Hoboken

  Hoboken is only 1 square mile that packs a powerful punch. Nestled between the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels and next to Jersey City, it boasts some of the most breathtaking views of Manhattan. From the beautiful old brownstones to the modern new age condos it offers something for everyone. The commute to Manhattan is under 15 minutes by PATH train, ferry or Port Authority bus. If you are looking for location, location, location, you've found it in Hoboken!

 Birthplace of Baseball

Early baseball game played at Elysian Fields, Hoboken (Currier & Ives lithograph).

Hoboken's claim to be the birthplace of baseball is based on game played there in 1846 between Knickerbocker Club and New York Nine at Elysian Fields in the first organized game between two clubs. A plaque and baseball diamond street pavings at 11th and Washington Streets commemorates the event.

In 1845, the Knickerbocker Club, which had been founded by Alexander Cartwright, began using Elysian Fields to play baseball due to the lack of suitable grounds on Manhattan.<ref.Nieves, Evelyn. "Our Towns;In Hoboken, Dreams of Eclipsing the Cooperstown Baseball Legend", The New York Times, April 3, 1996. Accessed October 26, 2007. " Team members included players of the St George's Cricket Club, the brothers Harry and George Wright, and Henry Chadwick, the English born journalist who coined the term 'America's Pastime'.

By the 1850s, several Manhattan-based members of the National Association of Base Ball Players were using the grounds as their home field while St George's continued to organize international matches between Canada, England and the United States at the same venue. In 1859, Jack Parr's All England Eleven of professional cricketers played the United States XXII at Hoboken, easily defeating the local competition. Sam Wright and his sons Harry and George Wright played on the defeated United States team-a loss which inadvertently encouraged local players to take up baseball. Henry Chadwick believed that baseball and not cricket should become America's pastime after the game drawing the conclusion that amateur American players did not have the leisure time required to develop cricket skills to the high technical level required of professional players. Harry and George Wright then became two of America's first professional baseball players when Aaron Champion raised funds to found the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869.

In 1865 the grounds hosted a championship match between the Mutual Club of New York and the Atlantic Club of Brooklyn that was attended by an estimated 20,000 fans and captured in the Currier & Ives lithograph "The American National Game of Base Ball".

With the construction of two significant baseball parks enclosed by fences in Brooklyn, enabling promoters there to charge admission to games, the prominence of Elysian Fields diminished. In 1868 the leading Manhattan club, Mutual, shifted its home games to the Union Grounds in Brooklyn. In 1880, the founders of the New York Metropolitans and New York Giants finally succeeded in siting a ballpark in Manhattan that became known as the Polo Grounds.