Inventing Brooklyn: Coney Island, Immigration and Baseball Timeline

1845 Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York formedbby a “party of gentelmen,” who eventually play at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken

1849 Knickerbockers adopt uniforms

1850 Gotham Empire, Putnam, Atlantics (Jamaica and Brooklyn), Harlem, etc. teams organize from 1850-57

1856 First hotel opens at Coney Island geared toward upper middle class guests

1857 Central Park begun

First convention of baseball players convenes in NYC.

1858 Second convention sees formation of the National Association of Base Ball Players. Birth of the “New York Game” with an established rulebook (derived from the Knickerbokers) that, among other things, eliminated throwing the ball at a runner. Birth of “hardball”

The New York Game:

Diamond replaces square

Bags replace stakes

Ball is pitched, not thrown

Nine innings replaces a set number of runs

Nine players per side

Runner must be tagged, not hit by ball

A fly catch disposes of the batter

Distance between bases is 45 feet

1861 Civil War, 1861-1865

Civil War spreads baseball from regiment to regiment and from North to South

1866 Baseball clubs, such as the Monticello Club of Virginia, form across the South

1846 Railroad access across Brooklyn to Coney Island

1870s Construction of Brighton Beach Hotel, Public Bathing Pavilion, Iron Pier.

1862 Brighton Racetrack built in Coney Island

Sixth Avenue “El” opens

1883 Brooklyn Bridge opened

1911 First roller coaster constructed in Coney Island, fashioned after the elevated railroad.

80,000 daily visitors to Coney Island

1892 Ellis Island opens (closes in 1897 after a fire and re-opens 1900)

1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago

1851 New amusement impresarios construct Coney Island’s large amusement parks:

Captain Boynton’s Sea Lion Park (renamed Luna Park in 1903)

George Tilyou’s Steeplechase Park (1897)

1898 Consolidation of Greater New York

1907 peak immigration- over 1.5 million

12-14 million from 1892-1931

1912 Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire

Brooklyn Dodgers president Charles Ebbets announces he has purchased grounds to build a new concrete-and-steel stadium to seat 30,000.

1917 Immigration Restriction

1920s Subway and elevated reach Coney Island

Boardwalk constructed

1921 National Origins Act: 3% of 1910 census

1924 Quota Act: m2% of 1890 census. Italians reduced from 45,000 to 4000

1931 last immigrants thru Ellis

1941 The New York Yankees top the Brooklyn Dodgers 3-1 to take the WS in 5 games.

Jackie Robinson plays his first game for the Dodgers

1947 The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-2 to win the WS in 7 games

1957 The Brooklyn Dodgers lose their final game before moving west, a 2-1 loss to Philadelphia.