“Play ball!” and join the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame on June 4 for the opening of the new exhibit, “Base Ball at the Orange County Driving Park: Celebrating Baseball and Harness Racing in Goshen, NY,” followed by an entertaining and informative presentation by baseball historian Robert Mayer.
Enjoy the Harness Racing Museum’s new exhibit, presented in partnership with the Goshen Public Library and Historical Society at 1:00 pm and light refreshments. This unique exhibition explores how Goshen, symbolic of the nation as a whole, embraced two simultaneously developing sports – harness racing and baseball. At 2:00 p.m. join Robert Mayer, baseball historian and collector of vintage baseball memorabilia, for an informative address on the region’s baseball history, including Black Barnstorming teams that played in the area between 1866 and 1908.
Connected to baseball for more than 50 years as an amateur player and avid collector, Robert Mayer began researching the roots of baseball in Orange, Putnam, Dutchess, Ulster and Westchester counties in 2005. Bob has owned and managed SPRING FEVER, a vintage baseball memorabilia company for 25 years and published articles in Baseball – A Journal of the Early Game, Glove Collector’s Newsletter, Orange County Historical Society Journal, Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Nineteenth Century Newsletters, SABR’s National Pastime, and the Westchester Historian.
“Batter up!” Save the date — Saturday, June 11, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. — for a double-header baseball exhibition between the Mountain Athletic Club and the Kingston Guard. Members of the Vintage Base Ball Association, the two teams will play at Salesian Park, behind the Goshen Public Library, by the game’s vintage 1863 and 1886 rules. More details on the games will be available soon.
This project is supported in part with federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated to the New York State Library by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and provided by a competitive sub-award grant by the Southeastern NY Library Resource Council. The United States Trotting Association is a proud sponsor of this project.
(Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame)