Ernie Lindemann

Few one-game major leaguers led a baseball life as rich as pitcher Ernie Lindemann’s. From 1903 through 1915, he was a dominant force in the New York City area’s thriving semipro scene. He routinely faced, and often succeeded against, major-league teams and elite African-American independents. Indeed, Lindemann’s sole major-league appearance, with the Boston Doves in 1907, stands as an almost comical footnote to his accomplished career.

Ernest Theodore Lindemann Jr. was born on June 10, 1883, in New York City.1 He was the fourth of six children born to Ernest and Martha (Herman) Lindemann. His father was Prussian-born, his mother American-born with German parents. Ernest Sr. was a policeman. The family moved to Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst neighborhood when Ernie was young.2 He attended Public School 101 and the Manual Training (now John Jay) High School.3

By 1900, Lindemann was pitching for the Bensonhurst Field Club.4 He began the 1901 season with Bensonhurst, then made his professional debut with the Connecticut State League’s Waterbury Rough Riders.5 Lindemann remained with Waterbury in 1902, and provided memorable efforts such as a two-hit shutout of Hartford.6 But Waterbury sank into the cellar. The teenager began pitching semipro ball on Sundays, first with a Freeport, Long Island, team, then with Brooklyn’s Brighton Athletic Club.7 On November 16 his Brighton season culminated with a 12-strikeout, 3-3 draw against pitcher Harry Howell and an “All Americans” outfit featuring several other major leaguers.8

Sunday baseball was then among the greatest controversies in American sporting life.9 Along the East Coast, defenders of an established cultural morality sought to hold off the recreational impulses of a booming urban population. Not until after World War I could New York’s three major-league teams host Sunday games without fear of police action. The area’s semipro teams, although not immune to crackdowns, attracted less attention. They mostly played in northern New Jersey cities and in Brooklyn’s less densely populated eastern stretches, where state laws were less likely to be enforced. Drawing impressive crowds, semipro teams capitalized on the blue laws.

In March 1903 Lindemann married Marie Vanderbilt who, despite a notable Gilded Age last name, was a policeman’s daughter. That October, their daughter Thelma arrived. Having police on both sides of the family enabled Ernie to better navigate the fluctuating permissibility of Sunday baseball. On at least one occasion Ernest Sr., who captained Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay station, led an arrest of his son’s Sabbath-breaking team that failed to net his offspring.10 His father reportedly favored semipro baseball for Ernie, possibly because it kept him grounded with his young family.11 As Lindemann’s Waterbury stay wound down, Doc Reisling, Hartford’s manager in 1902, signed the young pitcher for the American Association’s Toledo Mud Hens squad he was poised to take over the following year. But as the 1903 season dawned, Lindemann ignored this Organized Baseball future.

Instead, Lindemann worked at Equitable Life Insurance’s Manhattan office during the week as a clerk. On Saturdays he played with the Equitable company team, often as an outfielder. On Sundays, at St. George Cricket Grounds he pitched for the Hoboken semipro nine. Details regarding his salary are elusive. Six years later, negotiating with the New York Giants, pitcher Hooks Wiltse estimated he could earn the same $3,500 the team offered him playing semipro ball.12 Lindemann probably wasn’t earning major-league money in 1903, but his showing that season may have ensured that he soon would.

It began on April 5, when he no-hit a squad of New York State Leaguers.13 Two weeks later, in front of 12,000 fans, he took an 8-5 lead into the ninth against the New York Giants. But an error helped the Giants plate six runs, and they triumphed, 11-9.14 Lindemann faced major-league teams five more times that year: beating the Boston Beaneaters, 7-5, on May 10; losing a rematch to the Giants, 5-2, on May 17; falling to the New York Highlanders, 5-3, on July 19; four-hitting the Brooklyn Superbas for a 3-1 victory on July 26; and losing to the Giants, 6-0, in a November 1 benefit game.15

Major-league teams occasionally rested top talent and rarely offered front-line pitching in such exhibition games. In these six games, Lindemann faced Jack Cronin (twice), Wiley Piatt, Roscoe Miller, Harry Howell, and Bill Reidy. Yet, besides Lindemann, only one other Hoboken player appeared in the majors: 36-year-old Tuck Turner. Moreover, semipro defenses could be subpar: Hoboken committed 19 errors in the six matches, the major leaguers 12.

Independent African-American teams threw their best pitching at Lindemann and might be considered his truest tests. Several times he passed with honors: besting José Muñoz and the All-Cubans, 8-1, on May 24; three-hitting Rube Foster and the Cuban X-Giants in a 13-0 thrashing on June 28; and outlasting Kid Carter and the Philadelphia Giants, 6-4, in front of 6,000 on August 2.16 Both Muñoz and Carter defeated Lindemann twice on other occasions that season.17

Although Lindemann had seemingly forsaken Organized Baseball, after his breakout 1903 campaign several major-league teams were reportedly interested in his services. Billy Murray, the gifted minor-league manager then leading the Eastern League’s Jersey City club, was as well.18 Lindemann rebuffed the advances. Hoping to apply harder measures, and angered by independents attracting interest away from his product, Eastern League President Pat Powers lobbied baseball’s National Commission to forbid any team under its governance to play Hoboken.19 The ban came on July 2, 1904.20

The New York Giants had already visited Hoboken once that season. On April 24 they beat Lindemann, 8-5.21 Hoboken filled its Sunday schedule with other independents. Most notably, Lindemann split four games with Foster, now with the Philadelphia Giants.22 That summer, he suffered “an illness that threatened to develop into typhoid fever.”23 That September, the Giants drafted him.24

It was a remarkable moment: After cruising to the pennant with a 106-47 record, John McGraw added a 21-year-old semipro phenom to a staff headed by Joe McGinnity and Christy Mathewson. Yet Lindemann expressed no interest in heading south for spring training and balked at McGraw’s contract offer.25 New York released its claim on him, and he again belonged to Toledo.

Instead, Lindemann began 1905 pitching for a Perth Amboy squad. On April 30 he no-hit a visiting Crescents team from Philadelphia.26 Soon afterward the National Commission backed away from its earlier ruling against Hoboken (and other semipros), indicating Lindemann was no longer considered ineligible.27 In late May he joined Ambrose Hussey’s Ridgewood team. Twirling Sundays at Wallace’s Ridgewood Grounds, located just past Brooklyn’s border in Queens, Lindeman formed a lasting battery with catcher Alex Farmer.28 Three times that season, he battled the Philadelphia Giants, then at the very height of their powers, each time losing to Emmet Bowman.29 Lindemann enjoyed greater fortune against major leaguers: outlasting the Highlanders, 13-8, on October 8; a week later beating the Giants, 5-2, immediately after they won the World Series; before losing to Chief Bender and his “Philadelphia Professionals,” 7-4, on October 22.30

“There is nothing altruistic about Linde in baseball,” a sportswriter later observed and, after a falling-out with Hussey in May 1906, he led an exodus of Ridgewood players.31 This cast played for several Brooklyn semipros (Brighton, Manhattan Beach, and Marquette) on Sundays, while Lindemann also twirled on Saturdays with a Summit, New Jersey, team. His season’s highlight: holding the Brooklyn Superbas to two singles as he and Doc Scanlan dueled to a scoreless draw on October 14.32

Lindemann was listed at 5-feet-10 and weighing 182 pounds. Contemporaries referred to the right-hander as “the big blond,” suggesting such metrics might be understated.33 He was a “crafty” pitcher noted more for breaking balls than fastballs early in his career, but sportswriters later referenced his spitballs.34 His struck out more batters and pitched to less contact than his peers. For example, in a 5-4 victory over the Cuban X-Giants on April 26, 1903, Lindemann struck out nine while Ed Wilson fanned none. The X-Giants accumulated 17 assists in the field, the Hobokens only five.35

Lindemann began the 1907 season with the Elizabeth (New Jersey) Stars, pitching six Sundays against major-league teams over May and June. Twice he lost convincingly: to the Reds, 9-0, and to the Highlanders, 8-4.36 Twice he pitched well and lost narrowly: to the Pirates, 4-3, and to the White Sox, 6-5.37 Twice he pitched masterfully: four-hitting the Athletics and beating Rube Waddell, 3-2, on May 5, then two-hitting the Giants and besting Dummy Taylor, 2-1, on June 23.38

The hapless Boston Doves, already scheduled to play a four-game series in Brooklyn on surrounding days, booked a Sunday game in Elizabeth for June 30. Somehow, likely through manager Fred Tenney’s overtures and with new owner George Dovey’s blessing, Boston recruited Lindemann to face Brooklyn that Friday. Boston also recruited his batterymate, Alex Farmer, although – for unclear reasons – he stayed on the bench that day.39

Most of the several thousand Brooklyn fans present that Friday assumed that when the lineups were announced, it was the Doves’ Vive Lindaman in the box. Yet word quickly spread through the stands that it was indeed their hometown semipro ace. Lindemann pitched well, allowing only two runs over the first six innings, in large part due to poor defensive play by the Doves.

Boston scored five runs in the top of the seventh, aided by Lindemann (who had singled earlier in the game) successfully laying down a sacrifice bunt. But, leading 5-2, he loaded the bases in the bottom of the frame. At that point Tenney pulled him, and the Doves eventually won in the 10th, 6-5.40 Lindemann’s game line: four walks, three strikeouts, and four earned runs over 6⅓ innings. Two days later, in Elizabeth, he shut out Boston, 2-0.41

Pointing toward “a National agreement rule which distinctly says that no major league player may play with independent clubs during the season,” a Brooklyn scribe asked, “Is President Dovey of the Bostons bigger than the National League?”42 Brooklyn President Charles Ebbets quickly stated that he believed Dovey was unaware of Lindemann’s status and that to protest the game “would be poor sportsmanship.”43 Lindemann, content to profitably play the field, finished the campaign pitching for Elizabeth, Summit, and – in another foray into Organized Baseball – the Connecticut State League’s Hartford Senators.44

Lindemann returned to Hussey’s Ridgewoods in 1908 and for the next four seasons spent most of his Sundays pitching at Meyerrose Park. He was salaried for his efforts and reportedly belonged to the park’s ownership group.45 “He is as popular in Ridgewood as Mathewson is at the Polo Grounds,” an onlooker noted.46

Lindemann’s efforts against major-league teams were limited in this span, in part as Brooklyn aggressively asserted the territorial rights the National Commission granted it.47 Twice he faced the Giants. On October 17, 1908, a quartet of New York starters (including Mathewson and McGinnity), overcame Lindemann in 10 innings, 3-1.48 Exactly one year later he dueled Red Ames and Doc Crandall to a 4-4 tie.49 He also beat a Hoboken squad with Chief Bender in the box on October 30, 1910.50 His finest Ridgewood performance was against José Muñoz and the Cuban Stars on July 26, 1908. In the first inning, Lindemann allowed three runs (two likely unearned), and Muñoz two. But other than the Cuban allowing a tying tally in the sixth, neither ace allowed another run in a match finally called after 17 innings. The 5,000 fans present “were for the most part on their feet” throughout “the later stages of the game.”51 Lindemann’s 16 consecutive scoreless innings, a sportswriter noted, “was about as fine an exhibition of pitching as has ever been seen in a semi-professional game.”52

A detailed look at Lindemann’s 1909 season provides a snapshot of his career.53 Per present-day newspaper databases, 36 appearances (all starts) are evident, and he fashioned a 22-13-1 record. He pitched for Ridgewood 28 times, Richmond Hill (a Queens County team also controlled by Hussey) four times, twice with a Northport, Long Island, team, once with an Underwood Utes squad in Connecticut, and once with a club assembled for a political retreat. Mostly he pitched on weekends: 27 Sundays and 7 Saturdays.

His appearances were split evenly, 18 apiece, between black and white teams. He fared better against the white squads (13-4-1) than the black ones (9-9). Twice he faced Organized Baseball: in addition to the 4-4 draw vs. the Giants, he beat Hartford, 5-3, pitching for the Underwoods on April 17. His most frequent opponent was the Brooklyn Royal Giants, likely the finest Eastern black team at the time, and starring infielders Bill Monroe and Grant “Home Run” Johnson. Lindemann split eight games with the Royals, losing all three of his matches against their ace Harry Buckner.

Box scores are available for 31 of 36 of these appearances. Lindemann went 18-12-1 in this subset. He failed to complete a game only once, when the Royals drove him from the box on June 6. Lindemann pitched 267⅓ innings and allowed 105 runs (earned and unearned), or 3.43 every nine innings. He yielded 215 hits and 75 walks, for a WHIP of 1.093. He struck out 207 opponents, for a strikeouts per nine innings ratio of 7.0. A capable batter, he claimed 24 hits in these 31 games.

By 1911, the Ridgewoods were in decline. Their starting outfield signed with New Brunswick and Lindemann’s longtime batterymate Farmer was sidelined by illness.54 Lindemann signed “a contract to pitch and furnish a team for Bath Beach promoters” in March 1912.55 He recruited several Ridgewood players. Their new team, the West Ends, played at the West End Oval at Cropsey Avenue between Bay 19th and Bay 20th Streets in Brooklyn.56 Yet the venture met with little success, with an illustrative moment coming on June 30, when the rebuilt Ridgewoods behind Doc Scanlan beat Lindemann, 10-2.57 The West Ends didn’t survive beyond the summer. Lindemann spent September pitching for a Long Branch, New Jersey, club.58 He spent 1913 with the Ridgewoods and several central New Jersey teams. An observer: “He’s not the pitcher he was a few years ago.”59

Lindemann staged a comeback in 1914 pitching for Brooklyn’s Suburbans, whose oval was in the borough’s Kensington neighborhood.60 He commonly mowed down lesser competition. Against greater challenges, Lindemann’s results were mixed. He lost, 3-0, to Cyclone Joe Williams and the New York Lincoln Giants on June 21.61 Yet that fall, Lindemann won two of three games against future major leaguer Jimmy Ring.62 One of these affairs came against “Cobb’s Stars” on October 11. Lindemann yielded two walks, a double, and a homer to Ty Cobb, but hit two doubles himself and prevailed, 7-5.

Perhaps his most notable performances that season came against the Bushwicks. Then in their initial campaign, as a freshly renamed Ridgewoods squad, the team eventually became the most famous of all Brooklyn semipros.63 On June 26, Lindemann whitewashed the Bushwicks, then “the same old star as of yore” beat them again on October 25, 10-3.64

His renaissance continued into 1915. Lindemann opened the season by two-hitting the New York State League’s Wilkes-Barre Barons in a 3-1 win.65 Andy Coakley, who built  an accomplished semipro career after leaving the majors, joined Lindemann to face the Bushwicks in two key midsummer doubleheaders. In the first showdown, on August 1, Coakley lost the opener. Lindemann faced Charlie Girard in the second match and led, 4-3, before an error-filled ninth inning cost him the game.66 A week later both pitchers avenged their defeats, with Lindemann winning the opener, 5-1.67

Later that August, pitching in Hackettstown, New Jersey, Lindemann injured his back.68 He struggled to return to healthy form that season. His 1916 debut came in mid-June with another Brooklyn semipro franchise, the Cypress Hills.69 He pitched several times that summer. Then, at age 33, his career ended. Perhaps it was the back injury. Perhaps it was the arrival of a second child, son Ernest, in the Lindemann household in early 1917. Whatever the case may have been, his name disappeared from the box scores.

Later accounts credited Lindemann with 600 or more victories.70 Half this total seems more likely. His Equitable career limited his ballplaying almost exclusively to weekends. Although durable, he rarely pitched on both Saturday and Sunday. Also, there is no indication Lindemann ever played under an assumed identity – his own name was too marketable. Consequently, his 36 appearances in 1909 seem representative. He pitched 16 complete seasons, from 1900 to 1915, and may have averaged 20 wins per season, thus giving him 300 or more career wins.

After baseball, Lindemann remained in Bensonhurst, becoming a widower when Marie died in 1938. A decade later he retired from Equitable.71 He died from cancer on December 27, 1951, and was survived by his daughter, Thelma, son, Ernest, and two grandchildren. Ernie Lindemann was buried in Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery in Queens.

Sources

In addition to the sources noted in this biography, the author accessed Lindemann’s file from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the following sites:

ancestry.com

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/

digifind-it.com/elizabeth/newspapers.php

fultonhistory.com

genealogybank.com

newspapers.com

Notes

1 There was another Ernest T. Lindemann whose life ran roughly parallel to, and is sometimes confused with, the subject of this biography. Born in 1878 (also on June 10) to Otto (a birdcage manufacturer) and Bertha Lindemann, he also was of German heritage. Like the pitcher, he married, early in the new century, a Marie. In his case, Marie Kohlmann in 1905. The couple had three children: Marion, Arthur, and Edward. A graduate of New York Law School, he became a noted Staten Island lawyer. For a biographical profile of this Ernest Lindemann, see Charles W, Leng, Staten Island and Its People, A History, 1609-1929, Volume III (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1930), 397. He died on February 19, 1941. (For an obituary, see New York Daily News, February 20, 1941: 39.) Census records, his WWI Draft Registration, contemporary newspaper articles referencing his age (and his policeman father), and his death certificate all support that the pitcher Ernie Lindemann was born in 1883, with June 10 the most likely date.

2 The 1900 census finds the Lindemanns residing at 84th Street between 21st and 22nd Avenues.

3 “‘Ernie’ Lindemann, 68, Famed Semi-Pro Baseball Moundsman,” Brooklyn Eagle, December 28, 1951: 9.

4 “On Baseball Diamonds,” Brooklyn Standard Union, July 16, 1900, 9; “Baseball,” Brooklyn Standard Union, August 11, 1900: 12.

5 “Amateur Games,” Brooklyn Standard Union, July 24, 1901: 3; “State League,” Hartford Courant, August 23, 1901: 2.

6 “Hartfords Shut Out,” Hartford Courant, June 11, 1902: 14.

7 “Rockville Centres Win ‘The Citizen’ Pennant,” Brooklyn Citizen, August 18, 1902: 4; “On Amateur Diamonds,” Brooklyn Standard Union, September 27, 1902: 9.

8 “All American Team Was Played to a Standstill,” Brooklyn Standard Union, November 19, 1902: 9.

9 For more on the subject, see Charles DeMotte, Bat, Ball & Bible: Baseball and Sunday Observance in New York (Washington: Potomac Books, 2013).

10 “Six Captains Retired,” New York Sun, March 30, 1909: 2; “Lindemann’s Son Escaped,” Brooklyn Eagle, June 25, 1906: 5.

11 “‘Duke’ Farrell Has Lots to Tell the World About Bensonhurst, Its People and Places,” Brooklyn Eagle, June 15, 1952: 29.

12 “Wiltse to Play in New Jersey,” (New Brunswick) Central New Jersey Home News, March 11, 1909: 5.

13 “Hoboken Opened with Victory,” Jersey Journal (Jersey City), April 6, 1903: 7.

14 “New York’s Close Game,” New York Times, April 20, 1903: 5.

15 “Hoboken Wins from Boston,” Jersey Journal, May 11, 1903: 7; “New York, 5; Hoboken, 2,” New York Times, May 18, 1903: 8; “New York, 5; Hoboken, 3,” New York Times, July 20, 1903: 5; “Hoboken, 3, Brooklyn, 1,” New York Times, July 27, 1903: 5; “Hoboken Wound Up with Shutout,” Jersey Journal, November 2, 1903: 7.

16 “All Cubans Beaten in Hoboken,” Jersey Journal, May 25, 1903: 7; “Hoboken Shut Out Cuban X Giants,” Jersey Journal, June 29, 1903: 7; “Hoboken Club’s Great Victory,” Jersey Journal, August 3, 1903: 9.

17 “Hoboken Beaten by All-Cubans,” Jersey Journal, June 8, 1903: 9; “Hoboken Lost to All Cubans,” Jersey Journal, August 10, 1903: 7; “Hoboken Club Escaped a Shut-Out,” Jersey Journal, May 4, 1903: 8; Hobokens Are Shut Out,” New York Press, July 6, 1903: 6.

18 “Pitcher Lindeman, Who Has Made Good Record This Year,” New York Evening World, October 31, 1903: 6. [Note, as this example illustrates, that Lindemann’s name was commonly misspelled in contemporary accounts.

19 “Gossip on the Diamond,” Perth Amboy (New Jersey) News, April 7, 1904: 3.

20 “Lindeman Under the Ban,” Brooklyn Citizen, July 3, 1904: 5.

21 “New Yorks Defeat the Hobokens,” Jersey Journal, April 25, 1904: 9.

22 “Hobokens Beat the Phila. Giants,” Jersey Journal, April 18, 1904: 7; “Hoboken Shut Out by Phila. Giants,” Jersey Journal, June 20, 1904: 9; “Hobokens Won from Phila. Giants,” Jersey Journal, July 18, 1904: 5; “Hoboken Lost in Record Game,” Jersey Journal, August 15, 1904: 5.

23 “Baseball,” Trenton Times, September 4, 1904: 13.

24 “Lindemann Drafted by New Yorks,” Jersey Journal, September 21, 1904: 7.

25 “Baseball,” Trenton Times, March 19, 1905, 8; “Linderman Will Pitch,” Perth Amboy News, March 23, 1905: 4.

26 “Crescents Shut Out by the Local Team Yesterday,” Perth Amboy News, May 1, 1905: 4.

27 “Lindeman Vs. Giants,” New York Evening World, May 2, 1905: 10; “Warning to Players,” The Sporting News, May 13, 1905: 1.

28 For more on the ballpark, see “The Parks of Ridgewood,” BrooklynBallParks.com.

29 “Amateur Baseball,” Brooklyn Standard Union, June 12, 1905: 3; “Ridgewoods Lost After Pitcher’s Battle,” Brooklyn Standard Union, August 21, 1905: 3; “Amateur Baseball,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 18, 1905: 12.

30 “Defeated the Highlanders,” Brooklyn Citizen, October 9, 1905: 5; “McGraw’s Men Lost,” New York Times, October 16, 1905: 10; “Lindemann Had Bad Inning,” Brooklyn Citizen, October 23, 1905: 5.

31 “‘Old Man’ Lindeman,” Hackettstown (New Jersey) Gazette, July 9, 1915: 1; “Hussey Tried to Butt,” Brooklyn Citizen, May 18, 1906: 5.

32 “Not a Run Was Scored,” Brooklyn Citizen, October 15, 1906: 5.

33 “Diamond Flashes,” Plainfield (New Jersey) Courier-News, August 24, 1912: 9.

34 “Exciting Game in Hoboken,” Jersey Journal, April 27, 1903: 7; “Hoboken Beaten by All-Cubans,” Jersey Journal, June 8, 1903: 9; “See Old Baseball Heroes at Outing,” Brooklyn Times, July 21, 1909: 3; “Bushwicks Make Reply,” Brooklyn Times, August 4, 1915: 8.

35 “Exciting Game in Hoboken,” Jersey Journal, April 27, 1903: 7.

36 “Reds Have Easy Time with Stars,” Elizabeth (New Jersey) Daily Journal, May 20, 1907: 13; “Highlanders Dump Stars into Bog,” Elizabeth Daily Journal, June 10, 1907: 13.

37 “Pittsburgs Win from Stars, 4-3,” Elizabeth Daily Journal, May 13, 1907: 12; “Stars Lose to Chicago in Eleventh,” Elizabeth Daily Journal, June 17, 1907: 10.

38 “Athletics Beaten by Stars, 3-2,” Elizabeth Daily Journal, May 6, 1907: 15; “Giants Lose Game to the Stars,” Elizabeth Daily Journal, June 24, 1907: 10.

39 “Notes of the Game,” Brooklyn Standard Union, June 29, 1907: 8.

40 “Lindeman, Ex-Ridgewood Twirler, Tries to Fool Dodger Misfits,” Brooklyn Standard Union, June 29, 1907: 8; “Tenney’s Boys Win in 10 Innings,” Boston Globe, June 29, 1907: 9; “Crippled Superbas Lose Game After Hard 10-Inning Battle,” Brooklyn Eagle, June 29, 1907: 4.

41 “Stars Blank Boston by Score of 2-0,” Elizabeth Daily Journal, July 1, 1907: 11.

42 “Many Pennant Races Close; Chicagos Sure of National Flag,” Brooklyn Eagle, July 1, 1907: 20.

43 “Lindemann Is Ineligible,” Brooklyn Eagle, July 2, 1907: 5.

44 For his Hartford stay, see “Hartford Downs Holyoke Leaders,” Hartford Courant, August 8, 1907: 10; “Hartford Beats Norwich Champs,” Hartford Courant, August 15, 1907: 10; “Forfeited Game Must Be Played,” Hartford Courant, August 17, 1907: 14.

45 A.R. Cratty, “Pirate Points,” Sporting Life, October 31, 1908: 7; “Season Opens March 28 at Meyerrose Park,” Brooklyn Eagle, March 15, 1909: 24; “News and Notes of the Amateur Players,” Brooklyn Times, March 25, 1910: 10.

46 “Notes of the Game,” Brooklyn Standard Union, May 24, 1908: 6.

47 As an example, see “Ridgewood Won Easily,” Brooklyn Times, October 17, 1910: 5.

48 “Giants Defeat Ridgewoods in Ten Inning Game 3 to 1,” Brooklyn Standard Union, October 18, 1908: 6.

49 “Ridgewoods Tie Giants,” Brooklyn Times, October 18, 1909: 9.

50 “Ridgewoods Beat Bender,” Brooklyn Times, October 31, 1910: 5.

51 “Results in a Tie After 17 Innings,” Brooklyn Eagle, July 27, 1908: 18.

52 “A 17-Inning Tie Game,” Brooklyn Citizen, July 27, 1908: 3.

53 A spreadsheet with specifics for his 1909 season may be found at tinyurl.com/y224dlzt.

54 “Manager R.B. Bliss Signs Entire Ridgewood Outfield for Brunswicks,” (New Brunswick, New Jersey) Home News, March 22, 1911: 9; “Hobokens Beat Ridgewood,” Brooklyn Times, April 24, 1911: 10.

55 “Hail – Snow – Spring and Baseball Chat,” Newtown (New York) Register, March 21, 1912: 8.

56 For more on the ballpark, see “Brooklyn’s Semipro Fields,” covehurst.net/ddyte/brooklyn/semipro__parks.

57 “New Ridgewoods Beat Lindemann’s West Ends,” Brooklyn Eagle, July 1, 1912: 19.

58 On the West Ends’ demise, see “‘Duke’ Farrell Has Lots to Tell the World About Bensonhurst, Its People and Places,” Brooklyn Eagle, June 15, 1952: 29. For a Long Branch moment, see “Long Branch Loses Twice,” Long Branch (New Jersey) Record, September 17, 1912: 2.

59 “Doc Scanlan Will Work for Brunswicks Friday,” (New Brunswick) Central New Jersey Home News, May 27, 1913: 8.

60 For more on the ballpark, see “Brooklyn’s Semipro Fields,” covehurst.net/ddyte/brooklyn/semipro__parks.

61 “Double-Header Won by Lincoln Giants,” Brooklyn Eagle, June 22, 1914: 18.

62 “Sensational Victory Won by Suburbans,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 21, 1914: 18; “Ring’s Team Turns Tables,” Brooklyn Citizen, September 28, 1914: 4; “Ty Cobb Shows How to Use the Willow,” Brooklyn Standard Union, October 12, 1914: 8.

63 Hussey had sold his share of the Ridgewoods in 1913, and the remnants of the team were renamed the Bushwicks. See “Ridgewoods to be Known as Bushwicks This Year,” Brooklyn Eagle, January 2, 1914: 22.

64 “Suburbans Shut Out the Crack Bushwicks,” Brooklyn Standard Union, July 27, 1914: 4; “Suburbans Cinch Game in the First Inning,” Brooklyn Standard Union, October 26, 1914: 8.

65 “Lindemann Pitches Suburbans to Victory,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 19, 1915: 19.

66 “Bushwicks Twice Defeat Suburbans,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 2, 1915: 3.

67 “Suburbans Even Bushwick Series,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 9, 1915: 19.

68 “Bushwicks Champions,” Brooklyn Standard Union, August 23, 1915: 8.

69 “Lindemann to Twirl Against Fast Ironsides,” Brooklyn Standard Union, June 16, 1916: 14.

70 Charles Heckelmann, “Major Leaguers ‘Meat’ for Semi-Pro Hurler,” Brooklyn Eagle, March 1, 1935: 16; “Necrology,” The Sporting News, January 9. 1952: 21.

71 “‘Ernie’ Lindemann, 68, Famed Semi-Pro Baseball Moundsman,” Brooklyn Eagle, December 28, 1951: 9.