Hoboken, NJ - Where Baseball and Cake Boss Began 8/28/12

Hey baseball fans!

Here's a blog about where organized baseball all started:

Back in 1845, the Knickerbockerclub of New York City began to use Elysian Fields in Hoboken to play baseball, because the land in New York City wasn't suitable for a ballpark. On June 19 (which is the birthday of the Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig), 1846, the Knickerbockers (led by Alexander Cartwright) played the New York Nine on Elysian Field in the first organized baseball game between two clubs. The Nine defeated the Knickerbockers 23-1, which is a pretty lopsided score for a baseball game. By the 1850s, several New York City-based teams began to use this field as their home field. On August 3, 1865, a crowd of 20,000 fans gathered to see the rain-shortened five inning championship game between the Mutual Club of New York and the Atlantic Club of Brooklyn. The Atlantics won 13-12 and the game was painted in a famous Currier and Ives print in 1866 called "The American National Game of Base Ball" (see below). (Wow!! Why were so many baseball games at Elysian Fields so high scoring?)

With the construction of two ballparks in Brooklyn, the popularity of Elysian Fields began to fade away. In 1868, the Mutual Club hosted its home games at the Union Grounds in Brooklyn. In 1880, the founders of the New York Metropolitans and New York Giants moved to a ballpark in Manhattan that became known as the Polo Grounds. (The Polo Grounds were home to the New York Giants fans until 1957, when they moved to San Francisco. From 1962-1963, it was home to the New York Mets.) The last recorded professional baseball game at Elysian Fields occurred in 1873. The large parkland area was eventually used for housing. Either way, the land that Elysian Fields used to sit on will be a landmark for all baseball fans as the first ever organized baseball game.

For those of you interested, Carlo's Bakery was founded only in 1910 in Hoboken, NJ by Carlo Guastaferro. In 1964, it was bought by Buddy Valastro Sr., but the shop is currently owned by his son, Buddy Valastro Jr. Since the first episode of Cake Boss in April 2009, a show that documents the bakery, Carlo's Bakery has become one of the most popular bakeries in the United States.

Hope you enjoyed today's blog.  I have some big stuff coming, so keep on reading!!