NEW JERSEY'S CLAIM STRIKES OUT WITH COOPERSTOWN FAITHFUL.(Main)

Byline: Craig Brandon Staff writer

In the "home of baseball," some people think it's heresy even to mention the name of a certain city in New Jersey.

"Hoboken, Schnoboken," said Arnold Burch, a tourist from New York City who was visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame this week. "Cooperstown is baseball and baseball is Cooperstown. Anybody who says it ain't is probably a Communist."

While Hoboken and Cooperstown have argued for decades over which is the true birthplace of baseball, the stakes were escalated this week thanks to a couple of curve balls thrown by officials in New Jersey.

U.S. Rep. Frank Guarini, D-N.J., proposed a federal law that would declare June 19 National Baseball Day in commemoration of a game played in Hoboken on that day in 1846.

The same day, New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio signed a proclamation naming Hoboken "the birthplace of baseball" and called Cooperstown's long-accepted place in baseball history "a major league mistake."

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