JERSEY CITY’S HORACE STONEHAM BELONGS IN BASEBALL HALL OF FAME by Ed Lucas

In a tranquil, sunny corner of Jersey City’s Holy Name Cemetery, on West Side Avenue, you’ll find a memorial with the name “Stoneham.” Not many visitors stop by these days, but for local baseball fans, it’s a name that should ring out through the decades.
Charles Stoneham, who grew up in Newark and served as an altar boy at several Hudson County parishes, owned the New York Giants baseball club from 1919 until his death in 1936. He is buried in his family’s Jersey City plot. Under Stoneham’s watch, the NY Giants became a premiere team in the National League, winning the World Series in 1921, 1922 and 1933.
After Charles Stoneham’s death, his son, Horace, inherited the club. At just 32 years old in 1937, Horace became the youngest owner of a Major League baseball team.
One of the first things he did was to establish a successful minor league Giants franchise in Jersey City, at Roosevelt Stadium, keeping the family’s connections to Hudson County strong. This also ensured generations of Giants fans in Jersey City, many of whom still root for them.
Both versions of the Giants were winners under Horace, who worked in several capacities, including as de facto general manager. He kept them at or near the top of the league.
Unfortunately, attendance at the Polo Grounds and in Jersey City was declining by the 1950s. Fans just stopped showing up, even though both clubs actually won titles in the 40’s and 50’s.
For other owners, this wouldn’t be a major crisis, but for Stoneham it was a disaster. The Giants were his primary business. They were the sole income stream for his family. Fewer tickets sold meant a dip in personal fortunes.
In 1951, the Jersey City club relocated to Ottawa, Canada. The city of New York wasn’t offering assistance in updating the Polo Grounds, either, so Stoneham began looking for a new home for the big club.
Realizing the potential for western expansion in baseball, Horace first explored a move to Minnesota. When that fell through, he was courted by the mayor of San Francisco. He signed the deal to move the Giants to California in 1957, even before the Dodgers signed theirs.

Local fans were brokenhearted. Stoneham, who had homes in Jersey City and in New York, was downcast but hopeful. He knew that the wounds would run deep, but that he would be helping the league by bringing professional teams to the West Coast. He was a true pioneer. Without Stoneham, it might have taken a lot longer for baseball to recognize the value of markets in California, Texas, Washington, Colorado and Arizona.
Horace Stoneham wasn’t just a groundbreaker in that regard. He belongs in the Hall of Fame for his enthusiastic embrace of integration in baseball. Branch Rickey of the Dodgers gets the credit for breaking the color barrier, but Horace Stoneham had the Giants already moving in that direction long before Jackie Robinson’s debut.
Hall of Famer Monte Irvin, who grew up in Orange and played in Jersey City, came close to becoming the first African-American to play Major League Baseball, but was forced by contract issues to wait until 1949 before being signed by the Giants. Shortly after that, Stoneham signed the greatest of all Giants, Willie Mays. Combined with Hank Thompson in the 50’s, Irvin and Mays made up the very first all African-American outfield in the majors. They led the Giants to four pennants and one World Series victory in New York.
Stoneham also realized the potential of Latino players. He was the first to hire bilingual scouts to seek out talent in countries like Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. The result was the signing of Hall of Famers like Orlando Cepeda and Juan Marichal, paving the way for the influx of ballplayers from that region that continues today.
The very first Japanese player to play in the Major Leagues, pitcher Masanori Murakami, was a Stoneham product, too. The Giants brought him over in 1964, proving that the game was truly international.
In 1976, after 40 years of ownership, Stoneham sold the San Francisco Giants, just a few months after entertaining thoughts of moving them back to the Meadowlands to play in a proposed park adjacent to the football Giants Stadium.
Horace Stoneham, who passed away in 1990, was a quiet, humble and charitable man from New Jersey who gave his life to baseball and did everything he could to bring his beloved game to greater heights. He has all the credentials to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
I hope that someday we get to see the name Stoneham etched on a wall in Cooperstown, as it is in that quiet spot in Holy Name Cemetery.