Parque Los Berros, in

Xalapa Xalapa or Jalapa (, ), officially Xalapa-Enríquez (), is the capital city of the Mexico, Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In 2020 census the city reported a population of 443,063 ...

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

, is located a short distance to the southeast of the center of town, in the neighbourhood of the

Stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

. Its name was derived from an edible herb called ( garden cress) that used to grow in the area. Throughout the 19th century, the place would turn into a mosquito-infested marshland during the Summer rainy season. The rest of the year, it was occasionally used for horse-racing, as is shown in an engraving published in by Manuel Rivera y Cambas, in 1871. It was on this site, most probably the army campground, around April 20, 1847, that members of the Fourth Illinois Infantry Regiment played the first game of

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

in Mexico, as gathered from oral tradition and recorded in a 1909 publication, perhaps the first ever played outside the U.S. As a bat, they used the "wooden peg leg" of

Antonio López de Santa Anna Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (21 February 1794 – 21 June 1876),Callcott, Wilfred H., "Santa Anna, Antonio Lopez De,''Handbook of Texas Online'' Retrieved 18 April 2017. often known as Santa Anna, wa ...

that they had captured a day or so before, at the Battle of Cerro Gordo.

Notes

* At the Battle of Cerro Gordo, Company C of the 4th Illinois Infantry Regiment had "almost captured Mexican President General Santa Anna, but they had to settle for his cork leg, carriage and $20,000 in gold." * There were actually two artificial legs, a fancy one (presently on display at the Illinois State Military Museum in Springfield, IL) and a "humble peg leg". * "American soldiers under Scott and Worth played baseball (1847) with the wooden leg captured (by the Fourth Illinois Regiment) from General Santa Anna."Terry's Guide to Mexico, 1909, p. 506.

References

{{coord, 19, 31, 25, N, 96, 55, 01, W, type:city, display=title Xalapa Geography of Veracruz