26 AUGUST 15, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
‘There used to be a ballpark’ in Woodhaven
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
When most people think
about the connection
between Queens and
baseball, their minds turn to the
Amazin’ New York Mets, the pride
of Flushing who’ve played ball
there since Shea Stadium opened
in 1964.
But the national pasttime’s roots
in Queens run deep, with a litany of
semi-pro teams taking the diamond
across the borough over the years.
And up until Shea Stadium opened
its doors, Queens’ biggest baseball
venue was located in Woodhaven,
right near the Brooklyn/
Queens border.
Dexter Park, which was located
off the corner of 75th Street and
Jamaica Avenue, was the home of
the old Bushwicks, a semi-pro team,
and once hosted exhibition games
where the likes of none other than
Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig took the
field before thousands of fans.
Nat Strong controlled semi-pro
baseball in the New York area through
his ownership of the Brooklyn Royal
Giants, a Negro League baseball
team, and his partial ownership
of the Bushwicks and Dexter Park,
the Bay Parkways, the New York
Cuban Stars
and the New
York Black
Yankees.
Strong also
c ont rol le d
the Intercity
Baseball
Association.
Its members
were semipro
teams in
the New York
area. They
paid no dues
but were
r e q u i r e d
to book all
games with
out- of- town
teams through
Strong and
to buy from
S p a l d i n g
t h r o u g h
Strong all of
their uniforms,
the cork-center
b a s e b a l l s ,
bases and catcher gear.
In turn, out-of-town teams could
not book a game in the New York
area unless they agreed to pay
Strong 10 percent of the guarantee
The Bushwicks, a semi-pro baseball team owned by Max Rosner, called Dexter Park in Woodhaven their home during
the early part of the 20th century. All photos from Ridgewood Times archives, except where noted
or share of the gate receipts they
were to receive. A plus for the outof
town team was Nat Strong could
book them for three or four games
in the New York area and thus make
it worthwhile for a team to make the
trip to New York.
During the Depression, a number
of the big league
baseball teams
had financial
problems. By
contrast the
Bushwicks were
in good shape.
Their admission
prices were lower
than the big
league ballparks,
they played
doubleheaders
each Sunday and
many of their
games were
against good
black teams, so
the fans saw a lot
of good baseball.
In addition
to the Sunday
doubleheaders,
the Bushwicks
played a single
night game on
Wednesday and
Friday nights.
So their players
were well paid.
Playing the Giants
In the depth of the Great Depression,
the New York Giants of baseball’s
National League apparently were
having some financial problems.
Strong contacted Charles Stoneham,
the president of the Giants, and
offered him a guarantee of $1,500
to play a night game at Dexter Park
against the Bushwicks or, in lieu of
the guarantee, a share of the gate.
Stoneham agreed to the game and
selected the $1,500 guarantee.
A date of Friday, Sept. 23, 1932 was
set. As part of the deal, the Giants
had to play all of their regulars with
the exception of the pitchers, who
could be second-stringers.
When the Giants arrived at the
ballpark, there was a crowd of over
20,000, with all the 15,400 seats taken
and the overflow behind ropes in
right field and right-center field. The
Giants won the game 5-2. Overton
Tremper went 1 for 3 (a double).
On the Monday morning after
the game Tremper was visiting Nat
Strong at his office in Manhattan
when Stoneham telephoned, pleading
with Strong to give him something
extra over the guarantee because
of the good crowd. Strong was noncommittal,
but later in the day, after
conferring with Bushwicks owner
Max Rosner, he sent Stoneham an
additional $1,000.
Bill Terry had taken over as the
field manager of the New York
Giants in June 1932 from John
McGraw. The Giants were a second
division team. In 1933, Terry turned
the team around. The Giants won the
pennant and defeated the favored
Washington Senators in the World
Series, four games to one. Carl
Hubbell hurled two of the victories
Two Yankee legends, Babe Ruth and Lou
Gehrig, were among the baseball greats
who played at Woodhaven’s Dexter Park.
The above photo was taken on Columbus
Day in 1928, when 20,000 fans turned out
at Dexter Park, where Ruth and Gehrig
entertained the crowd prior to taking part
in a game against the Bushwicks.
Dexter Park in Woodhaven, as shown in the early 1930s. The ballpark had
a seating capacity of 15,400. Note the light towers for night games, which
provided the fi rst focused lighting system for baseball.
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