As the baseball season moves into full stride, it is a good time to remember Green-Wood’s permanent residents who played such a prominent role in the creation of the National Pastime. What other place has four men who claimed to have been “The Father of Baseball?”
I was interviewed last week by Mark Morales of the Daily News for an article about baseball at Green-Wood. Here’s the article he wrote:
And here’s the link to the article, as it appeared this past Sunday.
Last year, for the opening of the baseball season, I wrote a piece, “Opening Day: Are You Ready for Some Baseball?” on Green-Wood and baseball. In it, I discussed Henry Chadwick, dubbed “The Father of Baseball” by President Theodore Roosevelt for his invention of the baseball scoring system (6-4-3, for example) and his coining of many of the terms at the heart of the game: assist, base hit, base on balls, cut off, chin music, fungo, white wash, double play, error, goose egg, left on base, and even single. I also wrote about James Creighton (America’s first baseball hero, whose monument was visited by the Nationals of Washington and the Brooklyn Excelsiors in 1866, likely the first baseball pilgrimage ever), Charlie Ebbets (who built Ebbets Field in Brooklyn for his beloved Dodgers, and William DeWolf Hopper, who made a career out of reciting the poem he made famous, “Casey At The Bat.” You can find that blog post here.
If you would like to know more about the almost 200 baseball pioneers who repose at Green-Wood, buy Peter Nash’s fascinating book, “Baseball Legends of Green-Wood Cemetery,” here.