“The American National Game of Baseball – Grand Match for the Championship” depicts a baseball game at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, NJ. Lithograph by Currier & Ives, 1866.
by Jackie Edwards
On June 19th, 1846, the first baseball game was played at the Elysian Fields located in New Jersey’s Hoboken within the New York metropolitan area — a legendary event that earned the city the title of “the birthplace of baseball”. On this piece of recreational meadowland, the New York Nine beat Alexander Cartwright’s Knickerbocker Base Ball Club with a score of 23-1. Cartwright — the father of baseball — developed the rules of the game as we know them today, and they came into full effect during this first official match. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. New York’s other historic fields, including Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds, also similarly witnessed the game’s greatest early moments.
The Elysian Fields: the birthplace of baseball
John Stevens by an unidentified artist, c. 1830, oil on canvas, from the National Portrait Gallery.
In the mid-nineteenth century, New York’s blue laws made it illegal to play baseball on a Sunday. This was bad news for baseball clubs as Sunday was the most convenient day to play. On top of this, real estate development in Manhattan increasingly pushed clubs out of the city, and left them looking for a new place to play. Enter Col. John Stephens, III: an American lawyer and engineer who, in 1804, developed his 700-acre estate into a beautiful, English-style garden called the Elysian Fields. The Elysian Fields ran from present-day 8th Street in Hoboken to the banks of the Hoboken river, and baseball soon became its biggest draw.
Stevens invited all kinds of sports teams, including baseball teams, to play here. For example, the Knickerbockers first came to the Elysian Fields in 1846 after initially playing in Manhattan’s Murray Hill. Before their match with the New York Nine, the Knickerbockers played around fifteen intrasquad games in preparation. Although the Knickerbockers took a hard loss (23-1 in four innings), the teams remained on good terms. In fact, many of the New York Nine’s players initially belonged to the Knickerbockers — they simply preferred not to travel to Hoboken for practice, and so formed a splinter team.
Ebbets Field: where Jackie Robinson broke the color line
Located in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium built in 1912, and became the backdrop for Jackie Robinson’s historic breaking of the color barrier in 1947. At Ebbets Field, Robinson, an African American player and member of the Brooklyn Dodgers, played his debut game against the Boston Braves, which put an end to baseball’s previous fifty years of segregation. Robinson went 0-for-3 at the plate, but eventually scored an impressive run that helped the team secure a 5-3 victory over the Boston Braves. The groundbreaking game drew a sizable crowd of 26,623 spectators, of whom over 14,000 were Black.
Opening Day at Ebbetts Field, NY, April 5, 1913.
The park, which was home to the Brooklyn Dodgers between 1913 to 1957, also witnessed numerous other historic moments, including the Dodgers’ National League championship wins in 1916 and 1920. Then, in 1938, Johnny Vander Meer threw a no-hitter against the Dodgers. He remains the only player in MLB history to score back-to-back no-hitters in two consecutive games. Sadly, this historic park was demolished in 1960, but a plaque remains to commemorate its place in baseball history.
Polo Grounds: the Shot Heard ‘Round The World
Built in upper Manhattan in 1889, the Polo Grounds hosted the single most famous homerun in baseball history: Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round The World”. Here, on October 3rd, 1951, the Brooklyn Dodgers played against the New York Giants in the first sporting event to be televised live nationwide. Playing for the Giants, Thomson scored a dramatic three-run homer on his second pitch that brought the team back from a 4-2 defeat. In its heyday, up until around 1922, when the Yankee Stadium stole the limelight, the Polo Grounds were also home to multiple MLB teams, including the New York Giant, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets. Games were played at the stadium on a daily basis, and, as it was located near the hill, Coogan’s Bluff, fans used to watch games from there without having to purchase a ticket.
October 8, 1912, Game 1 of the 1912 World Series at the Polo Grounds, Manhattan, NY.
Some of the greatest moments that shaped the history of American baseball occurred in historic fields across the New York area. Although none of them remain today in their original forms, New York’s earliest baseball fields will always be remembered as the iconic backdrops to legendary baseball moments.
©Jackie Edwards, for Legends of America, submitted December 2024.
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About the Author – Jackie Edwards was a mining engineer before becoming a semi-retired freelance writer.
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