 Images
of Baseball in Broome County
Baseball
historians Marvin Cohen and Mike McCann
on OFF THE PAGE
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Originally
broadcast September 14 at 1 & 7pm on WSKG Radio
People have been playing baseball
and coming to ball games  in Broome County for
almost as long as the sport has existed. Legend
alone has it that the first baseball diamond was
laid out in Cooperstown, NY, where the National
Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum seriously
and carefully preserves the factual history of
the game. But sixty miles to the west in the
Triple Cities you could follow the evolution of
baseball, from the gloveless “dead
ball” games to today when a radar gun clocks
the speed of a pitch.
A new book, “Baseball
in Broome County” by Marvin Cohen and
Michael McCann, covers over 130 years of action
on the field and support from the fans. It is
part of the Arcadia Press Images of Baseball
series and contains more than 180 photos and
extensive instructive captions.
Four professional or semi-pro
teams have called Broome County home:
Crickets 1871-1885
Bingos 1885-1919
Triplets
1923-1968
Mets
1992-present
Many of the game’s top
players were on those teams, including Wee Willie
Keeler (“hit ‘em where they
ain’t”), Clete Boyer, Whitey Ford,
Thurman Munson, Rey Ordonez and Jason Phillips.
During the years when the Triplets were the
Eastern League farm club of the New York Yankees,
the Bronx Bombers made an annual appearance at
Johnson Field. Local residents still recall
seeing Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio.
The history of baseball in Broome
is as much a history of the community. During the
time when the Bingos were owned by George F.
Johnson of the Endicott-Johnson
Shoe Company, players might be employed
off-season making shoes. The Triple Cities
Triplets team was originally owned by three
American Legion posts -- a situation unique in
all of organized baseball. A photo in
“Baseball in Broome County” shows
several members of the Triplets gathered around
the dinner table of a woman pinch-hitting for
their own moms on Mother’s Day.
Professional baseball was missing
from Broome County for two decades, but was
welcomed back in 1992 when the New York Mets Eastern
League farm club was moved from Williamsport
to Binghamton.
Much of “Baseball in Broome
County” documents the current B-Mets era. It
took concerted political action and an extra $6
million from the Mets organization, and the new
team got off to a great start, winning the league
championship in its first year. A string of
end-season losses tarnished a good record in
2004, but the B-Mets again made the playoffs and
added more pages to the local baseball history
books and more potential occupants of NYSEG
Stadium’s Binghamton Baseball Shrine.
Marvin Cohen – author of a
much-appreciated study of the rivalry between the
old New
York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers – and
Michael McCann will join Bill Jaker on OFF THE
PAGE to chat with fans and readers about baseball
in Broome County. To join in the discussion call
during the live 1:00 PM broadcast to
1-888/359-9754, post a question here or email
directly to WSKG@STNY.RR.COM.
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to the program now
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