It Happened In NJ: The Day Baseball was Born; Potentially, Maybe…

By Peter Zablocki

Today, Maxwell Place in Hoboken is the epitome of luxurious living with condominiums and townhomes overlooking the New York skyline. Some may even remember it being the Maxwell House Coffee plant site throughout the twentieth century. Still, the location’s roots are even more profound than that. For buried well below the brick buildings is the Elysian Fields park – the site of the first-ever organized baseball game in the United States, played on June 19, 1846.

The myth that Abner Doubleday invented baseball and first played it in Cooperstown, New York, has long been discredited. It was a brainchild of a special commission established in 1903 to research the sport’s origins and based on a testimony of an older man – and friend of Abner’s – who claimed to have seen Doubleday make up the rules and play the game sixty years before. Ironically, the so-called founder never admitted to doing so. In fact, at the time of the said occurrence, Doubleday was present at West Point Academy and nowhere near Cooperstown.

It is still a major point of contention for baseball enthusiasts, considering that it makes the Baseball Hall of Fame’s location in New York State based solely on unproven hearsay. For a precise, albeit more controversial origin of America’s past, one should look no further than Hoboken, New Jersey.

In the 1840s, thousands of New Yorkers rode the ferryboats to Hoboken each Sunday. Their destination was often the famed Elysian Fields, which provided a peaceful sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of the nearby metropolis. The visitors enjoyed the five-acre paradise’s cafes, strolls through the flower-booming gardens, and cricket matches. It was also where a twenty-five-yearold New York volunteer fireman and banker, Alexander Cartwright, would spend his days playing “town ball” – an Americanized street version of the British game of rounders. More akin to dodgeball, the game would see players try not to get hit with the ball thrown directly at them to get them out on their way to secure bases (laid out in a square), all while the men on the field would fight to catch the ball off the bat (with the batter standing between home and first base) through a free-for-all melee.

In 1845, Cartwright decided to organize his buddies into a baseball club. Named the New York Knickerbockers after his firehouse and made up of other members of higher social standing, Cartwright’s club adopted new regulations to make the game more entertaining, safer, and quicker. Approved by club members on September 23, 1845, Alexander’s rules saw the square turned into a diamond, the batter staying at home, and bases placed ninety feet apart. The game now also had three outfielders, foul and safe lines, and a new position of shortstop, all while deciding on three outs instead of letting the entire lineup bat before switching. The Knickerbockers liked to play with these rules so much that they would visit Hoboken’s Elysian Fields during the week instead of just Sundays. And while they always played intrasquad games, they soon began calling themselves world champions which continued on page 10

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