Race/Related: The Rebirth of a Negro League Stadium

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October 12, 2019

By Randal C. Archibold

Weeds and trees have uprooted the bleachers, asphalt and trash cover the infield and graffiti mars its surfaces.

Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, N.J., has seen better days.

But, oh, what days they were. In the 1930s and '40s, it played host to the giants of baseball's Negro leagues, including Larry Doby, who followed Jackie Robinson in breaking the major leagues' color barrier in 1947. In 1933, the stadium's first complete baseball season, Hinchliffe hosted the Negro leagues' equivalent of the World Series.

It was the home of the New York Black Yankees and the New York Cubans.

And then it wasn't. Desegregation collapsed the Negro leagues, and eventually the stadium fell into neglect and decay.

Now, Paterson has agreed to move forward with a plan to revitalize the stadium, including a shrine to its Negro league heyday.

It's a ninth-inning rally the likes of which would have made Doby proud.

This week, we wrote about Hinchliffe, one of the few Negro league stadiums surviving in America. You can read the story, written by Kelly Whiteside, here.

Can the Rebirth of a Negro League Stadium Revive a Distressed City?

Paterson, N.J., plans to restore Hinchliffe Stadium, which once played host to Negro leagues baseball, and turn it into a museum and a multisport facility.

Photo illustration by The New York Times

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