Baseball has roots in America that go back to the mid-1700s. The first organized team that played under rules similar to today’s game was the New York Knickerbockers in 1845. The first competitive game was played at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, NJ, in 1846. In the 1860’s “New York” style baseball swept the nation (due to the Civil war) and baseball was touted as the “national pastime” by metro New York journalists. During this time, there were many leagues, both large and small; the larger leagues associated with cities were able to drive up revenue and hire the better players and gain media attention. In Brooklyn, the Edison Field (I) was home to the Ampere AC and then the semipro teams, the Edisons and the Voltas, in 1907.
Edison was known to support and sponsor company teams. Edison is seen in the center of the photo with one of the Edison baseball teams in the 1920s at a unknown location.
As baseball continued to gain popularity and become more organized in the United States, a common practice was to have someone throw out the opening pitch. Edison, in his later years, could be found at ball games doing just that! |