Photo courtesy Jeff Richman
Henry Chadwick is the father of "base ball," not baseball.

June 19, 1846: On this day in sports , the New York Mutuals defeated the Knickerbockers 23-1 in 4 innings in the first baseball game ever played in New Jersey's Elysian Fields. The father of the game, Alexander Cartwright, served as referee (a position later renamed as “umpire”). Jim Creighton, baseball’s first superstar, inventor of the curveball and Montgomery Burns’ starting right fielder, was just 5 years old. The first World Series was still 56 years away. Henry Chadwick, a young cricket reporter from England, chanced upon the game and quickly fell in love with it. Over the years Chadwick developed the system of statistics for analyzing the game, including batting average and ERA. Baseball may be America’s past time, but its father is a Brit.

By 1862, Union Grounds, the first enclosed park with paid admission, opened in Brooklyn and Elysian Fields' days were numbered. The last game at Elysian Fields was recorded in 1873. The National League was only three years away.

For those who still pine for a simpler time when our baseball heroes rode velocipedes to games, waxed their mustaches and baseball gloves with whale oil and used "wagon tongue" baseball bats, the Hoboken Historical Museum will feature a recreation of the game this afternoon in New Jersey. Be sure to wear your finest horsehair opera hat.