Spring Speaker Event - Old-Time Baseball

Spring Speaker Event - Old-Time Baseball
Tuesday, June 7, 2016, 7:15 pm.
Township of Ocean Board of Education Offices (Old Oakhurst School), Auditorium, 163 Monmouth Road, Oakhurst, NJ 07755

June speaker combines a love of history and baseball

Russ McIver, vintage baseball player, will “take us out to the ball game,” 7:15, June 7, at the Oakhurst School (Board of Education) auditorium. Russ will “pitch” his love for old-time baseball, the kind played in the late 1800s. No masks. no gloves, and a different set of rules.

Vintage baseball has a loyal following across the country and New Jersey is no exception. Fitting, since the first competitive game was played right here at Elysian Fields in Hoboken in 1846.
Russ played in high school and never lost his love for the game. His vintage club, the Monmouth Furnace, is based in Allaire State Park. The team travels throughout the region playing exhibition games with other clubs whose mission is to keep baseball alive as it was played during its formative years in the 19th century.

Russ is a history buff as well as a baseball aficionado. If you think Abner Doubleday is the father of baseball, think again. Russ will give us the real skinny on the myths, legends, and heroes of his beloved sport.

It’s spring. It’s baseball season. How can you resist learning more about a sport that bears the label “Made in the USA”?

Join us in the bleachers at 7:15, Tuesday, June 7, when Russ steps up to home plate in period uniform to share stories of 19th century baseball as it was played here in Monmouth County.

The speaker event is open to the public, free of charge. (Bring your non-perishable donations for the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties.)

New Exhibit - Presidents at the Monmouth County Shore

New Exhibit - Presidents at the Monmouth County Shore
Sunday June 26, 2016, 1:00pm to 4:00 pm
Richmond Gallery, Eden Woolley House, 703 Deal Road, Ocean, NJ 07712

One hundred years ago this September, 25,000 people gathered on the grounds of what is today Monmouth University—then a private estate called Shadow Lawn—to see Woodrow Wilson officially accept the nomination of the Democratic Party for a second Presidential run. Wilson was following a popular tradition among American Presidents to retreat to our slice of the Jersey Shore to escape the heat and hubbub of Washington. On Sunday, June 26, a major exhibit opens at the Eden Woolley House. It tells the wide-ranging stories of eleven Presidents who spent time here, at the Monmouth County shore.

Mrs. Lincoln got the ball rolling

There’s a case to be made that it all started with Mary Todd Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln travelled to Long Branch in the summer of 1861, probably at the invitation of William Newell, family friend and then supervisor of the life-saving services in New Jersey. Long Branch was already a popular resort, and national coverage of the First Lady’s visit added immeasurably to its fame and appeal.

That fame and appeal continued to draw the wealthy and influential—including the seven presidents who vacationed in the resort city, starting with Ulysses Grant.

Seven Presidents in Long Branch

In 1870, a group of wealthy businessmen who summered in the Elberon section of Long Branch presented President Grant with an oceanfront cottage where he vacationed for the next 15 years. When Grant died in 1885, city officials feared the resort might lose its cachet. They needn’t have worried. Six of the next ten Presidents--Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison, McKinley, and Wilson--chose to spend time in Long Branch.

The most tragic of these Presidential visits was James Garfield’s last. Mrs. Garfield was in Long Branch recuperating from illness, when, on July 2, 1881, Garfield was shot by an assassin in the Washington train station. He was taken to the White House, where his condition worsened. In hope the sea air might help, Garfield was taken to Elberon. Famously, locals worked through the night to build the spur to carry the President’s railroad car from Elberon Station to the ocean side cottage. He died there 12 days later, September 19.

Beyond Long Branch

Long Branch was not the only Monmouth County destination of Presidents. Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and Richard Nixon visited our area, if only, in some cases, for a political rally. And then, of course, there’s Warren Harding, whose local connection was a bit less public and a good deal more scandalous. Join us June 26 to learn the full story. The new exhibit is on view through June 2017.

Deal Test Site/Joe Palaia Park