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Search results for: baseball
Swinging for the Fences: Connecticut’s Black Baseball Greats
…for Connecticut integrated teams) as well as they know Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle. Segregated Baseball in Connecticut In Connecticut, African Americans played organized baseball as early as 1868, when…
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Spring Training Baseball Comes to Wallingford
…while still respecting the wishes of Major League Baseball to limit baseball travel. Reverend St. John felt like he did his part as well, helping the game of professional baseball…
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Danbury Baseball History Covers All the Bases
…“Baseball…the very symbol, the outward and visible expression of the drive, and push, and rush and struggle of the raging, tearing, booming nineteenth century.” African American baseball team, Danbury, Connecticut,…
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Semi-Pro Baseball in Sharon – Who Knew?
…that from the 1930s until about the early 1970s, Sharon fielded a team in the semi-pro Interstate Baseball League (IBL). Playing out of Adams Field just north of town, the…
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A Real Connecticut Yankee’s Baseball Career Cut Short
Danny Hoffman’s story reminds sports fans of the fragile nature of a professional athlete’s career. An up-and-coming baseball star discovered playing on the lots of Collinsville, Connecticut, Hoffman played in…
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Re-creating Our National Pastime
By Gregg Mangan In an era before the Internet, television, or even live radio broadcasts, fans of professional baseball watched re-creations of games around the country thanks to the Baseball…
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Walt Dropo Stars Throughout New England
By Andy Piascik Few Major League Baseball players have had rookie seasons as good as Walt Dropo’s. Playing in 1950 for the Boston Red Sox (his favorite team growing up)…
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Wiffle Throws a Curve in American Leisure Time
…played backyard baseball. Light and easy to throw, the Wiffle Ball allowed American children to play baseball without worrying about the risk of injury or destruction of property. The popularity…
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Diamonds of the Past: Hartford’s Lost Ball Parks
By Mike Messina for Your Public Media There’s something magical when you first step out from the tunnel of a baseball stadium on a summer night. The field, as a…
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Muzzy Field: A Historic Ball Park Survives in a Post-Industrial City
…baseball games, Muzzy Field accommodated soccer teams, rodeos, and football teams, including the Green Bay Packers who played there in 1943. The Field also hosted women’s baseball teams as well…
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Yung Wing, the Chinese Educational Mission, and Transnational Connecticut
…on behalf of the Chinese American and immigrant communities there, among his many other accomplishments. The “Orientals,” baseball club of the Chinese Education Mission boys, taken in front of the…
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Andrus Field 1831–1911: Athletics and the Environment
by Sage Marshall In the center of Wesleyan University’s campus lies a rectangle of deep green grass named Andrus Field. Today, it contains a football field, a baseball diamond, and…
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NFL Great, Andy Robustelli of Stamford
…depicting Arnold College, Milford, Connecticut At Arnold, Robustelli displayed his athletic prowess in both baseball and football. He was a good enough baseball player that upon his graduation in 1951,…
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Jimmy Piersall’s Public Struggle with Mental Illness
…major league baseball player, his battles became public in ways that were undoubtedly quite painful for him–all the more since popular attitudes about mental illness were very different 65 years…
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The “Father of American Football” is Born – Today in History: April 7
On April 7, 1859, Walter Chauncey Camp, the “Father of American football,” was born in New Britain, Connecticut. Camp was a gifted athlete who participated in baseball, crew, swimming, tennis,…
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Bridgeport’s Catastrophic 1911 Train Wreck
…this instance, all of the passengers on the Pullmans were members of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. The Cardinals played in Philadelphia on Monday afternoon and were en route…
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The Connecticut History Sports Challenge
…filed Feb. 18, 1954 This park once boasted bowling greens, tennis courts, and 15 baseball diamonds. Today, you can still catch a vintage baseball game here in…
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A Unique Island Attraction in Bridgeport
…Tilyou’s purchase, the island played host to an exhibition baseball game in which a fan carelessly dropped a lighted match into some dry grass under the stadium’s bleachers. The resulting…
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Sports and Recreation
…important respites from long work hours and city living as far back as the mid-1800s. As the state’s manufacturing base expanded, large factories organized baseball and basketball leagues that engaged…
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Labor Day at the Turn of the 20th Century
…15 baseball diamonds to watch or play the nation’s pastime, listen to speeches, and compete for prizes in athletic events. The latter included everything from a “50-yard dash for fat…
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Reading, Writing, and the Great Outdoors: Frederick Gunn’s School Transforms Victorian-era Education
…sport as an integral part of the curriculum. He participated enthusiastically in student games of baseball, football, and shinny (a forerunner of hockey). Fishing and hunting, too, were as much…
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Beacon Falls Rubber Shoe Company Puts Best Foot Forward
…by the Beacon Falls Centennial Committee, the people of the village also came together through such activities as the community band and a baseball team. For outdoor recreation, they turned…
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The Park Movement in Hartford
…for additional parkland dedicated to a wide variety of uses. These were supplemented by purchases or property exchanges by the city government. Golf courses, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, children’s gardens,…
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Flying High with Early Dirigible
…Harper’s Weekly, July 15, 1878 Quinlan’s flight on June 12, 1878, when he sailed from a Hartford baseball field near the Colt Armory out over the armory itself, the Connecticut…
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The Socially Dynamic Drumlin of Foss Hill
…Vertical Files Collection, Andrus Field folder But spectators did not just come to Foss for the music. Students and visitors alike sat on the hill to watch baseball games, Frisbee…
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Florence Griswold’s Home: A Story of Perseverance and Community
…and played baseball, had picnics, and went for rides in a wagon or rowboat. They filled their evenings with parlor entertainments—music-making, theatricals, cards, critiquing the day’s art-making, and a made-up…
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The Interstate Highway System Comes to Hartford
…worked hard to restore Hartford’s connection to the river, and recent plans for development in the north end (focused on a new minor league baseball stadium) provide the potential to…
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Miss Porter’s School in Farmington
…visitors). Sundays mainly involved church services and Porter’s Bible class. The school also encouraged participation in exercises (e.g., skating and rowing) and sports (e.g., tennis and baseball). The various classes…
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Stevan Dohanos Captures Connecticut Life
…friend to finish mowing the lawn. Showing that boy in his baseball uniform amplifies the urgency. Stevan Dohanos, “Star Pitcher,” July 20, 1946, cover of The Saturday Evening Post. Stevan…
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Disaster on the Sound: The Collision of the Steamboats Stonington and Narragansett
…patch the leaks with canvas and boards and with the ship’s pumps going full blast, the vessel was in no immediate danger of sinking. The Race to Escape Baseball card…
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Banner Lodge: A Vacation Playground for an Excluded Population
…began developing the property as a resort, eventually expanding it to over four hundred acres. By 1933, they were able to offer swimming, boating, dancing, tennis, baseball, hot dog roasts,…
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Looking Back: the First “Aero Planes”
…evening a crowd of about 2,000 people gathered to see his flying machine and to watch the Saybrook and Deep River baseball game. When the time came, he took his…
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Columbia
…separated from Lebanon in 1804. As the century unfolded lumber, grist, and paper mills sprung up along the town’s rivers as did factories making hats, baseball bats, and other goods….
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