimore, MD.
  6. ↑ 1884 Retrosheet: Log For Belair Lot in Baltimore, MD.

39°18′35″N76°38′00″W / 39.309804°N 76.633287°W / 39.309804; -76.633287

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.