Monthly Tales of Our Town from the Historical Commission

Baseball Fever: West Newbury’s Golden Days on the Diamond

June’s story concerns baseball. Between the late 1860s and the 1890s, baseball mania enthralled New England, including West Newbury. Town fans had much to brag about: in the 1860s-70s the powerhouse West Newbury Rocket Club punched above their weight, trouncing teams from much larger cities and towns. They “played with most of the crack nines in New England but were never defeated.” Baseball’s apogee in West Newbury occurred on June 11, 1894 at Griffin’s Field on Main Street, now the Carr Post site. That afternoon the “old Rockets,” who had not played in 22 years, met the then-mighty West Newbury Blues. The Town turned out, the Cadet Band played, and at the game’s end, both teams followed the band in a parade to the G.A.R. Hall for an oyster stew supper to celebrate. By 1895, West Newbury no longer had a home team. Griffin Field’s new owner, who intended to use the land for Carr Post, agreed to “one good game” for the year there on September 14, 1895.

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