Baseball is the national pastime for a reason, and each pocket of the country has its own unique connection to the sport. To celebrate the 250th anniversary of this nation, we’re taking you on a summer road trip across the U.S. with Baseball in America, presented by Booking.com, 50 stories from all 50 states. Follow along here.
If you find yourself on one of the corners where Washington and 11th Streets meet in Hoboken, N.J., know that you are standing right where one of the most important events in baseball history took place 180 years ago.
At first glance, it may not seem like you are in the shadow of baseball history as you gaze around the cozy neighborhood a few blocks inland from the Hudson River. But once you get to that intersection, all you have to do is look down. Each of the four street corners has a marked square of pavement: H, 1, 2 and 3.
The markers signify roughly where each base was planted on June 19, 1846, for what is widely recognized as the first baseball game ever recorded.
Those streets used to be a part of Elysian Fields, and that grassy plot is where the New York Knickerbockers and the New York Nine met for a momentous four-inning game. This once-wooded section of Elysian Fields was cleared and landscaped in 1831, specifically for baseball games. And while amateur ballclubs from New Jersey and New York faced off at the popular location in the 1830s, the sport wasn’t seriously regarded at the time.
That had changed by 1846, when the Knickerbockers and the New York Nine faced off in a game where the batter-by-batter action was documented in a similar way to what we see today. The game's scorecard introduced standardized innings and statistical record keeping, key components that separated it from the informal games that came before it.
The matchup also featured some of the basic components of current big league games. We have Alexander Cartwright to thank for that. Widely regarded as the father of modern baseball, Cartwright was a founding member of the Knickerbockers and served as the umpire for the 1846 game. He led the effort to devise the first rules and regulations for a new sport that resembled cricket but which he called “base ball,” and his efforts landed him in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938.
Those regulations included the use of four bases in a diamond-shaped field and foul lines. However, pitchers threw the ball underhand, fielders did not wear gloves, and they could record an out by either catching a fly ball or hitting a runner with a thrown ball.
The game itself wasn’t very captivating; the New Yorks blew out the Knickerbockers over those four innings, 23-1. But that doesn’t lessen the impact of what took place.
Today, the last remnant of the original Elysian Fields sits a couple of blocks to the east in what is now called Elysian Park. But its legacy as the staging ground for one of history’s most important baseball games persists through a nearby plaque and those four markers at Washington and 11th.