Baseball Returns to the ‘Hallowed Grounds’ of a Negro Leagues Stadium
PATERSON, N.J. — When Bob Kendrick visited Hinchliffe Stadium in 2014, all he could do was hope.
Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., had journeyed east for a ceremony that recognized Hinchliffe as a National Historic Landmark. The stadium is one of the last of the Negro leagues ballparks still standing, but it was almost impossible to tell at the time.
Back then, Hinchliffe was abandoned, as it had been since 1997, and pavement covered the area where the field had been. Overgrown vegetation, graffiti and shattered glass littered the stands where fans had watched future Hall of Famers perform. Idols like Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston and Martín Dihigo all played in Hinchliffe. So had local products like Monte Irvin and Larry Doby, who followed Jackie Robinson in the first wave of integrating the American and National Leagues on their own paths to Cooperstown.
Doby, a standout at Eastside High School in Paterson, was the A.L.’s first Black player after his successful stint with the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League. The Eagles discovered him at a Hinchliffe Stadium tryout. Two other teams, the New York Black Yankees and the New York Cubans, called the stadium home as well.
Source: The New York Times
