Meisel: 25 years later, how Jacobs Field saved baseball in Cleveland
From SABR member Zack Meisel at The Athletic on April 2, 2019:
Carlos Baerga referred to it as a shiny new toy. Sandy Alomar compared it to relocating from a cramped apartment to a sparkling, spacious new home.
When the Indians moved into Jacobs Field 25 years ago, the players marveled at the amenities — the batting cages, the food spread, the weight room, even the toilets. The team traveled a long, painful path to arrive at what some in the organization deem the most significant day in franchise history.
Wayne Kirby’s extra-inning walk-off single capped an afternoon that ushered in a new era, an opportunity for the franchise to bury four decades of misery at a crumbling building and to commence the golden standard of baseball in Cleveland.
Progressive Field has stood in downtown Cleveland for a quarter-century now.
Without it, those glory days might never have happened. The last few seasons might have unfolded in Denver or in Tampa. Without the construction of a brand-new ballpark, baseball in Cleveland might have ceased to exist.
Read the full article (subscription required): https://theathletic.com/862359/2019/04/02/25-years-later-how-jacobs-field-saved-baseball-in-cleveland-indians-progressive-field/
- Related link: Get your copy of SABR’s 1995 Cleveland Indians: The Sleeping Giant Awakes, edited by Joseph Wancho
Originally published: April 2, 2019. Last Updated: April 2, 2019.