At Walker Park, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" has a whole different meaning. It is the home of the oldest continuously operating cricket organization in America, the Staten Island Cricket Club.

Clarence Modest has played the bat-and-ball game for more than 50 years.

"It was founded here on Staten Island by some English Wall Street traders in 1872," said Modest, who is the president of the Staten Island Cricket Club.

One hundred and forty-seven years later, cricket has become a longstanding, yet little known, Staten Island tradition, thanks in part to the borough's growing immigrant population. Many of the club's members are from the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East.

"I migrated from Pakistan and I grew up playing cricket, so when I moved to Staten Island, I was looking for a club, and I ended up finding them," said Fahad Mughal, a player with the Staten Island Cricket Club.

Cricket has some similarities to baseball, but there are differences. Each side fields 11 players, and matches can last even longer than baseball games.

The Staten Island Cricket Club boasts world-class talent, traveling around the world for matches and inviting teams to play on Staten Island.

Last week, they played a match here against a team from the British Royal Marines.

"We didn't know Staten Island hosted cricket and for such a long time going. We have various places in the UK that have its history but nothing like this," said Andy Crofts of the Royal Marines Cricket Association.

To keep the cricket tradition here on Staten Island strong the club offers free youth clinics on the weekends to train the next generation of cricket players

"We'd like to see more red-blooded Americans, as I like to say, play the game, not just immigrants from abroad and/or their children, but people who have been here for many generations," Modest said.

People like Aaron Donato, who grew up playing America's pastime in Brooklyn.

"I definitely think there is the possibility that a lot of American born regardless of their background could really get into cricket," Donato said. "Baseball, a lot of the rules came from cricket, you know, cricket was the original sport."

A sport that now has deep roots on Staten Island.