Harrison Park is a former baseball ground located in Harrison, New Jersey, a town adjacent to Newark, New Jersey. The ground was home to the Newark Peppers of the Federal League in 1915. The field was also known as "Peppers Park" or "Peps Park".

Location

The ballpark was located within the city limits of Harrison, a block and a half east of the

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and a block and a half west of the former Harrison Hudson and Manhattan Railroad (now PATH) station. Home plate was in the northwest corner. The ballpark was bounded by Middlesex Street ow Angelo Cifelli Drive">Angelo_Cifelli.html" ;"title="ow Angelo Cifelli">ow Angelo Cifelli Drive(north, third base); South 3rd Street (east, left field); Burlington Avenue (south, right field); and South 2nd Street (west, first base). There were (and are) railroad yards skirting the southeast corner of the property; oil tanks were visible behind the right-center field seating, adjacent to the rail yards. An Otis Elevator Company factory stood across the street to the west, near the river.

Baseball

The stadium had a seating capacity of around 21,000. It was a large ballpark, with dimensions of 375 feet in left, 450 feet to center and 375 feet in right; these dimensions, and the fact that baseball was still in its " dead ball" era, made it difficult to hit for power. Just six home runs were hit in Federal League play in Harrison, and only one left the ballpark, hit by the Peps' Emil Huhn (his only career home run). Huhn would be better known as Fred Toney's catcher in the "double no-hit" game on May 2, 1917, where both Toney and Hippo Vaughn tossed no-hitters through nine innings. A crowd of 26,032 attended the opener on April 16, 1915; subsequent crowds were in the 5,000-10,000 range.

Hal Chase Harold Homer Chase (February 13, 1883 – May 18, 1947), nicknamed "Prince Hal", was an American professional baseball first baseman and manager in Major League Baseball, widely viewed as the best fielder at his position. During his career, he pl ...

, the "Black Prince of Baseball", was involved in an altercation just outside Harrison Park after a game on Sunday, April 25, 1915. Chase, playing for the Federal League team in Buffalo, came to blows with Newark fan Billy Quinn, who had been heckling Chase. Saloon owner (and former boxer)

Patrick McGuigan Patrick McGuigan (March 17, 1868 – September 13, 1938) was an American boxing, boxer, Boxing promoter, promoter, entertainer, business man, and Celebrity, sports figure in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A member of the New J ...

joined the fray and landed a few blows before police broke up the brawl. Chase was uninjured and played the next two days in Harrison. After the Federal League disbanded at the end of the 1915 season, the ballpark was home to the

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

Newark Bears of the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ...

until 1923.

Soccer

Harrison Park also hosted several soccer matches in its day and was the home field of

West Hudson A.A. The West Hudson Athletic Association (A.A.) (also known as the West Hudson Athletic Club (A.C.) or West Hudson Athletic Club Football (A.C.F.)) was one of the dominant U.S. soccer teams of the early twentieth century. Founded in 1905, the team w ...

of the National Association Football League for their final few seasons. The

National Challenge Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in that country. The 2023 U.S. O ...

competition (now the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup) twice held its final match there, in

1918 This year is noted for the end of the First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50–100 million people worldwide. Events Below, the events ...

and again in

1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...

. On May 4, 1918, after a 2–2 draw between the Fall River Rovers and Bethlehem Steel F.C. in Fall River, the replay was held in Harrison on May 19; Bethlehem Steel won, 3–0, in front of a crowd of 10,000. Five years later, on April 1, 1923, local side Paterson F.C. played St. Louis Scullin Steel F.C. to a 2–2 draw in Harrison with 15,000 in attendance. Scullin declined a rematch, however, as much of their roster were also pro baseball players who had joined their teams; Paterson was awarded the Cup by default. The site of the ballpark is only a few blocks northwest of the present-day Red Bull Arena, home to the New York Red Bulls of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

, and was once used as a parking lot for the arena.

Fate

Harrison Park was destroyed by a fire on August 18, 1923. The site of Harrison Park is now home to a luxury apartment building.

References

Sources

*Marc Okkonen, ''The Federal League of 1914-1915: Baseball's Third Major League'', SABR, 1989.

External links

Parts of the ballpark shown on a Sanborn map
{{NewYorksportsvenues Harrison, New Jersey 1924 disestablishments in New Jersey Sports venues demolished in 1924 Defunct sports venues in New Jersey Defunct baseball venues in the United States