For many South Orange baseball fans, spring isn’t truly here until the Yankees’ first home opener. (This year, that’s Thursday, April 16, against Cleveland. Tickets go on sale on Tuesday.) It’s hard to believe that a sport so rooted in tradition was something of a long shot less than a century ago. While the first stars, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Cy Young and Walter Johnson were becoming household names in the 1910s and early 1920s, thanks to radio broadcasts of the games, the sport still suffered from rumors of gambling and graft. When the Chicago White Sox lost the 1919 World Series to the underdog Cincinnati Reds, the game’s reputation was seriously tarnished. 

Still, the sport’s appeal and talented players attracted fans. The New York Yankees – to which many South Orangers still claim allegiance – emerged as the team to beat in the '20s. Babe Ruth made a name for himself as a hitter; in 1920 alone, he hit 54 home runs. He anchored a lineup so strong that it was called “Murderers' Row.” Joining Ruth on “the row” were centerfielder Earle Combs (batting average .356), shortstop Mark Koenig (.285), first baseman Lou Gehrig (.373), left fielder Bob Meusel (.337) and second baseman Tony Lazzeri (.309).

And on Oct. 27, 1929, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played baseball at South Orange’s own Cameron Field.

Until the mid-'20s, Cameron Field, one of South Orange’s busiest baseball fields today, was a private club owned by the South Orange Field Club. The Club first housed itself in Edwin Mead’s barn, which burned down in 1895. By the time the new clubhouse -- what we now call The Baird -- was built, club members looked across Mead Street to watch golfers playing on the nine-hole course. The ninth hole was located where the baseball diamond is now, and golfers teed off near home plate.

Times changed, however, and golf gave way to baseball, as both watching and playing the sport became the rage in South Orange. The town fielded a number of semi-professional teams. One such team hosted New Brunswick in a game on Oct. 27, 1929. The South Orange team, with help from Ruth and Gehrig, played for a crowd of some 12,000, including about two dozen Major Leaguers. Spectators paid one dollar each to sit in the grandstand and watch South Orange best New Brunswick, 7-6.  Legend holds that Ruth homered into the right-field stands, while Gehrig hit two home runs.  Memorably, one shot by the “Iron Horse" cleared the wall and the railroad tracks to hit a house on Vose Avenue. Local rumor has it that the ball – one of nearly 200 used in that game – broke a window.

The following week brought the historic Black Monday and Black Tuesday, which ushered the nation into the Great Depression. Those years saw a rise in baseball’s popularity as the nation sought cheap diversion from daily problems. Night baseball and the Hall of Fame were founded in the 1930s, and 1931 saw baseball attendance records shattered. South Orange, closely linked to Manhattan’s fortunes, felt the economic pinch. Like the nation, the residents turned to baseball for exercise and entertainment. Cameron Field never looked back to its golf course past; it remains a busy baseball field today. Teams field, pitchers practice that curve, and batters—I suspect—aim for that window on Vose.

SOURCES:

• "Ruth and Gehrig Thrill Throngs as Villagers End Season," South Orange Record. Nov. 1, 1929. p. 4.
• "South Or Club, Ruth and Gehrig in Lineup, Spanks Pete Burnett and New Brunswick Club", South Orange Record. Nov. 1, 1929. p. 4.
• Welk, Naoma. Images of America: South Orange. Arcadia, 2002.