In the sweltering heat of late June of 1863 — panic overtook the City of Philadelphia. General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had crossed the Susquehanna and invaded as the first enemy army to attack Pennsylvania since the British had done so nearly half a century prior.
With George Meade’s Army of the Potomac racing to intercept the Confederates — Philadelphia immediately began to build a defense. Entrenchments were made around Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Gregg Curtain raced to mobilize the City’s defenses. Philadelphia’s Recreation Field — which played host to the first-ever baseball game in Pennsylvania just three years earlier — was utilized by Union Cavalry.
Twenty years after panic filled the streets of Philadelphia with the potential invasion of an enemy army , another historic event happened when the Phillies played their first-ever home opener at the very same Recreation Park. Recreation Park had previously seen Equity defeat Pennsylvania in an explosion of scoring — winning 65–52 in what has been described as the “First Baseball Game in Pennsylvania.” One year later, Philadelphia and America were caught in a Civil War.
Bounded by 24th and 25th Streets, Cecil B. Moore Avenue, Montgomery Ave., and Ridge Ave., we actually know very little about the origins of Recreation Park outside of its wartime occupation by the Union Cavalry. We know that right after the Civil War , attempts were made to erect a fence and make the area into a baseball field. Up until 1879 , it was even utilized as a horse market.
What we do know is that Recreation Park played a critical part of the beginning of the Philadelphia Phillies — the most historic, continuously operated sports franchise in all the land — who utilized this location for a home opener. On April 1st, 1883 , the Phillies defeated the amateur Manayunk Ashlands 11–0. One month later — on May 1, 1883 the Phillies would open against MLB competition — a 4–3 loss to Providence at Recreation Park.
It would be 32 years before the Phillies would appear in a World Series and nearly a century until they won one. What Monday will represent is the 142nd home opener of one of Philadelphia’s proudest sports traditions. The first annual day of baseball.
Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia would not turn and threaten Philadelphia in the end. Instead, they would meet Union forces, and General John Reynolds — whose statue still stands outside of City Hall — would lead a force to help stop the Confederates and would be killed on the first day of fighting outside of a small Pennsylvania town called Gettysburg. But Philadelphia was safe.
