Newark

In 1999, the County of Essex opened this stadium as home of the Newark baseball team, the Bears; the name pays tribute to the city’s former Negro League Team, the Newark Eagles, which was formed in 1936 by the merger of the Newark Dodgers and the Brooklyn Eagles. The team won the Negro World Series in 1946 and sent five players to the National Baseball Hall of Fame: Larry Doby, Monte Irvin, Willie Wells, Ray Dandridge and Leon Day. Doby also made history by becoming the first African-American to play in the American League. In 1948, the Eagles left Newark as baseball became increasingly integrated.