Cooperstown, New York has traditionally been credited as the birthplace of baseball.
Hoboken also vies for the honor; the first professional game was played there.
But some historians say the southwest corner of Madison Square Park (right, in 1860) is where America’s pastime got its mid-19th century start.
“Our modern game of baseball was born in New York City in 1845,” writes Lynn Curlee, author of Ballpark: The Story of America’s Baseball Fields.
“A 25-year-old clerk named Alexander J. Cartwright organized a group of his friends as the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club. Taking elements from older games, the young men developed a set of written rules, many of which still stand today.”
Still called the Knickerbocker rules, they establish the nine-inning game and mandate the ball should be pitched, not thrown, among other things.
Cartwright and his Knickerbockers practiced the game according to these new rules in and around the park, specifically Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street and then the Murray Hill Grounds at 34th Street and Park Avenue, making it the real birthplace of baseball in some eyes.
[Photo: The Knickerbockers and Excelsior clubs in 1858, from the NYPL Digital Collection]
Tags: Alexander Cartwright, Baseball teams of NYC, birthplace of baseball, Elysian Fields Hoboken, Excelsior Baseball club New York City, Madison Square Park baseball, New York in 1845, New York Knickerbockers baseball
Ephemeral New York 
July 23, 2012 at 5:36 am |
“Although they had practiced in Manhattan , in places like Madison Square Park, this first real game was played on a grassy lot, poetically called the Elysian Fields, in a park overlooking the Hudson River in Hoboken New Jersey” ~ Lynn Curlee, author of Ballpark: The Story of America’s Baseball Fields. http://books.google.com/books?id=G608HiVBTrkC&pg=PT9&lpg=PT9&dq=alexander+cartwright+baseball+madison+square+park&source=bl&ots=IY4MG06w-y&sig=CIkvS-8h57Ud07fFrAjycMoS-SU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Tc0MUOO1EoL20gHxoLSYBA&ved=0CEsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=alexander%20cartwright%20baseball%20madison%20square%20park&f=false
July 23, 2012 at 10:41 am |
does not matter where but that it did start; and it evolved into the wonderful, magical game it is today; the best of any of the games.
July 23, 2012 at 2:08 pm |
John Thorn, in his book “Baseball in the Garden of Eden” went into great depth about both Madison Square Park and Elysian Fields in Hoboken. He made it clear that the teams that played in Hoboken had already been playing for a few years in MSP. The teams moved across the river to play because the area around MSP was getting rapidly developed and crowded. The main distinction of the first game in Hoboken was that it was played with written rules.
July 23, 2012 at 2:38 pm |
I didn’t know Abraham Lincoln played Baseball? ;D Great photo and piece of history I never new. That’s pretty cool.
July 24, 2012 at 12:15 am |
Pitched not thrown”? What’s the diff?
July 24, 2012 at 12:54 am |
Good question. I always thought pitching was more deliberate and involved more skill than throwing. But my Little League days are long over.
July 24, 2012 at 1:05 am |
In the early days – again according to “Baseball in the Garden of Eden” – the ball was tossed lightly to the batter. The intention was to get him to hit! The strike zone and the count of balls to strikes hadn’t been codified yet.
December 16, 2012 at 12:02 pm |
[…] is also a suggestion that the southwest corner of Madison Square Park is where America’s pastime, baseball, got its mid-19th century start.game.. Whatever the history – enjoy today’s […]
December 21, 2013 at 11:55 am |
[…] is also a suggestion that the southwest corner of Madison Square Park is where America’s pastime, baseball, got its mid-19th century start.game.. Whatever the history – enjoy today’s […]
July 25, 2016 at 5:32 am |
[…] of today’s sports built their fan base in the late 19th century, like baseball, tennis, and cycling. But none of these had the city cheering nearly as hard as a forgotten […]
September 12, 2017 at 8:27 pm |
Thank you for that history. There should be a bronz homeplate at the 23rd n 5th ave entrance, denoting the park’s place in baseball history……if not a full sized statue depicting a Knickerbocker player in full uniform!!!
February 23, 2023 at 4:15 am |
[…] been public land since 1686; some credit the park’s southwest corner as the spot where modern baseball was born. Surrounded by landmark architecture and an ever-changing collection of businesses, the […]