Our History | Batter Up Batting Range & Bethpage Mini Golf

You can hear it from the parking lot. The whir of a pitching machine winding up. The crack of an aluminum bat. Kids laughing, parents coaching from behind the fence. It's a summer evening on Hicksville Road in Bethpage, and Batter Up is doing what it's done for over forty years.

But here's the thing most people don't know. This little batting cage — right here at 130 Hicksville Road — is the last surviving piece of one of the most legendary amusement parks Long Island has ever seen.

CHAPTER 1

Nunley's Happyland

1951 — A Dream Takes Shape

In 1951, William Nunley — a third-generation amusement park entrepreneur whose family already ran parks in Baldwin, Rockaway Beach, and Yonkers — had a bigger vision. He wanted to build the largest Nunley's yet, right here at the corner of Hempstead Turnpike and Hicksville Road.

Critics called the location "virtually deserted." But Nunley saw what was coming — Levittown was just down the road, and suburbs were spreading across Long Island like wildfire.

Tragically, William died in April 1951 — six months before his dream was finished. His widow Miriam Nunley made a decision that would shape Long Island childhoods for a generation. She would open Happyland herself. On October 12, 1951, the gates swung open.

Ribbon cutting ceremony at Nunley's Happyland, October 12, 1951

Ribbon cutting for the Dentzel carousel at Nunley's Happyland Park, Oct. 12, 1951. Miriam Nunley pictured at right. Courtesy Plainedge Public Library

Nunley's Happyland at night with neon signs and Ferris wheel

Nunley's Happyland lit up at night — the Ferris wheel, neon signs, and indoor arcade pavilion.

And what a park it was. A Schiff Ferris wheel and roller coaster. A forty-eight-horse carousel. Bumper cars, hand cars, a miniature railway. Over a hundred arcade games inside a heated indoor pavilion — this place ran year-round.

On a summer Saturday, four thousand kids would pour through those gates.

Presiding over it all was a one-of-a-kind treasure: a 1910 German mechanical organ, built by A. Ruth and Sohn of Waldkirch, with elaborately carved musicians that moved in time with the music. There was nothing else like it in America.

CHAPTER 2

Jolly Roger's

The Name That Stuck for a Generation

In 1952, a fast-food restaurant called the Jolly Roger opened right next door, connected to the park by a glass-walled passageway. The official name was Nunley's Happyland, but nobody called it that. To every kid on Long Island, it was Jolly Roger's. That was the name that stuck.

By the 1960s, new owners expanded the whole complex. They added a Wild Mouse roller coaster, a dedicated bumper car building, and right across Hicksville Road, they built batting cages and a miniature golf course.

That spot, directly across the street — that's where our story is heading.

Jolly Roger restaurant postcard, Bethpage Long Island

Vintage postcard of the Jolly Roger restaurant on Hempstead Turnpike, Bethpage, L.I., N.Y.

1966 annotated aerial view of the Jolly Roger complex

For nearly three decades, Jolly Roger's was the place. Birthday parties, first dates, Little League celebrations. If you grew up on Long Island in the fifties, sixties, or seventies — you were there. Everybody was there.

CHAPTER 3

The End of an Era

1974 — 1978

But nothing lasts forever. In 1974, the Jolly Roger restaurant changed its name to Robin Hood. By 1976, the restaurant closed. And in 1978, nearly three decades after Miriam Nunley first opened those gates, the park shut down for good.

In March 1979, photographer Robert Berkowitz walked through the empty park one last time, capturing haunting images of the rides sitting silent, the buildings waiting for the wrecking ball. Those photographs are some of the only visual records of the park's final days.

Jolly Roger's amusement park before demolition, 1979

The park before demolition — the Jolly Roger sign still standing, rides empty, awaiting the wrecking ball.

Strip mall where Jolly Roger's once stood

Today, a strip mall stands where Happyland used to be. Not a plaque, not a marker, not a trace. It's gone.

CHAPTER 4

But Across the Street?

The Bats Never Stopped Swinging

In 1979, just one year after the park closed, the batting cage facility at 130 Hicksville Road was rebuilt and expanded. It was like the place refused to die.

Then, in 1984, Nick DeMarco took the reins and named it Batter Up. He built it from the ground up with his family. And they've been running it ever since.

Today, Batter Up has eleven fully automatic batting cages throwing baseball and softball at speeds from 35 to 80 miles per hour. There's an 18-hole mini golf course right alongside. It's not fancy. It's not a chain. It's a family business on a piece of land that's been making families happy since the 1960s. Forty-plus years of DeMarco family stewardship, and they're still going strong.

Three generations of Long Islanders have stepped up to these cages. Grandparents who rode the Ferris wheel at Jolly Roger's bring their grandkids here to hit.

The corner of Hicksville Road and Hempstead Turnpike has been in the business of making families smile since 1951. Seventy-five years and counting.

There is one other piece of the Nunley's story that survived. The family's famous carousel from their Baldwin location was rescued and restored — you can ride it today at the Long Island Children's Museum in Garden City.

But that carousel was moved. It was saved and relocated. Batter Up never left. It's been right here, on its original ground, since the beginning.

Reaching for the brass ring on the Nunley's carousel.

75 Years of History

1951

Miriam Nunley opens Happyland at Hempstead Turnpike & Hicksville Road

1952

The Jolly Roger restaurant opens next door — the name everyone remembers

1960s

Batting cages & mini golf built across Hicksville Road — the future home of Batter Up

1978

Jolly Roger's/Happyland closes for good after nearly 30 years

1979

Park demolished. Across the street, the batting cages are rebuilt and expanded

1984

Nick DeMarco names it Batter Up — the DeMarco family has run it ever since

Today

40+ years of DeMarco family stewardship. 11 cages, 18 holes, and still going strong.

Come Take a Swing at History

Next time you're driving down Hicksville Road in Bethpage, pull over. Grab a helmet. Step into one of those cages and take a swing. Because you won't just be hitting a baseball — you'll be standing on 75 years of Long Island history.