Doing History - Talking History

There is going to be a break on posts on Jane Austen even though I am plowing through "Emma" and enjoying it a great deal. The reason for the break is first this post related to last Saturday's vintage base ball game in Trenton and at least one on "Henry IV, Part I." This past Saturday, the Eureka Base Ball Club returned to the field for the first time since July to play the Flemington Neshanock at Cadwalader Park in Trenton, a match sponsored by the Trenton Historical Society.

The location was of special interest to me since the field is located on Stuyvesant Avenue in Trenton and my mother, Ann Winder was born at 743 Stuyvesant in 1916 of all years (see "The Major League Pennant Races of 1916". I only remember a few visits to the row house where my mother was born and my grandparents lived for, I think, their entire married life of almost 50 years. The area right around 743 is in pretty bad shape, but when I passed last year, the house was still in good repair. The base ball field is at the far end of Stuyvesant and interestingly there are some really nice homes bordering the park - in some cases, large almost mansion like homes.

These homes were pointed out to me by Brad Shaw, founder of both the Neshanock and the Eureka and one of the moving forces for vintage base ball in New Jersey. Invariably at every vintage game I go to there is some discussion of history, both base ball and otherwise. On Saturday it started when a few of us arrived early and someone asked who the park was named after. He may have regretted the question because it got me started on explaining that Cadawalader was a revolution war general which led someone else to ask about the battles of Trenton and Princeton. That in turn gave me an opening to talk about the little known 2nd battle of Trenton, the day before the battle of Princeton.

That conversation about history was followed by one I had with Sam Bernstein the founder of the New Jersey chapter of SABR on some base ball topics. Then while I was "tallying" (scoring) the game, I was engaged in conversation by a park ranger about vintage base ball. I may have told him more than he wanted to know, but I don't think so as he kept asking questions. I also spent some time talking with one of my teammates on the Eureka about the ins and outs of researching and writing both Civil War and base ball history.

While it doesn't always take this form, every one of these games seems to lead into some discussion of history. In a way vintage base ball is a form of "object-based" learning, that is, learning from something other than a text book or a pure lecture. Perhaps this is just another example of how different forms of learning/education create/spark an interest in history that people may not even know is there. Come to think of it, watching a vintage base ball game is in some ways a form of of working with original source material.

The other thing to say is how much I have enjoyed this year with the Eureka, we have one more game scheduled for October, but it is not clear if it will come off. Regardless I have enjoyed every minute of it. Part of it is simply getting outside which I don't do often enough. Another part of it is getting back involved in a game that I have loved since I was a child, even though I am not playing. The Eureka is a great bunch of guys and we have had a lot of fun even though there haven't been a lot of wins. I am already looking forward to next year!!