New Jersey's Lost Minor League Team: The Perth Amboy Pacers

“A baseball team of which we are proud and which we will continue to boost,” said city chairman John Pfeiffer on the creation of the Pacers in 1914.

The Perth Amboy Pacers have not played a game in well over a century, but for one brief year, they were members of the Atlantic League, a professional loop that operated for one season with teams in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

No photos of the team, their uniforms, or the ballpark have ever been found. Within a generation, local fans had already forgotten the Pacers. Like many other clubs, they faded from memory, leaving almost no trace.

Local businessmen Max Gibian and William Pfau operated the ball club; they opened the first public car garage in the city in 1905, and Pfau moved from Newark for the venture. They formed the Greater Amboy Amusement Company, which operated the ballpark and entered a team into the Atlantic League.

The name Pacers was associated with the city’s Board of Trade prize contest the previous year. A competition was held to adopt a new slogan for Perth Amboy, one that would rival nearby Trenton’s 1910 contest-winning slogan “Trenton Makes, the World Takes”, and Newark’s long-forgotten nickname “Newark Knows How”.

The city adopted the slogan 'The Pacemaking City' in November 1913. Perth Amboy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the state at the time, rising 81.5 percent since 1900. The board created and distributed 25,000 buttons with the “snappy phrase” on them. When it came time to name the baseball team, the Perth Amboy Evening News was ecstatic in its April 17 edition.

“Here in Perth Amboy, it looks as though we will stick to the name of pacers. This city is known all over as the “Pacemaking City”, and the baseball club is known as the Pacers. The city will be advertised better than if the team were known as the Braves."

Unlike Trenton’s famous moniker that adorns the Lower Trenton Bridge, Perth Amboy’s slogan would largely be forgotten by 1923.

​The front page of the Perth Amboy Evening News on November 8, 1913.

A newspaper article describes the home white uniforms as having blue trimming, blue caps, blue stockings without stripes, and a blue P.A. monogram on the left side of the shirt. The Pacers also wore heavy Mackinaw jackets made of wool. Sadly, no illustrations of the uniform or jacket have been found.

The ball club played at Amusement Park grounds, situated on 21 acres of land. It opened in 1904 and was 300 feet from the city limits in Keasbey in Woodbridge Township and bordered Smith Street and the Lehigh Valley train track. It sat on a hill that gave spectacular bird's-eye views of 

miles of beautiful country. The Raritan River was to the south, and the city skyline was to the east.

Gibian and Pfau signed a three-year lease and spent $5,000 refurbishing the fixture to make it one of the best in the league. The grandstand and field were renovated in time for the arrival of the Pacers. A modern 2,000-capacity grandstand colored in crimson and white with a covered backing was constructed, six high rows of bleacher seating were added down each baseline, and an entrance on the left field line.

Cinder paths were located behind the grandstand and at the back of the third baseline, which also included an automobile park outside of the stadium and a refreshment stand near the entrance to the grandstand. The diamond was arranged so that it would lie on a stretch of ground higher than the outfield, which would slope off the same as the outfield at the Polo Grounds.

The Perth Amboy Evening News said the following in their May 1, 1914, edition: “The fans in this vicinity have been clamoring for real, dyed-in-the-wool baseball for many years, and local rooters are enthusiastic about the prospect of the realization of their wishes.”

Local businesses throughout the city supported the new venture. The White Shoe Company offered a new pair of shoes for every home run. While another businessman offered $50 for the best hitter on the team, later won by Vic Shankey. It is unknown what the dimensions of the ballpark were, but due to the dead-ball area and several stories, few (if any) balls left the stadium in fair territory.

​Connie Mack announced he would bring his World Series champions, the Philadelphia Athletics, to town on May 10. A crowd of 2,000 packed the new grandstand to see the home team lose to the Athletics 4-3. The season opened on May 23, preceded by a brass band and automobile parade. A crowd of 1,500 fans watched the Pacers lose 7-6 to the Danbury Hatters. The Perth Amboy Evening News printed the following in the April 16, 1914 edition.

“Every baseball fan in the city of Perth Amboy in Middlesex county, whether they follow the Pacers of the Atlantic League… or any other sports team, should learn to bear the old sports' motto in mind. No harm will ever come to anyone who boosts, while the knockers create soreheads, bad friends, and make the joys of living worthless.”

However, by late July, rumors were circulating that the Pacers had dropped out of the league and forfeited their $1,000 bond. Both Gibian and Pfau denied the story, blaming it on other teams in the league. Pfau indicated that the team was hurt by slanderous stories and fights with reporters. Things were settled, and the club finished the season with a 44-49 record, 19.5 games out of first place.

​At the end of the season, every team in the league lost money. The Pacers lost about $3,000, and Gibian's financial support alone kept them from folding mid-season.  The Atlantic League would cease operations after one season, but it was not the end for the Pacers.

​The club returned with an independent schedule hosting games on Saturday and Sunday, including an impressive list of opponents: New York Giants, New York Yankees, and the Negro League Baltimore Giants and Royal Colored Giants. The Pacers lost to the Giants 7-6 and fell to the Yankees 15-10, which featured a “bounce” home run (a ball that bounced over the fence from fair territory was counted as a home run before 1929).

In April 1916, Gibian sold out his interest in the Greater Perth Amboy Amusement Company, and Pfau became the sole owner of the baseball team. There was interest in joining a proposed Atlantic League, but they opted out due to the distance of the clubs in Pennsylvania and the doubt that the loop would be affiliated with major league clubs.

The team would remain independent, playing a schedule against local teams. However, the Pacers name was discontinued, and the ball club would be referred to in print as the Amboys. A crowd of 800 people witnessed opening day at the Amusement Park, a 5-3 victory over the Passaic team

That summer, attendance dropped as low as 200 fans per game, while Pfau needed 400 to break even. He was left to handle everything himself, from paying players and coaches to hiring painters and scheduling games. The expenses were ply too much for one person. Pfau hoped that 10 to 15 local businessmen might each invest $100 to help cover the costs. After losing money every season, he needed both financial support and help promoting the team.

Pfau was set to have two teams for the 1917 season in the Middlesex County League, with 20 home games and a goal of selling 1,400 season tickets at $0.10 each. That proved almost impossible when the Amusement Park property was sold, demolished, and set for redevelopment. However, one club did play and carried on the Amboys name.

Plans were to remove the grandstand and outfield fence and relocate it to another property in town, most notably Wonderland Park. However, it does not appear that it happened. There was a little sadness about its demise, according to the Perth Amboy Evening News:

“The passing of Amusement Park marks the disappearance of a fixture in Perth Amboy sport. For years and years, a ball field of one description or another has stood on the hilltop, the first stands and fences having been gradually dismantled by firewood seekers and the latter standing in good condition, but useless.”

Without a place to play, the Pacers folded, and minor league baseball disappeared from Perth Amboy. Both their legacy and the location of their old ballpark were soon forgotten. It would be decades before the Pacers were mentioned again in local newspapers, a faint reminder of their short time in the spotlight.

Pete Urban, a former sportswriter for the Evening News, and probably the last known person who attended a Pacers game. He was quoted in a Home News & Tribune article in 1997 on his first baseball game at the Amusement Park grounds at age 7. He attended the game as a member of the knothole gang when the Pacers played the Giants. He viewed the game through a peephole in the left-field fence.

Pfau and Gibian worked hard to bring professional baseball to Perth Amboy in the early 1900s, but in the end, it was more than either of them could manage. They hoped to leave a lasting baseball legacy, but what they got was a brief moment in the city's history. Their story is similar to those in many other towns across the country. No matter the decade, running a baseball club is never easy.

There is still one small link to the past—a piece of history you can hold. One of the 25,000 Pacemaking City buttons turned up for sale on eBay. The seller didn’t know its exact age, only that it was 'very old.' It’s a tiny piece of Perth Amboy’s history that has survived all these years.

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Follow all of Marc’s stadium journeys on Twitter @ballparkhunter and his YouTube channel. Email at Marc.Viquez@stadiumjourney.com