! BASEBALL I I I NEWS CLIPPINGS I I I I I I I I I I I I I BASE-BALL I FIRST SAME PLAYED IN ELYSIAN FIELDS. I HDBOKEN, N. JT JUNE ^9f }R4$.* I DERIVED FROM GREEKS. I Baseball had its antecedents In a,ball throw- Ing game In ancient Greece where a statue was ereoted to Aristonious for his proficiency in the game. The English , I were the first to invent a ball game in which runs were scored and the winner decided by the larger number of runs. Cricket might have been the national sport in the United States if Gen, Abner Doubleday had not Invented the game of I baseball. In spite of the above statement it is*said that I Cartwright was the Johnny Appleseed of baseball, During the Winter of 1845-1846 he drew up the first known set of rules, as we know baseball today. On June 19, 1846, at I Hoboken, he staged (and played in) a game between the Knicker- bockers and the New Y-ork team. It was the first. nine-inning game. It was the first game with organized sides of nine men each. It was the first game to have a box score. It was the I first time that baseball was played on a square with 90-feet between bases. Cartwright did all those things. I In 1842 the Knickerbocker Baseball Club was the first of its kind to organize in New Xbrk, For three years, the Knickerbockers played among themselves, but by 1845 they I had developed a club team and were ready to meet all comers. In 1846 the New %jrk Club was organized and the same year they challenged the Knickerbockers to a championship game to I be played in Hoboken. Thus the first World Series ©ame to Hbboken. teams met in Hoboken, and, much to the. surprise of the small I crowd of enthusiasts, the newly organized team defeated the Knickerbockers £3 to 1 in four Innings. Under the rules of the game at that time, the team first getting Si runs was I declared winner. This rivalry opened the way for more teams, and th© sport thrived. Within a decade, Hoboken beoam© known as the I national seat of baseball. The best teams of the country played in or visited Hoboken, 1 I I -2- BASE-BALL I FIRST GAME PLAYED IN SLYBIAN FIELDS. I HQBOKEN. N. J. JUNE 1^j * I DESCRIBES EARLY GAME. I National AaBOelation,of Baseball Qlube waa formed In 1858, "but, according to aport writers, gambling and drink demoralized the league until the existence of I baseball was threatened. New life waa given the game when the National League was organized In 1875 and later the 1 American League* The early history of "baseball finds its back- ground in old Hoboken. ?he town's popularity as a play- I ground was increased by the advent of baseball. It brought throngs across the river. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper of August, 1865, reports a game in Hoboken between the Atlantic Club of Brooklyn and the "Mutual Olub of New Xork. The article reports. "Never was there such a vast assemblage of people I gathered together on any similar occasion, and mver has there been known In the annala of our national sports such a closely oontested game of baseball." the article told how the teams, gathered in Hoboken and the.grounds were cleared I of spectators as well as possible so that the game could get under way. I "After some splendid"play," the report continues, "which lasted for an hour and a half, a heavy rainstorm put a stop to the sport. Five innings had been played and th© I score stood Atlantic3 13, Mutuals 12.M Besides teams from surrounding cities and towns playing in Hoboken, th© favored grounds along the Hudson River I were used also by college teams, and for many years the oharapionship games of the Eastern colleges were played in Hoboken, In Hoboken's baseball history, one of the outstand- ing names is that if Gil Hatfield, Gil was a Hoboken boy who I made good in the big leagues. Old residents relate how Gil grew up on the Hoboken diamonds and at on© time threw a base- ball farther than any other player of his day. It is said I that Hatfield10 record stood unbroken for many years. I I i FIRST QAMT5 PLAYED TN ELYBIAW FIELDS I IfOBOKBN, N. Jr JUNE %9f I DESCRIBES EARLY GAJvIS. I § Encroaching Industry has taken from Hoboken the baseball fields whore many of the famous players of former days got their start, but encroaching industry oan never take from the oity the memories and stories of Hoboken when m it was the baseball capital of the w>rld. I I I I I I I I I S'la n SiT£ OFI- by Bob Considine. "You may think that Abner Doubleday invented baseball, and may point to the hamlet of Cooperstown, N. Y. and to the Baseball Hall of Fame for proof. But out here (Honolulu) in this verdant neck of the U*S, there is no doubt that the true in- ventor was Alexander joy HOBOKEN GETS MARKER FOR SITE OF Cartwrlght. During the winter FIRST BASEBALL MATCH of 1845-46 he drew up the The campaign of the Hoboken Chamber of first known set of rules as Commerce to secure recognition for the Mile- we know baseball to-day. The Square City from the New Jersey Historic first nine-inning game was Sites Commission charged with erecting suit- staged and played between able markers at points worthy of being com- Knickerbockers and New York memorated, has finally succeeded. team and played in the Although the great American game was "in- Fields." vented" in 1839 at Cooperstown, N. Y., it was not until seven years later that a match game between two organized teams was played, this taking place on the Elysian Fields, later "the Savannah dock grounds," and now the site of the hew General Foods plant. A large metal marker, similar to those already erected in many other places of his- toric interest throughout the State, was set in place yesterday. The inscription leads: ''On June 19, 1846, the first match game of baseball was played here on the Elysian Fields between the Knickerbockers and the .New Yorkers. It is generally conceded that until this time the game was not seriously re- garded." This is the first marker to be erected in Hoboken by the commission. But it shouldn't remain the only one. MATCH FOR NATIONAL TITLE—This is a scene of a game at Elysian Fields, Hoboken, back in the last century, as the Atlantic Club, of Brooklyn, beat the Mutual Club, of New York, 13 to 12, for the baseball championship of the United States. The crowd, which was described in the account of the game as "the most vast assemblage of people ever gathered together on any similar occasion in the annals of our national sports," overflowed the field. Close scrutiny of the print reveals many fans looking over the fence while others watch with interest from roofs of dwellings in the neighborhood. The American National Game of Baseball "It is said that the Dutch had game. He provided for a diamond game ended when one team 50 cents was charged each of the various games which might.be the shaped field with nine players on reached 21 runs. , 1,500 spectators. It was at ap- antecedents'of our present base- each side. '•-.•"'.' "No other games are recorded for proximately the. same, time that ball. They played with a'hair- "It was not however, until 1845 for five years by the end of which the Cincinnati Red Stockings es- stuffed ball in a game in which that the first team was organized period the Knickers had adopted tablished the precedent of paying there were batters and throwers. —the Knickerbockers of New York. as uniforms blue trousers, white their players. * " . •;'..• ; There was no: limit to. the num- Thex were unable to find an op- shirts and straw hats. They were, "This particular print shows the ber of players ' on the. team and posing team until 1846 when on challenged by the Washington grand match for the championship a base runner had to be hit with June 19 they -played the New Club of Yorkville in 1851 and won at the Elysian Fields, Hobokeni a thrown ball to be out. In 1939 Yorks in Hoboken. The stake was the game 21 to 11 in eight innings. New Jersey. It is the earliest base- Abrier Doubleday of Cooperstown, a dinner for all and was won by '•The first record of charged ad- ball print known and said by some New York, drew up the rules the New Yorks by 23 to 1 in the missions was in 1869, when, for to be the picture of the ffrst game" which are nearest to our present fourth inning. At this date the the purpose of preparing a field played (1846)." (Reprint) : I THE CRICKET MATCH OP THE NEW YORK AND ST. GEORGE'S CLUB. TUB city of Vew York possesses but t*o cricket organizations, the New York I Club ani the St. Goorge's Clu\ the former mwUy young men, bora oa the soil, and the latter, as.their nime purports, are priacipilly English. Their I drat game of thesaason was pUyed on the 8ih and 9tU of this manth, at the I I I t I THE WICKET—CRICKET .MATCH.