Baseball in Trenton

Professional baseball in Trenton, New Jersey, stumbled through the twentieth century with sporadic success. The state capital seemed lost amid the professional sports world in New York and Philadelphia. Years later, minor-league baseball returned to the city and to a fan base exceeding most in Double-A baseball.
Baseball in Trenton follows the spurts of success that saw the Senators, Dodgers, Phillies, and Giants place farm teams in the city, producing Hall of Famer Willie Mays and base stealer George Case. In 1993, a group of New Jersey entrepreneurs decided to bring minor-league baseball back to Trenton. The ambitious result was the Trenton Thunder, who became the most successful and consistent minor-league baseball team in the country. Baseball in Trenton is the first history of this incredible rise to glory.

Tom McCarthy, one of the original members of the Thunder's front office, was hired in 1993 as the team's director of public relations and radio broadcaster. He became the assistant general manager in 1996 and left in 1999 to pursue his broadcasting career. McCarthy, who won a Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award, was hired by the Philadelphia Phillies as a broadcaster. He is also the play-by-play announcer for Rutgers football and Princeton University basketball, as well as a talk-show host on ESPN radio.