Schenectady County Historical Society Newsletter Volume 52 Number 9-10 September - October 2009 32 Washington Avenue, Schenectady, New York 12305 (518) 374-0263 Web site: http://www.schist.org • Editor email: [email protected] FAX: (518) 688-2825 Librarian email: [email protected] • Curator email: [email protected] BASEBALL IN SCHENECTADY by Frank Keetz “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.” —Jacques Barzun Between 1895 and 1957 Schenectady was home to three professional baseball teams and it was truly a time for “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.” It was also a time of explosive local population growth, a harsh economic depression, and two horrific World Wars. In 1895 and again from 1899 to 1904 there was a local team, the Dorps, designated a Class “B” team in the New York State League. In 1946, there were the Schenectady Blue Jays which stayed until 1957. The team was a farm team for the Philadelphia Phillies. Between 1904 and 1946 there was also a talented professional Negro team, the Mohawk Colored Giants of Schenectady. Baseball was a popular local sport from 1895 to 1957. It was truly the “national pastime.” There was no NBA. The NFL was a fledgling operation. Baseball stars were national idols with names such as Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lefty Grove, Grover Alexander, Dizzy Dean, Joe Di Maggio, Lou Gehrig, Bob Feller, and Hank Greenberg. The players on these local teams were sturdy, mostly young, “imported” players, i.e. non-residents. They came from Kansas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida. The ones from New York mostly came from the Bronx, Buffalo, and Syracuse. They were paid, full-time players, which meant playing seven days or nights a week. It was a summer life of long bus rides, mid- sized towns, woolen uniforms, crowded sweaty locker rooms, small hotel rooms, nagging injuries, fan adulation, camaraderie, constant pressure, modest paychecks, and disappointments - but always there were dreams. The dream of the players, whether white or black, was to reach the major leagues. A few (about 5%) did. (continued on pages 4 and 5) 1 BOARD OF TRUSTEES Letter from the President EDWIN D. RE ILLY , JR. PRESIDENT So it has begun. The sign is in place at the Mabee Farm close to Main Street. Merr ITT GL E NNON A few spadefuls of earth were turned to plant the seed of an idea. (See page 8.) VICE PRESIDENT A machine will come to dig a big hole. The seed will be nourished with loving care MA R Y Tre ANO R and pecuniary attention, and out of the hole will arise the George E. Franchere TREASURER WILLIA M DI M P E LF E LD ASSISTANT TREASURER CYNTHIA SE A C O R D SECRETARY ST E PHANI E ALB ers ANN AR ON S ON RUTH Berger ON MA R IANN E BLAN C HA R D PAUL BO R I se NKO EA R L BR INK M AN Educational Center. Under its future paved parking area, another 18 holes will be NAN C Y JOHN se N CU rr AN drilled, each about 133 yards deep, not long. (We’re not talking golf here.) The JI M EI G NO R pipes in the holes will be filled with water, spiked with a little glycol to keep their PHILLIP FAL C ON er uppermost cubic feet from freezing in the winter, capped off, connected with energy FR ANK GIL M O re efficient equipment in the building to form a geothermal system, and paved over CA R OLINA LAZZA R I with something better than asphalt to accommodate cars and school buses. And CA R OL LE WI S MA R Y LI E B ers that system will keep us warm in winter and cool in summer. KI M MAB ee On the roof will be slate, and the rains will come to help us keep it clean. And EL S I E MADDAU S the portion of the roof that faces south will be covered with photovoltaic cells that BR IAN Merr IA M caress sunlight and turn it into electricity to light the Center, drive its computers, VAU G HN LOUI se Nev IN power its audio-visual equipment, and elevate its elevator. And on a sunny future HA rr Y ST eve N day when the law allows, the electric meters will run backward as current is fed ROB er T SULLI V AN FR ANK TAO rm INA back to National Grid. On the main floor will be a gift shop. On the floor below will be a large lecture STAFF room. So after just one more winter of discontent when the Farm lays fallow, children KATH er IN E CHAN S KY will sit in a large circle surrounding a historian and learn how American and Native- LIBRARIAN American children of the 18th century did without cell phones, iPods, laptops, KATH R YN WE LL er CURATOR X-boxes, and instant messaging in an era when “text” was a noun and not a verb. And the Keepers of the Circle will look upon them and see that this is good. PAT BA rr OT MABEE FAR M SITE MANAGER JE NNIF er HAN S ON Ed Off ICE MANAGER NE W S L etter ED I tors : At a book signing at the Open Door Bookstore ANN AR ON S ON RUTH Berger ON in Schenectady on July 17, Trustees Frank Taormina and Ed Reilly co-signed 30 copies HOURS of the new Arcadia book Niskayuna. The book is also available at the usual member’s MUSEUM discount in our own gift shops, and can be & LIBRARY ordered from the Society’s online gift shop MONDAY -FR IDAY 9-5 SATU R DAY 10-2 at schist.org. The Society had previously published the Arcadia books Rotterdam MABEE FARM and Glenville, and others have published OP E N Duanesburg / Princetown, and Schenectady. MAY 9 TH R OU G H SE PT em B er 26 Bill Buell’s Historic Schenectady County will TU es -SAT 10A M -4P M be published in late September. photo by Ron Ratchford 2 MUSEUM – lectures and exhibits Their efforts have greatly improved the condition of our collections and have added immeasurably to our knowledge of them. Educational Programming – Professional research We now have over 400 pages of inventory sheets has shown that documenting more than 3,000 artifacts. Many of these seven years old now documented artifacts did not have a history or a is the ideal age “story” to go with them until the volunteers began their to reach out work. Sometimes it was easy to locate a gift receipt or to children for catalogue entry but more often than not it was a treasure generating a hunt for a needle in a haystack, or a wild goose chase! We life - long are indeed grateful to these loyal volunteers and we now interest in say a special, “Thank you!” to Mona Graves, Ann-Marie what museums Rutkowski, Phillip Falconer, Allan Shartrand, and, David have to offer Waytho. to challenge intellectual curiosity. It is less a matter of hands-on experience as it Gary Van Slyke – History in Song – Traditional, is the actual artifacts that intrigue a child’s imagination. It Original and Period Music of the Mohawk Valley could be a dollhouse, a model train, an eighteenth century performed on guitar, banjo, harmonica, pennywhistle, and weapon, a weird piece of nineteenth century pottery. mandolin. All these items can grab a child’s attention and create a Saturday – October 10 1:30p.m. Refreshments lifelong memory. These are the aids that help an interested 2:00 p.m. Program child become a museum advocate as an adult. School field Gary Van Slyke combines trips appear to be incredibly important not only to learning his love of local history with in the short-term, but also for the long-term sustainability his musical talents to create of museums and to create a strong pipeline of museum a program filled with songs professionals. and stories heard around the The Museum offers theme-based educational programs county in earlier centuries. for children at many age levels who are in schools or at He sets each piece he plays camps, who are home-schooled, or children on vacation. in historical context and Please give us a call to schedule an opportunity for your takes the audience on a children or grandchildren to explore local history, or to musical journey through schedule a group program. Help ensure that Schenectady’s time as he tells stories of history is preserved for the next generation! early days in the Mohawk Valley through song and storytelling. Exhibit on gravestones: This will open in October and is based on three gravestones found in the museum’s collection. Emphasized will be examples of gravestone art, Stockade Walkabout meaning of motifs, and the significance of stone shapes Take this rare chance to see inside the beautiful and and styles. Gravestones are worth preserving for what they historic homes in Schenectady’s one-of-a-kind Stockade can reveal in genealogy as well as the culture that gave rise District! See enclosed brochure for more information. to them. Prices: Until September 15th $15.00, Ode to our volunteers September 16th-25th-$20.00, 26th-$25.00 Volunteers are indispensable to the Schenectady County Date: Saturday, September 26, 2009 Historical Society. For the past three years, at least three Time: 10:00am - 4:00pm mornings each week, the volunteers in the museum have Location: Schenectady’s Historic Stockade District worked to photograph, inventory, and re-house nearly all of Street: 32 Washington Ave.