MORE ON THE PIONEER BASE BALL CLUB

The more common metal for the token is "white metal." Here is an example:

Hampden Park in Springfield is easy to locate online. Here are a few images of it:

From the website "Lost New England" we learn: The park was used as a neutral site for college football. One can see the baseball field as well! This game involved ivy league teams.

It was here that in 1869, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, baseball's first openly professional team, played against the Springfield Mutuals. Cincinnati won 80-5 en route to a perfect 65-0 season. A few years later, several National Association (the precursor to modern Major League Baseball) games were played here – first the short-lived Middletown Mansfields for a game in 1872, and later, for one game each year in 1873 and 1875, the Boston Red Stockings, now known as the Atlanta Braves, played at Hampden Park.

Later on, the park became home to a series of minor league baseball teams, with the location of the field changing several times. Most recently, it was located in the northwest corner of the lot, closest to the North End Bridge. Built in 1922 as the creatively-named League Park, it was renovated and renamed Pynchon Park in 1940. This field was home to minor league affiliates for the Cubs and later for the Giants; from 1950 through 1953, they were the Springfield Cubs, Chicago's AAA affiliate. The last season of Springfield minor league baseball was in 1965, when the AA Springfield Giants played here; the next year, the team moved, and the park burned down.

Here's the park around 2014:

Isn't history wonderful!

To read the complete article, see:
Hampden Park, Springfield, Mass (https://lostnewengland.com/2014/03/hampden-park-springfield-mass/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
STACK'S BOWERS: JOHN ADAMS BOLEN MEDALS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n22a16.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web