Major League Baseball

Good news for an old ballpark

Published Dec. 12, 2014 5:34 p.m. ET

foxsports

I don't know how you feel about our National Parks. But I love 'em, think we need more of 'em.

For whatever reasons, our Congress hasn't done much for the National Park Service in recent years. But that somehow changed Friday, when the U.S. Senate approved a National Defense Authorization Act -- and I'm not saying this is a good way to run the government -- that included a significant expansion of lands and sites controlled by the Park Service.

Why am I telling you? Because the win for the Park Service is also a win for fans of old ballparks: included in the expansion is the addition of Paterson, New Jersey's ancient Hinchliffe Stadium to Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park.

Why should we care? Hinchliffe was built in the early 1930s with wonderful Art Deco flourishes -- which is plenty for me, but I'm funny that way -- and is now one of the few remaining stadiums that once hosted Negro League games. According to the National Park Service, "Hinchliffe Stadium served as the home field for the New York Black Yankees between 1933 and 1937, and then again from 1939 to 1945. Hinchliffe is possibly the sole surving regular home field for a Negro League baseball team in the Mid-Atlantic region." The Cuban Stars also played home games in Hinchliffe for a stretch.

Absent this legislation, Hinchliffe wasn't about to get torn down or anything. But the Park Service really does a tremendous job with sites like this, at least in my experience. I hate how sausage is made. Hell, I don't even eat sausage. But at least some good's come of this sausage.