Brooklyn Bushwicks

From SABR Encyclopedia

The Brooklyn Bushwicks were a semi-pro team that played in Queens, New York beginning in 1913.

The Bushwicks were organized by Max Rosner along with a silent partner, Nat Strong. Nat Strong had controlling interest in the Brooklyn Royal Giants, a black team.

Max Rosner was a successful businessman who, in 1911, had organized his first semi-pro team, The Cypress Hills. One of his players on the 1912 team was Joe Judge. He later became a well known major leaguer from 1915 to 1934, primarily with the Washington Senators.

In 1914, Max took over as manager of the Bushwicks playing games at Wallace Field. The Bushwicks established themselves as the premier team in the area, playing Sunday afternoons against the Brooklyn Royal Giants as well as the many famous black teams, including the Lincoln Giants.

In 1916 Charlie Ebbets, president of the Brooklyn National League team, was short of cash to finance his team's spring training in Georgia. He approached Rosner and Strong for a loan, which they agreed to after Ebbets said his team would play the Bushwicks two exhibition games that spring.

On April 2nd, 1916, they played the first game with 3,000 fans in attendance. The Bushwicks won 4-3. In the second game on April 16th, the Brooklyn team had all their regulars, including Zack Wheat, Casey Stengel, with Rube Marquard pitching. 6,000 fans showed up to watch Brooklyn win 22-2.

On September 19, 1917 the grandstand at Wallace field caught fire and burned to the ground. Rosner then made a lease arrangement for the Bushwicks to play their games on Sunday afternoons at Dexter Park starting in the spring of 1918. This began along relationship between the Bushwicks and the community of Woodhaven in Queens, New York, where Dexter Park was located.

In the 1920's some of the teams that visited Dexter Park to play the Bushwicks were the Bacharach Giants, Cuban Stars and House of David.

Rosner was a good judge of baseball talent. Starting in the 1920's, his team was a blend of ex-major leaguers and local semi-pro players. In 1922 Jeff Tesreau joined the Bushwicks, having previously pitched for the New York Giants for seven years. He was the first of many former major leaguers to play for the Bushwicks. In July of 1924, Jack Warhop a former New York Yankee from 1908-1915 was hired as player-manager. The following year Leon Cadore joined the Bushwicks, he pitched in the National League from 1915-1924. Columbus Day 1927, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig came to Dexter Park with an all-star team to play the Bushwicks with an overflow crowd of 24,000 fans in attendance. This was the first of three appearances of all-stars Ruth and Gehrig.

During the 1930's the Bushwicks became more and more popular and began playing the famous black teams, including the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays. Also, it was common for professional players to join semi-pro teams after their major league season had ended. In 1933, Carl Hubbell, Hal Schumacher and Blondy Ryan of the NY Giants, after winning the World Series, played the Bushwicks with a semi-pro team called the Bay Parkways. 22,000 fans came out to see this game. In 1934, after the World Series, the Dean Brothers joined the Bushwicks and played against the New York Black Yankees.

The Second World War had an impact on the popularity of the Bushwicks, as it did with the major leagues. Many of the once famous black teams began to fade out of existence by 1946 with only a few left such as the Homestead Grays, Kansas City Monarchs, Baltimore Elite Giants. These famous teams only lasted several more years and by 1950 had also become extinct. The Bushwicks still attracted a fair amount of fans each Sunday.

In early 1940's, Pete Gray the one-armed outfielder played two seasons with the Bushwicks. Pete then made it to the majors in 1945 with the St. Louis Browns. In 1943, Lefty Gomez, in the twilight of his career, signed with the Bushwicks in August and finished the season. He also played with the Bushwicks in the 1944 season.

Some of the other Bushwicks that played in the majors are:

• Overton Tremper - played with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1927 and 1928
• Eppie Barnes - played briefly with the Pittsbugh Pirates in 1923 and 1924
• Ed Boland - played in 1934 and 1935 with Philadelphia Phillies and Washington 1944
• Charlie Hargreaves - played 8 years in the majors with Brooklyn and Pittsburg
• Bots Nekola - made it twice to the majors, in 1929 with NY Yankees and in 1933 with Detroit Tigers
• Al Cuccinello - played briefly in 1935 with the NY Giants
• Tony Cuccinello - with 15 years in the majors primarily with Brooklyn and Boston
• Tony DePhillips - Cincinnati Reds in 1943
• Jim Peterson - 1931 and 1933 with Phila. A's and Brooklyn in 1937
• Mike Meola - Played briefly 1933 Boston Red Sox and 1936 St.Louis Browns
• Sam Nahem - played for Dodgers in 1938, and 1941 with Cardinals, Phillies in 1942,1948
• Casey Stengel - 14 years in the majors primarily with Brooklyn
• Eddie Yost - prior to signing with Washington in 1944
• George Earnshaw - Pitched 9 years in the majors 1928-1936
• John Enzmann - 4 years in the majors Brooklyn 1914, Cleveland 1918-19, Phila.A's 1920
• Dazzy Vance - was released by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1935 and signed with Bushwicks
• Wally Holborow - played briefly with Washington in 1944 and 1945
• Gene Hermanski - played with the Brooklyn Dodgers
• Tommy Brown - played with the Brooklyn Dodgers

Both Hermanski and Brown played occasionally for the Bushwicks in the mid 1940's while on leave from the military. Since they were both under contract with the Dodgers they had to use aliases. Hermanski used the alias of George or Gene Walsh.

The Bushwicks continued playing their usual Sunday double headers, but by the late 1940's television began broadcasting major league games and severely cut into the attendance. By 1950, the famous black teams were gone along with semi-pro teams. In 1950 the Bushwicks lost money and eventually were disbanded. In 1957 Dexter Park was torn down for a housing development. The only thing that remains is a plaque that commemorates the Bushwicks and Dexter Park.

In 2009, Thomas Barthel published his 320 page book on the team titled Baseball's Peerless Semipros: The Brooklyn Bushwicks of Dexter Park.

[edit] Sources

• . Times Newsweekly, 1991-09-19.