Capitoline Grounds

Capitoline Grounds
Location	Brooklyn, New York
Coordinates	40°40′58″N 073°56′55″W
Broke ground	1863
Built	1864
Opened	May 5, 1864
Closed	1880
Owner	Reuben S. Decker Hamilton A. Weed
Surface	Grass
Capacity	5,000
Tenants
Atlantic of Brooklyn (1864–1871) Enterprise of Brooklyn (1864) Brooklyn Atlantics (1872)

Sketch of Capitoline Grounds during a matchup of the Brooklyn Atlantics and the Cincinnati Red Stockings, 1870.

The Capitoline Grounds, also known as Capitoline Skating Lake and Base Ball Ground, was a baseball park in Brooklyn, New York from 1864 to 1880. It was built to rival nearby Union Grounds, also in Brooklyn. The park was host to several local teams in its early history, but soon hosted the Atlantic of Brooklyn of the National Association of Base Ball Players.

Many of organized baseball's earliest historical events took place at the park throughout the 1860s and early 1870s. The most notable event came on June 14, 1870, when the Atlantics ended the Cincinnati Red Stockings 84–game winning streak, with a com-from-behind 8–7 victory in the bottom of the 11th inning. This was also the place where Fred Goldsmith successfully demonstrated his curve ball, a pitch previously thought to have been only an optical illusion. Ned Cuthbert invented the slide when he was trying to avoid being caught stealing a base in an 1865 game against the Athletic of Philadelphia. The park's only season as a "Major League" park was in 1872 when the Brooklyn Atlantics joined the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. In addition to baseball, the park was flooded during the winter and used as an ice skating rink. The Grounds hosted various events and exhibitions; most notably in 1873, when Washington Donaldson attempted to fly a hot-air balloon across the Atlantic Ocean. The attempt turned tragic when the balloon crashed in Connecticut killing one of the reporters who came along for the ride.

Origin and construction

The Capitoline Grounds, named in reverence to Capitoline Hill, one of the famous Seven Hills of Rome, was first conceived in 1863 as a rival to the nearby Union Grounds, which had opened the previous year. The original plan included the draining of the Capitoline pond, used as an ice-skating area during the Winters, to make room for the park, but it failed, and wasn't until 1864 that the park was finished. In April, the proprieters, Reuben S. Decker and Hamilton A. Weed, offered the Atlantic Club of Brooklyn a free lease to play their games at their new park. The Grounds stood in Bedford, in a block bounded by Halsey Street, and Marcy, Putnam and Nostrand Avenues, an area that is now known as the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.

The Capitoline Grounds consisted of two sets of bleachers that seated that were backed by Nostrand Avenue and Halsey Street, and had an approximate capacity of 5,000 people. In right field stood a circular brick outhouse, and if any player hit a ball over the structure, they were presented with a bottle of Champagne. Along Putname Avenue, two rows of stables were established for the patrons' horses. Other amenities included a bandstand, clubhouses, and sitting rooms for the female patrons.

Baseball

1863–1868

On May 5, 1864, the first baseball game played at the Capitoline Grounds was a match between the Atlantic of Brooklyn, and a field of nine chosen players from other Brooklyn teams by Henry Chadwick. The Atlantic club defeated the field of nine by a score of 45 to 11. In the first scheduled club match, Atlantic defeated Nassau of Princeton 42–7. The Enterprise of Brooklyn used the Grounds as their home field 1864, and the Excelsior of Brooklyn later moved there in 1866. Both the Enterprise and the Excelsior clubs refused to play the Atlantics, but they did play a number of matches together, mixing their best nines and their "muffin" nines of club novices.

The Atlantics began using the Grounds as their home field in 1865, and claimed the championship by finishing an undefeated season on the sixth of November, in front of 15‚000 spectators.

1869–1871

On June 28, 1869, a championship match between the Atlantic club and the New York Mutuals was played on the Capitoline Grounds before a crowd of 10‚000. The Atlantics were ahead in the seventh before the game was stopped due to rain. Later, on September 6, the Eckford Club began a championship series for the pennant with the Atlantic club at the Capitoline Grounds. With 8‚000 spectators on hand, the Atlantics defeated the Eckfords 45–25‚ supported by Joe Start's four home runs.

The first two high profile teams to begin a season with a practice game happened at the Grounds on April 21, 1870. A crowd of 1‚200 paid $.25 apiece to watch the Atlantics and the Unions of Morrisania play, with the Atlantics winning 24–10.

The game played at the Capitoline Grounds on June 14, 1870, was described, in a telegram, as "The finest game ever played." Harry Wright's Cincinnati Red Stockings, and their 84 winning streak, visited the Atlantics in Brooklyn. The Red Stockings had been undefeated in 1869, with a record of 60–0, and had won their first 24 games of the 1870 season. Noted as the "greatest game of the year", 20,000 people were there watch the Atlantics attempt to break the Red Stockings winning streak. The game was tied 5–5 at the end of the 9th inning, when the Atlantics offered to end the game since the regulation nine innings had been played, but Wright turned down the proposal, wishing to take the game into extra innings. In the top of the 11th inning‚ the Red Stockings scored two runs, giving themselves a 7–5 lead, but the Atlantics countered with three of their own in the bottom half of the 11th, winning the game as Bob Ferguson scored on a hit by George Zettlein.

Fred Goldsmith, sometimes credited as the inventor of the curve ball, was invited by sportswriter Henry Chadwick to the Capitoline Grounds on August 16, 1870 to demonstrate the pitch. He succeeds, and Chadwick observed: "That which had up to this point been considered an optical illusion and against all rules of philosophy was now an established fact." Later, Chadwick credited Candy Cummings with the discovery of the pitch instead.

1872–1880

The only season of Major League Baseball at the Capitoline Grounds was in 1872. The Atlantics, then of the National Association, won the final major league game there 6-3 over Boston, but left for the Union Grounds in 1873. The Capitoline Grounds continued to host lesser matches, as well such events as P.T. Barnum's circus.

John B. Day, who owned the New York Metropolitans in 1880, was frustrated about having to play at the ill-kept Capitoline Grounds in Brooklyn, which was not yet a borough of New York City, and the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge had not yet been completed, so the fans of the Mets had to cross the East River by ferry to see their team play. Day's shoe shine boy suggested a site in Manhattan, a place where polo matches were being played. That piece of ground later became the future site of the Polo Grounds.

Donaldson's failed balloon flight of 1873

In September 1873, Washington Donaldson, a professional balloonist who had formerly worked for P.T. Barnum as a circus performer, along with fellow balloonist John Wise, collaborated on an attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a hot-air balloon. Sponsored by the Daily Graphic, the launch was to take place from the Capitoline Grounds, with Wise planning to use a balloon 49 meters (160 feet) tall with a two-compartment enclosed car, but decided to end his involvement with the project. Donaldson persisted, acquiring a smaller balloon with an open boat for the car.

Donaldson's Atlantic attempt, launched from the Capitoline Grounds accompanied by reporters Alfred Ford and George Lunt, ended up being forced down by a rainstorm, to land on a Connecticut farm. Donaldson and Ford successfully abandoned the runaway balloon, but Lunt stayed with the balloon for a distance until he finally jumped into a tree, sustaining serious injuries from which he died six months later. Donaldson later disappeared in 1875 when he tried to fly across Lake Michigan in a balloon, accompanied by a reporter named Newton Grimwood. The balloon never made it to the far shore; Grimwood's body washed up on shore weeks later, but Donaldson was never seen again.

References

• McGee, Bob. The Greatest Ballpark Ever. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813536006.