San Francisco is known for its stunning views and iconic attractions such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, curvy Lombard Street, colorful Victorian homes, the Palace of Fine Arts, and Coit Tower. In 2000, another landmark joined the roster – a ballpark right on San Francisco Bay.

Oracle Park’s address is well-known in the Bay Area: 24 Willie Mays Plaza, San Francisco, California. The “24” refers to the jersey number worn by the most legendary San Francisco Giant, Willie Mays.1

When Oracle Park was designed during the 1990s, a movement was underway that rejected symmetrical, cookie-cutter multi-use stadiums and embraced quirky retro ballparks that honored baseball’s traditions. Other parks constructed during this time include Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards and Cleveland’s Jacobs Field. Like Oracle, these parks are firmly rooted in urban neighborhoods and simulate the look and feel of ballparks past while offering a plethora of modern amenities. The retro parks invoke the spirits of Wrigley Field and Fenway Park to an extent where fans can envision Ernie Banks turning a double play, or Ted Williams belting a homer – something hard to imagine in an oval football stadium that has been converted for baseball use.

History

In 1960, two years after leaving New York City for San Francisco, the Giants moved to Candlestick Park, a multi-purpose stadium located on Candlestick Point alongside San Francisco Bay. Candlestick was a tough venue for players and fans alike, especially during the all-too-frequent damp, windy conditions. In 1983, the Giants began rewarding fans who suffered through extra innings during night games with orange pins that included the Latin words “Vinim, vidi, vixi” (I came, I saw, I survived). Strong winds once tipped a piano on its side during a pregame ceremony, and buffeted by powerful gusts, a batting cage moved 30 feet from its original location. Giants player Jack Clark said the best way to improve Candlestick would be with “dynamite.”2

The conditions at Candlestick were hurting attendance and the stadium, which was getting decrepit, had run its course. So, during the 1980s and early 1990s, Giants owner Bob Lurie3 made several attempts to build a new ballpark in the Bay Area. Voter referendums were consistently turned down, so Lurie decided to sell the team to investors who intended to move it to Florida. Before the deal closed, a local group of investors led by Peter Magowan submitted a counteroffer to keep the team in San Francisco. The Magowan bid was $15 million less than the Florida offer, but the locals prevailed when the National League voted 9 to 4 in favor of Magowan.4

The Magowan group purchased the Giants in 19925 and went to work developing an alternative to Candlestick. Public funding for sports facilities had not been popular with Bay Area voters, so Magowan pursued a different strategy: using private funds for the new ballpark. This approach was ultimately successful. Even though public approvals were needed, the private financing provided the “fuel” that propelled the project forward. Oracle Park was the first privately funded big-league ballpark since Dodger Stadium was built in Los Angeles in the early 1960s.6 The total price tag was $357 million.7

Construction of the ballpark began in December 1997. During 1998 and 1999, thousands of cubic yards of concrete was poured, and thousands of tons of structural steel was erected. In January 2000, players began taking batting practice at the site.8 Since San Francisco is prone to earthquakes, the ballpark was built in five separate sections with expansion joints in between each section, enabling the park to withstand a 7.3 Richter Scale quake.9

When the ballpark entered service, the Giants’ chief operating officer, Larry Baer, said: “Over the years, eight sites were seriously considered for a new ballpark, five elections were held, we had four mayors, I had four children and one wife and we had exactly 271 public hearings. Now, I think this is the best ballpark in the country.”10

The Giants have a 66-year lease with the San Francisco Port Commission, the owners of the 12.7-acre ballpark site. The ballclub pays $1.2 million in rent to the Commission every year.11

With the weather-related problems at Candlestick Park, why did the Giants build their new ballpark alongside the Bay, just a few miles up the shoreline from Candlestick? Candlestick Park had nearby hills that made the winds accelerate, and the design of Oracle was thoughtfully done to minimize wind within the ballpark.12 Although the wind situation has been vastly improved, fans should realize, for night games in particular, Oracle can be shockingly cold. It is a good idea to bring an extra layer of clothing or two, even in the middle of summer.

Park Names

From 2000 through 2018, the ballpark naming rights were owned by telecommunications companies. The stadium was called Pacific Bell Park (“Pac Bell”) for the 2000 through 2003 seasons, SBC Park during 2004 and 2005, and AT&T Park from 2006 through 2018. In view of these corporate partnerships, fans nicknamed the park the “Phone Booth.” In January 2019, the Giants entered into an agreement with the Oracle Corporation for naming rights.13, 14

Ballpark Features and Amenities

Exterior Features

Oracle Park occupies a dramatic setting: right on the water, just southeast of downtown San Francisco. Behind right field is a portion of San Francisco Bay known as McCovey Cove, named after Hall of Famer and Giants fan favorite Willie McCovey.15 Between the ballpark and the cove is a wide concrete walkway for the public to enjoy views of the Bay, along with the sounds of the ballpark when a game is underway. The walkway is known as the “Portwalk” or the “Giants History Walk.” Dozens of bronze plaques memorializing noteworthy moments in Oracle Park history are embedded into the walking surface. Examples of these plaques include the first Opening Day in 2000, various pennants and championships, Robb Nen’s 300th save in 2002, and Jason Schmidt’s franchise-tying record of 16 strikeouts during a 2006 game.

On the opposite side of the stadium, the Giants’ Wall of Fame is on the ballpark’s western exterior along the King Street sidewalk. Bronze plaques of well-known Giants players and executives are displayed on the brick wall.16

There are four primary entrances to the ballpark, and each features statues just outside of the park. A nine-foot-high Willie Mays statue is in the plaza in front of the Willie Mays Gate, the main ballpark entrance behind home plate. An inscription on the base of the Mays statue reads: “Given in honor of Willie Mays and his fans, wherever they may be.”17 Statues of Orlando Cepeda and Gaylord Perry are at the 2nd Street Gate. A statue of a seal balancing a baseball on its nose is beyond center field in Seals Plaza outside the Marina Gate, where ferry riders enter the stadium. A Juan Marichal statue is featured in the Lefty O’Doul Plaza outside the O’Doul Gate near the southeast corner of the ballpark.18

Further afield, a 14-foot-high Willie McCovey statue is across McCovey Cove in China Basin Park. Around the statue are plaques with the names of Willie Mac Award winners, Giants players honored for their leadership, hustle, and spirit.19 China Basin Park also features plaques listing the members of each San Francisco Giants team prior to Oracle Park.20

Oracle is a steel and brick structure whose red brick façade fits in with the many brick buildings in the surrounding neighborhood.  In places, the stadium’s brick patterns mimic the seams on a baseball. Two clock towers, each 122 feet tall, are prominent features that enhance the traditional ballpark appearance. On the backside of the park along San Francisco Bay are two shorter clock towers, each 47 feet tall.21 

Interior Features

Seats higher up in the park provide views of San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge, Treasure Island, and the East Bay Hills.

As of 2025, seating capacity is 42,300 and the field dimensions are:

• Left field foul line: 339 feet
• Left field power alley: 354 feet
• Left-center field: 399 feet
• Center field: 391 feet
• Right-center field: 415 feet
• Right field power alley: 365 feet
• Right field foul line: 309 feet

The right-field foul line distance of 309 feet is the second shortest in big-league baseball. (Fenway’s right-field line is 302 feet.)

The deepest part of the outfield is known as Triples Alley. This is a nod to the Giants’ history at the Polo Grounds,22 as are the green seats throughout the ballpark. Not only is Triples Alley far from home plate, it features a wall that takes a couple of bends, resulting in unpredictable bounces.

Because the ballpark borders San Francisco Bay on one side, and city streets on other sides, the park’s asymmetry was not contrived. Rather, it was dictated by these constraints, making this retro ballpark feel that much more authentic.

Quotes from baseball legends are inscribed in numerous locations around the ballpark.

“The Fan Lot” area is behind the left-field bleachers. This is a family-friendly23 portion of the park with attractions such as a kids’ wiffleball field within a scaled-down Oracle Park replica,24 an aquarium with live fish, and an 80-foot-long Coca Cola bottle with steel slides inside. The bottle lights up when a Giants player hits a home run.25 Next to the Coke bottle is a 1920s-era four-fingered baseball glove made from sculpted fiberglass resin. The mitt is 26 feet high and 32 feet wide and is over 500 feet from home plate.

“The Garden” plaza is below the center field scoreboard. This uniquely San Franciscan area features over 4,000 square feet of raised-bed gardens growing healthy food served by two bistros. Along with the bistros, this area features tables, benches, and fire pits.26

Oracle’s Suite Level has 61 private luxury suites, each with capacities from 12 to 30 people.27

In 2013, the Gotham Club opened; it is a highly exclusive club for ex-ballplayers and VIPs. This club is behind the right-field out-of-town manual scoreboard28 and has its own entrance from the Portwalk. It is a “speakeasy-style” social club with a restaurant, bar, and pool hall.29

Notable Baseball Events

First Games

The first ballgame at Oracle was a preseason exhibition on April 1, 2000, attended by a sellout crowd. It was a warm evening in The City, about 71 degrees at gametime. The Giants beat the Milwaukee Brewers 8-3. Willie Mays threw the ceremonial first pitch to his godson, Barry Bonds.30

The first regular season game was played on April 11, 2000. Fittingly, the Giants’ home opener was against the rival Los Angeles Dodgers. It was a sunny afternoon for the 40,930 fans in attendance. In a pregame ceremony, soil collected from all other big-league ballparks was parachuted into the field, spread over the infield, and blessed by Catholic priest Floyd Lotito.31 Actor Danny Glover read an excerpt from “Field of Dreams,”32 Bobby McFerrin sang the National Anthem,33 four Navy jets did a flyover, and Magowan and Baer threw the ceremonial first pitches.34 The Dodgers won 6–5.35

Giants radio broadcaster Lon Simmons called the first inning of the game. This gave him a trifecta: Simmons had previously broadcast the home openers for the Giants on April 15, 1958 at Seals Stadium and at Candlestick Park on April 12, 1960.36

As of 2025, Oracle has hosted these other memorable baseball events:

2002 World Series: Despite winning two of the three games played at Oracle, the Giants lost the Series to the Anaheim Angels, dropping Game Six and Game Seven in Anaheim. The Angels’ Troy Glaus, who homered during Game Four at Oracle, was named the Series MVP.

Bonds’ 715th homer: Barry Bonds surpassed Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list on May 28, 2006. With a full-count, the two-run homer was hit to center off the Colorado Rockies’ Byung-Hyun Kim in the fourth inning. Final score: Rockies 6, Giants 3.

2007 All-Star Game: The Seattle Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki hit the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history. Suzuki was named the Midsummer Classic’s MVP as the American League defeated the National, 5-4. Vladimir Guerrero Sr. of the Los Angeles Angels won the Home Run Derby; his longest homer was 503 feet.

Bonds’ 756th home run: On August 7, 2007, he passed Hank Aaron for the most round-trippers in major-league history. The record-breaking solo home run, hit on a full count, was slammed to deep right-center in the fifth inning off Mike Bacsik of the Washington Nationals. The game was tied when the homer was hit, putting the Giants up 5-4, but the Nats prevailed. Washington had nine batters and four runs in the eighth and ultimately won 8-6.

First no-hitter at Oracle: The first no-no was thrown by the Giants’ Jonathan Sanchez against the San Diego Padres on July 10, 2009. Entering the game with a 2-8 record and a 5.30 ERA, he allowed only one Padres baserunner. Sanchez had 11 strikeouts and issued no walks.

World Baseball Classic: In March 2013, the semifinal and final rounds of the tournament were played at Oracle. The Dominican Republic beat Puerto Rico in the final by a score of 3-0.

2010, 2012, and 2014 World Series: In a five-year span, the Giants won three World Series titles. Although Oracle Park featured some exciting games, all three championships were clinched on the road. The three World Series trophies from the Oracle era are prominently displayed in a large case on the main concourse behind home plate.

In the 2010 World Series, San Francisco prevailed over the Texas Rangers four games to one. The first two games were played at Oracle. The Giants won both of those games decisively. Tim Lincecum was the Game One winner and Matt Cain won Game Two. Edgar Rentería was the Series MVP; he batted .412 with two homers. This was the Giants’ first championship since moving to San Francisco 52 years earlier.

The 2012 Series featured the only World Series sweep of the decade. The Giants beat the Detroit Tigers four games to none. The first two games were at Oracle. In Game One, Pablo Sandoval went 4-for-4 with three home runs, becoming the fourth player to hit three home runs in a World Series game and the first player with a three-homer game at Oracle in over 12 years. Game Two resulted in a 2-0 shutout of the Tigers with seven innings pitched by starter Madison Bumgarner, who gave up two hits while striking out eight. Sandoval was the Series MVP, batting 8-for-16.

In 2014, the Giants won a seven-game series against the Kansas City Royals. Games Three, Four, and Five were played at Oracle. The Royals won Game Three, 3-2; Jeremy Guthrie was the winning pitcher. In Game Four, San Francisco won by seven runs with offensive production from Hunter Pence, Joe Panik, Gregor Blanco, and Sandoval. The Giants shut out the Royals in Game Five with nine strong innings from Bumgarner, who yielded just four hits while striking out eight. On the strength of this performance, his Game One win, and his Game Seven contributions, Bumgarner was named the Series MVP. 

Cain’s perfect game: The 22nd perfect game in major-league history was tossed by Matt Cain on June 13, 2012. It was the first perfecto in New York / San Francisco Giants franchise history.

No-hitter by Lincecum: Tim Lincecum threw a no-hitter against the Padres on June 25, 2014, with six strikeouts and one walk. Lincecum was also productive at the plate with two hits and two runs. This was his second no-hitter; his first was also against the Friars on July 13, 2013, in San Diego.

Ishikawa’s NLCS walk-off: The Giants clinched their third NL pennant in five years when Travis Ishikawa slammed a 2-0 fastball37 into the right-field seats for a three-run homer, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in Game Five of the National League Championship Series, on October 16, 2014.

Scully calls his final game: On October 2, 2016, Vin Scully capped off his 67 years as the Dodgers’ broadcaster during a game where the Giants treated him to a classy sendoff. The home team clinched a wild-card berth on the last day of the regular season.

Mays Memorial: The most beloved Giant, Willie Mays, passed away on June 18, 2024, in Palo Alto, California. At 93, he was the oldest living Hall of Famer. On July 8, a public Celebration of Life was held at the ballpark (it was not a game day). Numerous dignitaries, baseball players, and everyday fans flooded into Oracle to honor the “Say Hey Kid,” considered by some to be the best baseball player of all time.  

Food

The Bay Area and the nearby Napa-Sonoma Wine Country are well known destinations for foodies. In keeping with the local culture where good food and wine are an important part of life, Oracle Park features a wide variety of fare with numerous ethnic food choices. Oracle fan favorites include Gilroy Garlic Fries, Crazy Crab’z sandwiches, Ghirardelli hot fudge sundaes, Tony’s Pizza, and a wide variety of craft beer offerings.38

Environmental Programs

In keeping with San Francisco’s eco-conscious ethos, the Giants divert 94% of the ballpark’s waste away from landfills with robust recycling and composting efforts.39 Major League Baseball grants the annual Green Glove Award to the franchise with the highest recycling rates. From 2008 through 2024, the Giants won the award 14 out of 17 times.40

In 2007, Oracle became the first major-league ballpark to install a solar system. To provide power for ballpark operations, 590 solar panels were installed, which is enough electricity to power over 5,000 homes.41

Mascot: Lou Seal

San Francisco Bay is known for seals and sea lions, and the minor-league team that preceded the Giants was called the Seals. So, it’s no surprise that the Giants’ mascot is a seal. Lou Seal debuted in 1997 and was inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2024. He wears his Giants hat backwards and sports goggle-like sunglasses. His full name is Luigi Francisco Seal.

Splash Hits

Although it was preceded by Montreal’s Jarry Park and its adjacent swimming pool, Oracle added a fresh spin on a certain type of home run: “splash hits.” These are deep homers to right that splash down in McCovey Cove.

For the first two seasons at Oracle, the Giants had a group of trained Portuguese water dogs that retrieved balls from the water. They were known as BARK (Baseball’s Aquatic Retrieval Korps). Funds were raised for animal shelters by auctioning off the splash-hit balls.42 During each Giants home game, McCovey Cove features fans floating around in kayaks and other boats hoping for a souvenir ball.

Only homers hit into the water by Giants are counted as splash hits, as officially displayed on the right-field wall. Through the end of the 2024 season, Giants batters had racked up 105 such blows. Number 105 was the first ever by a right-handed batter, Heliot Ramos. The first splash hit occurred on May 1, 2000, by Barry Bonds. Bonds is far and away the leader in the category, having launched 35 bombs into the Bay. Through 2024, visiting batters have hit 61 into the drink.43

The Neighborhood & Offsite Attractions

New ballparks usually boost attendance, but sometimes that lasts for only one to three years.44 Oracle has had an exceptionally long stretch of higher attendance. This is rooted not only in the ballpark itself but also the Giants’ on-field success. San Francisco set a National League record by selling out Oracle for 530 consecutive games from 2010 to July 17, 2017. The high, and fairly consistent, attendance at Giants games has created much growth and economic opportunity in the areas surrounding the ballpark. Oracle improved and revitalized the South Beach neighborhood. Prior to ballpark construction, this neighborhood and the ballpark site was a district of old, abandoned warehouses.45 Now, it’s a lively area featuring restaurants, bars, shops, and condominiums. “Cooperstown S.F.” is a scaled-down version of Cooperstown’s Baseball Hall of Fame located directly across King Street from the ballpark. Also on King Street is the “Willie Mays ‘Say Hey’ Experience.” This is an immersive museum about the life of Mays that features artifacts, videos, and photographic displays.

The Mission Rock neighborhood is a very short walk from Oracle, reached by crossing the Lefty O’Doul Bridge that spans the channel feeding McCovey Cove. As of 2025, the redevelopment of this mixed-use neighborhood is well underway with housing, restaurants, shops, and waterfront parks. The primary developer of this 28-acre neighborhood is a subsidiary of the Giants, known as Giants Development Services.46

Baseball fans strolling through Mission Rock may want to visit the corner of Maya Angelou Way and Toni Stone Crossing, where there is a statue of baseball pioneer Marcenia Lyle “Toni” Stone. Stone was the first woman to play professional baseball in the Negro Leagues.47

Non-Baseball Events

Although Oracle was built as a baseball-only facility, it is often used for other events. These have included movie nights, college commencement exercises, 5K runs, stand-up comedy, Cirque du Soleil performances, the San Francisco BBQ Festival, religious revivals, and the San Francisco Bacon and Beer Classic. 

Oracle has hosted numerous international soccer events, rugby, pickleball tournaments, college football’s Redbox Bowls and Foster Farms Bowls, along with pro football games (XFL and UFL).

During baseball offseasons, Oracle hosts the “Ballpark Back 9,” an amateur golf competition that allows entrants to make shots from tee box locations in the stands down to greens set up in the outfield. The 2024 event featured nine holes ranging from 63 yards to 154 yards.48

Many chart-topping music acts have performed at Oracle, including Bay Area bands Journey, Green Day, Huey Lewis and the News, and the Steve Miller Band.49

Public Address and Broadcasters

Bay Area native Ranel Brooks-Moon served as Oracle’s PA announcer from 2000 to 2024. The second full-time female PA announcer in Giants and Major League Baseball history, she went on to voice announcements in the popular video game, MLB The Show 25.50

The PA system often plays Journey’s Lights in the late innings, and Tony Bennett’s I Left My Heart in San Francisco is usually played after home-team victories.

Broadcasters Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper are NorCal fan favorites.51 Dave Flemming and the award-winning, longtime “Voice of the Giants,” Jon Miller52 also call the action on KNBR.

Spanish broadcasters Tito Fuentes, Erwin Higueros, and Carlos Orellana broadcast Los Gigantes games on KSFN.

More About Oracle Park

Reminiscent of the “knothole gangs” of the old-time ballparks, Oracle offers standing-room viewing, free of charge, behind right field. The free area is behind a chain-link fence under one of the ballpark’s arches along the McCovey Cove Portwalk. In this first-come-first-served area, 75 people at a time can watch up to three innings.53

Seagulls typically fly into Oracle around the ninth inning. Whether it’s a day game or at night, they come like clockwork for any leftover food. It’s theorized that they hear the seventh-inning stretch music and know the time is ripe. When they make their entry, the park even plays music to announce their arrival.54

Oracle has a longstanding “Balldudes and Balldudettes Program.” At each home game, two adults have the opportunity to wear Giants uniforms and gather foul balls that aren’t hit into the stands to give to children in the crowd.55

No cable cars go to Oracle Park, but there are many other transportation options: MUNI buses and streetcars; a Caltrain terminal a block away has rail service to and from San Jose; a BART (subway) station is about a 20-minute walk away on Montgomery Street; and on game days, passenger ferries come direct to McCovey Cove from Marin County (Larkspur), and the East Bay (Oakland and Alameda). Cyclists can take advantage of checking their bicycles with the Bike Valet. Although it is possible to drive to Oracle, parking is expensive in The City, so most fans leave their cars behind.

Oracle has been featured in movies including Fuller House, San Andreas, and Silicon Valley. The park was also featured in the series A Man on the Inside.56

Retired numbers of Giants players are displayed below the upper deck to the left of the left-field foul-pole.57

Oracle is considered a pitcher’s park. During the Oracle era, the Giants have emphasized pitching over offense to take advantage of the park’s pitcher-friendly attributes.

Conclusion

Oracle Park is consistently ranked as one of the top ballparks in North America, and in some rankings, it places higher than Fenway and Wrigley. Oracle is a modern park, but it is already considered hallowed ground by many baseball disciples.

Although Willie Mays never played at Oracle Park, he appeared there frequently as a treasured guest. His presence continues to be felt throughout the ballpark, and not only because of the park’s street address and the Mays statue in front of the main entrance. As an homage to “Number 24,” the main entrance features 24 palm trees, the Portwalk along McCovey Cove is approximately 24 feet wide, the Coke bottle in the left-field stands is tilted at a 24-degree angle,58 and the right-field wall is 24 feet high.59 The spirit of the “Forever Giant” permeates Oracle Park, as new generations of baseball fans enjoy the City by the Bay’s Ballpark by the Bay.

Last revised: October 6, 2025

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Ray Danner and edited by Rory Costello. The author thanks Kurt Blumenau for his assistance during the initial stage of review.

Sources and Photo Credits

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and SABR.org. Photos were taken by the author in 2024 and 2025.

Notes

1 Mays was the center fielder for the New York Giants from 1951 through 1957, and with the San Francisco Giants from 1958 through part of the 1972 season. He also played for the New York Mets for the latter part of the 1972 season, and the 1973 season. Considered a complete “five-tool” player, he was a 24-time All-Star and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.

2 “Candlestick Park,” thisgreatgame.com, accessed May 11, 2025, https://thisgreatgame.com/ballparks candlestick park/.

3 Lurie, a local real estate developer and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, purchased the team in 1976.

4 “Candlestick Park.” Magowan was CEO of the Safeway supermarket chain from 1979 until 1993, when he resigned to devote his time to the Giants organization. Magowan served as the team’s General Manager for over 15 years. He was passionate about baseball and its traditions. As a child in New York City, Magowan became a Giants fan, rooting for the New York Giants. As the driving force behind building Oracle Park — and because of his effective management of the Giants franchise — he was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2016. In 2019, the Giants honored him with a plaque on the team’s Wall of Fame. Richard Sandomir, “Peter Magowan, Giants Fan Turned Giants’ Owner, Is Dead at 76,” nytimes.com, January 28, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/obituaries/peter-magowan-dead.html.

5 In late 1992, Lurie sold the Giants to the Magowan group for $100 million. “Privately Built Pacific Bell Park a Curse to Other Teams,” Lawrence Journal – World (Associated Press), October 22, 2002, https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2002/oct/22/privately_built_pacific/.

6 Prior to Dodger Stadium, the last privately funded major-league ballpark was New York’s Yankee Stadium, which opened in 1923. Curt Smith, “Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles),” SABR.org, accessed July 15, 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/dodger-stadium-los-angeles/.

7 The financing breakdown included a $170 million bank loan; $172 from naming rights, other sponsorships, concession rights, and the sale of charter seats; along with $15 million in tax increment financing from San Francisco’s Redevelopment Agency. It is worth noting that although the ballpark was largely privately financed, the tax increment financing was essentially a subsidy for redevelopment from the city. Additionally, $80 million in public funds were used for infrastructure improvements in the ballpark area. One example of these improvements is a remodeled Caltrain terminal, a block away from the ballpark, for rail service from San Jose and other South Bay suburbs. Jon Gordon, “In San Francisco, the Giants Went Private For Their Stadium,” Minnesota Public Radio, May 14, 2004, https://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/05/14_gordonj_sanfranpark/.

8 Rick Delvecchio, “There Are Lots of Things to Do Even If You Don’t Watch the Game – Goal is to Provide Total Entertainment,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 11, 2000: BB4. The architectural design was done by HOK Sport (later called Populous), the construction was supervised by Alliance Building Partners, and the general contractors were Huber, Hunt, and Nichols, with Kajima Construction Services.

9 “Oracle Park Behind the Scenes Tour,” San Francisco Giants, accessed at the ballpark, March 28, 2025.

10 Edward Epstein and Steve Rubenstein, “A Whole New Ballgame – Giants Bat 1.000 on Opening Day – If You Forget Dodgers Eked Out Win,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 12, 2000: A1. Although many people agree with Baer’s sentiment regarding the quality of the park, some ballpark review websites have been critical of the often-overcrowded concourses, and the dark indoor concourses. Additionally, the Giants had a ballpark feature that was such a huge flop it didn’t last past the first season: Rusty the Mechanical Man. Rusty was a 14-foot-tall robot wearing a baseball uniform that would emerge above right field after big plays by the Giants. A couple of fan reactions from opening day: “Stupidest thing I’ve ever seen,” and “Gotta be the worst gimmick in baseball.” Bruce Jenkins, “Game Almost Backdrop To Ballpark’s Diversions,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 12, 2000: B1.

11 “Privately Built Pacific Bell Park a Curse to Other Teams.”

12 The University of California at Davis did a wind analysis by placing a 1/50th scale model of downtown San Francisco in the University’s wind tunnel. Two ballpark designs were tested. The one preferred by the architects, which provided better views of the city skyline from the stadium, was found to be even windier than Candlestick. The other design was determined to be about half as windy as Candlestick with the ballpark rotated about 90 degrees clockwise from the preferred design. The less-windy design is the one that was built. “Engineering: Taking the Wind Out of Baseball,” UC Davis Magazine, accessed January 23, 2025, https://www.ucdavis.edu/magazine/issues/win00/News_Baseball.html.

13 In 1977, the Oracle Corporation was founded in the Bay Area by Larry Ellison, who, as of July 2025, still holds a major stake in the company. Oracle sells software and cloud computing.

14 For continuity within this article, the ballpark is referred to as “Oracle” during the years prior to 2019.

15 McCovey was known for belting homers to deep right field at Candlestick Park. He played for 22 years in the major leagues (1959 – 1980), including 19 seasons with the Giants. The 6-foot-4-inch first baseman, who was nicknamed “Stretch,” was a six-time All-Star. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986.

16 The Wall of Fame was unveiled in 2008 as part of the celebration of the Giants’ 50th year in San Francisco.

17 “Willie Mays,” From Pitch to Plith: The Sporting Statues Project, accessed July 15, 2025, https://offbeat.group.shef.ac.uk/statues/STUS_Mays_Willie_1.htm.

18 The Mays, Cepeda, Perry, McCovey, and Marichal statues were completed by sculptor, William Behrends. The Seal sculpture was created by Alfredo Osorio. Inside the ballpark, on the View Level concourse, there are LEGO statues of batterymates Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner. Over 50,000 LEGO bricks were used to create likenesses of the two players. “LEGO Statues,” Oracle Park Information Guide, mlb.com, accessed January 18, 2025, https://www.mlb.com/giants/ballpark/information/guide.

19 The Willie Mac Award has been granted annually since 1980. It is given to the Giants player who best represents the spirit of Willie McCovey, based on a vote by teammates. Past winners include Jack Clark, Joe Morgan, Mike Krukow, J.T. Snow, Bengie Molina, Buster Posey, Matt Chapman, and many others. Prior to his death in 2018, McCovey presented the awards personally at pregame ceremonies. “Willie Mac Award,” baseball-almanac.com, accessed July 14, 2025, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/awards/willie_mac_award.shtml.

20 “Artwork in the Park,” Oracle Park Information Guide, mlb.com, accessed January 18, 2025, https://www.mlb.com/giants/ballpark/information/guide. Outside of the ballpark, there are rows of commemorative bricks purchased by fans when the park first opened. Among them is the family of Brandon Crawford. Crawford was 13 years old when the brick was acquired. A Bay Area native, Crawford went on to play shortstop for the Giants from 2011 through 2023. The three-time All-Star is the only Giants player that has a commemorative brick featuring his name. Brock Keeling, “Oracle Park: The Ultimate Guide to San Francisco’s Ballpark,” sf.curbed.com, July 23, 2019, https://sf.curbed.com/2018/3/20/17030006/att-park-oracle-giants-map-seating-food-transportation.

21 “Clock Towers,” Oracle Park Information Guide.

22 Douglas Zimmerman, “Report: SF Giants Considering Removing Triples Alley,” sfgate.com, April 16, 2019, https://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/report-moving-giants-fences-triples-alley-13771707.php.

23 After most Sunday day games, children age 14 and under can run the bases. “Kids Run the Bases,” Oracle Park Information Guide.

24 The wiffleball field is 50-feet by 50-feet and features a video board that replays the kids’ hits.

25 Additionally, a foghorn sounds and water jets on top of the right-field wall spray water streams upward after each Giants home run.

26 Cole Shoemaker, “Ballpark Revisit: San Francisco’s Oracle Park,” ballparkratings.com, August 26, 2023, https://ballparkratings.com/ballpark-revisit-san-franciscos-oracle-park/.

27 “Oracle Suite Level,” Oracle Park Information Guide.

28 Oracle is one of a handful of major-league parks that features a traditional manual operated scoreboard, requiring two or three employees per shift.

29 “Gotham Club,” Oracle Park Information Guide.

30 The fanbase had been waiting decades for a better ballpark and they were in a celebratory mood in the spring of 2000. “It [was] as if this was the real New Year’s,” said Giants fan Dave Cordon. “Like this night is really the beginning of the 21st century.” Carl Nolte, “Ballpark by the Bay – It’s Awesome! – Fans Delirious with Joy on Opening Night at Pac Bell Park,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 1, 2000: A17.

31 Mark Camps, Ron Kroichick, Henry Schulman, and David Steele, “Notebook – A Special Collection of Dirt,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 12, 2000: B6.

32 Epstein and Rubenstein, “A Whole New Ballgame – Giants Bat 1.000 on Opening Day – If You Forget Dodgers Eked Out Win.”

33 Ron Kroichick, “Pacific Bell Park – Opening Day Firsts,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 12, 2000: B6.

34 Ron Kroichick, “Pacific Bell Park – It All Started With a Single to Right,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 12, 2000: B6.

35 Oracle Park’s first home run was hit by 35-year-old Dodger Kevin Elster in the third inning. Elster had a three-homer game, launching dingers in the fifth and eighth innings as well. The first home run for the Giants came from Barry Bonds, who over the next several years would make the ballpark his personal playground, belting 160 homers at Oracle. “2025 San Francisco Giants Media Guide,” San Francisco Giants, page 461, accessed July 12, 2025, https://archive.org/details/san-francisco-giants-2025-media-guide-c/page/n459/mode/2up. San Francisco’s Kirk Rueter threw the first official pitch at Oracle (he also threw the first offering at the April 1 exhibition game).

Other Oracle Park firsts from the first regular-season game include:

• First hit: a single by L.A.’s Devon White. (White also had the first stolen base.)
• First double: by Bonds (with this double, Bonds also had the first RBI, batting in Bill Mueller).
• First triple: by the Giants’ Doug Mirabelli (a stand-up triple).
• First run: Mueller. (Mueller also had the Giants’ first hit at Oracle.)
• First win: Chan Ho Park.
• First loss: Rueter.
• First save: Jeff Shaw.

36 Steve Kroner, “TV Caught Scenery, Special Moments,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 12, 2000: B9. A fan-favorite sportscaster in the Bay Area, Simmons was a part-time Giants broadcaster during 1996 through 2002. He had a long history of doing play-by-play for the Giants, Oakland A’s and San Francisco 49ers. His well-known home run call was “Tell It Goodbye!” In 2004, he received the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award.

37 Maria Guardado, “The 8 Best Moments in Oracle Park History,” mlb.com, December 1, 2021, https://www.mlb.com/news/oracle-park-best-moments.

38 In the 2024 season, Oracle food concessionaires served 523,204 hot dogs, 151,489 servings of garlic fries, and 134,476 crab sandwiches. “2024 Stats Are Here,” San Francisco Giants, February 8, 2025. https://giantswrapped.turnstyle.fan/single?partnerId=it-20250208-12550093-sf-1-A&utm

39 “Green Initiatives – Recycling,” Oracle Park Information Guide.

40 “Green Glove Award,” baseball-almanac.com, accessed June 10, 2025, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/awards/Green_Glove_Award.shtml.

41 “Green Initiatives – Solar Power,” Oracle Park Information Guide. In 2010, Oracle became the first major-league ballpark to receive LEED Silver Certification for Existing Buildings, Operations, and Maintenance; in 2019, the ballpark was awarded Platinum status. Oracle has also implemented several water conservation programs. One example: By using an infield mix of 50% sand, 25% silt, and 25% clay (instead of the previously-used mix of 66% sand, 20% silt, and 14% clay), a 33% water-use reduction was realized, due to the increased clay.

42 “Oracle Park,” Baseball-Reference Bullpen, accessed January 5, 2025, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Oracle_Park.

43 “Oracle Park Behind the Scenes Tour.”

44 Shoemaker, “Ballpark Revisit: San Francisco’s Oracle Park.”

45 There was no displacement of residents to build the ballpark. “Oracle Park Behind the Scenes Tour.”

46 Susan Slusser and Laura Waxmann, “Giants Building More Than a Roster,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 19, 2025: A1. The Giants are part of a growing trend of professional sports teams investing in real estate, especially adjacent to their stadiums. This allows the franchise to better control the areas around their sports venues, and it provides additional revenue opportunities.

47 Infielder Toni Stone (1921-1996) joined the semi-pro Twin Cities Colored Giants as a 16-year-old. Later, she played professionally with the San Francisco Sea Lions. While with the Sea Lions, she held her own with the men, batting .280. She also played with other professional Negro League teams including the Kansas City Monarchs.

48 “The Ballpark Back 9,” San Francisco Giants, mlb.com, accessed January 5, 2025, https://www.mlb.com/giants/ballpark/events/golf.

49 “Oracle Park Concerts – Updated for 2025,” concertarchives.org, accessed January 18, 2025, https://www.concertarchives.org/venues/oracle-park. Also taking the stage: Shakira, Lady Gaga, Fleetwood Mac, Carrie Underwood, Ed Sheeran, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Foreigner, Alicia Keys, Bruno Mars, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, the Beach Boys, Rod Stewart, Justin Bieber, Elton John, Billy Joel, Brooks & Dunn, Mary J. Blige, George Strait, the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, Tim McGraw, and many others. 

50 Alex Simon, “Beloved SF Giants and Bay Area Voice Finds New Baseball Home,’ sfgate.com, March 23, 2025, https://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/sf-giants-renel-brooks-moon-back-in-baseball-20185692.php. Carolyn McArdle was hired as Oracle’s new PA announcer in July 2024. “2025 San Francisco Giants Media Guide,” San Francisco Giants, page 452, accessed July 12, 2025, https://archive.org/details/san-francisco-giants-2025-media-guide-c/page/n451/mode/2up.

51 Keeling, “Oracle Park: The Ultimate Guide to San Francisco’s Ballpark.”

52 Miller’s numerous awards include winning the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award in 2010.

53 Keeling, “Oracle Park: The Ultimate Guide to San Francisco’s Ballpark.”

54 Keeling, “Oracle Park: The Ultimate Guide to San Francisco’s Ballpark.”

55 “Balldudes and Balldudettes,” Oracle Park Information Guide. Prior to assuming their on-field duties, Balldudes and Balldudettes go through an application process and attend Balldude Camp.

56 “Northern California Movie Locations,” California.com, accessed January 18, 2025, https://www.california.com/location-scouting-northern-california-film-locations-to-add-to-your-todo-list/.

57 As of 2025, the following numbers have been retired by the New York and San Francisco Giants: 3 – Bill Terry, 4 – Mel Ott, 11 – Carl Hubbell, 20 – Monte Irvin, 22 – Will Clark, 24 – Willie Mays, 25 – Barry Bonds, 27 – Juan Marichal, 30 – Orlando Cepeda, 36 – Gaylord Perry, and 44 – Willie McCovey. Additionally, Jackie Robinson’s number 42 has been retired throughout baseball. The Giants’ display of retired uniforms includes two “NY” signs in honor of Christy Mathewson and John McGraw; these two New York Giants played in an era prior to uniform numbers. “2025 San Francisco Giants Media Guide,” San Francisco Giants, page 390, accessed July 12, 2025, https://archive.org/details/san-francisco-giants-2025-media-guide-c/page/n389/mode/2up.

58 “Oracle Park Behind the Scenes Tour.”

59 Timothy Malcolm, Baseball Road Trips, (Berkeley, California: Avalon Travel – Hachette Book Group, 2021), 637. (ISBN: 139781640498044)

In 1911, Angie Tullar, a prominent resident of Wellsville, New York, gave her community the use of a parcel of land for public recreation. Over time, this generous donation provided the residents of her small village with a front-row seat to watch baseball players ranging from Ty Cobb to Tony Conigliaro.

Tullar Field, a ballpark built on the donated land, hosted Class D minor-league play in the Interstate League from 1914 through 1916, and again in the Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York (PONY) League and New York-Pennsylvania League almost continuously between 1942 and 1965.1 Five big-league teams affiliated with Wellsville over the years, and four played exhibitions there.2

The grandstand and dugouts from Tullar Field’s professional period were torn down soon after the minor leagues left town, and a subsequent highway project lopped a corner off the property. As of 2025, though, a softball and baseball field still stood where the pros once played, continuing the site’s long history of public recreation.

The story of Tullar Field began in the early 20th century when Wellsville, formerly a center for lumbering, was enjoying an economic boom driven by oil production.3 The village in Allegany County, eight miles north of the Pennsylvania border, had seen its population rise from 2,049 in 1880 to 4,382 in 1910.4

Before his death in 1896, Angie Tullar’s husband, Eugene, had reportedly invested in oil; he’d also operated a successful hardware store for many years.5 Eugene left his widow in a position to be philanthropic. She funded the addition of a maternity annex to Wellsville’s Jones Memorial Hospital, as well as college scholarships for local students.6

The Tullars’ son, Bayard, was a Cornell University-educated lawyer.7 He was also a baseball enthusiast who had pitched, managed, and umpired at the local level.8 By some tellings, Bayard convinced his mother to donate a proper athletic field. In other versions of the story, Angie took it upon herself to arrange for a field after observing her son’s baseball activities.9

Either way, sources agree that the donation was made in 1911, with the name “Tullar Field” appearing in newspaper stories as early as June 2 of that year.10 During its decades in professional baseball, the property was not formally owned by the village of Wellsville. Rather, it was managed on the community’s behalf by a commission whose members over the decades included Bayard Tullar and his son, also named Bayard.11

Angie Tullar’s chosen site on South Main Street proved to have one significant drawback. The property is located on a bend in Dyke Creek, a brook that joins the Genesee River a short distance away. Prolonged heavy rainfall put Tullar Field under water in June 1919, February 1939, May 1945, May 1946, June 1947, and October 1955, and came close in March 1964. After pro baseball departed, the park and surrounding areas were also flooded by the devastating Hurricane Agnes in June 1972.12

The park worked fine in most weather conditions, though, and it quickly gained momentum as a baseball destination. The commission in charge of the field began booking traveling teams, including Black teams, as early as 1912. A grandstand was in place the same year, although it was replaced in 1916 with a structure with seating for more than 1,000.13

Just three years after the creation of Tullar Field, Wellsville landed in a professional league. The Interstate League, like the later PONY and New York-Penn circuits, was made up of communities in New York and Pennsylvania.14 A planned team in Niagara Falls was deemed too far away from the other five communities. That franchise was offered to Wellsville instead, which joined the league less than a month before play began.15

Advertisement for the first Interstate League game at Tullar Field, Allegany County (Wellsville, New York) Reporter, May 19, 1914: 7.

The first professional game at Tullar Field took place on a wet and overcast May 22, 1914. Wellsville made it a memorable one, beating Hornell, 7–5, in front of about 1,200 fans. The Wellsville Daily Reporter called the game “a great success” despite poor weather, noting that both teams had been so recently organized that neither had had time to play preseason practice games.16 The Wellsville team finished fifth in the six-team league with a 41–60 record. Manager Elmer Bliss, who had played two games with the American League’s New York Highlanders in 1903 and 1904, was the only team member to appear in the majors.

Wellsville claimed the 1915 playoff championship in a dispute with Olean, then slipped back to fourth place in 1916, a season in which the Interstate League began with eight teams and ended with five.17 Catcher Ray Kennedy, a 1916 pickup from Erie, was drafted by the St. Louis Browns late that season and went straight from Tullar Field to the majors.18 The Interstate League planned a four-team season in 1917, with Wellsville included. But the collapse of the Bradford, Pennsylvania, team put an end to the league and Tullar Field’s first stint as a professional ballpark.19

As proof that Tullar Field had put the village on the baseball map, Wellsville fans got to enjoy three visits by big-league teams in this period. On July 5, 1916, Hughie Jennings’ Detroit Tigers beat the Wellsville team, 9–4. Cobb, the nine-time defending AL batting champion, pitched the final four innings, surrendering all of Wellsville’s runs.20

The St. Louis Browns followed the Tigers to Tullar on August 14, 1916, winning 4–1 before a crowd of 2,000. Spike wound injuries from a previous game kept future Hall of Famer George Sisler out of the Browns’ lineup. Browns manager Fielder Jones had played in the region as a young man; his hometown of Shinglehouse, Pennsylvania, is about 20 miles from Wellsville.21

For excitement, neither game approached the events of June 18, 1917, when John McGraw brought his New York Giants to town. McGraw had found his first professional success as a member of a Wellsville team in 1890, and the village pulled out all the stops to greet him, including a large parade and “a delegation of the prettiest young ladies in the city” to accompany the Giants’ players and traveling party.22 A crowd reported at more than 4,000 people filled the ballpark past capacity to watch the Giants beat a picked team of locals, 13–3.23

After that, Tullar Field settled into a quarter-century without pro baseball—but not without activity. The ballpark was used for amateur baseball and football games, including by St. Bonaventure University’s football team.24 One amateur game in 1937 reportedly drew 3,000 fans, a sizable crowd by the standards of the ballpark.25 Other activities included high school track meets, boxing matches to entertain the unemployed during the Great Depression, a Boy Scout jamboree, and an ice-skating rink erected in cold weather.26

The village’s opportunities to use Tullar Field expanded further in August 1936, when permanent lights were installed at a cost of $7,000.27 Events held under the lights included a regional political rally in September 1940 in support of Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie. Willkie wasn’t there; US Congressman Bruce Barton of New York was the featured speaker, addressing a crowd estimated at 4,000 to 7,000 people.28

Local newspaper ads in August 1937 promoted a game that was to have been played at Tullar Field on August 10 between Black teams from Detroit and Indianapolis.29 Retrosheet’s records cast some doubt on the promotion: They show that the Indianapolis Indians of the Negro American League played in Dayton, Ohio, that night. In any event, two rounds of torrential rain that afternoon caused significant property damage in Wellsville, flooding streets and basements and interrupting municipal water supply for some residents.30 Available sources give no proof of any game involving Black teams in Wellsville that night.31

More intriguing is an announced matchup of the Negro National League’s Homestead Grays and Newark Eagles at Tullar Field four years later almost to the day, on August 13, 1941. Pregame advertising listed players including Monte Irvin, Buck Leonard, Vic Harris, and Leon Day.32 The night’s weather in nearby communities was described as uncomfortably cold and windy, but not wet; a ballgame in Olean, about 35 miles west, was played on schedule.33 But once again, available newspapers—including those in the ProQuest database of Black publications—made no reference to either a game result or a cancellation.34 Absent firm proof that the game was played, one must assume that it wasn’t.

Other attractions were in store for Wellsville baseball fans in 1942. The World Series champion New York Yankees, looking to replace a Class D team in a defunct league in Maryland, scouted Batavia and Wellsville as possible replacements.35 Wellsville won out, and PONY League officials voted to admit the village on February 26.36 Improvements made to Tullar Field included locker room upgrades and a new fence.37

After a 26-year wait, pro baseball returned to Tullar Field on April 30, 1942, in front of 2,500 fans. Hornell spoiled the big day by beating the home team, 8–4.38 They weren’t in the Opening Day lineup, but future Yankees Jerry Coleman and Charlie Silvera called Tullar Field home that season en route to collecting a combined 12 World Series championships. Wellsville finished the season tied for fourth place with a 65–60 record, drawing 29,565 fans and turning a small profit.39 (Tullar Field’s single-season attendance record was set in 1947, when a Boston Red Sox farm team drew 54,442 fans.)40

While information is sparse on Tullar Field’s dimensions during its first pro stint, a news story from just before the 1942 season gives a hint of the park’s size at that time. The story mentions batting-practice home runs being hit 330 feet to right field, 353 to center field, and 338 to left—implying, though not stating, that those were the marked distances.41 Four aerial photos of the park taken between 1952 and 1963 show a field layout not tremendously longer to straightaway center than down the lines, but with a deeper bulge in right-center field.42 A story in 1961 cited the center-field distance as 354 feet.43 The exterior of the park was ringed by tall elm trees.44

The snug confines of what one newspaper called “tight little Tullar Field” made a no-hitter a challenge, but several pitchers managed it during the PONY and New York-Penn era.45 They were:

• Ken Fremming of Jamestown on August 27, 1947;
• Lou Blackmore of Wellsville against Lockport on August 31, 1948, in an 11-inning, 7–3 loss that included 17 walks and a delay for a skunk on the field;
• Dick Sherrow of Wellsville against Geneva on September 2, 1960; and
• Ernie Abels of Wellsville against Jamestown on June 6, 1965.46

Also worth mentioning here is Sonny Gilman of Wellsville High School, who struck out 14 of the 16 batters he faced in a cold-shortened, five-inning no-no against Alfred-Almond High in April 1956.47

Tullar Field’s seating capacity, between grandstand and bleachers, was variously listed as 2,000 to 2,500.48 A crowd of 2,622 on Merchants Night on June 27, 1956, was hailed at the time as a new record for the ballpark—perhaps by people who hadn’t been in the crush to see John McGraw and the Giants in 1917.49

To return to the Yankee era, the parent club drew 2,135 to Tullar Field on June 29, 1943, for the last known big-league exhibition in Wellsville. Yankees starter Tommy Byrne threw a complete-game five-hitter, while the big-leaguers abused their farmhands for 24 hits in a 19–2 laugher.50 Perhaps the next most memorable moment from the Yankee affiliation took place on August 9, 1944, when Wellsville Mayor Thomas Martin and members of the Yankees had to protect umpire Leo Fournier from a raging mob after a disputed third-strike call in a close loss.51

The Yankees held their Wellsville affiliation until 1946. They were succeeded by:

• The Boston Red Sox (1947-48);
• Unaffiliated teams (1949, 1951);
• The Washington Senators (1950);
• The St. Louis Browns (1952);
• The Milwaukee Braves (1953-1961); and
• The Red Sox again (1963-65).

Wellsville did not field a professional team in 1962.

Fan favorites in the first decade of PONY League ball at Tullar Field included Cuban outfielder Angel Scull—once described as “the most popular player ever to wear Wellsville flannels”52—and Jim Greengrass, a Central New Yorker who joined the team at age 16 in 1944, hit .349 the following season, and eventually played five seasons of big-league ball.53 Pitcher Dick Littlefield went 13–4 with a 1.97 ERA in 1947 en route to the majors, where he pitched against Greengrass.54

Baseball at Tullar Field peaked under the Braves, when managers included former Philadelphia Phillies infielder and future big-league coach Alex Monchak and players included future major-leaguers Phil Niekro,55 Bill Robinson, Elrod Hendricks, Don Nottebart, Vern Handrahan, and Merritt Ranew. The Braves won four straight regular-season championships from 1956 to 1959, also winning the postseason playoffs in 1956 and ‘59.

Some of their finest performances came from players who made the majors briefly or not at all, including:

• Third baseman Ted Sepkowski (.339/37/145 in 1953; .377/45/144 in ‘54)56;
• Third baseman Dick Selinger (league-leading 100 RBIs in 1957);
• Pitcher Luis DeLeon57 (17–5, 2.36, with 19 complete games in 20 starts in 1957);
• First baseman Corky Withrow (league-leading 32 HRs and 142 RBIs in 1958);
• Pitcher Ed Banach (13–1, 1.92 in 1958);
• Outfielder Marcial Allen (.356 and tied for the league lead with 92 RBIs, 1959); and
• Pitcher Bennie Griggs (a league-leading 21 wins and 21 complete games in 1959).

The Braves era also generated a heartwarming story in 1956, when fans took up a collection to support outfielder Joe Edgley and his wife, Lil, who had just given birth to a boy. The total donation of $135 paid the family’s hospital bill.58

The success of the Braves and their individual stars didn’t make the turnstiles spin at Tullar Field, though. Attendance reached 45,799 in 1955 and then kept dropping—to 30,470 in 1956, 24,970 in 1958, 21,806 in 1960, and 17,385 in 1961, for a decline of 62 percent over just seven seasons.59

Wellsville’s challenges mirrored those in towns across America as television, air conditioning, and other things offered new leisure-time options. In 1949, 448 minor-league teams operated across 59 leagues; by 1963 the minors had shrunk to 129 teams across 18 leagues.60 Wellsville faced additional pressure as one of the smallest communities in the minors, with fewer than 6,000 village residents in 1960.61 It was a sign of the times when Wellsville Braves officials asked the local Board of Education for financial help in May 1960, reasoning that—since the school district used Tullar Field for football and baseball games—it should chip in for maintenance.62

“KEEP AN INDUSTRY IN WELLSVILLE / Support the Wellsville Braves,” newspaper ads challenged in 1961.63 The call to action didn’t work, as the Braves left at year’s end. The Wellsville Daily Reporter described the Braves’ last home game, an 11–8 loss to Olean on August 31, as “probably the last [New York-Penn] game in Wellsville history.”64 In another example of the season’s frustrations, the traveling Kansas City Monarchs, with legendary Satchel Paige, were booked to play the Detroit Stars at Tullar on August 16. But Paige was a no-show, reportedly because of an ailing child, and the game was described as “a hoax” and “a farce” that ended after seven innings when both teams walked off the field.65

Tullar Field, without pro baseball in 1962, suffered from vandalism and decay.66 The biggest event of the year was a re-election rally in late October for New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who had the misfortune to speak at night in snowy 29-degree weather. Some 900 people came to Tullar Field anyway.67 Religious films produced by the Rev. Billy Graham also became an annual fixture at Tullar Field for several years, with 800 people attending showings in July and August 1962.68

The Red Sox gave Tullar Field a three-season reprieve in December 1962, relocating their New York-Penn affiliate from Olean.69 The ballpark received upgrades before the 1963 season that included an expanded home clubhouse, repairs to a vandalized entrance, new paint, and new screening in front of the first-base bleachers.70 One thing missing was beer, because no alcohol could be sold at Tullar Field.71

Wellsville’s new team fared well in 1963, finishing in second place with a 73–57 record, before slipping to third place (70–60) in 1964 and fourth (62–64) in 1965.72 Three future big-leaguers set off offensive fireworks in 1963. Conigliaro hit .363 with 24 homers and 74 RBIs, earning Rookie of the Year honors;73 George Scott went .293/15/74; and Joe Foy hit .350 in limited duty. The next season, Carmen Fanzone hit .386 in 82 games, while Bill Schlesinger—who had a single at-bat in the majors the following year—lit up New York-Penn pitching to the tune of .341, 37 homers, and 117 RBIs.

Reveling in their home bandbox, the Red Sox set a league record of 153 homers in 1963, then blasted past it with 192 in 1964.74 Visiting teams enjoyed it too, as Tullar Field played host to a rash of offensive outbursts in its final seasons:

• During the Braves’ last year, the Braves and Geneva Redlegs combined for eight homers on June 4, 1961. Geneva won, 16–7.75
• On May 14, 1963, the Wellsville Red Sox and Erie Sailors hit 10 total homers in a 13–11 Wellsville win.76
• The Red Sox and Binghamton Triplets went deep a combined nine times on May 27, 1964, in a 16–11 Triplets victory. “A strong breeze blowing out to center” was credited for the outburst.77
• The Red Sox and Geneva Senators combined for seven homers, including two grand slams and four homers by Wellsville in the same inning (the bottom of the second) in a 24–15 Wellsville win on May 20, 1965.78
• The Red Sox and Triplets clouted eight homers on July 26, 1965—three by Wellsville’s Jerry Dorsch—as Binghamton came out on top, 17–16.79

Pitchers occasionally evened the ledger in dramatic fashion, perhaps because batters were busy swinging from the heels. In Tullar Field’s final two seasons, a pair of pitchers each struck out 20 batters in a game there. Jamestown’s Jack Nutter accomplished the feat in a 7–3 win on May 15, 1964, and Wellsville’s Cecil Robinson struck out 20 Auburn Mets on June 4, 1965, but lost a 3–2 heartbreaker on a late home run.80 Wellsville and Batavia batters also set a new New York-Penn record with 35 strikeouts in a 13-inning game on August 9, 1964.81

This anything-can-happen style of baseball didn’t draw fans, though. The Red Sox’ season attendance never came close to past levels, topping 20,000 only once in three seasons. It peaked at 20,183 in 1964, when the team reportedly finished with a small profit, then sputtered to a league-low 16,377 in 1965.82

Problems with the ballpark’s structure also emerged. In July 1963, a state inspector told Tullar Field’s commissioners that the grandstand needed repair and modification, including wider aisles. These changes would not only require significant investment, but would reduce the park’s seating capacity by up to one-third.83 The following month, Tullar Field’s failing septic facilities were blamed for a powerful stench, leading to a suggestion that the restrooms be closed.84 Some of Tullar Field’s aisles and stairs were widened in the lead-up to the 1965 season; news coverage is silent on the resolution of the park’s septic problems.85

The end for pro baseball at Tullar Field came in a one-two punch at the end of August 1965. On August 29, Red Sox officials announced plans to transfer their New York-Penn team to Oneonta, New York, the following season. Ed Kenney, Boston’s assistant farm director, said Wellsville was “just too small a town, and the potential drawing power of a team is limited. We here feel that it would just be a continual struggle each year to keep an operation going there.”86

The final pro game at Tullar Field took place the following night. An eighth-inning sacrifice fly by Wellsville second baseman Tom Moorman brought home left fielder Jim Beamer with the deciding run in a 4–3 Red Sox victory over the visiting Batavia Pirates. Future Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star Manny Sanguillén, a 21-year-old rookie, appeared as an unsuccessful pinch-hitter for Batavia. News reports did not specify how many fans turned out.87 Scheduled games on August 31 and September 1, the latter a doubleheader, were washed out by rain and not rescheduled.88

The year 1966 passed with more decay and vandalism, the theft of public-address gear from the press box, and a condemnation order for the grandstand. In late December officials announced that the commission in charge of Tullar Field would turn over its title to the village. Officials planned to combine Tullar Field with adjacent property and build new fire, police, and recreational facilities.89

In what must have been a bittersweet moment, Bayard C. Tullar—son of Bayard the ballplaying attorney, grandson of Angie, and last president of the Tullar Field Association—was pictured on the front page of the Wellsville newspaper on January 6, 1967, standing on the park’s infield as he handed the deed to Tullar Field to Mayor Robert Gardner.90 The village didn’t dawdle: By the end of that month, the decrepit grandstand and dugouts had been razed.91

The police and fire stations were built in 1970-71 and a long-planned four-lane highway—New York State Route 417—sliced off one of the property’s edges in 1977.92 But the core field area was not built on, and despite poor conditions, Tullar Field remained in use for amateur sports events, with lights and portable grandstands in place.93

As part of celebrations of America’s bicentennial, the park hosted an ecumenical religious service on July 4, 1976.94 In the mid-’70s the village also offered Tullar Field as a site for Halloween shaving-cream fights, with doughnuts and hot chocolate provided by police and a local supermarket. The youth of Wellsville had taken to using shaving cream for Halloween pranks, and officials hoped to contain the horseplay to one location.95

Tullar Field got a new lease on life in 1979, when a local bank, First Trust National Bank, funded a thorough $10,000 renovation for softball use. The younger Bayard Tullar, again following in his father’s footsteps, was a member of the bank’s Board of Directors. The project included the installation of permanent seating and dugouts. “It belongs to all of us,” Deputy Mayor Donald Ludden said. “Let’s use it together.”96

As of 2024, the field still had a softball-style all-dirt infield, though a roundup of local sports facilities described it as a “full-size baseball field” with concessions, bleachers, trash bins, parking and restrooms.97 Pro baseball is gone, but legends are still being created there. In June 2024, the Lady Lions softball team of Wellsville High School celebrated the placement of a plaque at Tullar Field commemorating their recently won state championship.98

Advertisement for what would have been one of the last professional games at Tullar Field, scheduled for August 31, 1965. The game was rained out, rescheduled for September 1, rained out again, and never played; the park hosted its final game on August 30. From the Wellsville Daily Reporter, August 27, 1965: 3.

Acknowledgments

This story was reviewed by Rory Costello and Abigail Miskowiec and fact-checked by members of the SABR BioProject factchecking team.

Sources and photo credit

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for general player, team and season data, as well as numerous news stories on Newspapers.com, FultonHistory.com, and NYSHistoricNewspapers.org.

Undated aerial photo of Tullar Field used by permission of the Allegany County (New York) Historical Society (http://alleganyhistory.org).

Notes

1 Wellsville did not host a New York-Penn League team in 1962. Also, Wellsville’s teams operated at Class D from 1942 to 1961, then moved to Class A from 1963 to 1965 following a structural reorganization of the minor leagues.

2 In December 2020, Major League Baseball announced that seven Black baseball leagues that operated between 1920 and 1948 would be considered major leagues. The Negro American League between 1937 and 1948 and the Negro National League of 1933 through 1948 were among the seven leagues. “MLB Officially Designates the Negro Leagues as ‘Major League,’” MLB.com, posted December 16, 2020, https://www.mlb.com/press-release/press-release-mlb-officially-designates-the-negro-leagues-as-major-league.

3 “History,” Village of Wellsville website, accessed December 2024, https://www.wellsvilleny.com/history.html; John Loyd, “Wellsville Part 1: The Heart of Allegheny County,” Olean Times Herald, June 9, 2009, https://www.oleantimesherald.com/news/wellsville-part-1-the-heart-of-allegany-county/article_1dfbdce5-e7b5-5411-b28a-a6a55a23de86.html.

4 1880 US Census, Volume 1, 264, https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1880/vol-01-population/1880_v1-11.pdf; 1910 US Census, Volume 1, 93, https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1910/volume-1/volume-1-p3.pdf. As a side note, two independently governed communities in Allegany County, New York, share the name Wellsville: the village where Tullar Field is located and the larger town that surrounds it. The population figures given in this paragraph are for the village.

5 Clyde P. Allan, “Horse and Buggy Wellsville Was Proud and Prejudiced,” Wellsville (New York) Daily Reporter, June 29, 1957: 5B; “Angie Tullar Is In Her 90th Year,” Whitesville (New York) News, March 27, 1930: 1. Angie Tullar’s husband was identified as E.B. Tullar in advertisements for his store, but online sources confirm that his first name was Eugene, including 1880 U.S. Census records accessed through Familysearch.org in December 2024, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZZM-HPR.

6 Ruth Brown, “Roaring 20s Saw Hospital Converted from Residence,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, January 7, 1966: 4; “Angie Tullar Is In Her 90th Year.”

7 “Vicinity News,” Buffalo Enquirer, July 19, 1898: 2; “Personals,” Allegany County (Wellsville, New York) Reporter, December 27, 1895: 8, https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=talr18951227-01.1.8&srpos=1&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN———-.

8 “‘This Is Great Age,’ Says Woman, 91,” Buffalo Evening News, March 24, 1931: 1; “Base Ball for Wellsville,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, July 30, 1907: 8, https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=wdr19070730-01.1.8&srpos=1&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN———-; “Wellsville Won,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, August 27, 1903: 8, https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=wdr19030827-01.1.8&srpos=2&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN———-.

9 Allan, “Horse and Buggy Wellsville Was Proud and Prejudiced”; “‘This Is Great Age,’ Says Woman, 91.” Both articles were written well after Angie Tullar made her gift. The latter may be more trustworthy, as it directly quotes Bayard Tullar as saying, “Mother believed we needed a field – and she arranged to get one. That’s all there is to it.”

10 “Turbine Boys Win,” Allegany County Reporter, June 2, 1911: 3, https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=talr19110602-01.1.3&srpos=1&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN———-.

11 “Wellsville Opens Its Drive for Tullar Field Lighting,” Buffalo News, April 9, 1936: 23; “Surrenders Deed” (photo and caption), Wellsville Daily Reporter, January 6, 1967: 1.

12 This list might not be exhaustive. “Wellsville Interested in Amateur Baseball,” Buffalo News, June 17, 1919: 20; “Brief Summary of Events,” Potter (Coudersport, Pennsylvania) Enterprise, February 23, 1939: 2; Associated Press, “Rainfall Floods Hornell Sections,” Ithaca (New York) Journal, May 18, 1945: 1; “Bradford-Olean Flood Damage Mounts,” Buffalo News, May 28, 1946: 1; “Streams Recede After Flooding Part of Bradford, Low WNY Areas,” Buffalo News, June 3, 1947: 1; “Rains Flood WNY Roads, Ruin Bridges,” Buffalo News, October 15, 1955: 1; “Action Is Demanded for Vital Changes in Flood Controls,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, March 10, 1964: 1; “Wet Grounds” (photo and caption), Wellsville Daily Reporter, June 22, 1972: 1.

13 “Baseball Prospects Good at Wellsville,” Buffalo News, April 29, 1912: 13; “Field Day Program,” Wellsville Reporter, May 28, 1912: 5, https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=wdr19120528-01.1.5&srpos=1&e=; “A New Grand Stand for Tullar Field,” Wellsville Reporter, February 22, 1916: 3, https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=wdr19160222-01.1.3&srpos=7&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN———-.

14 In addition to Wellsville, Interstate League communities that later fielded teams in the PONY or New York-Penn Leagues were Bradford and Erie, Pennsylvania, and Hornell, Jamestown, and Olean, New York.

15 “Wellsville Fans Are Working for League Base Ball,” Olean (New York) Evening Herald, April 28, 1914: 6; “Base Ball This Summer,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, April 28, 1914: 6, https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=wdr19140428-01.1.6&srpos=2&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN———-.

16 “Wellsville Wins,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, May 23, 1914: 8.

17 “Blames President and Directors for State of Affairs,” Olean Evening Herald, September 13, 1915: 6; “Lohrrmen Hold A Little Pennant Raising Bee Today,” Olean Evening Herald, September 14, 1915: 6; “Sport Film Flickers,” Elmira Star-Gazette, September 7, 1916: 8.

18 “Interstate League Player is Drafted,” Elmira Star-Gazette, September 12, 1916: 13. Kennedy appeared in one major-league game, grounding out as a pinch-hitter against the Detroit Tigers on September 8, 1916.

19 “Interstate Forms Four-Club Circuit,” Binghamton Press, May 2, 1917: 14; “Conroy Is Here Greets Friends,” Elmira Star-Gazette, May 21, 1917: 8.

20 “Cobb Pitches in Exhibition Won by Tiges [sic],” Detroit Free Press, July 6, 1916: 15. In his 24-season major-league career, Cobb made three pitching appearances – two in 1918 and one in 1925.

21 J.B. Sheridan, “Browns Take Game from Wellsville, 4-1, on Way East,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 15, 1916: 6; W.J. O’Connor, “Sisler, Barely Able to Walk on Injured Foot, May Not Be Used Against Athletics,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 15, 1916: 12.

22 “Proclaim Holiday for Manager John McGraw,” Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Telegraph, June 18, 1917: 10.

23 Some sources give different scores for the game; this account sides with the one printed in “New York Giants vs. Wellsville,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, June 19, 1917: 6, https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=wdr19170619-01.1.6&srpos=2&e=. By this account, the crowd packed all available bleacher and grandstand seats, occupied 600 temporary chairs along the foul lines, sat in 100 parked cars with a view of the field, or simply stood where they could.

24 “St. Bona’s vs. Alfred, Thursday, November 19,” Olean Evening Herald, November 13, 1914: 4. The school was known as St. Bonaventure’s College until 1950.

25 “Bunched Hits in Two Frames Give Sinclairs Win over Nationals,” Olean Times-Herald, July 30, 1937: 15.

26 “Friendship Wins Triangle Meet,” Buffalo News, June 17, 1924: 28; “V.F.W. Post Plans Outdoor Boxing Card,” Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle, August 14, 1932: 5A; “Allegany District Scouts to Gather,” Buffalo Evening News, May 24, 1929: 29; “Village to Seek Coasting Place,” Buffalo Evening News, December 11, 1936: 29.

27 “Wellsville to Dedicate Floodlights,” Olean Times-Herald, August 5, 1936: 27.

28 “Barton Says U.S. Opposes 3d Term,” Buffalo Evening News, September 4, 1940: 21; “Americans Want No Third Term, Claims Bruce Barton,” Olean Times-Herald, September 4, 1940: 7. Willkie was resoundingly defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in that November’s election.

29 “Wellsville Is In Lime Light,” Potter Enterprise, August 5, 1937: 1; advertisement for game, Friendship (New York) Register, August 5, 1937: 4. The teams were described in pregame publicity items as “the Indianapolis A.B.C. and Detroit Stars of the Negro American League.”

30 “Rains Flood Wellsville, Gardens Hit,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, August 11, 1937: 8; “Floods Menace Towns in W.N.Y. After Rainstorm,” Buffalo Evening News, August 11, 1937: 1.

31 Research using the Newspapers.com, ProQuest, FultonHistory and NYSHistoricNewspapers databases in December 2024 did not find specific reference to the game being either played or canceled. Retrosheet maintains a list of Negro League games by location, and as of December 2024, they had no record of any games being played at Tullar Field or anywhere else in Wellsville. https://www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/ballparks.html.

32 “Negro Stars to Play at Wellsville,” Olean Times-Herald, August 11, 1941: 9.

33 “Smrekar Hurls Jamestown to Win Over Pitlermen on Appreciation Night Game,” Olean Times-Herald, August 14, 1941: 10.

34 Research was conducted in December 2024 using the Newspapers.com, ProQuest, FultonHistory, and NYSHistoricNewspapers databases. Retrosheet records as of June 2025 indicated that the two teams played each other in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on August 12, but had no record of either team playing anywhere on August 13.

35 “Triplets Lease Park, Seek Pony League Farm,” Binghamton Press, February 18, 1942: 19.

36 “Eight-Team Pony League to Open Season April 29,” Olean Times Herald, February 27, 1942: 8.

37 Jack V. Moore, “Wellsville Welcomes Return of Pro Ball,” Olean Evening Herald, April 30, 1942: 8.

38 “Hornell Takes 8-4 Decision from Wellsville,” Bradford (Pennsylvania) Evening Star and Daily Record, May 1, 1942: 10.

39 “Pony League,” Elmira Star-Gazette, September 8, 1942: 10; “Yanks Plan on ‘43 Pony Ball, U.S. Agreeable,” Olean Times-Herald, October 6, 1942: 6.

40 “Flag Not Attendance Magnet,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, December 13, 1962: 7.

41 Jack V. Moore, “Wellsville Welcomes Return of Pro Ball,” Olean Evening Herald, April 30, 1942: 8.

42 Photos from 1952, 1955, 1958, and 1963 were accessed via HistoricAerials.com in December 2024. Also as of December 2024, the Stats Crew website—without providing a source or date—gave the field’s dimensions as 335 feet to left, 357 to center, and 300 to right. “Tullar Field,” Statscrew.com, https://www.statscrew.com/venues/v-2886.

43 Frank Cady, “Braves Lose Opener to Olean,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, May 1, 1961: 7.

44 “Booster Club Officials Call Meeting Monday,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, October 28, 1955: 7.

45 “Triplet Hosts Willing, Abels,” Binghamton Press, June 10, 1965: 25.

46 Associated Press, “Ken Fremming, Jamestown, Has No-Hit Game,” Bradford (Pennsylvania) Era, August 28, 1947: 14; “Skunk Temporarily Halts Wellsville-Lockport Game,” Buffalo News, September 1, 1948: 49; “Blackmore Hurls 11-Inning No-Hitter in P.L., Loses, 7-3,” Buffalo Evening News, September 1, 1948: 50; Associated Press, “Sherrow Hurls No-Hit Shutout in NYP League,” Syracuse (New York) Post-Standard, September 3, 1960: 12; Chuck Ward, “Abels Spins Sox No-Hitter Against Jimtown in 3-0 Tilt,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, June 7, 1965: 8. This list is based on an all-time no-hitter log included in the 2019 New York-Penn League media guide.

47 “Sonny Gilman Hurls Near-Perfect First Game,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, April 25, 1956: 7. As of December 2024, Baseball-Reference had no information to suggest that Sonny Gilman pitched professionally.

48 “County, Town & Village,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, June 30, 1960: 6; “Tullar Field,” StatsCrew.website.

49 “Record Crowd Sees Braves Beat Hornell, 9-5,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, June 28, 1956: 4. Merchants Night is a promotion in which local businesses buy blocks of tickets and distribute them for free to customers.

50 “Yankees Crush Wellsville, 19-2,” Elmira Star-Gazette, June 30, 1943: 11; “Batavia Moves Into 2nd Place as Lockport Lengthens Lead,” Buffalo Evening News, June 30, 1943: 37.

51 Associated Press, “Fans Threaten Umpire in Row at Wellsville,” Elmira Star-Gazette, August 10, 1944: 27.

52 “More Or Less About Sports,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, May 22, 1956: 7. Scull was considered such a lock to make the Washington Senators in 1954 that he was given a Topps baseball card that year, but an injury kept him from the majors.

53 Greengrass was born in Addison, New York, less than an hour’s drive from Wellsville.

54 Greengrass was 6-for-18 (.333) against Littlefield with one home run and five RBIs. The pair were both in the National League from 1954 to 1956.

55 Future Hall of Famer Niekro is a footnote in the history of Wellsville baseball, having made just 10 appearances with the Braves as a 20-year-old rookie in 1959. He went 2–1 with a 7.46 ERA.

56 It might be noted that Sepkowski was 29 years old in 1953 and 30 in 1954, which made him significantly older than the average PONY League player; he’d been out of the majors since 1947. The average PONY League batter in 1953 was 21½ years old, while the average pitcher was even younger – 20½.

57 DeLeon didn’t make the majors, but his son, also named Luis DeLeon, did.

58 Bob Ellis, “A Baby Brave is Born (1956),” Wellsville Daily Reporter, August 20, 1976: 10, https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=wdr19760820-01.1.10&srpos=38&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN———-.

59 “Flag Not Attendance Magnet.”

60 George Pawlush, “The Minor Leagues of My Youth,” When Minor League Baseball Almost Went Bust 1946-1963 (Phoenix, Arizona: Society for American Baseball Research, 2025: 5.

61 Dave Rosenbloom, “Geneva Wins, 2-1, in NYP Playoff Tilt,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 5, 1958: 23; “1960 Census of Population: New York,” US Census Bureau, accessed online December 2024: 4, https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1960/population-pc-a1/15611126ch4.pdf.

62 “Buses, Tullar Field are Topics of Board,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, May 10, 1960: 4.

63 Advertisement, Wellsville Daily Reporter, April 25, 1961: 4.

64 “Red Sox Bring Down Curtain with 11-8 Win at Tullar Field,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, September 1, 1961: 5.

65 “Why?,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, August 17, 1961: 4. A week later, Paige skipped out on the Monarchs just before a scheduled appearance in Elmira, New York, because he’d signed a contract with a professional team. Al Mallette, “The Master Showman,” Elmira Star-Gazette, August 24, 1961: 27.

66 “Village to Help Team Within its Legal Limits,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, November 13, 1962: 7; “Vandals Damage Ballpark Stand,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, November 3, 1962: 3..

67 “Paraders Welcome Governor,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, October 25, 1962: 4; Bert Freed, “Campaign Style Changed by Governor Due to Crisis,” Buffalo Evening News, October 25, 1962: III:27.

68 “Estimated 800 See Billy Graham Movie in Tullar Field Show,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, August 6, 1962: 6.

69 “Red Sox to Return Professional Baseball to Wellsville,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, December 13, 1962: 7.

70 “Tullar Field Sporting Bigger, Repaired Clubhouse Facilities,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, April 25, 1963: 7.

71 “Notice to Bidders,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, February 20, 1963: 6.

72 The 1963 team also made the four-team postseason playoffs, but was eliminated by Jamestown in the first round. “Scores and Standings,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 6, 1963: 1D. Only the league’s top two teams took part in the postseason in 1964, leaving Wellsville out in the cold. “Prexy’s Vote Ousts Locals from Playoffs,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, September 3, 1964: 7.

73 “Conigliaro Named,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, August 13, 1963: 5.

74 “Red Sox Tie Home Run Mark on Wallops by Wade, Nash,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, August 11, 1964: 7; final total for 1964 taken from Baseball-Reference. The New York-Penn League, which played roughly a 130-game season in 1964, switched to a short-season format of about 78 games for the 1967 season.

75 Frank Cady, “Homers Highlight 16-7 Win,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, June 5, 1961: 5.

76 Frank Cady, “Homers – 10 – Brighten Game,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, May 15, 1963: 7.

77 “Trips Rip Sox, 16-11; Nine Four-Baggers Equal Loop Record,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, May 28, 1964: 7.

78 Chuck Ward, “Two Grand-Slam HRs in 12-Run 2nd Inning Pace 24-15 Sox Win,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, May 21, 1965: 8.

79 Chuck Ward, “Dorsch Rips 3 HRs, but Sox Bow, 17-16, In Battle with Trips,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, July 27, 1965: 8.

80 “Jimtown Righthander Equals Loop K-Mark,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, May 16, 1964: 5; Chuck Ward, “Haverly Hits Harmful HR,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, June 5, 1965: 6.

81 “Strikeout Record Falls as Sox Go 13 Innings Before Tipping Batavia,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, August 10, 1964: 5.

82 “Mets Tip Sox in Final Game at Tullar Field,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, September 5, 1964: 5; “Congratulations on a Good Season,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, September 1, 1964: 2; Chuck Ward, “Athletic Amblings,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, September 10, 1965: 8. The 3rd edition of the Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, editors; New York: Baseball America, 2007) provides different attendance numbers for 1964 (20,083) and 1965 (18,145).

83 “Ball Park Remodeling Laid Before Trustees,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, July 23, 1963: 5.

84 “Immediate Action Ordered to Halt Tullar Field Stench,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, August 13, 1963: 5.

85 Chuck Ward, “Athletic Amblings,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, April 5, 1965: 8.

86 Chuck Ward, “Boston Announces Wellsville Franchise Transfer to Oneonta,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, August 30, 1965: 8.

87 Chuck Ward, “Locals Record 4-3 Decision Over Pirates,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, August 31, 1965: 8. The box score, printed on the same page, also did not include an attendance figure.

88 Associated Press, “NY-P Washed Out,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, September 1, 1965: 8; Chuck Ward, “Athletic Amblings,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, September 2, 1965: 8.

89 “Equipment Taken from Tullar Field,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, March 19, 1966: 3; Mickey Martelle, “Recreation, Fire, Police Quarters Are Scheduled for Tullar Field,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, December 29, 1966: 1. The latter story mentions the poor condition and condemnation of the grandstand.

90 “Surrenders Deed” (photo and caption), Wellsville Daily Reporter, January 6, 1967: 1. Angie Tullar died in January 1932, and her son Bayard in March 1945. Associated Press, “Philanthropist Dies,” Poughkeepsie (New York) Eagle-News, January 11, 1932: 1; “Death of Wellsville Man,” Potter Enterprise, March 22, 1945: 4.

91 “The End Is Near” (photos and caption), Wellsville Daily Reporter, January 9, 1967: 8; “Steps to Nowhere,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, January 19, 1967: 8; “Village Board Sells Former Dump to Town,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, January 24, 1967: 5.

92 Gary Hicks, “New Fire-Police Complex Is Nearing Completion,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, September 4, 1971: 3; Matt Leone, “2,000 Cheer Opening of Arterial,” “Surrenders Deed” (photo and caption), Wellsville Daily Reporter, October 27, 1977: 1.

93 In an editor’s note in May 1970, an unnamed editor representing the Wellsville Daily Reporter wrote: “Tullar Field stinks! … No other field played upon by the Wellsville football team approached Tullar Field for roughness and inadequacy.” “Worth Talking About,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, May 9, 1970: 6, https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=wdr19700509-01.1.6&srpos=7&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN———-; Phil Ameele, “Wellsville Chamber Asks Baseball Info,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, April 26, 1973: 3, https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=wdr19730426-01.1.3&srpos=51&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN———-.

94 “Wellsville Parade Winners Are Listed,” Olean Times-Herald, July 6, 1976: 4.

95 Geri Welch, “Tullar Field Lights Shine Friday Night,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, October 28, 1975: 3; “Tullar Field’s the Scene for Halloween,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, October 19, 1976: 3, https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=wdr19761019-01.1.3&srpos=27&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN———-.

96 Sue Goetschius, “Tullar Field Dedicated,” Olean Times-Herald, June 4, 1979: 5.

97 “Wellsville Recreational, Sporting and Outdoor Resources Summary,” Allegany County website, accessed December 2024, https://www.alleganyco.gov/wp-content/uploads/AppendixF.pdf.

98 Kathryn Ross, “Wellsville Celebrates NYS Champion Softball Team,” Olean Times-Herald, posted June 25, 2024, https://www.oleantimesherald.com/news/wellsville-celebrates-nys-champion-softball-team/article_5c5cf3e6-3307-11ef-a26c-effad1fbf293.html.

More than a decade after the 2005 World Series win, the White Sox play their crosstown rival Cubs on a warm July 25 night in 2016. The Sox went on to win 5-4. (Courtesy of the Chicago White Sox)

The saying “To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making” is sometimes attributed to Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian statesman. He probably didn’t say it,1 but whoever did had a point. Anyone who observed the process that eventually led to the building of Rate Field (originally New Comiskey Park, then US Cellular Field and Guaranteed Rate Field) in 1988 would have confirmed the notion that politics in Illinois is a difficult watch. It took a governor and the heads of the Illinois Senate and House of Representatives, as well as some effective clock management, to strong-arm enough legislators to create the state agency that built the current home of the Chicago White Sox.

The partnership led by Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn took control of the White Sox from Bill Veeck in early 1981. In taking control of the team and Comiskey Park, built in 1910, the partnership relied on an engineering report on the ballpark that had been prepared when Veeck was attempting to sell the White Sox to Edward DeBartolo in 1980. The engineers concluded that there was “nothing substantially wrong” that couldn’t be addressed with minor expenditures.2 However, decades of deferred maintenance began presenting problems almost immediately. In building private skyboxes in the 1982-1983 offseason, the engineers hired to inspect the park concluded, “Had we not gotten into this project, within a very short period of time, the entire upper deck behind the plate would have collapsed.”3

In the middle of the ’80s, the owners decided to explore their options to leave Comiskey Park. Team owners held discussions with the City of Chicago to build a combined baseball/football stadium in the South Loop, but the Chicago Bears weren’t interested. On December 23, 1985, the team received a letter from the American League president, Dr. Bobby Brown:

The letter set a one-year deadline for a decision to be made regarding the future of the White Sox home and set a 1992 deadline – seven years off – for being in a new facility, whether in metropolitan Chicago or perhaps being relocated.5

Negotiations ended with the City of Chicago in early 1986, and Reinsdorf and Einhorn visited potential relocation venues of Denver, Miami, Orlando, New Orleans, St. Petersburg, and Northern Indiana. The owners made their intentions clear at a press conference on July 8, 1986. The team announced that it had quietly purchased 140 acres of land in the western Chicago suburb of Addison, and that time has forced them to act, but that they would need help. “Owners of the White Sox conceded Tuesday that they will need a substantial state subsidy to move the team to Addison and warned that they will have a ‘back-up deal’ ready with another city in case their suburban plans fall through.”6 In a nonbinding referendum among residents in November on whether the stadium should be built in Addison, a slim margin of 43 votes separated the noes (3,787 votes) from the yeses (3,744). While the Addison Village president wanted to continue to work toward building the ballpark, Reinsdorf placed the parcel for sale in early 1987.

With the Addison White Sox no longer an option, the team returned to working with Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, who had rejected earlier attempts to find a solution for the White Sox and Bears. This time, Washington, a lifelong White Sox fan, agreed to a plan to keep the club in Chicago by building a baseball-only stadium in the South Armour Square neighborhood, across the street from Comiskey Park. This site, with limited need for additional infrastructure improvements, was ideal due to the limited number (116) of private properties that would be taken by the city and state through eminent domain.7 There were other local options to building across 35th street. Architect Philip Bess designed a replacement just north of Comiskey Park. The design, called Armour Field (it would have been in the location of Armour Square Park), resembled some of the designs that came after New Comiskey Park, such as Camden Yards. A historic building located in Armour Square Park, as well as the local advocate Friends of the Parks, would have made approval on this site difficult.8

To build and finance the new ballpark, the team and city needed the state to create a stadium authority in order to issue the municipal bonds needed to raise the capital needed. The Illinois Sports Facility Authority (ISFA) was created in December 1986 after Governor Jim Thompson rallied support in the Illinois House. The seven-member body included three members appointed by Mayor Washington, three by the governor, and a final member (presumably the chairman of the ISFA) also by the governor, but with the approval of the mayor.9

When Thompson appointed a longtime friend, Thomas Reynolds, to lead the ISFA without gaining Washington’s approval, a stalemate between the city and state delayed progress in getting final approval from the state legislature. It was during this time that Reinsdorf and Einhorn began negotiations with St. Petersburg, Florida, to potentially move the team to the new Florida Suncoast Dome (now Tropicana Field). Thompson, ever the politician, realized that these negotiations may have helped his chances to push the necessary legislation through. “But could I have sold the Sox stadium deal without St. Pete in the picture? As a politician I’d like to think I could have, but to tell you honestly, I just don’t know,” he said.10

Thompson, a Republican and Washington, a Democrat, had resolved their differences, but Washington’s untimely death from a heart attack on November 25, 1987, delayed continued city/state/team negotiations. The ISFA held its first meeting in December 1987, a full year after its creation, and soon selected Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum (HOK) of Kansas City, Missouri, as the architect for the new park. HOK had previously advised the White Sox on their Addison project and was the architect of the Suncoast Dome. The firm promised to build a ballpark that would fit into the fabric of the city.11

The White Sox continued to negotiate with the ISFA over the lease for the new ballpark, but also with St. Petersburg on their Plan B. Some of the ownership group of the White Sox privately told Chicago Tribune columnist Jerome Holtzman that they favored moving out of the South Side. “It’s economics,” one of the investors told Holtzman. “A new stadium would be an attraction, a curiosity for two or three years. Then what happens? What have we got? We’re still in the same neighborhood. It’ll be the same as before.” The investor continued, “The sooner we move or sell the club to another city, the better. It’s the only way we get our money back.”12

Even White Sox fans were split on what was best. One organization, Save Our Sox (SOS), was more concerned about keeping Comiskey Park, seemingly convinced that a new team would occupy the old ballpark, and another, Sox Fans on Deck (SFOD), was committed to keeping the White Sox in Chicago. Mayor Washington’s successor, Eugene Sawyer, finally committed the city to the South Armour Square location, and SFOD held a rally that produced 30,000 signatures to be presented to the legislators in Springfield in support of the deal. Some 300 SFOD members took a bus to Springfield to rally for the tax bill that would fund the ISFA, but at this point the White Sox had still not signed a lease with the agency.

The bill to authorize the funding of the ISFA was on the legislative docket on the final day of the legislative session, June 30, 1988. The bill would only need to be approved by a simple majority (60 votes) if approved by that date, but once the session ended at midnight, a super-majority (71 votes) would be needed to approve the legislation, and that was unlikely given the current climate. The state had already funded the rebuilding of Arlington Park racetrack after a fire destroyed the grandstand, as well as a new state building in Chicago. The White Sox and ISFA finally agreed to a lease on June 29, setting up the drama that would take place the next day. (A link to the lease is included in the notes to this article.) The lease was for 20 years, with the White Sox having up to four successive five-year extensions, potentially keeping the White Sox on 35th Street through the 2030 season. There would be no rent due if the White Sox failed to draw 1,200,000 in attendance through the 2020 season, and 1,500,000 thereafter. As the White Sox drew less than 1.2 million fans in both 1988 and 1989, this attendance clause favored the team.13 Still, in St. Petersburg, Florida, White Sox T-shirts were selling for $10 each.

When June 30 arrived, Governor Thompson was told that he did not have enough votes in either the House or Senate to pass the bill. Thompson met with Senate President James “Pate” Phillip, a fellow Republican, and House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Democrat, and received their support to encourage the requisite number of legislators to vote in favor of the bill. The Senate roll call began after 11 P.M., and after convincing four members to change their votes to yes, the bill had enough support in the Senate to pass.

Thompson and his entourage rushed to the House, where approval was much less likely. A chorus of “Na Na Hey, Hey Kiss (Them) Goodbye” was sung by downstate Illinois House members, who often voted against anything that would benefit Chicago.14 As the clock moved close to midnight, Madigan told James McPike, the House majority leader, that he would not gavel the session to an end until Madigan wanted it to end. Thompson and Madigan continued to work the room, cashing in favors and promising new ones, until the 60 votes needed to pass the bill were secured. The gavel ending the session was sounded at 11:59 P.M., or 12:03 A.M., depending on which side of the issue you fell on, and the deal to build New Comiskey Park was done.

With the funding now secured, the ISFA got to work on building the ballpark. Neighborhood residents were offered the appraised value of their homes plus $25,000, or a new home in a different location. Renters were given a moving allowance. The ISFA offered the Chicago Housing Authority an $8 million loan to renovate the Wentworth Gardens housing project, the site of the 39th Street Grounds (a/k/a Schorling Park), the original home of the White Sox, but the CHA turned down the loan, fearing it might not be able to repay it.15 One of the casualties of the construction was the demolition of McCuddy’s Saloon, which sat across 35th Street from the original Comiskey Park. McCuddy’s was opened in May 1910; Comiskey Park opened in July. The legend that Babe Ruth frequented McCuddy’s during games did not keep progress and a bulldozer, driven by John McCuddy’s great-grandson, from knocking down the watering hole.16 The official groundbreaking for the ballpark took place on May 7, 1989. Einhorn used the occasion to state, “The bottom line is we are here to stay. We are committed to the people, we are committed to Chicago, we are committed to winning.”17 Einhorn was booed by some in attendance.

Opening day for New Comiskey Park arrived on April 18, 1991. The total cost of the facility was $134,900,000, or about $2.1 million under budget. The White Sox paid tribute to their old ballpark by filming the passing of a baseball from the old ballpark to the new, which included Chicago’s new Mayor Richard M. Daley, as well as White Sox legends Minnie Miñoso and Billy Pierce, as well as former groundskeeper Gene Bossard (whose son, Roger “The Sodfather” Bossard, succeeded him), and Nels Hendrickson, who at age 98 had seen the White Sox play at both the 39th Street Ground and Comiskey Park. Governor Thompson threw out the first pitch.18

Initial reviews of the new ballpark were very good. “Looks like a real ballpark,” Sparky Anderson, the Detroit Tigers manager, told Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Verdi. “I hate domes. And Toronto, you feel like you’re in a theater. This place is beautiful, but it’s not gaudy. Everybody’s going to want one of these now.”19 If Anderson’s mood was lifted by his team’s 16-0 victory over the White Sox that day, this is lost to history. A team record (only eclipsed in 2006) 2,934,154 fans crowded into New Comiskey Park in 1991. The opening in 1992 of Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore gave White Sox fans a glimpse of what they could have had, at least for another $100 million.20 The primary criticisms were leveled at the upper deck, sloped at a 35-degree angle, and was uncovered aside from a small overhang at the very top of the ballpark. The slope at Old Comiskey Park was 27 degrees.21 Paul Goldberger, in his book Ballpark (New York: Knopf Publishing, 2019), summarized the criticisms of the new ballpark succinctly:

Its overall design bears a distant resemblance to the Royals stadium, but without the graceful curves of the Kansas City grandstand. The design of New Comiskey’s enormous, wide, and steep upper-deck overhang that led to so many obstructed-view seats at the old Comiskey, meant that a vast number of seats were at a great distance from the field. It was a poor trade-off for getting rid of the columns that had supported old Comiskey’s upper deck. The critic John Pastier observed that the seats in the first row of the upper deck in the new park are farther from the field than the seats in the last row of the old one.

The new Comiskey that HOK produced may have been built right next to the old Comiskey on Chicago’s South Side, but it was in every other way a suburban stadium. By some measures it was worse, since it was a suburban stadium placed inside the city, and building it required the destruction of several blocks of original urban fabric.22

The unnamed White Sox investors’ prediction from 1986 appeared to be becoming reality, though it took longer than three years. Attendance settled around 2.6 million during 1992 and 1993 (the latter a division championship year, the first since 1983). Attendance in 1994 was also strong, with the White Sox in first place again when the players strike began on August 12. When the 1995 season began, fans stayed away in droves.23 Many White Sox fans blamed Reinsdorf for the strike that canceled what could have been a World Series year on the South Side.24 Attendance at the new ballpark continued to decline, bottoming out in 1999 with only 1,338,851 fans attending. Fans and playoff baseball returned to the South Side in 2000, but attendance still did not eclipse the 2 million mark.

When New Comiskey Park opened in 1991, there was not much to remind the fans of the old ballpark aside from the pinwheels on the new exploding scoreboard, similar to the ones that Bill Veeck had installed when he owned the White Sox the first time, as well as a ballpark organ for legendary White Sox organist Nancy Faust. The first changes the team and ISFA made were throwbacks to the old yard – a bullpen bar with windows to the field was opened in 1996. This was similar to the left-field picnic area in the original. A shower was installed in left field in 1999, just like the one Veeck installed in center field in his second term as owner. It took the team and the ISFA 10 years to address some of the major issues. “The years after it opened to a mostly enthusiastic public, (New) Comiskey Park has become every stadium architect’s nightmare,” wrote the Chicago Tribune. “It is the place where other designers go to learn what not to do – and where the public, by and large, doesn’t go.”25 Beginning in 2001, the ISFA and White Sox decided to add more seats in the lower deck. Seats were added along the foul lines beyond the dugouts, and the moat that had existed between the outfield wall and the stands was filled in, adding 1,900 seats. The funds for these and future renovations were provided by the ISFA, which had extra funding after being tasked with the renovations at Soldier Field, home of the Bears.

The ISFA continued its renovations, placing a fan deck in the center-field concourse and adding the first statue to the concourse, that of founder Charles Comiskey.26 Over the years, additional statues were unveiled in the outfield, honoring White Sox legends Miñoso, Pierce, the double-play tandem of Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox, Harold Baines, Carlton Fisk, Frank Thomas, and Paul Konerko. In 2003 the team sold the naming rights to US Cellular, a telecommunications company, for $68 million over 20 years ($3.4 million per year). At the same time, the White Sox exercised the first three of their four five-year options on their lease, which moved the expiration date of the lease through the 2025 season. Ten years later, US Cellular left the Chicago market for cell-phone service but retained the naming rights.27

Perhaps the most important renovation took place for the 2004 season, removing the top eight rows of the upper deck, and replacing the sloped roof over the upper deck with a flat roof. This reduced the ballpark’s capacity from 47,098 to 40,615. This change did not solve the 35-degree pitch problem, but it seemed to make the slope not quite as steep as it used to.28 A large area for children, the FUNdamentals Deck, was opened in left field before the 2005 season. Playoff baseball returned again to Chicago in 2005, but this time the tears at the end of the playoffs were of joy and not sorrow, as the White Sox went 11-1 in the postseason, winning their first World Series since 1917. Attendance crossed the 2 million level for the first time since 1993 and remained over this mark until 2012.

The playoff run featured one of the most controversial calls in American League Championship Series history, when in the ninth inning of Game Two, White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski reached first base on a dropped third strike call that may or may not have been dropped. “Customarily, a ball in the dirt for strike three, [the umpire] says, ‘No catch, no catch, no catch,’ and I didn’t hear him say anything,” Josh Paul, Angels (and former White Sox) catcher said.29 Uncertain whether Paul had caught the third strike, Pierzynski took one step towards the Sox dugout before sprinting to first base to sell home-plate umpire Doug Eddings on the idea that Paul had dropped the ball.30 Pablo Ozuna pinch ran for Pierzynski, stole second base, and scored the winning run on pinch-hitter Joe Crede’s double. The Sox went on to win the next three games against the Angels and sweep the Houston Astros to win the flag.

Playoff baseball did not return to US Cellular Field until 2008, but the renovations continued at the ballpark. In 2006 the original blue seats from 1991 were replaced with dark green seats, reminiscent of the ballpark’s predecessor. Only two seats remain blue – the landing locations of Konerko’s grand slam and Scott Podsednik’s walk-off home run in Game Two of the World Series. In 2008 the ballpark’s outermost parking lot (Lot L) was refitted with permeable pavers to help reduce the amount of water entering the Chicago storm sewer system. In addition, a “Champions Plaza” was installed at the entrance to the ballpark, with a large statue commemorating the 2005 World Series victory.

Improvements in 2011 and 2012 included the first outside the ballpark itself. A restaurant, the ChiSox Bar and Grill, opened inside Gate 5, across the street from the ballpark (a pedestrian bridge takes fans into the park). It had indoor and outdoor seating and was open to the public during game days. In 2013 the Chicago Sports Depot a significantly larger merchandise shop than the primary shop at the lower level opened, with access from both inside and outside the ballpark.

In 2016, three years after exiting the Chicago market, US Cellular ended its relationship with the White Sox, paying $13 million to exit the agreement early.31 A local mortgage provider, Guaranteed Rate, purchased the naming rights for $20.4 million for 10 years, about $1 million less than the White Sox had received from US Cellular.32 To many fans, the name US Cellular Field was bad enough (even though the nickname for the park – “The Cell” – had wide appeal), but the Guaranteed Rate Field name was worse, especially due to its corporate logo. The Chicago Tribune commented: “The corporate logo of mortgage lender Guaranteed Rate is a red arrow pointing downward. It suggests low rates for customers, which is a good thing for them. But when it comes to baseball, the symbol is more like an emoji for losing. Those red arrows will be all over Guaranteed Rate Field, which has already inspired nicknames like Guaranteed Loss Field or Low Interest Stadium.”33 Probably the most interesting addition to the park came in 2019, with the addition of “The Goose Island. Goose Island is a Chicago craft brewery, purchased by Anheuser-Busch in 2011. Sections 106 and 107 of the ballpark were replaced by a 326-seat section with water running along its sides giving the impression that the guest was on an island. Goose Island beer was served from two replica Chicago Transit Authority subway cars at the top of the section. Goose Island lost the rights to sell beer at Guaranteed Rate Field and the section was renamed the Miller Lite Landing.

In 2023 Guaranteed Rate Field became an unusual crime scene. At a game on August 25, two women were shot while seated in left-field Section 161. The police said it was unclear where the shots came from. Reinsdorf stated the opposite, telling NBC Chicago, “I don’t want to influence the police’s decision, but the fact is based upon the information available to us, I see virtually no possibility that the gunshots came from within the ballpark.”34

The shooting invigorated the discussion that Guaranteed Rate Field is in a “bad area.” But according to the web site crimegrade.org, the crime rate for the ZIP code that contains Guaranteed Rate Field is less (48.07 crimes per 1,000 residents) than that in the ZIP code for Wrigley Field (52.64).35 Most White Sox fans express no concerns about crime in this area.

Guaranteed Rate Field was 34 years old in the 2024 season, probably having aged significantly during the season as the White Sox set the modern record for season losses (121), winning only 23 of their 81 home dates. Attendance of 1,380,733 was the lowest for the team since 1999, and the second lowest in the ballpark’s history. Still, before the season started, the White Sox announced that they were in discussions with a developer to build a new ballpark on the South Loop, three miles north of Guaranteed Rate Field in an area known as “The 78.” (It would become the city’s 78th official neighborhood.) 

The developer, Related Midwest, released renderings in February 2024 showing an open-air ballpark along the south branch of the Chicago River, with views of downtown.36 The project’s cost, estimated as high as $2 billion, would likely need, and struggle to get, governmental support. “I think I’ve been fairly clear about the fact that taxpayers’ dollars are precious,” Governor J.B. Pritzker said. “And the idea of taking taxpayer dollars and subsidizing the building of a stadium as opposed to, for example, subsidizing the building of a birthing center, just to give an example, does not seem like the stadium ought to have higher priority.”37 Some Illinois lawmakers agreed with Pritzker. “We say ‘no’ because we all want a shiny new car,” said South Side Representative Marcus Evans. “Shiny new cars don’t move me. It’s all about the finance.”38

Further complicating the potential move from Guaranteed Rate Field were revelations that Reinsdorf was in active discussions about selling the team. Reinsdorf is thought to own approximately 19 percent of the team, and the news is significant in that he has not expressed the potential of selling the team while he is alive. (Reinsdorf, born in 1936, was 88 years old in 2024.) He has said several times that he has advised his heirs to sell the White Sox and keep ownership of the Chicago Bulls, where his son is president.39

As of 2025, when the name changed again — from Guaranteed Rate Field to simply Rate Field — the future of the ballpark was in doubt. The White Sox could continue to use the ballpark past the lease expiration of 2029, move to The 78 as part of a grand neighborhood development, or look outside the city for greener pastures and more public money. What is certain is that the team, the City of Chicago, and the State of Illinois will continue their three-headed-monster relationship. Watching sausage being made will probably be easier on the eyes.

Last revised: March 1, 2025

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the following:

www.isfauthority.com

www.baseball-reference.com

www.soxmachine.com

Bauer, John. “A Ballpark as Political Football: Florida, Illinois, and New Home for the White Sox,” in Gregory H. Wolf, ed., The Baseball Palace of the World: Comiskey Park (Phoenix: SABR, 2019).

Management Agreement between Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and Chicago White Sox, LTD – https://www.isfauthority.com/assets/management-agreement-with-all-amendments2.pdf

Notes

1 https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/07/08/laws-sausages/

2 Richard C. Lindberg, Stealing First in a Two-Team Town (Champaign, Illinois: Sagamore Publishing, 1984), 222.

3 Lindberg, 223-224.

4 Lindberg, 229.

5 Lindberg, 230.

6 John McCarron and David Young, “White Sox Owners: It’s Addison or Adios,” Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1986: 1.

7 Lindberg, 238.

8 https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/the-white-sox-ballpark-in-chicago-that-never-was-and-could-have-changed-history/.

9 Lindberg, 238.

10 Lindberg, 241.

11 Lindberg, 244.

12 Jerome Holtzman, “Sox Investors Cool to Staying in City,” Chicago Tribune, Maech 29, 1988: 45.

13 While the calculation is based on numerous factors, the only season that White Sox attendance fell below the break point where no rent would be due was 2024.

14 Lindberg, xxvi.

15 Lindberg, 254.

16 Robert Davis, “Wreckers Leave Mccuddy’s Down and Out on 35th St.,” Chicago Tribune, March 28, 1989: 1.

17 William Recktenwald, “Sox Begin their Field of Dreams,” Chicago Tribune, May 8, 1989: 9.

18 Alan Soloman, “Let the New Memories Begin,” Chicago Tribune, April 18, 1991: 53.

19 Bob Verdi, “Well, the Ballpark Was Beautiful,” Chicago Tribune, April 19, 1991: 51.

20 Oriole Park cost about $125 million to build, but site acquisition costs added another $100 million to the project. https://digitaledition.baltimoresun.com/tribune/article_popover.aspx?guid=2957dc23-3946-4545-9ec2-041be52dc0c0.

21 Lindberg, 259.

22 https://soxmachine.com/2019/07/considering-and-reconsidering-the-ballpark-after-ballpark/.

23 Average attendance in 1994 was 32,026. In 1995, attendance dropped 30 percent, to 22,358.

24 “Hoop Dreams,” Newsweek, March 19, 1995. https://www.newsweek.com/hoop-dreams-180618.

25 Blair Kamin, “10 Years Later, Comiskey Still Has a Bad Reputation,” Chicago Tribune, July 22, 2001: 111.

26 https://www.isfauthority.com/facilities/guaranteed-rate-field-renovations/.

27 Doug Padilla, “The Cell Not in Line for Name Change,” ESPN.com, April 26, 2013. https://www.espn.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/post/_/id/14560/the-cell-not-in-line-for-name-change.

28 https://baseballparks.com/indepth/uscellular/.

29 Dave van Dyck, “The Play, the Goat, the Hero,” Chicago Tribune, October 13, 2005: 7-4.

30 David Haugh, “Crede Doubles Fun at Finish,” Chicago Tribune, October 13, 2005: 7-4.

31 Becky Yerak, “Deal to Drop Sox Park Naming Rights Early Costs US Cellular $13 Million,” Chicago Tribune, November 4, 2016: 2-1.

32 Peter Thomas Ricci, “What Guaranteed Rate Paid for the White Sox Stadium Naming Rights,” Chicago Agent Magazine, September 1, 2016. https://chicagoagentmagazine.com/2016/09/01/guaranteed-rate-paid-white-sox-stadium-naming-rights/.

33 Richard Sandomir, “One Guarantee for the Chicago White Sox’ New Stadium Name: Derision,” New York Times, August 25, 2016. B9.

34 Bennett Haeberle, “3 Weeks after Shooting at White Sox Game, Questions Remain Unanswered,” NBC Chicago, September 15, 2023. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/white-sox-shooting-chicago-police-department/3229319/.

35 Data pulled from www.crimerate.org on October 29, 2024.

36 Dan Lambert, “Developer Releases Renderings Showing New Riverfront White Sox Stadium at The 78,” WTTW.com, February 8, 2024. https://news.wttw.com/2024/02/08/renderings-released-proposed-new-white-sox-stadium-78.

37 Amanda Vinicky, “Pritzker Says He’s ‘Reluctant’ to Use Taxpayer Money to Help Build a New White Sox Stadium,” WTTW, February 26, 2024. https://news.wttw.com/2024/02/26/pritzker-says-he-s-reluctant-use-taxpayer-money-help-build-new-white-sox-stadium.

38 Jeremy Gorner, “Legislators Say They’re Still Skeptical About Public Funding for New White Sox stadium after Team-Sponsored Cruise,” Chicago Tribune, September 18, 2024.

39 Brittany Ghiroli, “Jerry Reinsdorf Open to Selling White Sox: Sources,” The Athletic, October 16, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5848339/2024/10/16/jerry-reinsdorf-chicago-white-sox-sale/?source=emp_shared_article.

Maehara Stadium, August 2024 (Courtesy of Jake Rinloan)

Since its opening in 1973, Maehara Stadium has been the premier baseball park on the island of Maui. Cherished by communities on Maui, neighboring Hawaiian islands, and beyond, it has hosted countless events – mostly amateur and professional baseball games for youth and adults. In this small venue in the mid-Pacific, important history was made – especially for women in baseball. Inspired by “Maui’s Mr. Baseball” – Ichiro “Iron” Maehara – numerous other volunteers to this day embody the Aloha Spirit and uphold Maehara Stadium as a forum for Hawaii’s rich baseball traditions.

Local politician Mike Victorino – father of major-league star Shane Victorino – summed it up in 2009. “Iron Maehara Stadium has been a crown jewel for our baseball.”1

The Man, the Stadium, and Its Volunteer Corps

Ichiro Maehara2 was born in 1909, just a few miles from the site that would eventually include a stadium named after him. The eldest of 10 children, he grew up in the Puunene Sugarcane Plantation Camp.3 His father was a Japanese language teacher and later served as the principal of the Puunene Japanese Language School.4 His mother was also a teacher.5 As a boy, Ichiro loved sports and earned the nickname “Iron” because he could play every position on a baseball diamond.6

During Maehara’s youth, almost every community in Hawaii had a company baseball team.7

Why were there so many teams there early in the 20th century? Because the islands have an incredibly rich baseball history dating back to at least the 1850s.8

Maehara gained a reputation as an outstanding player for the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S). He was the idol of Wally Yonamine, who was born on Maui in 1925 and went on to become a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.9 More than a star player, Maehara was also generous with his time and helped younger players on the HC&S team.10 His abilities in baseball were further recognized in the 1930s when he made barnstorming trips in Asia with the Honolulu Asahis.11

During World War II, Japanese-Americans in Hawaii were monitored closely. During this time, Maehara played against military teams that included Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams.12 Exhibition games were common in Hawaii in the years after the war. Maehara became friends with many major-league ballplayers. Guests at Maehara’s house included Yogi Berra, Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe, Johnny Mize, Duke Snider, Enos Slaughter, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Bob Feller, and others.13

Maehara became a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1968, becoming one of the few Japanese-Americans to work as a professional scout. He remained on the Dodgers’ payroll until 1997, when he retired from that role at age 87.14 His biggest scouting accomplishment was bringing Sid Fernandez to the Dodgers. Fernandez, a left-handed pitcher, played 15 seasons in the National and American Leagues. He retired with a 114-96 record and a career ERA of 3.36. He was an NL All-Star in 1986 and 1987. As of the end of the 2024 season, no other pitcher born and raised in Hawaii had more wins in the majors than Fernandez. In addition, Maehara discovered Hawaiian prospect Onan Masaoka,15 who also pitched for Los Angeles. He recommended signing Shane Victorino as well; Victorino was drafted in June 1999 by the Dodgers.16  

In the 1960s and 1970s, Japanese professional baseball clubs came to Maui for training and exhibition games. Maehara served as a contact person and interpreter for clubs including the Tokyo Orions, Yakult Swallows, and Hanshin Tigers.17

Over many years, Maehara was a tireless volunteer for Maui County baseball.18 His volunteerism included being active in Little League, AJA League,19 and the Maui Senior Little League as a league officer and coach.20

Maehara worked for the HC&S Company for 42 years, retiring from his division supervisor position in December 1970 to become the Director of the Maui County Parks and Recreation Department.

During his tenure with the county, Maehara oversaw the design and construction of a baseball stadium within the War Memorial Complex21 in Wailuku. Part of the larger Keopuolani Regional Park, the War Memorial Complex already included a swimming pool, gymnasium, sumo ring, Little League baseball diamonds, and a football and track stadium.22

The new 1,500-seat baseball stadium opened in January 1973. The $557,000 project23 was designed by Wilson Okamoto and Associates of Honolulu and was built by Fong Construction Company. For nearly a quarter of a century the ballpark was called the War Memorial Baseball Stadium.24 In 1997, the stadium was renamed Ichiro “Iron” Maehara Stadium in honor of “Maui’s Mr. Baseball.”

Sid Fernandez, who sat next to Maehara during the dedication ceremony, said, “As a baseball man, he helped a lot of people. I’m glad they [named the stadium for him] while he was still alive. It was well deserved for what he has done for the community and baseball here.”25

On April 6, 1998, Maehara died of cancer at age 88. He was survived by his wife of nearly 60 years, Florence, son Paul, and daughter Gayle.26 At Maehara’s standing-room-only funeral at a church in Kahului, Fred Claire, the Dodgers’ general manager, said, “We will miss him greatly. He was a special person as a scout and as a human being. You simply don’t replace a man like Iron.”27   

The stadium is located at 225 Kanaloa Avenue in Wailuku. It is at the northern end of the War Memorial Complex with a large parking lot to the south. Parking is shared with the War Memorial Football and Track Stadium to the southwest. To the east, across Kanaloa Avenue, is the Maui Nui Botanical Garden. Residential neighborhoods are to the north and west.

The stadium features a covered grandstand with a splayed “U” footprint. Under the grandstand roof, there are three seating areas, each with rows of metal bench seating. Each of the three sections seats approximately 500 spectators. Portable bleachers are sometimes used on the left- and right-field lines to provide additional seating capacity. Field dimensions are 340 feet up the left-field line, 400 feet to straightaway center, and 330 feet up the right-field line.

Concrete-block restroom buildings are located on either side of the center section. A view of nearby mountains can be seen from the first-base side and from the third-base side fans have a view of the distant ocean. The metal roof is cantilevered with its rear carried by precast H-shaped concrete columns.  As of 2024, all of these structures are from the original 1973 construction.28

Immediately behind the home plate backstop is the Glenn H. Otani Score Booth. This is a concrete-block building that is used by the official scorer; the outfield scoreboard is operated from there. The score booth also has space for members of the press and two broadcast booths, one for use by the home team and another for the visiting team.29

The score booth’s namesake, Glenn Otani, graduated from Maui High School in 1969 and was involved with baseball on the island for several decades. He volunteered in many different capacities, including coach, manager, board member – and perhaps his favorite role: scorekeeper.30

Otani was a fixture at Maehara ballgames and was the official scorekeeper for Maui County’s high school games. Since 2000, he was the scorekeeper for all the Hawaii High School Athletic Association tournaments at Maehara Stadium, sometimes putting in 12-hour days.31  

The dugouts have concrete roofs, walls and floors. As of 2024, the home dugout is on the first base side. The floors are slightly below ground level. Both dugouts have two rows of two aluminum bench seats with backrests. The dugout entrances feature lava rock walls next to the concrete entry ramps.

In 2009, an equipment storage building was added to the northeast portion of the 12.6-acre stadium property. Other relatively recent renovations as of 2024 include a new scoreboard behind the left-field fence, light pole replacement, and radar detectors for off-the-bat exit velocities.32 As of September 2024, new ADA-compliant concrete ramps were being installed. 

The Maui County Parks and Recreation Department is responsible for maintaining Maehara Stadium’s natural grass field – noted for its beauty33 – with a heavy reliance on volunteers. One of those people, Warren Shimabukuro, took it upon himself to be the “unofficial groundskeeper” of the ballfield from the 1970s till shortly before his death in 2023 at age 89. He worked as a state building inspector and besides his family, baseball at Maehara was his greatest joy.34 Shimabukuro also helped with scorekeeping and whatever else might be needed around the stadium.

Joey Vierra, a University of Hawaii baseball standout and two-time Triple-A All-Star, has spent a lot of time at Maehara Stadium as a player, coach, and broadcaster.35 He said Shimabukuro was the first to arrive at the ballpark and the last to leave. “I don’t think anybody is really going to match up to this guy. … We truly lost a piece of history. He was a baseball man, he really was.”36

Is Maehara Stadium a hitter’s or a pitcher’s park? It’s debatable because the ballfield is influenced by wind more than most parks on the mainland.

Dean Yamashita, a longtime Maui baseball coach and volunteer, explained that when the predominant trade winds from the north are blowing, hitting to the left side of the diamond is enhanced. When the wind direction is from the south, known as “Kona winds,” hitters to right benefit.37

Thanks to dedicated volunteers, employees, advocates, and coaches, Maui has a rich baseball tradition that includes professional leagues, collegiate club, high school baseball,38 Pony and Colt Leagues, Little League,39 PONO Baseball,40 AJA Baseball, American Legion ball, and the Maui Adult League.41 All these levels of baseball have been played at Maehara Stadium. 

Hawaii has sent nearly 50 players to the major leagues as of 2024. Four big-leaguers were born on Maui: Kurt Suzuki, Victorino, Kanekoa Texeira, and Tony Rego.42 Suzuki held annual All Pono Baseball Clinics for kids ages 8 to 12 at the stadium for several years. He paid for dozens of youngsters from Molokai and Lanai to attend.43

Maehara Stadium Has Hosted Two Professional Teams

The Maui Stingrays played from 1993 through 1997 in the Hawaii Winter Baseball League (HWB). This was a developmental league, considered to be at the Class A to Double-A level, partly funded by Major League Baseball. The league’s season ran from October to December; it provided another fall-winter option to the Arizona Fall League and various Latin American winter leagues. Maui was one of four teams in the HWB; other teams were based on other Hawaiian islands.          

In addition to players from the US mainland, the HWB also featured many players from Japan and Korea. The owner of the league, Duane Kurisu,44 wanted to see Korean, Japanese, and North American players intermingling and learning about each other’s cultures. “The players from different countries were mixed and they played together for their adopted cities in Hawaii,” he said. “We carried a vision that went beyond baseball. We felt that our role could be to develop the tools of Aloha, which included characteristics like trust, confidence, character and community.”45

Kurisu added, laughing, “We also forced the umpires to wear Aloha or Hawaiian shirts, but it only lasted half a season. They were reprimanded by the umpire association or someone.”46

There were other uniquely Hawaiian twists that occurred during the HWB years, such as fans singing, “Buy me pineapple and crackerjack, I don’t care if I never get back,” during seventh-inning stretches.47

HWB alumni who played at Maehara Stadium include Ichiro Suzuki,48 Buster Posey, Todd Helton, Daniel Murphy, Lorenzo Cain, Gabe Kapler, Chris Widger, R.A. Dickey, Hawaii native Benny Agbayani, Jason Giambi, and many other future big-leaguers. 

The inaugural HWB season, in 1993, was disappointing for the Stingrays. Despite having a roster that included Derek Lee, Chris Singleton, and Doug Mirabelli, they finished in last place with a 18-32 record. The Hilo Stars won the pennant.

History was made in the 1994 season when Lee Anne “Beanie” Ketcham and Julie Croteau joined the Stingrays. They became the first women to play in a professional league that was affiliated with Major League Baseball. Ketcham was a right-handed pitcher; Croteau, a lefty, played first base. The previous summer they had barnstormed with the Colorado Silver Bullets, an all-women baseball team managed by Phil Niekro that competed against men’s amateur and semipro teams.49

During their time with Maui, Ketcham50 finished the season with a 6.75 ERA and five strikeouts over eight innings. Croteau51 went 1-for-12 at the plate, but she was better known for her defense, making no errors over 11 games.52 “I could play side-by-side with any of these players defensively,” Croteau said.53 

Ketcham and Croteau’s Maui teammates included Craig Counsell, Quinton McCracken, and eight other future big-league players. Their opponents on other HWB teams were of similar quality. The trailblazing women’s play at this level of professional ball was commendable, especially considering the small number of male players who are able to reach a league of this caliber.     

“Playing baseball in Hawaii was the best job I’ll ever have,” Croteau said.54 She has fond recollections of talking in-depth with teammate Bryan Rekar about hitting and pitching nuances, and doing defensive drills with Counsell. Her favorite memories were when tennis great and women’s rights advocate Billie Jean King came to Maehara to watch her and Ketcham play, and in another game at Maehara, hitting a single and scoring a run.55

Croteau mentioned that the HWB was the highest level of play she attained, and it had “the highest level of support and acceptance for women” compared to earlier chapters of her playing career. The Stingrays “were a great bunch of guys,” she said. “It was a wonderful, positive experience to cap my playing career.”56

One highlight for Ketcham was striking out Aaron Boone. Years later Boone recalled, “She struck me out, on TV.” The third strike was a breaking ball. After the punchout on local television, Boone threw a tantrum in the dugout and threw his batting helmet in the trash can. As a young girl, Ketcham dreamed of pitching for the New York Yankees, so the memorable strikeout felt great – not only at the time but also years later when Boone played for the Bronx Bombers and became the Yankees’ manager.57

For the 1994 season under manager Gene Glynn, Maui had a 30-22 record and won the most games in the HWB, but came in second place. The Kauai Emeralds had a slightly better winning percentage of .580 (29-21) because Kauai had more rainouts.

In 1995, the Stingrays had only a 25-28 record but won their two-team Volcano Division by two games. They came to life in the postseason and beat the Honolulu Sharks for the league title.

The 1996 season was strikingly similar to 1995. The Honolulu Sharks were far-and-away the best HWB team with a 36-16 record. Maui managed to break .500 with a 25-24 record. In the championship, the Stingrays stung the Sharks once again to claim the league title. Future major-league player and manager Mark Kotsay was on the Maui roster in ‘96. 

The 1997 season resulted in a 25-29 record for the Stingrays under manager Joe Ferguson. David Lee played for the Stingrays that year, as did Calvin Pickering and Eugene Kingsale. The Honolulu Sharks were the ’97 champions. That was the HWB’s final season, owing to a disagreement with Major League Baseball regarding continued funding for the league.58   

After a gap of 13 years, professional baseball; returned to Maui and Maehara Stadium, featuring a team with a Hawaiian name: Na Koa Ikaika59 Maui – i.e., “Maui Strong Warriors.” This club played in three different independent leagues60 during its four-year tenure.

In 2010, Maui was one of 10 teams in the Golden Baseball League. This ambitious circuit encompassed three countries: six US teams, three Canadian teams (Calgary, Edmonton. and Victoria) and one Mexican team (Tijuana). The Na Koa Ikaika went 56-26 in the regular season and won the South Division. After beating the Calgary Vipers in the playoffs, they lost to the Chico (California) Outlaws in the finals.

For the next two years, the Na Koa Ikaika played in the 10-team North American League.

In 2011, Maui had a 29-40 record. Late in the season, the Na Koa Ikaika acquired female knuckleball pitcher Eri Yoshida61 from Chico. She started one game – at Maehara Stadium, in front of 934 fans – on August 9, 2011, earning a win while yielding four hits and one earned run over five innings while facing three former major-leaguers and four other players with Triple-A experience. The diminutive 19-year-old (5-feet-1) struck out only one batter but managed to get out of trouble in the first inning by picking off Todd Linden at first base. The final score was Maui 4, Edmonton 1, With this victory, Yoshida became the first woman to win a professional game since Ila Borders in 1999 in the Northern League.62

In 2012, Yoshida’s record with Maui was 4-6 with a 5.56 ERA. In 45⅓ innings of work, she got 12 strikeouts while giving up 41 hits, 28 walks, 28 earned runs, and two home runs. The “Knuckle Princess” had family ties to Maui and said she was “very comfortable there.”63     

August 23, 2012 was a low point for the Na Koa Ikaika, but a high point for old guys everywhere when 65-year-old pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee of the San Rafael (California) Pacifics became the oldest person to win a professional baseball game as the Pacifics defeated Maui 9-4.64  

The 2012 season resulted in a 36-30 record and Maui came in second in the Northern Division behind San Rafael. The league championship was won by the Edinburg (Texas) Roadrunners over the Fort Worth Cats.      

In 2013, Maui played in the Pacific Association, which included another Hawaiian team and three California ballclubs. In their final season, the Na Koa Ikaika went out on top. They had their best season since their inaugural year, finishing with a 46-29 record and winning the Association championship over San Rafael.

Hopena (Conclusion)

As of 2024, Maehara Stadium continues to host high school competition in the Maui Interscholastic League, as well as American Legion ball. Recent news (October 2024) regarded the launch of test plots for Reef-Friendly Landscaping. This would have appealed to Warren Shimabukuro, who was devoted to “sprucing up the best natural grass baseball field in the state”65 – and to Ichiro Maehara, whose duties for HC&S included irrigation division overseer. As Maehara’s youngest sibling Patrick noted, “He was a community-oriented person, always doing things to help others.”66

Last revised: December 9, 2024

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Dean Yamashita for his insights about Hawaiian culture and the Maui baseball scene.

This article was reviewed by Kurt Blumenau and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo.

Sources and Photo Credits

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, StatsCrew.com and sabr.org.

The photo of the stadium was taken by the author on August 26, 2024.

The baseball card images were downloaded from Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Budget and Finance Committee, Council of the County of Maui, Minutes, February 17, 2009: 44. Accessed December 7, 2024, https://www.mauicounty.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/11656. Mike Victorino was then a county councilmember; in 2018, he was elected as Mayor of Maui County.

2 Maehara is pronounced “my-HAR-uh.”

3 Maui County Council Resolution No. 96-63, August 7, 1996. This Resolution officially recognized Maehara’s lifetime of volunteerism in baseball. It was passed unanimously by all nine County Council members.

4 “Reconnaissance Level Survey for Ichiro “Iron” Maehara Baseball Stadium,” prepared on behalf of the Maui County Parks and Recreation Department by FAI Architects, October 2023. The objective of this survey was to ascertain if the ballpark meets criteria for State and/or National registration as Historic Places, a process still underway as of October 2024.

5 Rod Ohira, “Services Tomorrow for ‘Iron’ Maehara, the ‘Mr. Baseball’ of Maui,” Honolulu Star Bulletin, April 9, 1998. Accessed August 25, 2024, https://archives.starbulletin.com/1998/04/09/news/obits.html.

6 Ohira, “Services Tomorrow for ‘Iron’ Maehara, the ‘Mr. Baseball’ of Maui.” Other sources say the nickname “Iron” came from Maehara’s childhood love of a movie-serial: “The Iron Claw.”

7 J.G. Floto, “Iron Maehara,” thediamondangle.com, January 13, 2002, Accessed September 10, 2024, https://webarchive.org/web/20110614230524/http://www.thediamondangle.com/archive/nov2/maehara.html

8 Bruce Allardice, “The First Multiracial Ballgame: Not in Philadelphia in 1869 but in Hawaii, Two Years Earlier,” Our Game, January 7, 2019. Accessed September 30, 2024, https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/the-first-multiracial-ballgame-32ea57419a1d. One well-documented example of a 19th century game was played in 1867, in the then independent Kingdom of Hawaii, under King Kamehameha V. The game, on the island of Oahu, was between teams known as the “Pioneers” and the “Pacifics,” A description of the gameday activities and the box score were published in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser on August 31, 1867.

9 Frank Ardolino, “Wally Yonamine,” The National Pastime, Society for American Baseball Research, 1999 edition: 10.

10 Floto, “Iron Maehara.”

11 Maui County Council Resolution No. 96-63. Maehara was the only player from Maui; all of his teammates were from Oahu. Asahi means “morning” or “rising sun” in Japanese. The Honolulu Asahis played from 1905 through the 1970s and was Hawaiian baseball’s top drawing card before the Hawaii Islanders Triple-A club grew in popularity during the ‘70s. “Fabled Asahi Ball Club Celebrates Centennial,” Honolulu Advertiser, September 12, 2005. Accessed September 30, 2024, http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Sep/12/ln/FP509120333.html.

12 Robert Collias, “Who Deserves to be in a Maui County Sports Hall of Fame?” Maui News, May 17, 2023. Accessed August 25, 2023, https://www.mauinews.com/sports/local-sports/2023/05/column-who-deserves-to-be-in-a-maui-county-sports-hall-of-fame/.

13 Maui County Council Resolution No. 96-63.

14 Floto, “Iron Maehara.”

15 Ohira, “Services Tomorrow for ‘Iron’ Maehara, the ‘Mr. Baseball’ of Maui.”

17 Maui County Council Resolution No. 96-63.

18 Maui County consists of the inhabited islands of Maui, Lanai and Molokai, together with the uninhabited islands of Kahoolawe and Molokini. Maehara’s volunteer efforts were centered on his home island of Maui, but also included work on the neighboring islands of Lanai and Molokai.

19 AJA stands for Americans of Japanese Ancestry. AJA baseball originated in 1908 during the Hawaiian plantation era when different ethnicities had their own teams and leagues. AJA baseball has a rich history; for over a century, AJA baseball has been played in the Hawaiian Islands every year except 1942-47. There are AJA leagues for adults on the four major Hawaiian Islands (Kauai, Oahu, Maui and the Big Island). A state tournament is played each year to determine which island’s top team is the overall champion. The tournament site rotates between four islands, so every fourth year Maehara Stadium hosts this tournament.

20 Maui County Council Resolution No. 96-63.

21 The War Memorial Complex was named in honor of Maui residents who have given their lives in military service. The parking lot and facilities were used as a shelter and donation site after the devastating 2023 wildfires on Maui. Kyle Chinen, “War Memorial Sports Complex Turned into Shelter and Donation Site,” Hawaii News Now, August 16, 2023. Accessed September 10, 2024, https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2023/08/17/war-memorial-sports-complex-home-baldwin-bears-turned-into-shelter-donation-site/.

22 The “War Memorial Football Stadium and Satoki Yamamoto Track and Field Facility” was completed in 1969 and seats 23,000 spectators. It hosted college football’s all-star game, the Hula Bowl from 1998 through 2005. High school football and soccer (Maui Interscholastic League) games are played there regularly. It is the largest high school football stadium in the US. The stadium’s track is open for public use. Numerous track and field meets, including state high school championships, have occurred at this facility. Tony Adame, “Biggest High School Football Stadiums,” stadiumtalk.com, April 18, 2024. Accessed October 9, 2024, https://www.stadiumtalk.com/s/biggest-high-school-football-stadiums-a2ac244928744050.

23 “County Opens New Park,” Maui News, January 30, 1973, B1.

24 “Reconnaissance Level Survey for Ichiro “Iron” Maehara Baseball Stadium.” For continuity within this article, the ballpark is referred to as “Maehara” during the years prior to it being named for Ichiro Maehara.

25 Ohira, “Services Tomorrow for ‘Iron’ Maehara, the ‘Mr. Baseball’ of Maui.”

26 “Ichiro ‘Iron’ Maehara,” Find A Grave. Accessed August 25, 2024, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145592263/ichiro-maehara.

27 Floto, “Iron Maehara.”

28 “Reconnaissance Level Survey for Ichiro “Iron” Maehara Baseball Stadium.”

29 Nathan Fernandez, Recreation Leader, Maui County Parks and Recreation, phone interview, August 30, 2024.

30 Robert Collias, “Otani Remembered Fondly for his Dedication to Baseball,” Maui News, August 15, 2020. Accessed August 30, 2024, https://www.mauinews.com/sports/local-sports/2020/08/otani-remembered-fondly-for-his-dedication-to-baseball/.

31 Collias, “Otani Remembered Fondly for his Dedication to Baseball.”

32 Nathan Fernandez, phone interview.

33 Rob Collias, “Yearlong renovation of War Memorial Stadium could pave way for Hula Bowl, concerts, rodeos,” Maui Now, November 10, 2024. Accessed December 7, 2024, https://mauinow.com/2024/11/10/yearlong-renovation-of-war-memorial-stadium-could-pave-way-for-hula-bowl-concerts-rodeos/. Robert Collias, “Juniors state tournament provides a look into future of baseball in 808,” Maui News, July 19, 2023. Accessed December 7, 2024, https://www.mauinews.com/sports/local-sports/2023/07/juniors-state-tournament-provides-a-look-into-future-of-baseball-in-808/.

34 Collias, “Shimabukuro Remembered as Kind, Dedicated Baseball Ambassador,” Maui News, July 5, 2023. Accessed August 25, 2024,  https://mauinews.com/sports/local sports/2023/07/column shimabukuro remembered as kind dedicated baseball ambassador/.

35 Vierra was also a minor league baseball teammate of basketball icon Michael Jordan when they both played for the Double-A Birmingham Barons in in 1994. Robert Collias, “Vierra Recalls Time with Jordan,” Maui News, May 13, 2020. Accessed October 2, 2024, https://www.mauinews.com/sports/local-sports/2020/05/vierra-recalls-time-with-jordan/.

36 Collias, “Shimabukuro Remembered as Kind, Dedicated Baseball Ambassador.”

37 Dean Yamashita, phone interview, October 29, 2024.

38 The Maui Interscholastic League (MIL) is the governing body for high school sports in Maui County. There are 14 MIL schools, 12 on Maui and two from the neighboring islands of Lanai and Molokai. As the first Executive Secretary of the MIL (1960-84), Kenji Kawaguchi was considered the father of league. Many state high school championship tournaments have been held at Maehara.

39 Hawaii in general, and Maui in particular, have had great success with Little League teams going deep in postseason tournaments. At Maehara Stadium there is a “Home of the 2019 Senior Little League World Series Champions” plaque. This team, representing the Central East Maui Little League and Wailuku, went all the way in 2019 beating Willemstad, Curacao in the Senior Little League World Series in Easley, South Carolina. The 2019 championship team was managed by Craig Okita with help from coaches Shane Awai and Dean Yamashita. In 1987, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2024, Maui County-based Little League and/or Senior Little League teams won the Western State regionals and advanced to the World Series tournament rounds. All of these teams were based in Wailuku, except for the 1987 team which was from Molokai.

40 Pono is the Hawaiian word for goodness, righteousness and excellence. It is often used in the context of leading a “pono life,” a life of integrity and high moral character. PONO Baseball on Maui consists of 150 – 200 players (ages 4 to 18) in both competitive and recreational leagues: the Central East Maui Little League and the Maui Bronco League. “I use baseball as a way to teach life lessons,” said coach Dean Yamashita. “We want to set them up for life after baseball. We expect them to be pono.” Dean Yamashita, phone interview.

41 The Maui Adult League formed in 2009 to “provide men aged 25 and older competitive recreational baseball programs.” The league plays at Maehara and four other fields. The league had between two and six teams in its early years; by the summer of 2011, it had eight teams. “Maui Adult Baseball League,” playpaani.com. Accessed September 25, 2024, https://www.playpaani.com/League/Show/maui-adult-baseball-league-wailuku-hi.

42 21st century baseball fans may not be familiar with Tony Rego. He was born in 1897 when Hawaii was an independent republic. The “Mighty Midget” was only 5-feet 4. He beat long odds getting to the majors, playing as a catcher for the St. Louis Browns in 1924-25.

43 Robert Collias, “Suzuki: ‘Right Time’ to Call it a Career,” Maui News, September 28, 2022. Accessed August 25, 2023, https://www.mauinews.com/sports/local-sports/2022/09/suzuki-right-time-to-call-it-a-career/.

44 Kurisu is a businessman and minority owner of the San Francisco Giants.

45 Matt Monagan, “Baseball in Hawaii? As Cool as it Sounds,” mlb.com, December 23, 2023. Accessed August 19, 2024, https://www.mlb.com/news/hawaiian-winter-league-look-back.

46 Monagan, “Baseball in Hawaii? As Cool as it Sounds.”

47 Monagan, “Baseball in Hawaii? As Cool as it Sounds.”

48 Ichiro Suzuki’s 1993 HWB season served him well. The next year in Japan, as a 20-year-old, he led the JPL with a .385 batting average and became the first Japanese player to reach 200 hits in a single season.

49 The Silver Bullets were the first and only women’s pro baseball team since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League of the 1940s and ‘50s. During the Bullets inaugural season in 1994, Croteau posted a .989 fielding average and was one of only two hitters on the team with more walks than strikeouts. Ketcham was the ace of the pitching staff with a 4.80 ERA and seven complete games. In 77 1/3 innings she had 63 strikeouts and 21 walks. She led the team to its first-ever victory in May while striking out 14 batters. This is believed to be the first win by a professional women’s baseball squad over an all-male team (Silver Bullets 7, Richfield Rockets 2). Ketcham also shutout a men’s all-star team in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

50 Ketcham, an Alabama native, was the only girl on her hometown Little League team. As a starting pitcher in high school, she had a 12-5 record one season on the otherwise all-male team. She earned a softball scholarship to Oklahoma State University. She played shortstop on four straight conference championship softball teams at OSU. Along with pitching for Maui, she played three years professionally with the Colorado Silver Bullets. In 1996, her final season with the Bullets, she had a 2.27 ERA over 43 2/3 innings. As of 2024, Ketcham works as a prosthetist in the United Kingdom.

51 In addition to her historic achievements with the Maui Stingrays, Croteau was a trailblazing baseball pioneer on other fronts. It began at an early age: After a successful Little League career, she and her parents unsuccessfully sued Osborne Park High School in Manassas, Virginia for the right to play on the boy’s team. She was the second woman to play in a men’s NCAA baseball game when she played for St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 1989. (Susan Perabo was the first; she played for Webster University in 1987. Perabo’s accomplishment appears on a plaque at the Baseball Hall of Fame. During her collegiate career, Perabo played in four games and had five hitless at-bats. Croteau was the first woman to start for a NCAA team, get hits and play on a regular basis.) Croteau was the first female coach in a men’s NCAA Division 1 baseball program when she joined the staff at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1995. In 2006, she was the manager of the US Women’s National Baseball Team. Croteau led that team to the Women’s Baseball World Cup gold medal making her the first woman to manage a women’s baseball team to gold in international baseball competition. “Our Museum in Action: Julie Croteau’s Mitt,” National Baseball Hall of Fame. Accessed October 1, 2012, https://support.baseballhall.org/campaign/julie-croteau-mitt-b-29-95/c230267. Croteau’s smooth fielding also earned her a role in the 1992 Penny Marshall-directed movie A League of Their Own, the story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, starring Geena Davis, Madonna and Tom Hanks. Her collegiate baseball glove and a photo of her are enshrined at the Baseball Hall of Fame. As of 2024, she works as the Director of Strategic Communications for the Stanford Cancer Institute at Stanford University.

52 Monagan, “Baseball in Hawaii? As Cool as it Sounds.” As per box scores and articles in the Maui News, Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Honolulu Star-Advertiser between October 14 – 21, 1994, Ketcham was the first of the two women to appear in a game when she pitched the final inning of the second game of the season on October 15 against the Honolulu Sharks. Croteau had an at-bat in the season’s sixth game on October 20 against the Kauai Emeralds. The first HWB game appearances for Ketcham and Croteau occurred at Maehara Stadium.

53 Julie Croteau, phone interview, October 8, 2024.

54 Julie Croteau, phone interview.

55 Julie Croteau, phone interview.

56 Julie Croteau, phone interview.

57 Jake Seiner, “Facing Men While with Maui Stingrays was Highlight for Baseball’s Women Pioneers,” Maui News, May 26, 2022. Accessed September 23, 2024, https://www.mauinews.com/sports/local-sports/2022/05/facing-men-while-with-maui-stingrays-was-highlight-for-baseballs-women-pioneers/.

58 “The Hawaii Winter League 1993 – 1997,” The National Pastime, January 1, 2000. Accessed October 1, 2024, https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Hawaii+Winter+League+1993-1997.-a070451216. In addition to the five seasons played in the 1990s, the Hawaii Winter Baseball League was reconstituted for three additional seasons (2006 – 2008). Again, it was a four-team league, but this time all the teams were based on Oahu.

59 Na Koa Ikaika is pronounced nah-ko-uh-ee-KY-kuh.

60 These independent leagues were not affiliated with Major League Baseball, i.e., they were not part of a formal farm system. They typically featured collegiate players who played professionally during summer break. During the Na Koa Ikaika years, the team managers were: Cory Snyder in 2010, Garry Templeton in 2011, Jamie Vermilyea in 2012, and Jeff Brooks in 2013.

61 Born in Yokohama, Japan, Yoshida taught herself to throw the knuckleball after watching a video of American pitcher Tim Wakefield. She honed her skills and pitched for her high school team in Japan. At age 16, in 2008, Yoshida was the first woman drafted by a Japanese pro team and she played professionally in Japan. In early 2010, she played in the Arizona Winter League for the Yuma Scorpions. She played for the Chico Outlaws of the Golden Baseball League in the summer of 2010. Her first road start was against the Victoria Seals in Canada on July 27, 2010, making her the first woman to pitch professionally in three different countries.

62 Tom Dubberke, “Eri Yoshida: Female Knuckleballer Wins Professional Baseball Game,” bleacherreport.com, August 19, 2011. Accessed October 4, 2024, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/813284-eri-yoshida-wins-professional-game. The Edmonton Capitals had these former big-leaguers playing in the game: Todd Linden, J.D. Closser, and Enrique Cruz.

63 “Outlaws Trade Female Pitcher Yoshida to Maui,” Chico Enterprise-Record, April 21, 2018. Accessed October 4, 2024, https://www.chicoer.com/2011/08/05/outlaws-trade-female-pitcher-yoshida-to-maui/.

64 Lee not only picked up the “W,” he threw a complete game. He had signed a one-game contract with the San Rafael Pacifics. It was a publicity stunt that paid off, selling 1,200 seats. The Spaceman broke his previous record as the oldest pitcher to win a pro game which occurred in a Can-Am League game two years earlier when he was 63. Lee set the new record at Albert Park in San Rafael. Lee had success at this venue decades earlier as a high school player, including throwing a no-hitter in 1962. The left-handed Lee also had a colorful, and successful, pro career with the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos. Daniel Brown, “Ex-Big Leaguer ‘Spaceman’ Bill Lee Earns Victory for Pacifics,” Marin Independent Journal, July 19, 2018. Accessed October 4, 2024, https://www.marinij.com/2012/08/24/ex-big-leaguer-spaceman-bill-lee-earns-victory-for-pacifics/.

65 Collias, “Shimabukuro Remembered as Kind, Dedicated Baseball Ambassador.”

66 Ohira, “Services Tomorrow for ‘Iron’ Maehara, the ‘Mr. Baseball’ of Maui.”

Few multi-purpose stadiums in North American history can rival Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium for the number, variety and stature of events held there. Set in a vast fairgrounds complex on the shore of Lake Ontario, the municipal facility originally known as Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) Stadium served as the largest sports and entertainment venue in Canada’s biggest city for four decades.

The last of four grandstand/racetrack combinations built on the site, CNE Stadium opened in 1949 as a place for regional sporting events, auto racing, and diversions associated with Toronto’s annual exposition and fair, the CNE. Expanded in the late 1950s to accommodate the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts, the stadium underwent a major reconfiguration in the mid-1970s that attracted the American League expansion Blue Jays and a new name: Exhibition Stadium.1 From 1979 to 1983, those two franchises shared “the Ex” with a third, the Toronto Blizzard of the North American Soccer League. (To locals, both the CNE and the stadium were called “the Ex,” a source of confusion to the uninitiated.2)

Many of the world’s most iconic entertainers performed for capacity crowds at Exhibition Stadium—comedians and crooners, rock stars and wrestlers.3 British royalty visited, as did a pope, John Paul II.4 The stadium also hosted a myriad of religious gatherings,5 cultural festivals,6 soccer matches (friendlies and otherwise),7 military tattoos,8 conventions, drum and bugle corps competitions, veterans’ parades, police athletic games,9 beauty pageants,10 motocross competitions,11 a simulated Olympics opening ceremony,12 and the world’s largest bingo game.13

Plagued by seagulls, fog, and cold weather, the Ex was an acquired taste for many. Throw in poor sightlines, uncomfortable seats, limited cover from the elements, and food so bad “[e]ven the seagulls watch what they eat,” it’s not hard to see how a 1988 review of the fan experience across all major league ballparks ranked Exhibition Stadium dead last.14 Yet never in the 968 regular-season games they played there did the Blue Jays fail to draw at least 10,000—a level of hometown support no other major league team enjoyed between 1977 and 1989. Called by some “The-Mistake-By-The-Lake” or “Excruciation Stadium,” the Ex became obsolete with the opening of SkyDome, a state-of-the-art retractable domed stadium, in June 1989.15 Devoid of tenants and used infrequently over the next decade, Exhibition Stadium, “the worst stadium in sports” according to Blue Jays president Paul Beeston, was demolished in 1999.16

The First Three Grandstands – CNE Stadium Is Born (1879-1947)

In the late-1870s, the city of Toronto signed a long-term lease for over 50 acres of a military reserve on the Lake Ontario shoreline and developed the land into a site for agricultural and industrial exhibitions. The first exhibition held on what became the city’s second Exhibition Park opened in September 1879.17 One of the site’s 23 new buildings was a fully enclosed grandstand with seating for 5,000. Located at the east end of a roughly quarter-mile paperclip oval racecourse, the grandstand housed spectators for receptions, band concerts, horse races, bicycle races, athletics competitions, and drill team exercises.18

In 1892, the city purchased 11 acres between New Fort York and Exhibition Park on which a new 10,000-seat grandstand and racetrack were built.19 Fire swept through the grandstand on October 18, 1906, destroying it along with the Crystal Palace, once a park centerpiece.20

The third grandstand at Exhibition Park was a 725-foot-long concrete, steel, and wood structure with covered seating for 16,400.21 Livestock shows and track and field meets were staples there, as were band concerts featuring patriotic music. By the early 1900s, auto racing often filled the grandstand.22 Thousands saw Barney Oldfield set a world speed record there in 1904,23 and in 1917, race car driver Gaston Chevrolet outpaced a low-flying “aeroplane” piloted around the track by pioneering female aviator Ruth Law, whose daring exploits figure into baseball history as well.24

As Toronto’s annual exhibition became Canada’s national fair in the early twentieth century, the event took on the CNE name.25 By the early 1930s, the grandstand and track came to collectively be known as CNE Stadium.26 On April 14, 1946, the CNE grandstand met the same fate as its predecessor and was destroyed by a fire that began in the middle of the night.27

Auto Racing and Football Reign at CNE Stadium (1949-1974)

A new CNE Stadium grandstand was erected by the spring of 1949 at a cost of $4 million. Set on the north side of a new one-third-mile cinder track surrounded by wooden guardrails, it seated 20,600 under cover.28 The gently-curving steel structure, designed by local architects Marani and Morris and built by Pigott Construction, was 800 feet in length, 150 feet wide, and 75 feet high, with two large restaurants, five team dressing rooms, and a large exhibition hall.29 Designed with future expansion in mind, the grandstand was considered one segment of a bowl that could later accommodate 60,000 spectators. Fitted with new lighting equipment, the field was touted as “‘second to none’ for night sports.”30

Yet it was daytime auto racing that filled the CNE grandstand in the 1950s. In 1952 alone, 44 meets attracted 365,000 spectators.31 The second of the only two NASCAR Grand National races ever run in Canada took place at CNE’s by-then paved track in July 1958. Finishing near the back of the pack was 21-year-old Richard Petty in the first Grand National race of his career.32 Narrowed into a quarter-mile oval in 1959 to make room for football, the track was replaced with a rubberized, all-weather running track in 1967.33

CNE’s 400-meter, eight-lane track drew some of North America’s finest track athletes. World-record miler Jim Ryun smoked a field of 10 Canadian hopefuls during a 1972 meet, and American Olympic silver medalist Cheryl Toussaint “slipped back into the winning groove” by taking the “800-metre feature” a year later.34

In 1957, Jack Kent Cooke, owner of the Triple-A Toronto Maple Leafs, and John Bassett, a director for the Toronto Argonauts of the Big Four Football Union (predecessor to the CFL), separately approached the Toronto committee on parks and exhibitions about reconfiguring CNE grounds for their teams.35 After months of lobbying from both sides, city council approved funding to install 13,000 portable bleacher seats in a new, uncovered grandstand opposite the existing structure, with an unfunded “second stage of [a] giant master plan” to construct a 12,000-seat lower deck for baseball.36 Cooke, who for years tried to bring major league baseball to Toronto, was encouraged by a May 1958 report that the National League would move the Los Angeles Dodgers out of that city should a referendum fail to approve funding for construction of a new stadium in Chavez Ravine. Once that measure passed, NL president Warren Giles told Cooke that expansion into Toronto was not on the horizon, putting the second stage of the CNE Stadium expansion on ice.37 Days later, the Argonauts committed to a 10-year lease and $670,000 to cover construction costs for a second grandstand on the lake side of the racetrack.38 The new pre-fabricated steel structure, with 65 rows of bleacher-style wood plank seating, was in place for the start of the 1959 CFL season. 39

The Argos christened their new home with an exhibition against the NFL Chicago Cardinals, then a month later played the first-ever Sunday professional football game in Toronto.40 Canada’s second-largest stadium at that time, with room for over 32,000 in its two grandstands plus about 13,000 more in temporary end-zone bleachers,41 CNE Stadium was selected by the CFL to host the 1959 Grey Cup. Future NFL Hall of Famer Bud Grant coached the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to victory in that game, as well as the 1961 Grey Cup, which was also held at CNE. Quarterback Joe Kapp led the British Columbia (BC) Lions to the 1964 Grey Cup title at CNE, five years before quarterbacking Grant’s Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.42 In all, 12 Grey Cups were played at CNE/Exhibition Stadium as well as three Canadian College Football championships.43

Weather wreaked havoc on many a football game at the Ex. The 1962 Grey Cup was beset by fog so dense it was suspended until the next day, making it the sport’s first “Fog Bowl.”44 Rain and snow, combined with wear from use during summertime CNE grandstand shows, often turned the stadium’s natural turf into a mud pit.45 Only after CFL officials threatened to hold future Grey Cups elsewhere did city officials install artificial grass, in 1972.46 In the first game played on the new surface, Argonauts quarterback Joe Theismann suffered a cracked fibula when his foot got stuck in the turf as he was getting tackled.47

In February 1974, Toronto’s city council agreed to lease Exhibition Stadium to a franchise in the new World Football League, but before their first practice, the Toronto Northmen relocated to Memphis.48 Saved from sharing CNE with an upstart, the Argonauts soon saw their home reconfigured to attract a more venerable co-tenant—major league baseball.

CNE Stadium Becomes Exhibition Stadium – the Blue Jays Era (1975-1989)

Paul Godfrey, appointed chairman of Metropolitan Toronto in 1973,49 considered a new stadium one of his top priorities. Attracting a major league baseball team was central to his plan. Prohibitive costs prevented building a new “Rolls Royce type of stadium,” but in February 1974, Toronto’s city council approved what Godfrey called a “Chevrolet”: enlarging CNE Stadium for $15 million. Groundbreaking followed nine months later.50

The stadium’s south grandstand was removed, and a single-tier, L-shaped addition was built at the west end of the stadium to provide seating for 28,000 around a diamond to be located there.51 With the far end of the addition, down the first base line, left uncurved to accommodate football, baseball fans sitting there would have to turn sharply to see home plate; in some cases almost 90 degrees. The all-weather track was removed, and a new artificial surface field was installed.52 Flat it was not. According to Toronto catcher Bob Brenly, “If you stood at home plate you could only see the center fielder from the knees up.”53 The new turf lasted until the winter of 1984.54

Arcing across the 3.7 acres of artificial turf was a 12-foot-high padded chain link fence that served as the outfield wall.55 Separable fence panels allowed a quick conversion from baseball to football, with more than half of the football field extending into the outfield. Officially, the fence sat 330 feet from home plate down each foul line, 375 feet to the power alleys, and 400 feet to straightaway center field. Blue Jays sportscaster Tony Kubek claimed that actual distances were 16 to 30 feet shorter when measured at the request of Toronto’s manager from 1982 to 1985, Bobby Cox.56 Bookending the fence was a pair of foul poles that had bolts protruding into foul territory. A ball hit by Toronto’s Ernie Whitt struck one on June 7, 1987. Ruled a home run, it plated two in a 3-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.57

Completed by the spring of 1976, the renovations increased the stadium’s reported capacity to 40,000 for baseball and 54,000 for football, at a cost of $17.8 million.58 By that time, Toronto had lined up a major-league franchise, but not the one many expected.

In September 1975, a group led by The Globe and Mail executive R. Howard Webster bid $15 million to buy the San Francisco Giants and move them to Toronto.59 When the Giants accepted an offer in January 1976 to sell the club to Toronto-based Labatt Breweries for $13.25 million, the City of San Francisco requested an injunction to stop the sale.60 Before the presiding judge made his determination, San Francisco mayor George Moscone brokered a deal between the Giants and a group led by local real estate magnate Bob Lurie, who committed to keep the Giants in San Francisco.61

Having already granted Seattle an expansion franchise for the 1977 season, American League owners wanted another expansion team to maintain an even number of teams. By 11-1 vote, Toronto was selected as the preferred location, and Labatt’s was granted the franchise for $7 million.62

With many grandstand seats considered suitable only for football, CNE Stadium’s capacity for baseball was adjusted downward in the summer of 1976 to only 33,700.63 To allay AL fears that the stadium was undersized, the city agreed to add 10,000 seats to the stadium “if the Blue Jays attracted at least 1.2 million fans for three consecutive seasons.”64 The team reached that mark in 1979, but the city chose to re-categorize many seats as suitable for baseball rather than add capacity.

The Argos benefited from the stadium expansion even before it was complete. They broke the CFL regular-season single-game attendance record on Opening Day of the 1975 season with nearly 37,000 fans, and a November 1975 contest drew more than any CFL game ever had.65 A Grey Cup-record 53,389 fans attended the 1976 CFL championship.66 Tickets to that event bore the venue’s new name—Exhibition Stadium.67

The Blue Jays opened their inaugural season at their new home on April 7, 1977, at the tail-end of a snowstorm. Bill Singer delivered the first pitch with snow still flying and the outfield largely blanketed in white. Toronto topped the Chicago White Sox, 9-5, in front of 44,649 “near-frozen fans.”68 The Blue Jays lost 107 games in 1977 but drew 1.7 million fans, then a record for an expansion team.69 On September 15, they were gifted a rare win by forfeit when Orioles manager Earl Weaver pulled his team off the field after umpires refused to have the grounds crew remove a tarpaulin covering the Toronto bullpen area down the left-field line.70

A state-of-the-art $2.5 million, 132-foot-by-60-foot computerized scoreboard replaced an old football scoreboard beyond the right-field fence for the 1978 season. Described as “the most sophisticated of its kind in the world,” the screen required a crew of six to operate.71 They were kept busy on June 26, 1978, when the Jays scored 24 runs against the Orioles, the most by one team in a major-league game since 1955.72 A smaller and more hastily thrown-together crew worked the bases during a Blue Jays afternoon game at the Ex on August 25, 1978, as Toronto coach Don Leppert, Minnesota Twins coach Jerry Zimmerman, and two local umpires served as fill-in arbiters during a one-day umpires’ strike.73

The Ex celebrated Canadian baseball in various ways. Beginning in 1978, Exhibition Stadium alternated with Montreal’s Olympic Stadium in hosting the Pearson Cup, a midseason exhibition game between the Blue Jays and Expos.74 The Ex briefly hosted a local college league, held induction ceremonies for the inaugural class of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, and provided space for Canada’s national team to prepare before international tournaments.75

In February 1979, Toronto’s NASL Blizzard moved from Varsity Stadium into Exhibition Stadium, anticipating big crowds that never came. Fittingly, the Blizzard’s first home game was played in a snowstorm.76 Competing before stands that were rarely more than one-third full,77 the Blizzard qualified for the NASL playoffs every year they called the Ex home but 1981. That year, NASL’s championship, the Soccer Bowl, was held at Exhibition Stadium, but only those in attendance saw it live. Expecting few would tune in to a live soccer match, ABC didn’t broadcast the Chicago Sting’s win over the New York Cosmos until the next day.78 The Blizzard broke their 15-year lease and moved back to Varsity Stadium in 1984, happy to be leaving the Ex’s artificial surface behind.79

Rock concerts were considerably more successful filling Exhibition Stadium than was the beautiful game. The largest crowd ever at the Ex (71,000) came to see The Who in July 1980, with almost 20,000 watching from the playing field. Bruce Springsteen attracted 69,000 in 1985.80 Pink Floyd’s three-performance gig in September 1987 was the highest grossing engagement in the world that year ($2.85 million).81 Other legendary acts who packed the Ex include Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, The Beach Boys, The Police, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Guns N’ Roses, and Paul McCartney.82

As the Blue Jays struggled to become a winning franchise in the early 1980s, the Argonauts achieved some significant milestones at the Ex. Former Green Bay Packer Willie Wood became the first Black head coach in CFL history in the opening game of the 1980 season.83 Two years later, another former Packer, Forest Gregg, led the Argos to the 1982 Grey Cup, played before the largest football crowd in Ex history (54,741). Toronto lost to Warren Moon and the Edmonton Eskimos.84 During the 1983 NFL players’ strike, NBC selected a battle at Exhibition Stadium between Toronto and BC as the first CFL game broadcast in network history. The Argos won, on the way to their first Grey Cup crown in 31 years.85

The year 1983 was also a turning point in the Blue Jays’ fortunes. They won 89 games and saw attendance grow after dropping by almost 18 percent over the previous three years. The ability to finally sell beer at the ballpark helped. Ontario regulations barred the sale of alcohol at sporting events until suds sales were finally “allowed on an experimental basis” in July 1982, eliminating the stigma of Exhibition Stadium being the major leagues’ only dry ballpark.86

Someone who maybe could’ve used a cold one on August 4, 1983, was New York Yankees outfielder Dave Winfield, after his errant fifth-inning warmup toss struck and killed a seagull standing in the outfield. Fans booed Winfield as a ballboy covered the dead bird and then carried it off the field. After the game, Winfield was arrested for “causing unnecessary suffering of an animal.”87 Charges were dropped the next day.

Another future Hall of Famer had a run-in with police at the Ex three seasons earlier. On his way into the stadium on August 25, 1980, Texas Rangers pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, a celebrated Ontario native, was arrested after his luggage at Toronto International Airport was found to contain cocaine, hashish and marijuana.88 Found guilty of possession in an Ontario court, Jenkins avoided jail time.89

The Blue Jays’ 1984 season at the Ex got off to a cheeky start as a naked streaker bounded across the diamond during the home opener.90 That sparked a trend of sorts, with dozens of clothed fans storming the field during each of the next two home openers. Their antics during the 1986 lid-lifter prompted the Orioles’ Weaver to file a formal protest, claiming that repeated play-stoppages to clear the field were distracting his pitcher.91

The Earl of Baltimore’s many frustrations with the Ex extended to other AL managers. Red Sox skipper Ralph Houk so despised the artificial surface he said, “You don’t play baseball on it, you play (bleeping) streetball on it.”92 After a loss at the Ex, Detroit Tigers manager Sparky Anderson called the ballpark a joke for how routine fly balls sometimes cleared the fences, but a later win had him marveling how every groundball was a hit and every fly ball a home run. “This might be the all-time ballpark,” Anderson raved. “Don’t ever make me leave here.”93

Exhibition Stadium justifiably carried the reputation of being a hitter’s ballpark. Single-year park factors were above 100 for runs scored from 1977–1984 and never fell below that threshold for triples.94 Many otherwise successful opposing pitchers found the ballpark uncomfortable. A year before winning  the 1978 AL Cy Young Award, Ron Guidry said it “looks like a telephone booth.”95 On the cusp of Toronto departing Exhibition Stadium, reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Frank Viola, 2–9 lifetime at the Ex, joked, “I’ve got a bomb set in the bullpen for about 10 o’clock Sunday night. I’m going to help get rid of this place.”96 No major leaguer ever threw a no-hitter at the Ex, but five carried one into the ninth inning—Toronto hurlers Dave Stieb, Jim Clancy, and Jimmy Key, and visiting future Hall of Famers Bert Blyleven and Nolan Ryan.97

In 1985, Toronto earned its first playoff berth, clinching the AL East Division title on the next-to-last day of the season with a win at home over the Yankees. The next day, knuckleballer Phil Niekro earned his 300th career win in an otherwise irrelevant contest.98 Toronto dropped the ensuing AL Championship Series to the Kansas City Royals, the only postseason series ever played at the Ex. The decisive blow in Game 7 was a bases-loaded, two-out fly ball hit to right by Royals catcher Jim Sundberg that an unfavorable wind carried to the top of the fence for a bases-clearing triple.99

The elements worked in Toronto’s favor on June 12, 1986, when a routine fly hit into an impenetrable fog by the Blue Jays’ Kelly Gruber landed 30 feet from Detroit center fielder Pat Sheridan, who never saw it. Minutes after Gruber circled the bases, umpires called the game.100 Three months later, Tom Seaver made the final appearance of his major-league career at the Ex, leaving a start for the Boston Red Sox after four innings with a pulled calf muscle. In April 1983, New York Mets icon-to-be Darryl Strawberry first tasted major-league ballpark success when he connected on a home run at the Ex in a Triple-A game shifted from snowy Syracuse.101

The 1987 season opened with the Blue Jays at home, facing the Cleveland Indians in the first major-league opener ever held outside of the United States.102 Three months later, Canada Day (July 1) brought out the largest crowd ever to attend a baseball game at Exhibition Stadium, 47,828 for a game with the Yankees. On September 14, 1987, the Blue Jays clubbed a major-league record 10 home runs off the Orioles in a home game. In the eighth inning, Baltimore manager Cal Ripken Sr. pulled his son Cal Jr. out of the game, ending Junior’s major-league record streak of 8,264 consecutive innings played.103

Long before Exhibition Stadium’s mid-1970s transformation, critics urged the city to abandon it for a domed stadium. In 1966, mayoral candidate William Archer called then-CNE Stadium a “hodge-podge” and suggested the city build a venue “similar to Houston’s Astrodome.”104 After the discomfiting spectacle of rain-soaked fans urinating in uncovered stands during the 1982 Grey Cup, city officials seriously pursued building a dome.105 Plans for a retractable dome were unveiled the following August, with a site selected in early 1985.106 Approved as part of a $2 billion development plan, SkyDome was completed in June 1989.107

The Argos were the first to abandon Exhibition Stadium for SkyDome. They played their last game at Ex Stadium on a rainy Sunday in November 1988, losing in the CFL Eastern Conference finals.108 The curtain came down on the Blue Jays’ stay at Exhibition Stadium on May 28, 1989. Fittingly facing the same team they debuted against, Toronto outlasted the White Sox on a 10th-inning walk-off home run by George Bell.109

The Ex Goes Quiet(ly) (1989-1999)

With baseball and football gone, Exhibition Stadium played host to sports old and new. In May 1990, the national cricket teams of Pakistan and India squared off and motor racing returned after a one-third-mile oval was re-installed.110 Over the next year, stock car, short-track midget, and motorcycle races brought crowds to the Ex, but noise complaints from the surrounding community prompted the Toronto city council to shutter the competitions.111 Race fans continued to pack Exhibition Stadium once a year for the Molson Indy (later Grand Prix of Toronto), held since 1986 on a 1.8-mile course that snaked around Exhibition Place (formerly Exhibition Park), with the start/finish line visible from inside the stadium.112

Toronto officials entertained proposals to build a new venue on the Exhibition Stadium site over the next few years, but nothing materialized. An arena “big enough to host the Toronto Maple Leafs [hockey team] or [an NBA] franchise” was proposed in 1991 but never built.113 The city committed to building an 80,000-seat facility in a bid for the 1996 Summer Olympics. Even though Atlanta was selected instead, Exhibition Stadium’s fate was sealed. 114

Shortly after demolition got underway in the fall of 1998, Labatt’s paid Toronto $50,000 to stop. Having suffered losses of about $100 million over the previous three years, the Blue Jays owner threatened to move the club back to the Ex if their SkyDome lease wasn’t restructured with more favorable terms.115 Ultimately a deal was struck and the wrecking ball unleashed. Before it was, thousands of Ex seats were sold to the public at $35 apiece, with the rest used to replace worn-out seating at other city arenas.116

Epilogue

Today, BMO Field, a purpose-built soccer facility, stands where Exhibition Stadium once did. In parking Lot 2, to the south of the stadium, four engraved plaques mark the locations where Exhibition Stadium’s bases once stood.117

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Kurt Blumenau and Abigail Miskowiec and fact-checked by Ray Danner.

Photo credits: Exhibition Stadium, City of Toronto Archives.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted editor John Withrow’s Once Upon a Century: 100 Year History of the “Ex” (Toronto: J.H. Robinson Publishing, 1978), David Bain’s “Toronto’s Nineteenth-Century Exhibition Parks,” Ontario History, Spring 2022, and issues of the Toronto Star.

Notes

1 “Exhibition Stadium: New Name for Old Place,” Toronto Star, October 29, 1976: C1.

2 See, for example, Caroline Byrne, “Ex loves to shake up its visitors,” Toronto Star, August 29, 1989: A6 and Tom Slater, “Ex-Blue Jays miss Ex’s faithful fans but not weather,” Toronto Star, May 29, 1989: D4.

3 In August 1986, Wrestlemania attracted a crowd estimated at 65,000, described at the time as the largest “in the history of the sport (er, entertainment, er exhibition).” David Miller, Robert Brehl, and Peter Cheney, “Record 65,000 Holler for Hulk,” Toronto Star, August 29, 1986: A1.

4 Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, oversaw a patriotic pageant shortly after World War I from the third CNE grandstand. Princess Elizabeth and her husband Phillip attended ceremonies at CNE Stadium in October 1951 honoring Victoria Cross recipients. As monarch, Queen Elizabeth returned to celebrate Ontario’s Bicentenary in September 1984, two weeks after Pope John Paul II’s visit. Once Upon a Century: 100 Year History of the “Ex”, 60; Norman Kenyon, “Windsor Prepares Royal Welcome,” Detroit Free Press, October 14, 1951: 1; Kathy English, “Metro turns on for the Queen,” Toronto Star, September 30, 1984: 1. Jim Foster, “Pope calls for new moral order,” Toronto Star, September 15, 1984: 1. 

5 See, for example, “25,000 form living rosary at chilly CNE,” Toronto Star, October 4, 1965: 18.

6 See, for example, “Canadian Sports Parade,” Niagara Falls (Ontario) Review, June 26, 1951: 12; “Etobicoke girl to sing at Ex,” Toronto Star, August 18, 1981: WEST-17; and Lisa Wright, “Caribana island party ‘great’,” Toronto Star, August 5, 1991: A6.

7 CNE Stadium hosted a match between Manchester United and a team of English internationals in June 1950 that drew nearly 25,000, at the time the largest crowd to see a sporting event in Canada other than horse racing. A 1971 contest between teams from Greece and Yugoslavia descended into chaos when 250 fans stormed the field to join a fight on the pitch. In 1980, Canada’s national soccer team played Mexico to a tie in a World Cup qualifier held at the Ex. Bill Entwistle, “Toronto Clinches Claim to Title ats Continent’s Top Soccer Town,” Toronto Star, June 15, 1950: 18; Jim Kernaghan, “Soccer fans and players riot at CNE,” Toronto Star, July 10, 1971: 35; Garth Woolsey, “Mexicans avoid soccer upset tie Canada in dying seconds,” Toronto Star, October 19, 1980: C2.

8 See, for example, “Tattoo Sunday night,” Toronto Star, September 2, 1967: 78.

9 The Police Games, an annual festival first held in the 1880s to build relationships through sports between Toronto’s law enforcement personnel and the community they served, took place at CNE/Exhibition Stadium from the early 1950s through the 1980s. See, for example, Jim Foster, “To serve, protect, and pull like heck,” Toronto Star, July 25, 1986: A7.

10 The Miss Toronto beauty contest, a fixture of the Police Games (see previous endnote) from the 1930s until well into the 1980s, was held in front of the Exhibition Stadium grandstand for over three decades.

11 For one weekend each June between 1980 and 1988, off-road motorcycling took over the stadium with the help of 4,000 cubic yards of dirt. Supercross/motocross racing drew crowds of up to 45,000 to see races that were held rain or shine. “Exciting history of Toronto’s Supercross,” Toronto Star, April 29, 1993: S5.

12 In September 1980, Canadian athletes denied the opportunity to compete at the 1980 Moscow Olympics (after Canada pulled out in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan) paraded into the stadium behind the Canadian Olympic standard and while wearing official Canadian team uniforms. Stewart Brown, “CN Tower pierces last of the Olympic dreams,” Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator, September 2, 1980: 57.

13 A short-lived world record for the most participants in a bingo game was set at the Ex in August 1983 when an estimated 18,000 competed for a shot at a $100,000 jackpot. Jim Foster and Matt Maychak, “Shy couple hits jackpot,” Toronto Star, August 20, 1983: 1.

14 “Exhibition Stadium Dead Last in Survey of Big League Ballparks,” Toronto Star, July 23, 1988: B1.

15 Paul Moloney, “Exhibition Stadium Facing Wrecking Crew,” Toronto Star, February 27, 1998: A1.

16 “Demand for a Dome,” This Is Where You Find Baseball, posted November 10, 2023, YouTube video, 32:27, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE3QmXZEGOc. This documentary originally aired on The History Channel in 1989.

17 The first Exhibition Park, located to the immediate north of its successor, hosted provincial agricultural/industrial exhibitions beginning in 1858. It became an unsuitable home for the ever-growing exhibitions after the city extended a local thoroughfare through it in 1876. David Bain, “Toronto’s Nineteenth-Century Exhibition Parks,” Ontario History, Spring 2022, 66-71.

18 John Withrow, ed., Once Upon a Century: 100 Year History of the “Ex” (Toronto: J.H. Robinson Publishing, 1978), 18; Bain, “Toronto’s Nineteenth-Century Exhibition Parks,” 74 and 76. Two days after the Exhibition opened, a grandstand reception was held for the governor general of Canada, the Marquis of Lorne, and his bride, Princess Louis Caroline Alberta. Both Withrow and Bain identify 1880 as when the grandstand was first used, so it may have still been under construction when the reception was held. “At the Exhibition,” Ottawa (Ontario) Citizen, September 6, 1879: 1.

19 “Incendiary Started Fire at Exhibition Grounds. This is the Opinion of Civic Officials,” Toronto Star, October 19, 1906: 1; John Doug Taylor, “Toronto’s CNE Grandstand and Baseball Stadium,” November 6, 2015, https://tayloronhistory.com/2015/11/06/torontos-cne-grandstand-and-baseball-stadium/.

20 “Incendiary Started Fire at Exhibition Grounds. This is the Opinion of Civic Officials.”

21 “Grandstand Itself Ablaze in ‘Fireworks’ at C.N.E,” Toronto Star, April 15, 1946: 23; “Toronto’s CNE Grandstand and Baseball Stadium.”

22 Once Upon a Century: 100 Year History of the “Ex”, 116.

23 Oldfield, the first driver to complete a mile on a circular track in a minute, completed six laps in 3:57.8, described by the Toronto Star as a world record for three miles on a half-mile track. Barney Oldfield Auto Race Star, Toronto Star, August 8, 1904: 5.

24 Once Upon a Century: 100 Year History of the “Ex”, 110. Six years earlier, Gaston’s brothers Louis and Arthur co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company. A March 1915 stunt in which Law dropped a grapefruit into the glove of Brooklyn Dodgers manager Wilbert Robinson from a plane flying over Daytona Beach, Florida, is credited by some with giving the Grapefruit League its name. Michael Clair, “Grapefruit League earned its name from a prank,” MLB.com, March 13, 2020, https://www.mlb.com/news/wilbert-robinson-caught-grapefruit-from-a-plane; Alex Semchuck, “Wilbert Robinson,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Wilbert-Robinson/

25 Racine (Wisconsin) Journal, September 12, 1903: 4.

26 “British Rugby Union of Ontario,” Toronto Star, April 10, 1931: 11.

27 “Grandstand Itself Ablaze in ‘Fireworks’ at C.N.E.” The author found no explanation for the fire’s origin ever published in Toronto newspapers.

28 “Toronto’s CNE Grandstand and Baseball Stadium.”; Jack Sullivan, “C.N.E. Stadium Has Many Followers Guessing,” Niagara Falls Review, May 26, 1949: 25.

29 “Save C.N.E. Grandstand,” Windsor (Ontario) Star, January 20, 1948: 13; “New C.N.E. Memorial Stand to Hold Audience of 50,000,” Kitchener (Ontario) Record, April 17, 1946: 15.

30 “C.N.E. Field Ready for Sport May 15,” Toronto Star, February 4, 1949: 14.

31 “C.N.E. Stadium,” Yesterday’s Speedways, https://www.yesterdaysspeedways.com/paved-ovals/inactive-paved-ovals/inactive-paved-ovals-a-b-c/c-n-e-stadium-toronto/, accessed September 28, 2024; John Macdonald, “CNE Gets $98,044 Rental from Stock Car Promoters,” Toronto Star, November 12, 1952: 18.

32 “Young Petty Drives,” Salisbury (Noth Carolina) Post, July 23, 1958: 10; Mike Hembree, “Why 21-Year-Old Richard Petty Started his NASCAR Cup Career in Canada,” Autoweek, December 10, 2022, https://www.autoweek.com/racing/nascar/a42177959/why-richard-petty-started-nascar-cup-career-canada/. Petty crashed out of the race after getting bumped by the eventual winner, his father, Lee Petty.

33 “A big win for trackmen,” Toronto Star, December 17, 1966: 32.

34 Rick Prashaw, “Ryun comes full circle with fine 3:52.8 mile,” Toronto Star, July 31, 1972: 10; Allan Ryan, “New York runner ends drought,” Toronto Star, July 30, 1973: 14.

35 “Cooke Offers $75,000 for Use of CNE Stadium,” St. Catharine’s (Ontario) Standard, November 29, 1957: 24.

36 Jack Laing, “First in Sports,” Buffalo Courier-Express, January 22, 1958: 15.

37 “Toronto Set to Accommodate Dodgers if Los Angeles Fails,” (Portland) Oregon Journal, May 27, 1958: 40; “Toronto Not for Dodgers,” Calgary Herald, June 10, 1958: 33.

38 “Argos to Open Grid Season in CNE Stadium,” Sault Sainte Marie (Ontario) Star, May 16, 1958: 10.

39 Wilf Gruson, “Move to CNE Stadium Big Break for Argos,” Hamilton Spectator, July 29, 1959: 24.

40 Jim Hunt, “Cards Tell Sad Grid Story,” Toronto Star, August 6, 1959: 16; Jack Koffman, “Dull Sunday in Toronto as Argos Whip Riders,” Ottawa Citizen, September 14, 1959: 13. Before that first Sunday game, against the Ottawa Rough Riders, the Argos had to convince local lawmakers to revise an ordinance that limited Sunday sporting events in metropolitan Toronto to soccer alone. Jim Hunt, “Argos Plan to Play Sundays,” Toronto Star, January 7, 1959: 18.

41 “Finishing Touches on CNE Stadium Make it Second Largest in Canada,” Kingston (Ontario) Whig-Standard, July 29, 1959: 11. Only Vancouver’s Empire Stadium had more permanent seating, about 34,000 seats.

42 Eric Whitehead, “Fervent fans hail conquering Lions,” Vancouver (British Columbia) Province, November 30, 1964: 17.

43 “Vanier Cup History,” U-Sports, https://en.usports.ca/sports/fball/history/vanier_cup_history, accessed October 19, 2024.

44 Gorde Hunter, “Fog Hides Cup Game from Capacity Crowd,” Calgary Herald, December 1, 1962: 1.

45 See Once Upon a Century: 100 Year History of the “Ex” for details on CNE grandstand shows, entertainment spectacles held on temporary stages place in front of the grandstand as part of the annual CNE.

46 Michael Best, “Metro approves $400,000 for turf at CNE stadium,” Toronto Star, November 17, 1971: 1; Al Sokol, “Artificial turf for the CNE helped bring 1973 Grey Cup,” Toronto Star, February 11, 1972: 13.

47 Pat Hickey, “Als stun Argos, Theismann breaks leg,” Montreal Star, August 4, 1972: C-1.

48 “Bassett on the move,” Alberni Valley (British Columbia) Times, May 7, 1974: 8.

49 Between 1953 and 1998, Metropolitan Toronto was a county-level governing entity with authority over Toronto and thirteen surrounding cities/communities. The chairman led the Metro Toronto Council, which was responsible for providing services and infrastructure in the region.

50 Daniel Stoffman, “Godfrey’s goal $10-$20 million to build stadium,” Toronto Star, December 3, 1973: 13; “CNE stadium to be upgraded,” Ottawa Citizen, February 27, 1974: 62; “Toronto stadium going up,” Windsor Star, November 20, 1974: 36.

51 At the rear of the addition, a three-story structure was included that housed the press box, 14 luxury boxes, the stadium club, and broadcast facilities. “Exhibition Stadium,” Ballparks.com, http://football.ballparks.com/CFL/Toronto/oldindex.htm, accessed September 30, 2024.

52 “CNE stadium to get new artificial turf,” Toronto Star, December 18, 1974: B1.

53 Bob Padecky, “Brenly brings a smile back to the ‘Stick,” Santa Rosa (California) Press Democrat, September 3, 1989: C1.

54 Bob Snyder, “Winter’s finally over – the Jays are back,” Syracuse Herald-Journal, April 17, 1985: D1.

55 At 160,000 square feet, the combined baseball/football playing surface was the second largest in North America when it was installed. Only the Louisiana Superdome, opened in 1975, eclipsed that figure. “Synthetic pastures,” Wasau (Wisconsin) Herald, September 22, 1985: 4B.

56 Sheldon Ocker, “Toronto’s big move just fine with Tribe,” Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal, May 17, 1989: B6.

57 Ken Rosenthal, “Orioles fly home in a foul mood,” Baltimore Evening Sun, June 8, 1987: C1.

58 Neil MacCarl, “CNE Stadium: $17.8 million home for baseball,” Toronto Star, June 5, 1976: D1.

59 “Baseball Giants consider Toronto and Seattle offers,” Toronto Star, September 23, 1975: 29.

60 “If Toronto gets club … CNE Stadium should be ready for Giants,” Ottawa Citizen, January 30, 1976: 15.

61 Roger Williams, “Mini-Miracle Brings Offer, Court Help,” San Francisco Examiner, February 12, 1976: 45.

62 “Both major baseball leagues suddenly show an interest in Toronto,” Red Deer (Alberta) Advocate, March 22, 1976: 5; Milt Dunnell, “Play ball! Metro finally gets a big-league team,” Toronto Star, March 27, 1976: 1. Left unidentified in the vote announcement, the lone dissenter “was against expansion on principle, not against Toronto.” Days after the AL owners’ vote, National League owners bizarrely voted to also expand into Toronto. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn quickly quashed that conflict. “NL Still Hoping for Expansion to Toronto,” Suffolk (Virginia) News-Herald, March 30, 1976: 8.

63 Neil MacCarl, “Only 33,700 seats for CNE baseball,” Toronto Star, September 3, 1976: C4.

64 “Stadium expansion a costly, unwanted alternative,” Sault Sainte Marie Star, October 31, 1985: 10.

65 Al Sokol, “Argos will age fast at this rate,” Toronto Star, July 25, 1975: C1; “Riders, Eskimos, Argos help set records,” Montreal Star, November 5, 1975: C-3. A regular-season record 36,912 attended Toronto’s July 24, 1975, win over the Ottawa Rough Riders. The crowd of 40,474 that saw Toronto tame the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on November 4, topped the league attendance record set at the 1955 Grey Cup.

66 Al Sokol, “Tom Clements overrules coach,” Toronto Star, November 29, 1976: B1. That record fell the following year, when Montreal’s Olympic Stadium hosted its first Grey Cup.

67 “Exhibition Stadium: New Name for Old Place,” Toronto Star, October 29, 1976: C1.

68 “A Record Opener for Blue Jays,” Toronto Star, April 9, 1977: D2. Decades later, Dave McKay, Toronto’s third baseman that day and the team’s first Canadian ballplayer, swore it was the coldest day he ever played baseball in his life. Adrian Fung, “April 7, 1977: A snowy beginning for Toronto’s major-league debut,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/april-7-1977-a-snowy-beginning-for-torontos-major-league-debut/

69 “Toronto Fans snapping up Jays tickets,” Vancouver Province, January 13, 1977: 12. In 1993, the expansion Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins of the National League both eclipsed that mark, drawing 4.5 and 3.1 million fans, respectively in their inaugural seasons.

70 “Umpires forfeit game to Jays when Birds protest use of tarp,” Baltimore Sun, September 16, 1977: C1. In explaining his actions afterwards, Weaver said he was concerned for the safety of his left fielder, Andrés Mora, who had stumbled over a mound in that area the day before.

71 Jack McIver, ed., “A Sure Sign of Spring,” The City, inside the Toronto Star, March 26, 1978: 8.

72 “Blue Jays Rough Up Birds, 24-10!” Petoskey (Michigan) News-Review, June 27, 1978: 9. With his team down, 19–6, after four innings, Orioles manager Weaver inserted center fielder Larry Harlow to pitch the fifth. Blue Jays manager Roy Hartsfield officially protested the game, an objection that Toronto general manager Peter Bavasi withdrew when he learned the tactic was legal.

73 “Umps call pitch – now it’s a strike,” Reading (California) Record Searchlight, August 25, 1978: 17.

74 “Trophies – Pearson Cup,” Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, November 19, 2009, https://baseballhalloffame.ca/trophies-pearson-cup/. Each team went 3–3–1 in those years, with the Blue Jays twice taking the trophy at home, in 1984 and 1986.

75 Al Sokol, “Three colleges in baseball league,” Toronto Star, April 15, 1982: E11; “George recalls the good ol’ days,” Hamilton Spectator, August 4, 1983: 37; Mark Zwolinski, “Olympic ball team eyes medal,” Toronto Star, August 6, 1988: C4.

76 Marty Klinkenberg, “George was at his best,” Miami (Florida) News, April 9, 1979: 6C.

77 NASL Attendance tabulation, NASL Jerseys, https://www.nasljerseys.com/Stats/Attendance.htm, accessed September 28, 2024.

78 Garth Woolsey, “Sting wins the hard way,” Toronto Star, September 27, 1981: D1; Peter Kovacs, “Streamlined NASL opens season,” Orangeburg (South Carolina) Times and Democrat, April 8, 1982: 12

79 Jim Kernaghan, “Blizzard hits Metro do-or-die soccer bid,” Toronto Star, February 14, 1979: D1. Distaste for playing soccer on AstroTurf at the Ex lingered long after the Blizzard were gone. When international powerhouse AC Milan played an exhibition with Portugal’s Beneficia in 1991, both teams stopped playing before the end of regulation, labelling the turf “too dangerous for the millionaire players.”  “Soccer superteams shun ‘dangerous’ Exhibition Stadium,” North Bay (Ontario) Nugget, June 12, 1991: 15.

80 Both The Who and Springsteen concerts far exceeded the stadium’s official capacity. Determined to avoid a repeat of what happened before The Who’s scheduled concert in Cincinnati seven months earlier, in which 11 concert-goers were crushed to death during a scramble to enter the venue, Toronto officials sought a court injunction to keep ticket sales for The Who’s Toronto concert below the stadium’s official capacity. An investigation after the Springsteen concert uncovered that CNE staff had brazenly allowed the stadium’s capacity to be exceeded to impress The Boss. “Rules said violated at Who concert,” Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) Star-Phoenix, July 18, 1980: 2; Bill Schiller and Paula Todd, “CNE rejected safety rules to avoid losing Boss concerts,” Toronto Star, November 7, 1985: 1.

81 Steve Morse, “Pink Floyd: A top money-maker,” Boston Globe, December 25, 1987: 64.

82 See, for example, Peter Goddard, “60,000 fans jam stadium to see Bowie rock show,” Toronto Star, September 4, 1983: A2; Peter Goddard, “Jacksons beat cold for 55,000,” Toronto Star, October 6, 1984: 1; Peter Goddard, “Madonna prances for 50,000,” Toronto Star, July 5, 1987: A17; “Rolling Stones to tour 29 cities,” Brantford (Ontario) Expositor, July 12, 1989: C11; Peter Howell, “Hey Paul, get help; let it be,” Toronto Star, June 7, 1993: C1.

83 Rick Matsumoto, “Now that’s more like it, Argos,” Toronto Star, July 10, 1980: C1.

84 Rick Matsumoto, “Esks: Five and counting,” Toronto Star, November 29, 1982: B1. Two years earlier, Moon quarterbacked the Eskimos to a Grey Cup win at the Ex, defeating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Garth Woolsey, “What a working day it was for Eskimos’ Tom Scott!” Toronto Star, November 24, 1980: C2.

85 Rick Winston, “Sack attack snuffs Argos,” Hamilton Spectator, September 27, 1982: 13.

86 “Ballpark beer sales get nod,” Niagara Falls Review, July 8, 1982: 1; Neil MacCarl, “Suds celebration as Jays rebound to win in 12th,” Toronto Star, July 31, 1982: D1.

87 Allan Ryan, “Yankee slugger charged in seagull slaying,” Toronto Star, August 5, 1983: 1.

88 Ironically, Jenkins had been honored with a Ferguson Jenkins Appreciation Day at Exhibition Stadium during the Rangers’ previous series in Toronto. Ferguson Jenkins, “Ontario is home to me,” Toronto Star, July 7, 1980: A7; “Fergy Jenkins Hit with Drug Charge,” Los Angeles Times, August 26, 1980: III-2.

89 “Baseball,” Miami Herald, February 8, 1981: 2B. Suspended for several weeks after his arrest, Jenkins agreed with Commissioner Kuhn to donate time and money in support of anti-drug efforts following his trial.

90 Donn Esmonde, “Blue Jays Upstage Streaker with Run of Own in 8th,” Buffalo News, April 18, 1984: D1.

91 “Jays, police meet in effort to avert hooliganism at ball park,” Kingston Whig-Standard, April 16, 1986: 16; “Blue Jays seek police assistance,” York (Pennsylvania) Dispatch, April 18, 1986: 21. Mike Boddicker was the pitcher Weaver claimed was affected.

92 “Blue Jays edge Red Sox to stay alive,” Biddeford (Maine) Journal Tribune, September 18, 1984: 14.

93 Vern Plagenhoef, “Blue Jays hit ‘routine fly ball,’ beat Tigers, Muskegon (Michigan) Chronicle, September 5, 1983: C1.

94 “Exhibition Stadium: Park Factors (1-year),” Seamheads, https://www.seamheads.com/ballparks/ballpark.php?parkID=TOR01&tab=pf1, accessed October 2, 2024.

95 “Blue Jays lightweight gives Yankees a clout,” White Plains (New York) Reporter Dispatch, June 28, 1977: B9.

96 Tom Conaway, “Viola is glad to see last of Exhibition Stadium,” Kitchener-Waterloo Record, May 25, 1989: D1.

97 Stew Thornley, “No-Hitters Broken Up in the Ninth Inning Since 1961,” https://milkeespress.com/lostninth.html#ninth, accessed September 29, 2024. Key’s near no-hitter on June 6, 1985, was the first major-league game that 21-year-old prospect Fred McGriff saw in person. Andy Knobel, “Chiefs Fall, but 2 Hear Good News,” Syracuse Post-Standard, May 16, 1986: C1.

98 Niekro’s 8-0 win made him the oldest pitcher to throw a shutout (46 years, 188 days old), a record he held for 25 years. Jamie Moyer of the Philadelphia Phillies broke his mark on May 7, 2010, when he shut out the Atlanta Braves at the age of 47 years, 170 days. “Oldest Pitcher to Record a Shutout,” Statmuse, https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask/oldest-pitcher-to-record-a-shutout, accessed September 30, 2024.

99 Tom Slater, “Royals’ big sixth was really the killer,” Toronto Star, October 17, 1985: 1-BLUEJAY.

100 Allan Ryan, “Game called after seven – Key gets shutout win,” Toronto Star, June 13, 1986: B1.

101 Jack O’Connell, “Strawberry gets a little taste of the bigs,” Hackensack (New Jersey) Record, April 25, 1983: S-5. Two weeks later, Strawberry, the number one pick in the 1980 amateur draft, became the New York Mets’ everyday right fielder.

102 “It’s Day 1 for baseball,” Ottawa Citizen, April 6, 1987: 19. This was also the first tipoff game not held in Cincinnati in two decades.

103 Trent McCotter, “Ripken’s Record for Consecutive Innings Played,” Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2012, https://sabr.org/journal/article/ripkens-record-for-consecutive-innings-played/

104 “Astrodome proposed by Archer,” Toronto Star, November 15, 1966: 21.

105 Alan Christie, “Grey Cup loss may gain Godfrey a stadium dome,” Toronto Star, November 30, 1982: A6; Rick Matsumoto, “A dome on the range?” Toronto Star, February 18, 1983: B1.

106 Alan Christie, “Roll-up roof key feature in dome plan,” Toronto Star, August 4, 1983: 1; Rick Haliechuk, “Stadium will be perfect circle with seating for up to 62,000,” Toronto Star, January 18, 1985: A10.

107 Tom Kerr, “Dome deal approved by city council,” Toronto Star, March 18, 1986: 1.

108 Wayne Scanlan, “Bombers torpedo Argos,” Ottawa Citizen, November 21, 1988: B1. After the Argos moved their games to SkyDome, they continued to store equipment, maintain offices, and practice on and off at the Ex, until 1994.

109 Rosie DiManno, “Jays say goodbye to Ex after playing 966 games,” Toronto Star, May 29, 1989: A5.

110 Sam Laskaris, “Gavaskar and Company bowled over by Pakistan,” Toronto Star, May 15, 1989: D7.

111 Susan Reid, “Toronto pulls plug on CNE stock car racing,” Toronto Star, May 7, 1991: A6.

112 Jim Wilkes and William Clark, “Fans and foes all agree first Indy-type auto race was a roaring success,” Toronto Star, July 21, 1986: 1; “The king of Indy,” Toronto Star, July 17, 1995: 1; “Indy track hosts charity challenge,” Toronto Star, July 8, 1996: 14; Molson Indy 1986 Folio Brochure Press Notes, Glory Days Collectibles, https://glorydayscollectibles.com/products/1986-inaugural-molson-indy-toronto-folio-brochure-press-notes-vintage, accessed September 28, 2024.

113 Royson James, “Sports complex studied at CNE,” Toronto Star, December 11, 1991: 1.

114 “Toronto fails in bid to land Olympics,” Niagara Falls Review, September 18, 1990: 1. Toronto’s bid for the 1996 Olympics was one in a long line of unsuccessful attempts to lure major international sporting events to the city with the Exhibition Stadium site as the centerpiece, including the 1954 British Empire Games, the 1960 Olympic Games, and the 1978 British Commonwealth Games. An aborted bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics considered shortly before the Ex was razed also assumed the building of a new facility at that location. Richard Foot, “Toronto begins Olympic chase,” Brantford Expositor, February 25, 1998: 14.

115 Tony Van Alphen and Geoff Baker, “SkyDome pondered creditor protection,” Toronto Star, November 5, 1998: B4.

116 “People standing in line to buy empty Ex seats,” Toronto Star, September 23, 1998: B4.

117 Denise Marie, “Exhibition Stadium Baseball Diamond Plaques – Running the Bases,” Toronto Journey 416, August 8, 2023, https://www.torontojourney416.com/exhibition-stadium-baseball-plaques/

Cheney Stadium is known as the “100-Day Wonder.” In 1960, it went from drawing board to a finished ballpark in approximately 100 days, just in time for the Tacoma Giants’ inaugural season in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). Since then, the ballpark has continuously hosted Tacoma’s Triple-A ballclubs, and is the oldest continually operated Triple-A stadium.1

The story of Cheney Stadium is entwined with its namesake: Benjamin Bradbury Cheney.

Ben Cheney was a timber baron, philanthropist, and sports enthusiast. Born in Montana in 1905, he grew up dirt-poor in South Bend, Washington. As a child, Cheney couldn’t afford baseball gear, but he got involved with a youth baseball program operated by Father Victor Couvorette, a Catholic priest in South Bend.2 Couvorette provided uniforms, equipment, and even streetcar fare so his players could get to games. Couvorette inspired Cheney’s love for baseball and other sports.3 The priest may have also planted the seeds that blossomed into the philanthropic activities Cheney pursued later in his life.

Cheney was considered a “good field, no-hit” shortstop while playing for Couvorette.4 “I only got to play because I could catch and throw and I always showed up,” said Cheney later in life. “Until I was almost 30, I kept trying to make contact with a breaking pitch. It wasn’t any use.”5  

Confounded by curveballs as a ballplayer, Cheney began directing his efforts elsewhere and found great success off the field. As a young man, he moved to Tacoma and attended business school. He went to work for lumber companies and learned about forestry and lumber production. In 1936, he founded the Cheney Lumber Company and opened his first mill. Cheney produced railroad ties and went on to revolutionize the lumber and construction industries by mass-producing two-by-fours that were 8 feet long. Prior to this innovation, two-by-fours were typically produced in 12-foot and 16-foot lengths. Carpenters would often cut the longer pieces of lumber to get the size they needed, wasting the leftover wood. Eight-foot two-by-fours were commonly known as “shorts.” Cheney called his new product “studs.”6 By successfully marketing the 8-foot studs, Cheney not only made huge profits, but he also helped eliminate lumber waste. He was so successful, 8-foot-high ceilings became the new standard for residential construction, which helped homeowners by reducing heating costs.7

Cheney opened mills in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. Despite the time and effort required by his successful ventures, the businessman never lost his love of sports.8 He used his wealth to sponsor over 5,000 individuals in numerous sports, including baseball, football, basketball, soccer, and bowling.9 Like Father Couvorette, Cheney supplied uniforms, equipment, and other resources that enabled youngsters to play sports. He provided team sponsorships for communities in and around where his mills operated.

“Ben was the greatest friend of youth that Tacoma ever had,” said Doug McArthur, a parks and recreation official in Tacoma.10

Cheney also sponsored adult teams in the Pacific Northwest, such as his “Cheney Studs” amateur baseball clubs that featured future major leaguers including six-time All-Star Ron Cey and two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum.11

George Grant, a Washington All-Stater in baseball and basketball, who played for Studs teams in the 1950s and 1960s, said this about Cheney: “Ben was a super guy. He was the best sponsor around by far and it was not hard to get ballplayers to play for him. He provided everything for us.”12  

As his wealth grew, Cheney secured an 11 percent interest in the San Francisco Giants. In 1959, the year after the club relocated to the West Coast, he was the second-largest shareholder behind Giants president Horace Stoneham. Cheney was also on the Giants’ board of directors.13 In the late 1950s, the Giants were looking to relocate their Triple-A team for the 1960 season. The team was playing in a rundown stadium in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Cheney and other civic leaders14 wanted Tacoma to be the new home of the Giants affiliate. The problem was the city did not have a suitable Triple-A ballpark.15

Even so, Tacoma has a very rich history of professional baseball dating back to the Pacific Northwest League’s Tacoma Daisies in 1890. However, Washington’s third-largest city had not hosted Triple-A ball since 1905 and hadn’t had affiliated baseball at any level since 1951, when Tacoma ended a run of 12 seasons in the Class B Western International League.16  

The Giants committed to moving their Phoenix team to Tacoma, provided a Triple-A stadium was ready for play by the beginning of the 1960 season.

In November 1959, the Tacoma city council approved a measure that cleared the way for the new stadium.17 Tacoma and Pierce County came up with $900,000 to construct a stadium.18 Cheney committed to cover any cost overruns up to $100,000. The stadium had to be completed for the start of the PCL season in April 1960. Ballpark construction, overseen by Cheney, began in January 1960. Just 42 days later, the stadium was completed.19

From the November 1959 city approval to completion of the new ballpark took approximately 100 days, hence the nickname the “100-Day Wonder.” This was an amazing accomplishment considering the notoriously rainy Tacoma weather.20

Since Cheney was thrifty and did not like waste, wooden seats and distinctive light towers from the recently demolished Seals Stadium in San Francisco were sent by barge from California to Tacoma and installed at the new ballpark. After moving from New York, the San Francisco Giants used Seals Stadium for the 1958 and 1959 seasons until they began play at Candlestick Park in 1960.21

The new Tacoma ballpark was constructed using pre-stressed, prefabricated concrete sections. Over 1,500 concrete pieces with steel tensioning cables were utilized. Prefabrication saved time and money; a poured concrete stadium would have added six months to the construction schedule. A crew of 50 to 60 workers were on-site daily to meet the ambitious deadline. The concrete-shell grandstand offered a seating capacity of 5,000 with room for bleachers to be added on the left- and right-field sides. Concrete-block concessions buildings were built under the grandstand.22

Opening day was scheduled for April 14, 1960, but that date was rained out. The new ballpark was inaugurated with a day-night doubleheader against the Portland Beavers on April 16. Tacoma mayor Ben Hanson threw out the ceremonial first pitch in front of 6,612 fans. In the first game, Tacoma’s Matty Alou hit the park’s first home run in a game that was won by Portland 7-2. In the second game, the Giants won decisively, 11-0, with Tacoma’s Juan Marichal throwing the stadium’s first shutout.

A notable feature of the original park was the 29-foot-high batter’s eye23 in straightaway center. The “Great Wall of Cheney” still stands as of 2024 and resembles a minor league version of Boston’s Green Monster. The wall is 425 feet from home plate and has been cleared by home runs only three times during gameplay24 and once in batting practice by José Canseco.25 Cheney has always had a symmetrical field configuration. Current field dimensions are 325 feet to left field, 425 feet to center, and 325 feet to right.

Cheney Stadium has been considered a pitcher’s park since it opened in 1960.26 The tall center-field wall and larger-than-usual center-field area certainly benefit pitchers, as does the sea-level elevation and the humid maritime climate.

Here is a team affiliation history27 of Cheney Stadium:

• 1960–1965 Tacoma Giants (San Francisco Giants): The Giants won the PCL championship in 1961, their second year in Tacoma. Hall of Famers Marichal, Willie McCovey, and Gaylord Perry played for Tacoma during this era.
• 1966–1971 Tacoma Cubs (Chicago Cubs): Whitey Lockman, who was on base when Bobby Thomson hit the “Shot Heard Round the World” in 1951,28 managed the club from 1966 through 1969. He was Tacoma’s winningest manager until Dave Myers broke his mark in 2000. Lockman also managed the parent Chicago Cubs from 1972 through 1974. In 1969, Tacoma earned their second PCL title. During the final year of the Cubs affiliation, Tacoma lost its baseball champion when Ben Cheney died on May 18, 1971.
• 1972–1977 Tacoma Twins (Minnesota Twins): There were no PCL championships during this period, but there were plenty of highlights, including Randy Bass hitting four homers during a single game in Phoenix on June 9, 1977. Bass had a .321 batting average, 25 home runs and 117 RBIs that season.
• 1978 Tacoma Yankees (New York Yankees): This geographic mismatch only lasted one season. It made little sense for the Yankees to have a Triple-A affiliate on the other side of the country. However, it was a good year for Tacoma: with a team batting average of .290 and a record of 80-57, they were named co-champions alongside Albuquerque. There was not a sole PCL champion that year because the entire championship series was cancelled due to rain.
• 1979 Tacoma Tugs and 1980 Tacoma Tigers (Cleveland Indians): Tacoma’s team management decided to give the team a name that did not match the major league club. The Tugs got their name from the local maritime industry. Tigers had been used by many Tacoma teams prior to 1960, regardless of major-league affiliation. Tacoma played .500 baseball during its two years affiliated with Cleveland.
• 1981–1994 Tacoma Tigers (Oakland A’s): The 14 seasons with the A’s brought players to Tacoma that would later become well-known big leaguers, including Mark McGwire, Walt Weiss, Jason Giambi, Scott Brosius, and Jose Rijo. Tacoma made the playoffs five times during this period but did not secure a PCL championship.
• 1995–present Tacoma Rainiers (Seattle Mariners): Becoming the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate was a smart move for both teams. Seattle’s T-Mobile Park is only about 36 miles away from Cheney Stadium, enabling easy, same-day movement of players. Much of the Mariners’ homegrown talent, including Ken Griffey Jr.,29 Álex Rodríguez, Jay Buhner, Félix Hernández, and many others, has played at Cheney Stadium. On July 7, 2001, John Halama pitched the first nine-inning perfect game in PCL history against Calgary at Cheney Stadium.30 Under three-time PCL Manager of the Year award winner, Dan Rohn, the team was declared 2001 PCL co-champions with New Orleans when the series was cancelled after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Rainiers also clinched PCL titles in 2010 and 2021.

The Tacoma Rainiers adopted the longtime nickname of the Seattle Rainiers, a PCL team that represented Seattle during the pre-Mariners era. The name comes from Mount Rainier, one of the highest peaks in the United States. On clear days, the team’s namesake mountain looms large in the Tacoma area and can be seen from Cheney Stadium seats on the third-base side.31

Other well-known players who have played at Cheney Stadium include Jesus Alou,32 Dave Henderson, Kyle Seager, Tim Belcher, and Cliff Lee.33

Willie Mays and the San Francisco Giants played exhibition games at Cheney Stadium in June of each season from 1960 through 1964. This was during an era when major-league teams played occasional exhibition games on off-days during the regular season. In these exhibition games, Mays would typically lead off and take one or two at-bats prior to being replaced in the lineup. Mays tripled in his first Cheney Stadium plate appearance in 1960; he hit his first Cheney home run in 1962.34

The Rainiers did a major rebrand of the team in 2015 that included a new cursive “R” logo.35 Since then, the team often refers to Cheney Stadium as “R House,” Tacoma as “R City,” and so on.

In 2017, the stadium hosted the 30th Triple-A All-Star Game and Home Run Derby.36

Numerous non-baseball events have occurred at Cheney over the years.

On September 27, 1963, with Mount Rainier behind him, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech about the environment and public recreation areas to 25,000 people. The only place the Secret Service did not allow the public to frequent was “Tightwad Hill,” an area outside the ballpark named for people who watched games from there without a ticket.37

In 1990, the Seattle-Tacoma area hosted the Goodwill Games. This Olympic-style sports festival was the brainchild of businessman Ted Turner. The games occurred six times between 1986 and 2001. The 1990 iteration was the only one to feature baseball, which was played at Cheney. Cuba won the gold medal, Japan took silver, and the United States defeated Canada for bronze. The US team consisted of collegiate players that included future major leaguers Aaron Sele and Paul Byrd.

On August 24, 2003, an estimated 754 guitarists played together at an event that rocked the stadium. They performed nearly 10-minute rendition of “Louie Louie,” a rock anthem that gained early fame in a rendition by the Tacoma-based Wailers. The song was a national hit when the Kingsmen re-recorded it in 1963. It was also a hit for Paul Revere and the Raiders. All three bands participated, as did members of Heart, Jr. Cadillac, and Moby Grape, along with hundreds of amateur guitarists. Each participant paid $20 and proceeds went to Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound.38

From 2018 through 2021, Cheney Stadium hosted professional soccer teams: the Seattle Sounders’ United Soccer League affiliate beginning in 201839 and Seattle Reign FC of the National Women’s Soccer League the following year.40 The groundskeeping challenges of hosting both baseball and soccer were enormous, especially since the pitching mound was removed and replaced with every transition between the two sports.41

Cheney has also hosted high school baseball and soccer playoffs, commencements, outdoor movie nights, celebrity softball games, and numerous concerts.42

After decades of use, the stadium began to show its age in the 1990s. It lacked modern stadium features such as proper dugouts, clubhouses, workout facilities, and batting cages.43 Additionally, there were few contemporary features for the fans. As Tacoma News-Tribune reporter John McGrath wrote in 2011: “Rainiers Gold Club members [use] a tent, with access to a private bar that [has] the ambiance of a tool shed.”44 There were also safety and accessibility issues. In 1999, the Rainiers declared they would leave town when their lease expired unless stadium upgrades were made in coming years.45 At the time, Cheney Stadium was the oldest PCL stadium and the third-oldest of 30 Triple-A stadiums nationwide.46

PCL President Branch B. Rickey said, “If Tacoma isn’t willing to provide a modern baseball facility, there are other cities that will.”47

In 2009, the Tacoma city council approved a public-private partnership for the renovation in which the city committed $28 million and private sources provided $2 million.48

The $30 million renovation of Cheney Stadium was completed in one offseason. It took just 210 days from the Rainiers’ final home game in September 2010 to completion in April 2011. The concrete-shell grandstand stayed in place and was augmented with 16 luxury suites, a 4,000-square-foot club space with a restaurant, new administrative offices, and a souvenir store. The design featured Douglas fir beams and wood siding to update the park in a Pacific Northwest architectural style, quite a contrast to the original concrete stadium. Perhaps as a nod to Ben Cheney, lumber and other materials were locally sourced. The project won the Renovation of the Year Award from Ballpark Digest and the National Design-Build Award for Renovation from the Design-Build Institute of America, both in 2011.49

The wooden seats from Seals Stadium were replaced with more modern seats, except in part of Section K, where some were retained to help preserve history.50 All of the light towers from Seals Stadium remain in service at Cheney.

Spacious party decks were added to left field in foul territory and behind the outfield fence.

On the right-field side, the emphasis is on family-friendly spaces. The renovation added a grass berm seating area and a large kids’ play area including a wiffleball field.51

The 2011 renovation also moved the backstop 15 feet closer to home plate and created the “Dugout Club.” This added three rows of premium seats between the home and visitor dugouts that provide fans a better view of the home plate area than from the dugouts.52

Seating capacity is 6,500. With the party decks, seating berm and other common areas, well over 6,500 fans can attend a game at Cheney.53

The “Summit Club” is on the uppermost stadium level and features a restaurant and views of Mount Rainier through windows on the back side. As of 2024, the club has a flexible, shared-use arrangement. For example, a group of 25 could rent it for one game while sharing it with other groups and individuals, or an individual could buy Summit Club tickets for 25 different games.54 The “1882 Club” is located right below the Summit Club and is rented to groups only (40 – 150 guests). It is used for birthday parties, employee appreciation and other congregate events.55

The “USO Heroes Suite” at Cheney Stadium provides a free, family-friendly luxury suite for use by local military organizations, such as those affiliated with Joint Base Lewis-McChord, a major military facility just south of Tacoma. Complimentary ballpark food and non-alcoholic beverages are provided. During each game, the suite guests are honored on the ballpark’s video board.

The stadium shares some parking with neighboring Foss High School.56 The high school opened in 1973 and is visible past right-center field. The 71-acre Tacoma Nature Center and Snake Lake also are adjacent to Cheney Stadium.57

On a typical gameday, about 330 people are employed at the stadium. This includes parking attendants, ushers, security personnel, party deck attendants, food service workers,58 cleaners, grounds crews, mascots,59 and many others.60

Like Wrigley Field and Fenway Park, Cheney Stadium has retained the same name over many decades. In the early 2000s, there was discussion about selling naming rights, possibly worth seven figures.61 However, the idea was nixed, and the latest stadium lease prohibits changing the ballpark’s name out of respect to Ben Cheney and his descendants.

In 2002, Mike Lonergan, a Tacoma city councilman, said, “The Cheney family has long since paid for naming rights.”62

Just as Cheney’s ballpark lives on, so does his philanthropic work. The Ben B. Cheney Foundation, created by Cheney in 1955, provides grants for basic needs, such as food, healthcare, and shelter. Other grants help to enrich communities through athletics, the arts, and historical programs. The foundation focuses on the counties where Cheney’s lumber company operated: 10 counties in Washington, two in Oregon, and seven in Northern California. Through 2022, the foundation had gifted more than 6,000 grants to more than 1,500 organizations for a total distribution of over $113,864,700.63

Cheney’s daughter Piper recalled her father as “a very happy man who loved kids, loved sports, and reached out to everyone who touched his life.”64

In 1995, a statue of Cheney was installed in the stadium to recognize the man who was the driving force behind the creation of the ballpark. The bronze statue is seated in Section K, Row 1, behind home plate.65 The statue is holding a bag of peanuts. At his feet are bronze peanut shells and a program from the 1960 stadium dedication day. Cheney’s statue is grinning, his eyes are lit up, and why wouldn’t he be happy? He’s sitting in his preferred seat in the ballpark he built, while enjoying his favorite sport of baseball and all it has to offer.

Author’s Note

I’ve attended a few games at Cheney, all prior to the 2011 renovation. My most memorable event there was the game that opened the 1990 Goodwill Games baseball tournament. It was a historic matchup between the Soviet Union and the United States. Baseball was very new for the Soviets, and considering their players were converted javelin throwers, wrestlers, and the like, they played respectable ball, hitting four singles and turning a double play. However, they were shellacked by Team USA, 17-0. A mercy rule resulted in the game being called after six and a half innings because of the lopsided score. Ted Turner was to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, but he was a bit late due to traffic, so he threw out a ceremonial 58th pitch after the first inning. In the first three innings, the Americans sent 29 batters to the plate. I’m not sure, but it may have been the longest six and a half innings I’ve ever seen.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Kurt Blumenau for his editing, advice and assistance. This article was fact-checked by Ray Danner and copy-edited by Abigail Miskowiec.

Sources and Photo Credits

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com.

The color photos of Cheney Stadium were taken by the author on July 12, 2024.

The black-and-white photo from June 9, 1960 is provided courtesy of the Tacoma Public Library’s Northwest Room, ID No. D126962-22, Richards Studio Photographic Slides (Collection 2.1.1). 

Notes

1 As of 2024, Sahlen Field in Buffalo, New York, which opened in 1988, is the second oldest continuously operated Triple-A stadium. Tacoma Rainiers media guide, 2024.

2 David Eskenazi, “Wayback Machine: The Cheney Studs Turn 60,” SportspressNW.com, January 14, 2016. Accessed July 3, 2024, https://www.sportspressnw.com/2150865/2013/wayback-machine-the-cheney-studs-turn-60. When he was 8 years old, Cheney and his sister, Lulu, moved to South Bend, Washington, after their mother died and their father remarried. They were raised by their paternal grandparents.

3 Steve Rudman, “Ben Cheney: The Icon Behind Tacoma’s Ballpark,” SportspressNW.com, May 24, 2021. Accessed June 25, 2024, https://www.sportspressnw.com/2233938/2017/ben-cheney-the-icon-behind-tacomas-ballpark.

4 Med Nicholson, “The Ben Cheney Story,” The Sou’wester 35, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 3–15. https://www.benbcheneyfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Souwester-article.pdf

5 Rudman, “Ben Cheney: The Icon Behind Tacoma’s Ballpark.”

6 Erik Lacitis, “Forever in Row 1, Section K – Memories Fade, but Ben Cheney Lives on Through Stadium,” Seattle Times, April 19, 2005: B1. 

7 Prior to this time, American homes typically had ceilings taller than 8 feet. Rudman, “Ben Cheney: The Icon Behind Tacoma’s Ballpark.”

8 Lacitis, “Forever in Row 1, Section K – Memories Fade, but Ben Cheney Lives on Through Stadium.”

9 The conservative estimate of 5,000 individuals included boys, girls, men and women over a 20-year span.

10 Nicholson, “The Ben Cheney Story.”

11 Rudman, “Ben Cheney: The Icon Behind Tacoma’s Ballpark.”

12 230 teams under various names (e.g., Cheney Studs, Seattle Studs, Seattle Cheney Studs, Medford (Oregon) Cheney Studs) played sports ranging from Pee Wee to elite adult amateur with sponsorships from Cheney. Collectively, they secured 42 league titles, nine state and regional championships, and one national American Amateur Baseball Congress (AABC) title in 1960. Eskenazi, “Wayback Machine: The Cheney Studs Turn 60.”

13 “Ben B. Cheney Lived Life Fully and Richly, Devoting Himself to His Work, His Family and His Community,” Ben B. Cheney Foundation. Accessed July 3, 2024, https://www.benbcheneyfoundation.org/about/ben-b-cheney/.

14 One of the civic leaders, Clay Huntington, was an original member of the Tacoma Athletic Commission. Huntington owned radio stations and did play-by-play broadcasts of Tacoma baseball games in the 1940s. Along with Cheney, he was credited as key person that brought Triple-A ball back to Tacoma. After Huntington died in 2011, a celebration of his life was held at Cheney Stadium.

16 Tyler Maun, “Explore Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium,” MLB.com, February 25, 2022. Accessed June 25, 2024, https://www.mlb.com/news/featured/explore-cheney-stadium-home-of-the-tacoma-rainiers.

17 “Cheney Stadium,” MiLB.com. Accessed July 5, 2024, https://www.milb.com/tacoma/ballpark/cheney-stadium. The stadium is located at 2502 S. Tyler Street in south-central Tacoma. Prior to construction of the ballpark, the land was undeveloped.

18 Lacitis, “Forever in Row 1, Section K – Memories Fade, but Ben Cheney Lives on Through Stadium.”

19 The city of Tacoma faced an extremely tight deadline to build a stadium, so they turned to Ben Cheney. He was named the general contractor because of his unblemished record as an ethical businessman. The architect was E.L. Mills and Associates. The construction effort was led by the Earley Construction Company and consulting engineers from the Concrete Technology Corporation. The entire project was carried out under Cheney’s guidance. Rudman, “Ben Cheney: The Icon Behind Tacoma’s Ballpark.”

20 In recognition of the stadium construction and Ben Cheney’s other civic and financial contributions, the new ballpark was formally named Cheney Stadium at a dedication ceremony on June 9, 1960.

21 “The 100-Day Wonder” sign at Cheney Stadium. Accessed July 12, 2024.

22 Dick Stansfield, “New Ballpark Rose from Onetime Swamp,” Tacoma News Tribune, April 12, 1960: 34.

23 For those not familiar with the term “batter’s eye,” this is a wall or screen in center field that provides a monochromatic backdrop to allow batters to clearly see a pitched ball without background distractions.

24 As per written correspondence sent to the author by the Tacoma Rainiers: The original wall was 32 feet high. (The wall height was reduced to 29 feet during the 2011 renovation.) The three players who have cleared the wall with home runs during games were all Tacoma Rainiers: A.J. Zapp on September 1, 2004, Shin-Soo Choo a month into the 2005 season, and Jake Slaughter on July 1, 2024.

25 Bud Withers, “A Whole ‘Nother Ballgame – Baseball Fans Can Find Strike Relief with Minor League Clubs,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 11, 1994: D1.

26 Danny Summers, “Iowa Stadium is Latest to Sign Naming-Rights Deal,” The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colorado), August 8, 2004: Sports 17.

27 “Tacoma Affiliation History.” Accessed June 25, 2024, https://www.milb.com/tacoma/history/affiliation-history.

28 The Shot Heard ‘Round the World was a famous walk-off home run hit by Thomson of the New York Giants on October 3, 1951. The homer resulted in the Giants winning the 1951 National League pennant over the Brooklyn Dodgers in the deciding third game of a playoff series. This was the culmination of an improbable, and miraculous, late-season surge by the Giants. The Giants went on to lose the World Series to the New York Yankees.

29 Griffey had a two-year minor-league career in Single A and Double A. He skipped Triple A and went straight to the majors in 1989. His only Triple-A appearance was a game in 1995 on a rehab assignment from the Seattle Mariners. 

30 “Celebrating Tacoma’s Baseball History,” TacomaSportsMuseum.com, March 25, 2023. Accessed July 21, 2024, https://www.tacomasportsmuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Tacoma-Baseball-History-event-3-25-23.pdf.

31 Perpetually snow-capped with glaciers, Mount Rainier (elevation 14,409 feet) is the tallest peak in the Cascade Range which stretches from Northern California to British Columbia. Like nearby Mount St. Helens, Rainer is an active volcano.

32 Jesus, Matty and their brother Felipe Alou became the first “all-brother” outfield in the major leagues when they played together as San Francisco Giants on September 15, 1963.

33 The players listed in this paragraph, and mentioned in the sections above it, only include Tacoma players. Players who played for other PCL teams who may have come to Cheney on visiting teams are not included. Lloyd Brown, “Cheney Stadium – Tacoma Rainiers,” Stadium Journey, July 16, 2016. Accessed July 13, 2024, https://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/cheney-stadium-s341.

34 Mike Curto, “Willie Mays, Who Passed Yesterday, Was an Annual Visitor to Cheney Stadium,” We R Tacoma, June 19, 2024. Accessed July 13, 2024, https://www.wertacoma.com/willie-mays-who-passed-yesterday-was-an-annual-visitor-to-cheney-stadium/.

35 The logo is similar to the Rainier Beer logo. As per the Tacoma Rainiers’ Colin Connelly, this is coincidental, and there is no formal tie between the baseball club and the brewing company.

36 On July 12, 2017, the Triple-A All-Star Game was attended by 7,024 fans. The PCL broke a four-year losing streak and defeated the International League, 6-4. The PCL MVP was third-baseman Renato Núñez (Nashville) and the IL MVP was outfielder Richie Schaffer (Columbus). The Home Run Derby was won by the IL’s Bryce Brentz of the Pawtucket Red Sox.

37 Kennedy was on a five-day conservation tour from Pennsylvania to California that included visiting parks and public lands in 11 states. Less than two months after his Cheney Stadium speech, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Alan J. Stein, “President Kennedy speaks to a capacity crowd at Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium on September 27, 1963,” HistoryLink.org, October 21, 2013. Accessed July 1, 2024, https://www.historylink.org/File/10643.

38 This was an unsuccessful attempt to break a Guinness world record for the largest guitar ensemble playing a single song. The record they were trying to beat was set in 1992 by 1,342 guitarists playing Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Takin’ Care of Business.” Micheal Ko, “754 guitars rock into the record book with ‘Louie Louie,’” The Seattle Times, August 25, 2003. Accessed July 13, 2024, https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20030825&slug=louie25m.

39 In 2019, the Sounders’ USL club, Sounders FC-2, was rebranded as the Tacoma Defiance.

40 “Cheney Stadium,” MiLB.com.

41 Transforming a baseball diamond to a soccer pitch (and vice versa) in under 24 hours is a monumental exercise involving moving tons of material each time the pitcher’s mound is removed or reinstalled. Head groundskeeper Michael Huie and his crew of 12 did this routinely during the years the stadium hosted both sports. ”Transforming Cheney Stadium Into a Field of Dreams,” We R Tacoma, April 16, 2019. Accessed August 2, 2024, https://www.wertacoma.com/transforming-cheney-stadium-field-conversion-grass/.

42 Music acts have included Clint Black, Jo Dee Messina, Smash Mouth, Nelly Furtado, Shaggy, Big and Rich, The Cover Girls, Lighter Shade of Brown, Train, The Presidents of the United States of America, The Posies, Uncle Kracker, and many others.

43 Angelo Bruscas, “Sale of Rainiers Could Lead to Tacoma Losing Class AAA Baseball,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 14, 2000: C7.

44 John McGrath, “The New Cheney Stadium Will Feature Sweeping Views, Vastly Improved Concessions, Seats on the Grass, a Big Restaurant, Oh, and Baseball,” Tacoma News Tribune, January 25, 2011: B1.

45 The Associated Press, “Upgrade Stadium or We Leave, Rainiers Say,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 13, 1999: D3.

46 Don Ruiz, “Fix Cheney or Goodbye Baseball,” Tacoma News Tribune, December 12, 1999: A1.

47 Rickey is the grandson of Branch Rickey who is best known for breaking baseball’s color barrier by signing Jackie Robinson to a Brooklyn Dodgers contract and for creating the framework for the modern minor league farm system. The Associated Press, “Upgrade Stadium or We Leave, Rainiers Say.”

48 The deal included a new lease for the Rainiers through 2041. The city of Tacoma owns the stadium and the underlying land. The Rainiers make lease payments to use the stadium. Populous Architects was selected for the renovation design, and the renovation contract was awarded to Mortenson Construction. “Cheney Stadium (2011 Renovations),” Baseballparks.com. Accessed July 3, 2024, https://baseballparks.com/indepth/tacoma/.

49 “Cheney Stadium Renovation,” Mortenson Construction. Accessed July 13, 2024, https://www.mortenson.com/projects/cheney-stadium-renovation.

50 Kevin Reichard, “Cheney Stadium / Tacoma Rainiers,” Ballpark Digest, November 29, 2008. Accessed June 25, 2024, https://ballparkdigest.com/200811291018/minor-league-baseball/visits/cheney-stadium-tacoma-rainiers.

51 The Rainiers have a strong commitment to offering a family-friendly environment. For example, at the start of the 2024 season, a nursing station was added next to the kids’ play area for nursing moms.

52 Home plate stayed in the same location and the original field dimensions, e.g., 425 feet to center, were maintained. Maun, “Explore Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium.”

53A number of sources, including Baseball-Reference, state the “practical capacity” is about 7,500, even though some other references list the overall capacity at 9,600.

54 Colin Connolly, Director of Media Relations and Baseball Information, Tacoma Rainiers, in-person interview, July 12, 2024.

55 Colin Connolly interview, July 12, 2024.

56 Colin Connolly interview, July 12, 2024.

57 “Cheney Stadium,” BaseballPilgrimages.com. Accessed June 25, 2024, https://www.baseballpilgrimages.com/minors/tacoma.html.

58 About half of the gameday employees are involved with food service. Cheney offers a wide variety of food options including fare from longtime Northwest casual-dining establishments such as Ivar’s (seafood) and Kidd Valley (burgers).

59 Rhubarb the Reindeer is the primary mascot and is rumored to be related to the Seattle Mariners’ Moose. Another fan-favorite is the Epic Sax Gorilla who plays “air saxophone” to music broadcast over the PA system between innings.

60 Colin Connolly interview, July 12, 2024.

61 Rochelle Williams, “Washington: Rename Cheney?,” The Bond Buyer, March 1, 2002: 47.

62 Williams, “Washington: Rename Cheney?”

63 “Ben B. Cheney Lived Life Fully and Richly, Devoting Himself to His Work, His Family and His Community.” Each year, the foundation provides thirty-three annual scholarships of $3,000 for student-athletes in Pierce County, Washington and South Bend, Washington, to further their education at vocational-technical schools, or 2- and 4-year colleges.

64 Med Nicholson, “The Ben Cheney Story.”

65 Erik Lacitis, “Forever in Row 1, Section K – Memories Fade, but Ben Cheney Lives on Through Stadium.” Artist Paul Michaels of Gig Harbor, Washington, molded the statue in clay, then made it into a hollow bronze figure at a foundry. The whole statue weighs over 500 pounds.  

Fans cheer on their favorite team on June 29, 2021, at Dodger Stadium. (Copyright: Steven Cukrov / dreamstime.com)

On October 8, 1957, the stockholders and directors of the Brooklyn Baseball Club announced that the franchise would move to Los Angeles for the 1958 season.1 A welcoming parade jammed downtown LA streets.2 On the steps of City Hall, longtime Dodgers President and owner Walter O’Malley gave Mayor Norris Poulson home plate from Ebbets Field.3 Yet uncertainty lingered: Where would the Dodgers play?

In time, O’Malley forged Dodger Stadium, debuting in 1962 «with perfect sightlines for each of its 56,000 seats and glorious views in all directions,” said noted baseball architect and urban planner Janet Marie Smith. With a nonpareil 16,000 parking spaces, it was “surrounded by Elysian Park, one of the most beautiful urban oases in America – a park within a park.”4 Exuding the charm of baseball’s early-century classic sites, it avoided the later boredom of multi-sport stadiums. Fusing beauty and amenity, baseball’s third-oldest major-league home still is forever young.5

What, though, preceded it? As a stopgap O’Malley considered the longtime Pacific Coast League’s Wrigley Field, acquired by the Brooklyn franchise in February 19576 but housing far too few (20,450)7 for a big-league park. Pasadena’s famed football Rose Bowl (capacity 91,136)8 was too vast for baseball. With time running out, O’Malley chose Los Angeles’s 94,600-seat Memorial Coliseum9 to house his team until a new ballpark could be built.

Opening in 1923, the Coliseum was “a football and track and field place,” said Dodgers 1950-2016 radio/TV legend Vin Scully, “and football and baseball demand different configurations.”10 Left field’s 250-foot foul line, later measured at 251, was the majors’ shortest. To compensate, O’Malley hoisted a 42-by-140-foot screen. Center field’s last bleacher row was 700 feet from the plate,11 Angelenos bringing radios to hear Vin tell them what they couldn’t see. In 1958 the seventh-place club drew 1,845,556, dwarfing Brooklyn’s prior-year 1,028,258.12 It presaged things to come.

Ahead lay “The … Taj O’Malley,”13 in an area of LA to which Walter already had been drawn. In May 1957 he took a helicopter ride to survey possible sites for a new park,14 traveling two miles from downtown over a mélange of “mountains, hills, valleys, and basins.”15 At a gas station O’Malley found on a map the name of a plateau he had found especially striking on “underdeveloped city-owned ground.” It was “surrounded by urbanity – freeways, a teeming population, skyscrapers, sprawl – yet in traveling up a slight but steady palm-tree-lined grade, fans had the immediate illusion, in true movie style, of a park.”16 The site’s name was Chavez Ravine.

O’Malley “liked everything – the access, the vicinity, potential: the freeways above all,” longtime general manager Emil J. “Buzzie” Bavasi said.17 Later in 1957, the Los Angeles City Council voted 10-4 to accept Wrigley Field from the Dodgers, buy 300 acres of Chavez Ravine, and spend $2 million on infrastructure. LA wanted the team. “All O’Malley wanted was land. The city and county of Los Angeles had plenty of that,”18 including Ravine hillside inhabited by “illegal Mexican immigrants.”19 To get it, O’Malley swapped his property in Watts, the site of Wrigley Field.

Aiding him was City Councilwoman Rosalind Wyman, first elected to the Council in 1953 at age 22. Believing that “people wanted sports,”20 she vocally backed the June 3, 1958, “Dodgers Referendum” to let O’Malley buy the acreage. The vote pivoted on a five-hour June 1 KTTV “Dodger Telethon,” starring baseball-loving celebrities including Jack Benny, George Burns, Ronald Reagan, Debbie Reynolds, and Joe E. Brown, chairman of the Taxpayers Committee for “Yes on Baseball.” O’Malley made an eloquent plea, more than two million watching the show days before the vote. It helped the referendum pass, 351,683 to 325,898, a 25,785-vote margin.21

At the time, some wondered what the Dodgers don could possibly see in Chavez Ravine. Squatters’ shacks and grazing goats roamed amid the refuse. From the helicopter O’Malley had seen “dogs, possums, skunks, jackrabbits, gophers, rusty tin cans, rotting tires, moribund mattresses, and broken beer bottles.”22 The squatters included Manuel Arechiga, his wife, and four granddaughters, who were evicted in August 1957, but not before biting and bruising sheriff’s deputies.23 Other residents refused to leave until as late as 1960.24

Trying to block the sale, critics brought countless lawsuits, accusing O’Malley of reaping a giveaway with hidden oil and mineral rights.25 Twice the State Supreme Court ruled in the Dodgers’ favor. On September 17, 1959, groundbreaking ceremonies occurred at the Ravine. The next month the US Supreme Court ditched the protesters’ last appeal. Tractors then began their work. Soon O’Malley began the task of building what he hoped would be the ultimate baseball site.26

On February 18, 1960, O’Malley finalized the sale, paying $494,000 to buy land, then believed to be worth $92,000,27 to be used to build Dodger Stadium. He could afford it, that year’s Dodgers drawing a National League record 2,253,887. Meantime, construction intensified. Fused: 23,000 precast concrete frames and planks. Removed: 8 million cubic yards of earth. Supervised and engineered by: Captain Emil Praeger of Praeger, Kavanagh, and Waterbury, New York. Constructed by: Vinnell Constructors of Alhambra, California.28

Used: 19 giant earth-movers, 80,000 tons of asphalt and paving for parking lots and roads, 546 tons of cast iron, 40,000 cubic yards of concrete, 3 million pounds of reinforced steel, 3 tons of aluminum nuts and bolts, and 375,000 feet of lumber. Employed: Up to 342 workers at peak. Busted: the budget, $23 million, about twice the original estimate. Crucial was O’Malley’s passion to outdo any park ever built – to Scully, the “Golden Gulch”;29 to the public, “Dodger Stadium” or “Chavez Ravine – used interchangeably – involving him at every level.

In the Dodgers’ 1956 tour of Japan, Walter had discovered ground-level suite seating – “dugout boxes” – built by connecting “the roof of the first-base dugout with the roof of the third-base dugout,”30 patrons and players getting the same up-close view. Mentally, O’Malley listed this and other features that he felt the new park should have like Santa Ana Bermuda grass, red infield and warning track clay, and palm trees beyond the outfield. Praeger preferred an 85,000-seat enclosed site with a center-field fountain. O’Malley craved a grand location and scenic park, meriting “enormous credit for declining to enclose the outfield.”31

Instead, Walter approved single-tier bleachers, five-tier seating (a baseball first) just past each line, and perpendicular bullpens to separate the bleachers from foul-line seats. Parking spaces held “cars on 21 terraced lots at five different levels. Seating and parking levels were color-coordinated for fan convenience”32 – top (sky blue), loge (tangerine orange), Stadium Club and dugout box (red, yellow, and blue), reserved (sea foam green), and field (yellow) – each minimizing a need for elevators, escalators, stairs, and lengthy treks after parking.33

Janet Marie Smith has related an “urban legend I believe to be true” about LA’s kinship with its ubiquitous symbol: the car. Chavez Ravine’s Club level – itself a baseball first – had a very wide concourse. Until officials ruled that gasoline-powered autos “would be unsafe inside an occupied stadium,”34 O’Malley hoped Club level members could drive to their seats, cars parked behind them. In 1960 an aerial photo showed “Dodger Stadium beginning to take shape,”35 several decks faintly evident of the first privately financed park since Yankee Stadium opened in 1923.

As Smith, an adviser to the Orioles (Camden Yards), Red Sox (Fenway Park), and Dodgers (since 2012), observed in her essay, “Ballpark Diaries: Notes from the Field,” the “glorious setting, carved into the hillside of Chavez Ravine,” enchants.36 At first glance, it might seem that O’Malley positioned the park to “capitalize on the views of the snowcapped San Gabriel mountains and the green of Elysian Park to the north and the downtown skyline to the south.” In fact, in 1962 “downtown’s only tower was City Hall to the East.”37 The city grew with the team, the ballpark’s third-base line fixed due north on the field to curb interference from the sun.

From any perspective, O’Malley believed in the Dodgers park and his Westward-Ho, claiming history would redeem him. By the end of 1961, the Coliseum had lured 7,974,738 since 1958,38 vindicating the trek from Brooklyn. Jerry Doggett, a 1956-87 Dodgers announcer, recalled how the first time “I came out of the dugout [in 1962] and looked up, I talked with Walter, and he was as pleased as a person could possibly be.”39 Having survived landslides and lawsuits, O’Malley and Rosalind Wyman walked through the Club level the night before 1962’s Opening Day,40 marveling at the result.

The next afternoon, April 10, after a parade passed through Center City, squeaky-clean Dodger Stadium opened with two temporary gaffes: Emil Praeger forgot to include water fountains – ironic given his design – and foul poles were in foul ground. For 1962, the NL ruled them fair. Doggett remarked, “It was almost like the club’s Brooklyn past,”41 crystallized by a 1926 game against the Braves when three Dodgers occupied third base.42 In 1963 the team relocated home plate slightly so that each pole became fair.43 Consequently, the Ravine’s most visible landmark is not foul-ball homers but a 10-story elevator shaft bearing the team’s logo rising behind home plate atop the upper deck.

Most found dimensions fair: lines, 330 feet; alleys, 380 (370 in 1969 and 385 in 1983); left- and right-center, 395; and center, 410 (400 in 1969). The top deck linked first to third base, other decks reaching past the poles. Unique: upturned concrete sunscreen poured in place on the top deck, a zig-zag wavy pavilion roof using folded corrugated metal, and four hexagonal scoreboards: two field-level auxiliary boards, baseball’s largest message/out-of-town board in left, and an in-game information board in right. A 10-foot (8 in 1973) fence tied left- and right-center.44 The 1000 Elysian – Greek for “paradise” – Park Avenue address hailed baseball’s first park, Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey.45

In Brooklyn O’Malley had telecast each home set; in LA, almost none. Since many felt that “here was the finest sports palace ever conceived,”46 they were happy to pay in person. The change profited radio: hence Scully. Atypically, the Ravine opener was locally televised, Vin emceeing the pregame rite. Attendance was 52,564: Trapped in traffic, some gave up and went home. O’Malley’s wife, Kay, tossed out the first ball. Johnny Podres lost, 6-3, to Cincinnati’s Bob Purkey. First hit/run: The Reds’ Eddie Kasko. Homer: mate Wally Post. Dodgers hit: Duke Snider. LA run: Jim Gilliam. “Reds Crash Stadium Party,” wrote the Los Angeles Times.47

Jackie Robinson’s statue stands near the center field entrance at Dodger Stadium. (Jon SooHoo / Los Angeles Dodgers)

When Dodger Stadium opened, it had far more foul turf than now: “as much as multipurpose parks, presumably so a 50-yard line for football would fit,” Smith wrote in another essay, “How the Firsts Have Fared.”48 Architect Edward H. Fickett’s drawings at the University of Southern California even suggested placing “the outfield seating on wheels so it could be moved to alter the center field for football or other uses.”49 Ultimately, O’Malley was wise enough to see the folly of a multisport yard. By 1999, then-owner Fox Entertainment Group even axed the “1962 dugout suites … and minimized foul territory to create a [solely baseball] premium seating area in front of the field box seats.”50

O’Malley Sr. resigned as president in 1970, remaining owner and chairman till his death in 1979. On January 4, 1997, his successor, son Peter, met at the park with Scully, by 1976 fan vote named “most memorable personality” in LA Dodgers history.51 Learning that O’Malley Jr. and sister Terry meant to sell the franchise, Vin felt “a … closure of a major portion of my life.”52 Next year media czar Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought the team for $311 million.53 In 2004 Fox sold it to Frank McCourt, who went bankrupt, yielding to Guggenheim Baseball Management LLC in 2012, after which continuity again became a Dodgers rite.

Almost from the start the Ravine became a magnet. “People poured in from all over California, western Canada and northern Mexico, even Hawaii to marvel at the sheer grandeur of the place,” Frank Finch wrote.54 Pitching became a theme; speed, another, as in Dodgers shortstop Maury Wills stealing a record 104 bases in 1962. “It’d been [at Brooklyn] all power,” Wills said. By contrast, now “I’d steal second and … Gilliam sacrificed me to third and I’d come home on an infield out.” Said Mets skipper Casey Stengel: “He’s the most amazin’ slider I ever saw.”55

What has been amazin’ – at least indelible – about Dodger Stadium? In 1962 the ex-Brooks lost a tiebreaking playoff to the Giants but drew a big-league record 2,755,184 against the American League Angels’ 1,144,063 in the latter’s first of four years of tenancy. Sandy Koufax no-hit the Mets. Next year he went 25-5, tossed his second of four no-nos, and won two games in the Dodgers’ World Series sweep of the Yankees. “When Sandy was in top form, I became a fan out there on the field,” said 1962-63 batting titlist Tommy Davis. “You sometimes forgot you’re playing baseball because Sandy’s controlling the whole game.”56

LA took the 1965 Series, enduring Sandy’s next-year retirement from an arthritic elbow: “I don’t regret for one minute the 12 years I’ve spent with baseball, but I could regret one season too many.”57 Koufax finished 165-87, leading the NL thrice in victories (high, 27), four times in strikeouts (best, 382), and five years in ERA (at or below 2.54). The Ravine evokes Don Drysdale, too, Big D copping 1962’s 25-9 Cy Young Award and in 1968 pursuing Walter Johnson’s record for consecutive scoreless innings: 56 in 1913. By May 31, Don had 44 straight. “Curve – hit him!” Vin Scully etched a no-out bases-full ninth-inning pitch to Dick Dietz, the streak ending, or had it? “Hold everything!” – the umpire gesturing “as if to say Dietz stuck his arm in front of the pitch.”

Drysdale escaped the jam, his streak reaching 58⅔ innings, then tore his rotator cuff, retiring in 1969 with a 209-166 record.58 He broadcast for several teams and networks, the last six years with the Dodgers. On July 3, 1993, Don, 56, had a fatal heart attack in Montreal. That night Scully, a close friend, disclosed it during the game: “Never have I been asked to make an announcement that hurts me as much as this one,” Vin said. “And I say it to you as best I can with a broken heart.”59

Dodger Stadium also evokes history – in 1969 Willie Stargell belted the first homer out of the park, estimated at 506 feet 6 inches over the pavilion roof. (He later encored at 470 feet.) Others: Ronald Acuña Jr., Giancarlo Stanton, Mark McGwire, Dodger Mike Piazza, and Fernando Tatis Jr.60 – and heroism. In 1976 two men left the bleachers. One laid the US flag out, spreading lighter fluid. The other lit a second before Cubs outfielder Rick Monday raced to take it “away from him!” exclaimed Scully, a World War II veteran. “That guy was going to set fire to the American flag! … Rick will get an ovation, and properly so. … And now, a lot of the folks are standing. And now the whole ballpark!”61

Chavez Ravine conjures Hollywood. “Forget the glitz,” said longtime vice president of player personnel Al Campanis. “It’s TV-film tradition that matters.” Movie scenes have been filmed at Dodger Stadium. TV in the 1960s lured Dodgers Koufax, Drysdale, and coach Leo Durocher, among others, Big D appearing on The Rifleman and variety shows with Red Skelton, Groucho Marx, and Steve Allen. In a 1963 episode of Mister Ed, a series based on a talking horse, Ed offered hitting advice to Durocher.62 Celebrities like Benny and Cary Grant regularly visited the ballpark,63 as stars like Arsenio Hall, Jennifer Lopez, and Matthew McConaughey did in later years.64

The Ravine includes rites like the best-selling Dodger Dog, the “Peanut Guy” Roger Owens, 1954-76 manager Walter Alston’s “solidity,” and and 1976-96 skipper Tommy Lasorda’s wit: “Baseball is like driving, it’s the one who gets home safely that counts.”65 Scout Mike Brito was another institution, approached by Campanis in 1979 when pitcher Bob Welch began struggling. Al: “What are you doing tonight?” Brito: “Nothing special. Why?” Campanis: “I want you to go down to field level.” Standing behind the plate in a dugout box, Mike used a radar gun to judge pitches. His “The Straw-Hat Man” attire made the cigar-chomping Brito famous.66

Dodger Stadium recalls precedent. In 1967 it braved the ballpark’s first rainout after 737 games.67 The ’78 Angelenos became the first team to draw 3 million or more in attendance.68 In 1980 the Ravine debuted a large screen, high-definition left-field Electric “Diamond Vision Scoreboard” with line score, lineup, and replay; shortly, most of baseball followed. In turn, it was replaced in 2013 by a new state-of-the-art video board.69 In 1984 Dodger Stadium unveiled a star-spangled precedent, hosting part of that year’s Summer Olympics, the first privately financed Games.70

Another first buoyed Opening Day 1981: 20-year-old rookie Fernando Valenzuela, found in 1977 in Mexico by Dodgers scout Corito Varona, hurling a shutout in his first big-league start. “Got him swinging! And a little child shall lead them!” Vin cried. “Fernandomania included arguably baseball’s first Spanish-speaking broadcaster translating English into Spanish for Valenzuela, then back: Ecuador-born Jaime Jarrin arrived in LA in 1955, began play-by-play in 1959, and got the 1998 Hall of Fame Ford C. Frick Award for broadcast excellence, joining Scully and past Dodgers Red Barber and Ernie Harwell. He retired in 2022.71

In time, O’Malley had Scully do TV as well as radio. Other announcers ferried play-by-play, too. After René Cárdenas trained Jarrin, he went to Houston, returning to LA in 1982-96. From 1977 to 2004, Ross Porter shared radio/TV, using statistics like Roy Acuff did a fiddle. In 1989 Vin waived a road trip, Drysdale away. The game finally ended in the 22nd inning, LA winning, 1-0. By then, even statistics looked good. In 2005 Brooklyn native Charley Steiner joined Scully, so wowed by Vin as a child that Mom bought him a right-handed mitt at 6, assuming that her left-handed son’s glove would fit that hand. Steiner, a future five-time Emmy Award winner,72 soon found where his future lay: above the field, not on it.73

The entrance to Dodger Stadium at 1000 Vin Scully Avenue. (Copyright: Liamwh7 / dreamstime.com)

Dodger Stadium recalls defeat. “Big Blue” (a Dodgers moniker) trailed 1985’s best-of-seven League Championship Series to St. Louis but led Game Six, 5-4, in a one out and two Cardinals on base ninth inning. Lasorda and reliever Tom Niedenfuer communed on the mound, deciding to pitch to Jack Clark, who promptly homered: Redbirds win, 7-5. Later, the Dodgers manager consoled a shattered Niedenfuer, saying, “We wouldn’t be there without your [19 regular-season] saves. … [you] should talk to the media – be a Dodger.”74

The Ravine also evokes victory. An injury to each leg made Kirk Gibson ostensibly unable even to pinch-hit in 1988’s Series opener. In the ninth, A’s up 4-3, Kirk told Lasorda he could hit. Eyeing a monitor, NBC TV’s Scully said, “And look who’s coming up!” Barely able to swing, fouling off pitches, Gibson worked a 3-and-2 count. Then: “High fly ball into right field! She is gone!” Vin glittered, silent another 67 seconds, letting the crowd hold sway. Finally: “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!”75 Lasorda, who called the park “Blue Heaven on earth,” levitated.76 Kirk pumped fists like pistons. Next day NBC ran an elegiac feature tying the plot to film’s The Natural – except that by contrast even fiction paled.

Three years earlier lanky right-hand pitcher Orel Hershiser had gone 19-3 in his second full major-league season. Now, in World Series Game Five, up 5-2, he faced Oakland’s Tony Phillips. “Got him!” Scully said of Orel’s second 1988 Classic triumph. “They’ve done it! Like the 1969 Mets, it’s the Impossible Dream revisited!” The previous month Hershiser had lived another dream, forging 59 straight scoreless innings to break Drysdale’s 1968 record.77 Thrice leading the NL in innings, Orel pitched for LA through 1994, spent five years with three other clubs, then returned in 2000 to Chavez Ravine, retiring at age 42 with a 204-150 record.78

In its seventh decade, Dodger Stadium respects age. Don Sutton pitched for Los Angeles in 1966-80 and then for four other teams, returning to the Ravine for a final year in 1988. Retiring at 43, he was, as of his death in 2021, LA’s all-time leader in innings pitched, wins (233), shutouts, and strikeouts.79 (Clayton Kershaw passed him in K’s in 2022.80) By comparison, in 1992, Eric Karros launched the Dodgers’ record of five consecutive Rookies of the Year, preceding Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi, Hideo Nomo, and Todd Hollandsworth.81 Youth had been served.

Even in a pitching-friendly park, offense can rule. In 2000 Gary Sheffield tied Duke Snider’s then-single-season home-run mark (43): the sole Angeleno to top .300 (.325) with at least 30 homers, 100 runs batted in, 100 walks, and 100 runs for a second straight year.82 LA’s single-season best includes Tommy Davis’s 153 RBIs and 230 hits (both 1962) and Shawn Green’s 49 home runs (2001).83 Career highs include Sheffield’s on-base percentage (.438), slugging percentage (.643), and OPS (1.081).84

Like Koufax, Big D, Hershiser, and Sutton, Kershaw symbolized artistry on the mound: NL 2014 MVP, 2011-13-14 Cy Young Award honoree, thrice league-best in wins, first to lead baseball in ERA four straight years (2011-14), and as Steve Garvey had and Justin Turner would, received the Roberto Clemente Award in 2012 for exemplifying “extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy, and positive contributions, both on and off the field”85 – the same kind of service that lets the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation programs help 2.3 million children each year.86

LADF grants and programs generously support such projects as “Dodgers Dreamfields,” “LA Reads,” and “Dodgers RBI [Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities].”87 Such charity has been contagious. In his 2000-04 Chavez Ravine career, outfield alumnus Green donated $1.5 million to the Dodgers’ Dream Foundation, backed four local Dodgers “Dreamfields,” and broke his 415-consecutive-game streak to honor the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, not playing on September 5, 2001.88

Dodger Stadium has shared sorrow. On September 11, 2001, four planes were seized by terrorists and crashed into New York City, the Pentagon, and rural Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 Americans. Six days later the Dodgers played their first post-9/11 game, at the Ravine. In a pregame video, President George W. Bush asked the nation to “go back to work.” Scully then spoke: “And so, despite a heavy heart, baseball gets up out of the dirt, brushes itself off, and will follow his command, hoping in some small way to inspire the nation to do the same.”89

Chavez Ravine has known joy. On September 18, 2006, the NL West title at stake, LA trailed San Diego, 9-5, in the ninth inning. Traffic exited while Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew, and Russell Martin then went deep. As cars U-turned, Marlon Anderson homered – a fourth straight homer: 9-all. Scully beamed: “Can you believe this inning? In fact, can you believe this game?” San Diego regained a 10-9 10th-inning edge, whereupon Kenny Lofton walked in the home half and Nomar Garciaparra “hits a high fly ball to left field! It is away out and gone! The Dodgers win it, 11 to 10! Unbelievable!”90

Dodger Stadium means change. In 2008 the team moved its longtime Florida spring-training site from Vero Beach to Arizona. To salute a half-century on the West Coast, the Dodgers that March played an exhibition against the Boston Red Sox – the Coliseum’s first baseball since 1961 and game’s largest-ever crowd, 115,300. Permanent seats cut left field by 50 feet to 201, the screen rising from 18 feet to 60 to compensate. The Red Sox won, 7-4.91 That year a $412 million project to build a Dodgers museum, shops, and restaurants around the Ravine was also disclosed.

In person or on TV, the Ravine defines living color. In 2012 Frank McCourt sold the team to Guggenheim Baseball Management, which modernized the park, yet preserved the past. It matched new signage and seating with the original seating color scheme, assigned by Emil Praeger to “mimic the LA sunset.”92 The next year, investing “over $150 million,”93 Guggenheim hired D’Agostino Izzy Quirk Architects to serve a public that bought food, beer, caps, and shirts from LA’s official store and brought children to “play areas.” New President and CEO Stan Kasten was addressing the Average Joe.

Kasten’s view resonated because while “suites and premium areas … had been added,”94 concourses gave Joe Fan little chance to change seating levels, walk around the park, or be entertained. So right- and left-field boards and ultimately other message boards were replaced by “state-of-the-art [high-definition] video boards,” restoring their former hexagon shape but “22 percent larger with 66 percent more active viewing area.”95 Renovation brought wider concourses, “companion seats,” and “improved wheelchair-access areas.”96 New standing-room areas gave “fans a unique view of the game.”97 A better sound system also muted echo.

Meanwhile, flashing strobe arcs were making the Ravine a better-lighted place, later replaced by even brighter LED lights that went on instantly, not gradually, changing the “game experience,”98 Kasten said. A “state-of-the-art wi-fi network and cellular antenna system upped cellphone and internet connectivity from mobile devices.” Change brought brighter signage and more picnic areas,99 new and expanded restrooms, concessions, indoor home and away batting cages, better training and conditioning facilities, and a larger footprint of the Dodgers clubhouse, as Kasten had vowed.

Once he asked, “Where, oh where, is the memorabilia? This is the Dodgers!” – a team proving Faulkner’s saw “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”100 Yearbooks and media guides were hung for public perusal. Staff re-created “MVP Awards, Gold Gloves, Silver Sluggers, the decades of program covers … enlarged and framed like artwork.”101 New entry plazas housed autographed baseballs, life-size bobbleheads, and five-foot replicas of Dodgers Cy Young winners.102 Another change became past “[logos being] … painted onto different areas” from Brooklyn’s only world title in 1955 to “1959 Dodgers 50th Anniversary.”103 Wrote Janet Marie Smith: “There is something about an anchor to the past that makes this a great game today.”104

Outside, in 1962, $6 million in landscaping included planting three palms beyond center field: to Vin, “The Three Sisters.”105 In 2012 they were moved to allow new power in buried duct banks under them, then next year to build the plaza and bullpen-overlook bars. Officials unsure if roots would survive in “burlap bags during construction”106 shifted trees to a temporary site, then planted and dug them up again. The trees now “grace the Dodgers bullpen” – where better to ensure saves? – “carefully replanted” to realign their trunks.107

“More than 3,400 trees cover[ed] the 300 acres of beautiful landscape” in 2001, “maintained by a full-time staff.”108 A decade later each tree displaced for plazas at a ballpark entry was replanted and more than 100 added. Old highway signs were replaced by corrugated metal signs in 1962’s hexagonal scoreboard shape. Red bougainvillea matched the color of the Dodgers’ home uniform number.109 Befitting a camera-phone age, in 2015 Dodger Stadium became the second most Instagrammed site in the world.110

By then, many performers had sung in a park largely defined by Scully’s tenor. Among them: David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Elton John, KISS, The Beatles, The Bee Gees, The Rolling Stones, and U2. In 1994 Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti gave a one-night-only concert performance at Dodger Stadium: “Encore – the Three Tenors.” Paul McCartney later starred, with Ringo Starr as guest performer, singing 38 songs in “an epic three-hour concert.”111 Less secularly, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass there on September 16, 1987.112

“Never say Dodger fans do not love their history,” Smith attests, the franchise’s music between the lines among baseball’s most inspiring.113 Prior to 2022, the uniform numbers of eight players and two managers had been retired: 1 (Pee Wee Reese), 2 (Lasorda), 4 (Snider), 19 (Gilliam), 20 (Sutton), 24 (Alston), 32 (Koufax), 39 (Campanella), 42 (Jackie Robinson), and 53 (Drysdale). Gil Hodges’ number 14 was retired in 2022, Valenzuela’s 34 a year later. All were Baseball Hall of Famers save Gilliam, who died in the 1978 season, and Fernando.114

In 2012-20, Guggenheim’s LA baseball debut, Big Blue each year but the first won the NL West. In 2017 it became the first team to go 43-7 in a 50-game period since the 1912 Giants,115 but lost a seven-game Fall Classic to Houston, notably the Astros’ 13-12 10-inning Game Five victory deemed “one of the greatest World Series games ever.”116 Ten Dodgers including Reese, Campy, and Big D comprised the Ravine’s third-deck Ring of Honor. In May, Scully became the 11th, a mic, not a number, on his plaque.

A year earlier, more than 24,000 at the annual “FanFest” hailed the man who perhaps more than anyone defined Ravine and Dodgers history. “As the Legend said Goodbye, the World of Baseball Paid Loving Tribute,” the 2017 Dodgers Yearbook wrote of Vin’s last radio/TV year.117 On April 11, 2016, LA’s Elysian Park Avenue address was renamed “1000 Vin Scully Avenue.” That September 23, Vin Scully Appreciation Day, he got a key to the City of Los Angeles, tributes from Koufax and Kershaw, actor Kevin Costner, and fellow mic men Jarrin and Steiner, and a Dodgers blue carpet exit for Vin and wife Sandi.118

Scully won a lifetime Emmy, aired 25 World Series, made every major radio/TV Hall of Fame, and was named “Top Sportscaster of All Time” by the American Sportscasters Association. His record 67 years with the Dodgers made Vin integral to the Ravine. At his last home game, a sellout crowd and Dodgers and Giants players, tipping their caps, said so long. After Vin’s last game a week later in San Francisco, he bade farewell, quoting an Irish poem: “May God give you for every storm, a rainbow, For every tear, a smile, For every care, a promise, And a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, A faithful friend to share, For every sigh, a sweet song, And an answer for each prayer.”119

In 2017 Fox Television’s Joe Davis became LA’s lead TV play-by-play man, Hershiser on color. Today, Garciaparra, Karros, Jessica Mendoza, José Mota, Stephen Nelson, Tim Neverett, Steiner, Valenzuela, Kirsten Watson, Dontrelle Willis, and Pepe Yñiguez also buoy Dodgers radio/TV.120 In 2018 Jaime Jarrin entered the Ring of Honor121 and Walker Buehler started the franchise’s first combined no-hitter. Chavez Ravine lists 13 no-nos, the first by the Angels’ Bo Belinsky and eight by the Dodgers’ Koufax (three), Bill Singer, Valenzuela, Kevin Gross, Ramón Martinez, and Kershaw.122 In Series Game Three against Boston, Max Muncy’s 18th-inning blast gave LA a victory after the longest postseason set of 7 hours and 20 minutes.123

In 2019 Dodgers attendance peaked at 3,974,309, the team also breaking the NL season record with 279 home runs.124 The 2020 Angelenos outlasted the 29 other teams – and COVID pandemic. In March baseball canceled spring training. In July it ordained a 60-game season, sans spectators.125 The Dodgers’ 30-10 start was the best since the 31-9 2001 Mariners.126 Los Angeles ended the regular season 43-17, its winning percentage a post-1960 expansion high .717. Extrapolated to 162 games, LA’s 116 victories would tie the 1906 Cubs and 2001 Mariners.127 Mookie Betts, acquired from Boston, and A.J. Pollock led in home runs (16), Corey Seager and Justin Turner in average (.307), and Kershaw in victories (6) and ERA (2.16).128

The pandemic extended postseason, the Dodgers sweeping Milwaukee in the wild-card series. They ousted San Diego in the best-of-five Division Series, edged the Braves in the LCS, and beat Tampa Bay in the 2020 Fall Classic.129 Seager won the Series MVP Award.130 LA’s director of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was named Major League Baseball Executive of the Year131 and his team Baseball America’s Major League Organization of the Year132 for winning the bicoastal franchise’s seventh world title since 1955 and first since 1988.

Since then, it has tried to top the topper. In 2021 Los Angeles lost the West for the first time since 2012, but made the postseason a record ninth straight year – 106 victories the most for a team that hadn’t won its division or league.133 A year later, the Ravine hosted the All-Star Game, six Dodgers chosen including starting pitcher Kershaw. LA won a franchise-high 111 sets but lost the 2022 Division Series to San Diego, not advancing despite the divisional era’s best regular-season record. “It’s crushing,” said NL 2016 Manager of the Year Dave Roberts.134

The 2023 Dodgers went 100-62, 16 games ahead of second-place Arizona, but again stumbled in October. In the Division Series, the D-backs tamed Big Blue at Dodger Stadium, 11-2 and 4-2. In Game Three at Phoenix, Arizona became the first big-league team to hit four postseason home runs in an inning.135 After three batters had gone deep, Gabriel Moreno’s drive was ruled a homer, then reversed by instant replay. Unfazed, Moreno smashed a drive “to the moon,” cried TBS broadcaster Bob Costas. It presaged another 4-2 LA loss for the club with the most wins (317) in three years (2021-23) not to make a World Series.136 Brooklyn’s ancient cry, “Wait Till Next Year,” rarely seemed so poignant.

Despite that, by 2023 a $100 million center-field plaza renovation at Chavez Ravine included a children’s playground, relocation there of Jackie Robinson’s statue from the left-field entrance, and display feting “The Legends of Dodger Baseball.” It hailed Steve Garvey, Kirk Gibson, Orel Hershiser, Fernando Valenzuela, Maury Wills, 1949-58 Dodgers pitcher, 1956 Cy Young Award recipient, and founder of baseball’s first community relations department Don Newcombe, and LA’s 1969-80 and 1982 nonpareil pinch-hitter and 1980-2012 coach Manny Mota.137

In 2015 Stan Kasten and Dodgers Chairman and part-owner Mark Walter had commissioned a statue to be unveiled on the 70th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color line – the Ravine’s first. Oakland-based Haitian-American artist Branly Cadet138 was named to create it, prior works including public figures like Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in New York City and educator Octavius Catto in Philadelphia. They showed, said Janet Marie Smith, “the power of a bronze to tell the story of a man.”139

Working with widow Rachel and daughter Sarah Robinson, Smith was struck by how the statue heightened the effect of Jackie sliding into home plate. On the sculpture’s base lie several Robinson quotes, the most familiar “A life is not important except for the impact it has on others.”140 On April 15, 2017, 20 years after the pioneer’s number 42 was retired by baseball, Cadet’s statue was unveiled. Baseball’s first Black owner, Magic Johnson, said that “Jackie paved the way”141 for him to invest in the Dodgers, Robinson’s impact having helped end segregation.

On June 18, 2022, another graceful Cadet statue showing Sandy Koufax’s classic leg kick142 was dedicated in the “Legends” area flanking Jackie’s. “As teammates, we were bound together by a single interest and common goal. To win,” the pitcher’s quote read. “Nothing else mattered and nothing else would do.”143 Koufax spoke modestly at the event, saying, “I think my only regret today is that so many are no longer with us,” including the ailing Scully, who died on August 2.144 Sandy’s big-league career began with the 1955-56 Dodgers, Robinson’s last two years before retiring. Vin broadcast each. Any definition of the franchise must accent all three.

When Elysian Park Avenue was renamed in 2016, the Dodgers “planted a double row of trees and firestick plants along the street to celebrate,” Smith wrote.145 Yearly the palms and lilacs blossom as if to coincide with Opening Day: apt for Scully, who helped each season bloom with poetry and gentle humor, and baseball, each year renewing its need for courage and resilience, Vin once musing of an injured player, “He’s listed day to day. Aren’t we all?”

The book A Baseball Century wrote, “More difficult than imagining America without baseball is imagining baseball without the Dodgers.”146 As difficult is imagining the Dodgers without the wonder of Chavez Ravine.

Last revised: July 1, 2024

SOURCES

Thanks to the sources cited under “Interviews by author.” Grateful appreciation is made to reprint play-by-play and color radio text courtesy of The Miley Collection. In addition to sources cited in the Notes, especially the Society for American Baseball Research, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites, box scores, season, and team pages, batting and pitching logs, and other material relevant to this history. FanGraphs.com provided statistical information. Beyond the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted:

Reidenbaugh, Lowell. The Sporting News Take Me Out to the Ball Park (St. Louis: Sporting News Publishing Co., 1983).

Wood, Bob. Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks: And All the Wieners in Between (New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., 1988).

Interviews by author:

Emil J. ”Buzzie” Bavasi, 1978.

Jerry Coleman, 2010.

Bob Costas, 1988.

Jerry Doggett, 1992.

Dick Enberg, 2014.

Pat Hughes, 2022.

Jorge Iber, 2022.

William Johnson, 2005.

Jon Miller, 1991.

Phil Mushnick, 2007.

Vin Scully, 1986 and 1992.

Charley Steiner, 2007.

George Vecsey, 2012.

NOTES

1 Gene Schorr. A Pictorial History of the Dodgers: From Brooklyn to Los Angeles. (New York: Leisure Press, 1985), 104.

2 Frank Finch, The Los Angeles Dodgers: The First Twenty Years. (Virginia Beach, Virginia: Jordan & Company, 1977), 16.

3 Finch, 17.

4 Janet Marie Smith, “How the Firsts Have Fared” (speech, NINE Conference, Phoenix, Arizona, March 2016.)

5 Thomas Harrigan, “Every Ballpark, from Oldest to Newest,” MLB.com, February 22, 2022. https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-parks-from-oldest-to-newest.

6 Jim Gordon, “Wrigley Field (Los Angeles),” SABR.org. https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/wrigley-field-los-angeles/.

7 https://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/ballparks/los-angeles-wrigley-field/.

8 https://uclabruins.com/facilities/the-rose-bowl/1.

9 Philip J. Lowry, ed., Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of Major and Negro League Ballparks (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1992), 170.

10 Vin Scully interview, 1992.

11 Green Cathedrals, 168-70.

12 Finch, 24.

13 Finch, 41.

14 Emil J. “Buzzie” Bavasi interview, 1978.

15 Steven Travers, A Tale of Three Cities: The 1962 Baseball Season (Washington: Potomac Books, 2009), 9.

16 Travers, 25.

17 Bavasi interview, 1978.

18 Travers, 9.

19 Travers, 25.

20 “Blue Heaven,” 2018 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 10.

21 https://www.walteromalley.com/en/features/chavez-ravine/Timeline.

22 Finch, 13.

23 Green Cathedrals, 52.

24 https://www.walteromalley.com/en/features/chavez-ravine/Overview/view-all.

25 Finch, 14.

26 https://www.walteromalley.com/en/features/chavez-ravine/Overview/view-all.

27 Matt Borelli, “This Day in Dodgers History: Walter O’Malley Buys Land to Build Dodger Stadium,” dodgerblue.com, February 18, 2022. https://dodgerblue.com/this-day-dodgers-history-walter-omalley-completes-purchase-land-build-dodger-stadium/2022/02/18/.

28 https://www.walteromalley.com/en/dodger-stadium/construction-facts/Page-1.

29 https://www.walteromalley.com/en/dodger-stadium/construction-facts/Page-1.

30 Smith, “How the Firsts Have Fared,” 12.

31 Bruce Adams and Margaret Engel, Baseball Vacations (New York: Fodor’s Travel Publications, 2000), 312.

32 Adams and Engel, 312.

33 Randi Radcliff, “Dodger Stadium’s History, Facts, and Nostalgia,” dodgersway.com, June 6, 2017. https://dodgersway.com/2017/06/06/dodgers-stadium-history/.

34 Smith, “How the Firsts Have Fared,” 13.

35 Finch, 45.

36 Janet Marie Smith, “Ballpark Diaries: Notes from the Field,” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture 30(1): 16-17.

37 Smith, “Ballpark Diaries: Notes from the Field,” 17.

38 https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAD/.

39 Jerry Doggett interview, 1992.

40 2018 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 10.

41 Doggett interview.

42 L. Robert Davids, “Three Men on Third,” Baseball Research Journal (SABR), 1977. https://sabr.org/journal/article/three-men-on-third/.

43 Green Cathedrals, 53.

44 Green Cathedrals, 52.

45 John Thorn, “The Elysian Fields of Hoboken,” ourgame.mlblogs.com, December 2, 2014. https://sabr.org/latest/thorn-the-elysian-fields-of-hoboken/.

46 Travers, 1.

47 Finch, 41.

48 Smith, “How the Firsts Have Fared,” 12.

49 Smith, “How the Firsts Have Fared,” 12.

50 Smith, “How the Firsts Have Fared,” 12.

51 Rowan Kavner, “Vin Scully Was Dodger Baseball,” foxsports.com, August 2, 2022. https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/vin-scully-was-dodger-baseball.

52 Larry Stewart, “There’s No Change in the Booth,” Los Angeles Times, March 20,1998, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-20-sp-30847-story.html.

53 Thomas Heath and Paul Farhi, “Murdoch Adds Dodgers to Media Empire,” Washington Post, March 20, 1998, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/03/20/murdoch-adds-dodgers-to-media-empire/4cc70d40-801d-4e53-8a8d-0af1626f0f9e/.

54 Finch, 41.

55 Finch, 42.

56 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 14.

57 Finch, 67.

58 Finch, 97.

59 “Don Drysdale, Hall of Fame Dodger Pitcher, Dies at 56,” New York Yankee Fans Forum, July 3, 1993, https://nyyfansforum.sny.tv/forum/forum/general-baseball-forums/history-trivia-memorabilia/12613008-july-3-1993-don-drysdale-passes-away.

60 Andrew Simon, “Acuña’s Derby Blast Leaves Dodger Stadium,” MLB.com, July 18, 2022, https://www.mlb.com/news/home-runs-hit-out-of-dodger-stadium.

61 Gene Schoor, A Pictorial Picture of the Dodgers: From Brooklyn to Los Angeles (New York: Leisure Press, 1985), 202-203.

62 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0649836/.

63 Travers, 72-73.

64 2019 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 143, 145.

65 https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/tommy_lasorda_139446.

66 Charley Steiner interview, 2007.

67 Finch, 95.

68 Schoor, 219.

69 Scott Andes, “Farewell Sweet Diamond Vision,” Dodgers Way, January 21, 2013, https://dodgersway.com/2013/01/21/farewell-sweet-diamond-vision/.

70 “Peter Victor Ueberroth,” Encyclopedia.com, May 29, 2018, https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/sports-and-games/sports-biographies/peter-victor-ueberroth.

71 A Martinez, “Veteran Baseball Broadcaster Jaime Jarrin Says Goodbye,” NPR.org, October 14, 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/10/14/1129001701.

72 https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/team/broadcasters.

73 Steiner interview, 2007.

74 Richard Justice, “Lasorda Doesn’t Dodge Rehashing Fateful Pitch to Cardinals’ Clark,” Washington Post, February 14, 1986, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1986/02/14/lasorda-doesnt-dodge-rehashing-fateful-pitch-to-cardinals-clark/6ac83422-0a40-4677-b9b0-6aa1a48779a7/.

75 https://www.youtube.com.com/watch?v=jeGFSEIONyA.

76 Matthew Moreno, “Tommy Lasorda Receives Lifetime Achievement Award at 17th Annual LA Sports Awards,” dodgerblue.com, March 9, 2022. https://dodgerblue.com/dodgers-tommy-lasorda-lifetime-achievement-award-los-angeles-sports-awards/2022/03/09/.

77 Matthew Moreno, dodgerblue.com, September 28, 2022, https://dodgerblue.com/this-day-dodgers-history-orel-hershiser-breaks-don-drysdales-record-59-consecutive-scoreless-innings/2022/09/28/.

78 https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hershor01.shtml.

79 Matt Kelly, “Sutton’s Numbers Still Boggle the Mind,” MLB.com, January 19, 2021, https://www.mlb.com/news/don-sutton-facts-and-figures.

80 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10nmbbAQktg.

81 Luke Norris, “Remember When the LA Dodgers Had 5 Rookie of the Year Winners in a Row?” sportscasting.com, October 21, 2020, https://www.sportscasting.com/remember-when-the-la-dodgers-had-5-rookie-of-the-year-winners-in-a-row/.

82 2001 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (Los Angeles: Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc.), 55.

83 https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAD/leaders_bat_season.shtml.

84 https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAD/leaders_bat_season.shtml.

85 https://www.mlb.com/news/roberto-clemente-award-2023-nominees.

86 2019 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 154.

87 2019 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 154.

88 Alan Schwarz, “Green to Sit Out on Yom Kippur,” ESPN.com, September 5, 2004, https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/2001/0905/1248286.html.

89 https://www.mlb.com/video/scully-s-touching-speech-c18652293.

90 www.mlb.com/video/dodgers-win-on-homer-fest-c20006559.

91 Eric Stephen, “Dodgers vs. Red Sox LA Coliseum Exhibition,” truebluela.com, June 20, 2020, https://www.truebluela.com/2020/6/20/21293920/dodgers–red-sox-coliseum-exhibition-2008.

92 Smith, “Ballpark Diaries,” 18.

93 Smith, “How the Firsts Have Fared,” 14.

94 Smith, “How the Firsts Have Fared,” 15.

95 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 8.

96 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 6.

97 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 7.

98 Matthew Moreno, “Stan Kasten: New Dodger Stadium Lights Change ‘Game Experience,’” dodgerblue.com, March 20, 2023, https://dodgerblue.com/stan-kasten-new-dodger-stadium-lights-change-game-experience/2023/03/30/.

99 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 8.

100 https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2041161-requiem-for-a-nun.

101 Smith, “Ballpark Diaries,” 13.

102 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 8.

103 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 7.

104 Smith, “Ballpark Diaries,” 13.

105 Smith, “How the Firsts Have Fared,” 15.

106 Smith, “How the Firsts Have Fared,” 15.

107 Smith, “Ballpark Diaries,” 17.

108 2001 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (Los Angeles: Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc.), 89.

109 Smith, “Ballpark Diaries,” 18.

110 Smith, “How the Firsts Have Fared,” 14.

111 Katie Atkinson, “Paul McCartney Spreads Love with Ringo Starr, Plus More Highlights from Epic Final Tour Stop at Dodger Stadium.” Billboard, July 14, 2019, https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/paul-mccartney-dodger-stadium-concert-recap-8519795/.

112 2001 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (Los Angeles: Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc.), 89.

113 Smith, “Ballpark Diaries,” 13.

114 Ken Gurnick, “Dodgers’ All-Time Retired Numbers,” MLB.com, December 1, 2021, https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/history/retired-numbers.

115 2018 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 25.

116 2018 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 36.

117 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 17.

118 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 32.

119 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 38.

120 https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/team/broadcasters.

121 2019 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 55.

122 https://www.nonohitters.com/dodger-stadium-no-hitters/.

123 2019 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 39.

124 Ken Gurnick, “Dodgers Set NL Single-Season Mark for Homers,” MLB.com, September 5, 2019, https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/news/dodgers-set-single-season-nl-home-run-record.

125 Mark Feinsand, “Play Ball: MLB Announces 2020 Regular Season,” MLB.com, July 6, 2020, https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-announces-2020-regular-season.

126 Eric Stephen, “Battle of the Bullpens Tilts Toward Dodgers in Late Home Run Derby with Rockies,” truebluela.com, September 4, 2020, https://www.truebluela.com/2020/9/4/21423734/dodgers-home-run-derby-rockies-bulllpen-recap.

127 Do-Hyoung Park, Andrew Simon, and Chad Thornburg, “Which Teams Won the Most Games in a Season?” MLB.com, October 5, 2022, https://www.mlb.com/news/most-mlb-wins-in-a-season-c289159676.

128 https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAD/2020.shtml.

129 Anthony Castrovince, “Wait Is Over! Dodgers Win 1st WS since ’88,” MLB.com, October 28, 2020, https://www.mlb.com/news/dodgers-win-2020-world-series?game_pk=635886.

130 Richard Justice, “World Series MVP Seager 8th in Special Club,” MLB.com, October 28, 2020, https://www.mlb.com/news/corey-seager-named-2020-world-series-mvp.

131 Ken Gurnick, “Friedman Wins Executive of the Year Award,” MLB.com, November 17, 2020, https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/news/andrew-friedman-2020-executive-of-the-year-award.

132 Bill Plunkett, “2020 MLB Organization of the Year: Los Angeles Dodgers,” baseballamerica.com, November 30, 2020, https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2020-mlb-organization-of-the-year-los-angeles-dodgers.

133 Blake Williams, “Dodgers’ Streak of NL West Titles Snapped at 8 Years by Giants,” dodgerblue.com, October 3, 2021, https://dodgerblue.com/dodgers-streak-eight-nl-west-titles-snapped-giants-division/2021/10/03/.

134 Juan Toribio, “LA’s Historic Season Ends in NLDS Heartbreak,” MLB.com, October 16, 2022, https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/news/dodgers-lose-nlds-to-padres-eliminated-from-2022-postseason.

135 Associated Press, “Diamondbacks 1st Team to Homer 4 Times in Postseason Inning with Big 3rd vs. Dodgers,” October 11, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/diamondbacks-homers-perdomo-marte-walker-moreno-a04d774b4b90d40e5dbc20de7ca3ed81.

136 AJ Gonzales, “Dodgers Set MLB Record Without 2023 World Series Appearance,” msn.com, October 13, 2023, https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/dodgers-set-mlb-record-without-2023-world-series-appearance/ar-AA1iaNZW.

137 Eric Stephen, “Orel Hershiser & Manny Mota to Join ‘Legends of Dodger Baseball’ in 2023,” truebluela.com, February 10, 2023, https://www.truebluela.com/2023/2/10/23594616/orel-hershiser-manny-mota-legends-baseball-honor-2023.

138 https://www.branlycadet.com.

139 Smith, “Ballpark Diaries,” 14.

140 2018 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook, “Paving the Way” (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 155.

141 2018 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook, “Paving the Way” (New York: Professional Sports Publications), 155.

142 Juan Toribio, “‘One of a Kind’ Koufax Immortalized With Dodger Stadium Statue,” MLB.com, June 18, 2022, https://www.mlb.com/news/sandy-koufax-statue-unveiled-at-dodger-stadium.

143 https://www.branlycadet.com/sandy-koufax-monument.

144 Anthony Castrovince, “Vin Scully, Legendary Broadcaster, Dies at 94,” MLB.com, August 3, 2022, https://www.mlb.com/news/vin-scully-legendary-announcer-dies.

145 Smith, “Ballpark Diaries,” 18.

146 Jeremy Friedlander, ed., A Baseball Century: The First 100 Years of the National League (New York: Rutledge Books, 1976), 177.

The history of Maple City Park in Hornell, New York, spans everyone from Babe Ruth and Maury Wills to minor-leaguers with a single season’s statistical line. There’s a hefty portion of Brooklyn Dodgers nostalgia mixed into the story, as well as memories of the long-ago days when everyday people could pool their cash donations to bring their town a professional baseball team.

It’s a challenging story to tell for semantical reasons. The name “Maple City Park” has been used to refer to three things:

• Hornell’s original ballpark, torn down in the early 1960s to make way for a new high school.
• A replacement baseball and football field near the site of the first one, opened in 1965 and still in use in the 21st century.
• The larger city-owned recreational complex that both ballparks have been part of, along with other facilities that have included fairgrounds, a Little League field, and tennis courts.

The original ballpark was the only one to host affiliated minor-league baseball, including teams connected to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Red Sox, Dodgers, and Cincinnati Reds between 1942 and 1957. After working through some historical background, this story will focus on that facility and those years, while acknowledging that high school and college-age players continue to write their own form of baseball history on the replacement field.

Hornell is about 58 miles south of Rochester; the city had about 16,000 residents in the 1930 US Census and half as many in 2020. It keeps company in the state’s Southern Tier with other communities that have also drifted into and out of affiliated baseball, including Corning, Elmira, Olean, and Wellsville. As of 2024, only one major-leaguer listed Hornell as his birthplace: Bill Lauterborn of the 1904 and 1905 Boston Nationals. The nickname “Maple City” is self-explanatory, and the city seal is resplendent with three green maple leaves.1

The larger recreation complex called Maple City Park was purchased by the city for $50,000 in 1891. The property had been used as a fairground and a harness racing track and was known as Jones’s Driving Park. The northern portion of the property had been owned by Martin Adsit. Today, Adsit Street runs along the complex’s northern border.2

Baseball at the Maple City Park complex goes back to the 1890s. News stories in 1897 reported a hard-fought series of games there between teams from Hornell and Corning. One of the games drew 5,000 fans.3 In another indication of just how long the site has been used for baseball, teams from Hornell and Corning played a game at Maple City Park as part of Labor Day celebrations in 1899, only five years after Labor Day became a federal holiday. The 1899 celebration, also including a parade and an athletic meet, was said to be the first proper commemoration of Labor Day in the Hornell area.4

On August 18, 1904, the Chicago White Sox played an exhibition against Hornell’s team in the independent Southern Tier League. The Chicagoans – in first place at the time, though they slipped to third by season’s end – won 4-0 before a crowd of 800. White Sox players that day included Fielder Jones, Lee Tannehill, and Jiggs Donahue.5

On September 5, 1908, a grandstand at Maple City Park with a capacity of 8,000 was destroyed by fire that spread to adjoining fairgrounds buildings.6 A replacement grandstand narrowly avoided the same fate in July 1910 when lightning struck it. Two support pillars were torn out, but heavy rain prevented a fire.7 Another, less damaging blaze occurred in the grandstand in April 1925.8

In the early 20th century, a variety of baseball teams used the park, including high school, American Legion, semipro, and business-sponsored squads. From time to time, Hornell attracted teams in professional leagues. Those on record as using Maple City Park include Hornell’s 1906, 1914, and 1915 entries in the Class D Interstate League.9

The Rochester Red Wings of the Class AA International League played an exhibition against a Hornell team in 1932; the Elmira Red Wings of the Class A New York-Pennsylvania League did the same the following season.10 An industrial-league team from Rochester’s giant Eastman Kodak Co. visited Maple City Park in 1923.11 Also that year, the Brooklyn Royal Giants Black team booked an appearance, featuring pitching legend “Cannonball” Dick Redding.12

But no other visitor had the gravitas of Babe Ruth, nor did any other visit attract so much controversy. In October 1921, after the end of the World Series, Ruth defied existing baseball rules and the orders of Commissioner Kenesaw Landis and booked a barnstorming tour with fellow Yankees Bob Meusel, Bill Piercy, and Tom Sheehan.13 The tour stopped at Hornell on October 20.

Ruth’s visit to Maple City Park was a damp squib. In heavy rain, Ruth and his fellows played two or three farcical innings – accounts vary – before leaving the field. The rain also prevented Ruth from hitting any home runs.14 The most notable part of his visit happened off the field. In public remarks at a theater, Ruth announced that he would cut short the barnstorming trip and cancel a swing through the Pacific Coast.15 The next day, he abandoned the tour altogether.16 Landis suspended Ruth and Meusel for the first six weeks of 1922 and fined them each $3,362, the amount they’d received as World Series shares.17

High school, amateur, and semipro teams continued to use Maple City Park through the 1920s and ’30s. One news article from April 1926 lamented a lack of action there, as Hornell High had decided not to field a team that year and no semipro squad had stepped up.18

The Pittsburgh Pirates played an exhibition there on September 23, 1929, winning 12-1 over a local squad described as “stars of former years and several present-day shining lights.” Hornell scored its only run off future Hall of Famer Paul Waner, who was taking an unusual turn on the mound.19

A few major-leaguers who lived in New York State appeared in semipro games at Maple City Park. The team that played Pittsburgh in 1929 included former Pirates infielder and future Dodgers coach Jake Pitler, as well as Fritz Coumbe, who pitched for three major-league teams between 1914 and 1921.20 A game at the park in 1932 pitted Coumbe against pitcher Mort Flohr, who had a brief and tumultuous career with the Philadelphia Athletics two seasons later.21

The arrival of a new league ushered Hornell back into minor-league ball. The 1939 season brought a new Class D loop to New York and surrounding states – the Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York League, or PONY League for short. Class D, at that time, was the lowest rung of the affiliated minors. (The PONY League rebranded as the New York-Penn League for the 1957 season and retained that name until it folded in December 2020. At that time, it operated at the short-season Class A level.22)

The Pirates placed a PONY League team in London, Ontario, in 1940 and 1941. The team lost money, and the Pirates cast about for a new market. Hornell responded with enthusiasm, mounting a drive to raise $15,000 to repair Maple City Park’s grandstand, improve its lights, add dugouts and locker rooms, and resod the infield.23 In November 1941, before the fundraising drive had finished, the league announced the London team’s move to Hornell for the following season.24 The Hornell team took the name of its parent club.25

Improvements to Maple City Park were so significant that “natives who stay away until the renovation is complete will hardly recognize the old place,” a sportswriter wrote.26 The refreshed ballpark hosted its first league game on April 29, 1942. More than 3,000 fans attended as another new team, the Wellsville (New York) Yankees, beat the Pirates, 6-3. Pregame ceremonies, including a parade and flag-raising, ran about 20 minutes late, and Hornell Mayor Lee Dennison wild-pitched the first ball. Wellsville shortstop Robert Murphy hit the park’s first home run, an eighth-inning solo shot to right field.27

Murphy’s round-tripper was the first of many at Maple City Park, for which the term “bandbox” would be generous. In May 1942, the deepest part of the park was listed as just 348 feet, and other dimensions were given as 328 feet to straightaway center field and 300 feet down the right-field line.28 “The Maple City Park fences are quite close to the plate,” one newspaper understated.29 Six seasons later, another account listed dimensions as 310 feet to left field, 328 to center “except where the wall jogs out,” and just 293 feet to right.30

Hornell batters took particular advantage of this in 1949, when the team affiliated for a single season with the Red Sox. Hornell led the league with 116 home runs, well ahead of the second-place team and shattering the previous record of 93 homers set by Olean in 1940.31 On August 15, shortstop Jack Littrell became the first PONY League batter to hit four homers in a game. Hornell and Olean batters combined for eight round-trippers that night as Hornell won, 16-7.32

But we’re not yet done with the Pirates years. Pittsburgh maintained an affiliation with Hornell from 1942 through 1947. Hornell reached the playoffs in 1943 and 1944 but lost in the first round both times. In their final two seasons, the Pirates slumped to 48-77 in 194633 and 40-84 in 1947. This led to discontent, as Hornell officials and fans believed the parent club was not providing competitive players. In December 1947, Pittsburgh sold the Hornell team to local owners, ending the Pirates’ connection to the city.34

Future big-leaguers who passed through Maple City Park during those years included pitcher Pete Gebrian, who posted a league-leading 16 wins and a 2.20 ERA in 1943. Shortstop Frankie Zak hit .271 in 1942, then hit .300 in 87 games with a wartime Pittsburgh team two seasons later. Catcher Ebba St. Claire hit .347 in 78 games in 1945; his son Randy pitched in the New York-Penn League in 1979 and 1981 on his own path to the majors.

Another noteworthy name from the period was Frank Oceak, Hornell’s manager in 1943. Oceak coached in Pittsburgh for 11 seasons between 1958 and 1972; he is the third-base coach seen in photographs welcoming Bill Mazeroski after Mazeroski’s World Series-winning walk-off homer in Game Seven in 1960.

The big-league Pirates returned to Maple City Park on July 17, 1944, an offday between games in Chicago and New York. The parent Pirates, a second-place team that season, belted their junior farmhands around for 22 hits in a 20-5 rout in front of 1,800 fans. In addition to Zak, Pittsburgh players included future Hall of Famers Al Lopez and Lloyd Waner, plus Babe Dahlgren, Vince DiMaggio, and Rip Sewell. Another future Hall of Famer, Frankie Frisch, was on hand as Pittsburgh’s manager.35

Boyd “Lefty” Tepler didn’t reach the Hall of Fame, or even the majors. But the Lockport Cubs pitcher made Maple City Park history on June 9, 1943, by pitching a no-hitter. Eight walks, four wild pitches, two hit batsmen, and three Lockport errors allowed Hornell to score four runs. Fortunately for Tepler, his teammates gave him plenty of run support, and Lockport won the sloppy no-hitter, 10-4.36 A more conventional no-hitter was thrown by Lockport’s Fran Smith at Maple City Park on June 3, 1946. Smith threw a seven-inning no-no in a 9-0 win in the first game of a doubleheader.37

Schoolboy pitchers threw no-nos at the park as well, like Al Antinelli of Geneva High School, who lost a 3-2 no-hitter to East High School of Rochester in a regional tournament game in 1950.38 Three years later, Larry Russell of Nunda High and Dick Warters of Canisteo High locked horns in a double no-hitter. Nunda won, 1-0, on a walk, an infield out, and a pair of passed balls.39 (Through the years, Maple City Park hosted non-baseball events as well – such as boxing nights, football games, dog shows, holiday celebrations, and drum corps competitions – though it’s sometimes difficult to tell whether these events were held at the baseball field, or other parts of the larger park complex.)

Local owners were unable to affiliate with a major-league team for 1948, and Hornell played the season as an independent team under the Maple Leafs name.40 Fans who blamed Pittsburgh for not supplying a competitive squad could hardly have been happy with the Leafs, who staggered to a last-place 29-96 record,41 46½ games behind first-place Lockport. The team trailed the league in batting average, on-base percentage, and runs scored, while leading in errors and runs surrendered. The latter statistic was particularly head-turning: Hornell pitchers yielded 1,022 runs for an average of 8.11 per game. The next-highest team, Wellsville, allowed 749 runs, or 5.99 per game. The league average was 5.65.

Former Detroit Tiger Russ Kerns,42 the only past or future major-leaguer on the roster, served as manager and starting catcher. He provided a great deal of the team’s offensive spark, hitting .351 in 106 games. Despite the cozy dimensions of Maple City Park, the most home runs any Maple Leaf could muster was eight, by third baseman and outfielder Bob Betz. Attendance was a league-worst 40,282, or about 640 fans per game – actually an improvement over the Pirates’ final season, when the team drew 35,886.

In one positive development during the 1948 season, the Maple Leafs inaugurated radio coverage on local station WWHG. Broadcasts were so well received that, two seasons later, the team hosted a night at Maple City Park to honor announcer Chuck Richard as he departed for military service.43

Attendance at Maple City Park perked up in 1949, when Hornell landed its one-season Red Sox affiliation. Despite a 62-64 finish, the Hornell Red Sox44 (sometimes called the HoSox) drew 85,926 fans, third in the league. Pitcher John Gilbert was second in the league with 19 wins and led in innings pitched (244) and strikeouts (191). Gilbert was named the league’s most valuable player, while teammate Gene Haering was named its most promising rookie.45 Two other HoSox, Littrell and pitcher Bob Smith, reached the majors.

The Red Sox opted out of the agreement with Hornell in October 1949, leaving local leaders to again seek a major-league connection.46 They found one in early December, completing an agreement with the Brooklyn Dodgers.47 The Dodgers sent their raw recruits to Maple City Park through 1956.

The Dodgers brought a run of success that stands as the golden era of Hornell baseball. In 1950 the Hornell team finished in first place in the regular season with an 81-43 record, then lost in the second and final round of the playoffs.48 In 1951 they finished third in the regular season, but beat the Olean Oilers, their 1950 conquerors, in the playoff finals. The Dodgers lost in the final round in 1952, then lost in the first round in 1953, 1954, and 1956.

One Dodgers import who caused a stir was 20-year-old Karl Spooner. His numbers for the 1951 season – 10-12 with a 4.18 ERA in 27 games – don’t capture the combination of raw speed and inconsistent control that made his starts eventful. The lefty walked 163 batters and struck out 200, leading the league in both categories.

The high point of Spooner’s rookie season was probably the 15-1 no-hitter he pitched on the road at Bradford on May 15.49 The low point might have come in his next start – a two-hit, 17-strikeout shutout at Maple City Park on May 20 – when a wayward curveball gave Olean first baseman Bud Dowling a concussion and a broken jaw.50 Spooner went on to a meteoric big-league career, ended by injury after two seasons.

The 1951 season also marked the arrival of 18-year-old shortstop Maury Wills, who hit .280 in 123 games that season and .300 in 125 games in 1952. Wills stole 54 bases each season, leading the loop in 1952.51 Wills played part or all of seven more seasons in the minors before finally reaching the big-league Dodgers in June 1959. He won the 1962 National League Most Valuable Player Award; set a new big-league record by stealing 104 bases that season; played on three World Series-winning teams and in six All-Star Games; and won two Gold Gloves.52

Maple City Park fans also rooted for three Dodgers infielders who went on to experience some of the highest highs and lowest lows the major leagues could provide. Between them, Charlie Neal, Dick Tracewski, and Don Zimmer played for six World Series champions, five of them with the Dodgers.53 Tracewski coached with the 1984 Detroit Tigers, who led the American League East Division wire-to-wire and romped to a World Series title, while Zimmer added four more Series rings to his collection as a New York Yankees coach from 1996 to 2003.

On the negative side of the ledger, Neal and Zimmer played for the first-year 1962 New York Mets, whose 120 losses were the most of any 20th-century major-league team. Zimmer managed the 1978 Boston Red Sox, who blew a 10-game lead and lost a heartbreaking one-game October playoff to the New York Yankees. And two other Tigers teams for which Tracewski coached lost more than 100 games.

In the Dodgers’ final season in Hornell, fans watched a 17-year-old outfielder from Brooklyn hit .325 in 43 games. Tommy Davis reached the majors in 1959 and stayed there for 18 seasons, winning two batting titles and two World Series titles and playing in three All-Star Games.

Maple City Park was host to a progressive, if primitive, demonstration of inclusion during the Dodgers years. The 1952 Hornell roster included three Cuban players – Ultus Álvarez, Ricardo López, and René Masip54 – who spoke no English. Team president George Clicquennoi announced that the team would distribute English-to-Spanish “dictionaries” to fans, containing common baseball phrases, so Dodgers backers could cheer the players in a language they understood. How well this worked in practice is not recorded, but at least the team’s management tried to bridge the language divide.55

The successes of the Dodgers years were punctuated by setbacks. The 2,500-capacity grandstand at Maple City Park was destroyed by a wind-driven fire in February 1955, as were two lighting standards, a team bus, the Dodgers’ uniforms, and other equipment. The city announced plans to replace the grandstand with a smaller unit seating about 720 people; first- and third-base bleachers were undamaged.56 The ballpark was ready in time for the PONY League opener on April 30, and 1,463 fans turned out as defending league champion Corning beat Hornell 8-4.57 The park’s capacity remained modest in its last years. A news item from that period noted that a promotion had attracted “a standing-room-only throng” of 1,937 fans.58

New York City journalist Jimmy Breslin stopped by Maple City Park in the summer of 1955 while reporting a series on the minor leagues’ increasing difficulty in attracting talent. With a touch of city-slicker condescension, Breslin’s story – reprinted across the country – described a “cramped and creaking field” with “tough, scarred grass” and a “small, tin-roofed grandstand.” “It looks more like sandlot than anything else,” Breslin wrote, “and it must be tough to work up any enthusiasm for a game in Class D baseball under these conditions.”59

Attendance across the PONY League indicated that fans were not enthusiastic either. The league’s total gate sagged from 806,022 in 1951, or 1,596 per game, to 331,259 in 1956, or 895 per game.60 Attendance at Maple City Park followed the league-wide pattern, tumbling from 74,086 in 1951 to 20,334 in 1956.61 The decline in minor-league attendance in this period has been blamed on several factors, including the increased popularity of television and air-conditioning, each of which enabled new entertainment options that rivaled a trip to the ballpark.

Reports in early February 1957 indicated that the Dodgers and Hornell had renewed their agreement.62 But a preseason fundraising drive to give the team an operating cushion and pay league dues did not draw strong support. By late February, rumors circulated that Kitchener, Ontario, might poach the Hornell team.63 The drive collected only $5,800, slightly more than half its goal of $10,000. In March 1957, Hornell baseball leaders ended the fundraising effort and announced the suspension of pro baseball in the city.64 Brooklyn did not operate a team in the renamed New York-Penn League in 1957.65

Events elsewhere in the New York-Penn granted Hornell and Maple City Park an unexpected reprieve. The struggling Bradford (Pennsylvania) Blue Sox66 were taken over by the league on May 15 after their ownership failed to meet financial obligations.67 Working hastily, league officials hammered out agreements with the city of Hornell and the big-league Cincinnati Redlegs.68 The Bradford team played its final game on May 22, then reappeared on May 24 as the Hornell Redlegs, with a new manager and mostly new roster. The team, which went 5-15 in Bradford, closed the season in last place with a 43-74 record.

In the midst of this stormy season, a few players stood out. Tony González, a 20-year-old Cuban playing his first professional season in the US, hit .275 in 86 games en route to a 12-season major-league career. Dave Bristol, manager and second baseman, went on to manage parts of 11 seasons in the majors between 1966 and 1980. He also coached for 13 seasons, donning a big-league uniform as a Cincinnati coach as late as 1993.

Then there was outfielder George Ruth, a former University of Cincinnati star in football, track, and baseball, inevitably nicknamed “Babe.” This Babe Ruth hit just .227 in 1957 and never played professionally again. He did, however, win a June 25 game against Olean by hitting a long home run on the game’s second pitch. The “new Babe’s” exploits might have reminded some Hornell fans of their brief glimpse of the original Babe Ruth in 1921.

The final professional games at Maple City Park were played on August 30, 1957, the last day of the New York-Penn regular season. Hornell beat the Erie Sailors, 7-1, then lost the second game, 10-5, with about 250 fans in attendance. Jake Wood hit a two-run homer in the nightcap for Erie, a Detroit Tigers farm club and the eventual league playoff champions.69

In the offseason, the city of Geneva, New York, offered a year’s rent-free use of its ballpark, Shuron Park, to Redlegs owner Earl Johnson.70 Johnson took them up on it, and in late January 1958, the New York-Penn League approved the transfer of the Redlegs to Geneva – where future Cincinnati legends Pete Rose and Tony Pérez later played on their way to the majors.71

Early in 1957, before the Redlegs’ arrival, Hornell school officials suggested the construction of a new high school at Maple City Park, as the site was within two miles of any spot in the city’s school district.72 A city attorney initially argued that the property, having been obtained for public park purposes, had to remain a park.73 This objection was eventually overcome, and the building opened in the fall of 1963.74 The school project included the dismantling of the baseball grandstand, and a photo from 1963 shows construction infringing on the outfield.75

In exchange for receiving the land for the new school, Hornell’s school board agreed to construct and maintain a new baseball diamond and football field nearby.76 The new facility, also known as Maple City Park, opened in 1965.77 Although one news story said the old grandstand was to be taken down and reassembled, it was later reported that the district went out to bid for a completely new grandstand to seat 1,400 people.78

Aerial photos of the complex, covering a 70-year period from 1952 to 2021, indicate that the current Maple City Park overlaps part of the footprint of the old one. The current park is farther to the north than the old one, though, and its grandstand faces the opposite direction.79

In 1994, the new Maple City Park became home to the Hornell Dodgers of the New York Collegiate Baseball League, a summer loop for college-age players. The team, later renamed the Steamers, was still playing there as of 2024.80

Acknowledgments

This story was reviewed by Gregory H. Wolf and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo.

Photo Credit

Aerial image of Maple City Park in the early 1950s courtesy of HornellHome.com.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for general player, team and season data, as well as numerous news stories on Newspapers.com, FultonHistory.com, and NYSHistoricNewspapers.org that described baseball and other activities at Maple City Park.

The author also consulted the HistoricAerials.com website to see aerial photos of the ballpark and surrounding area from 1952, 1955, and 1963, as well as photos of the high school and replacement ballpark from the 1980s through the 2020s.

Notes

1 The seal is displayed on the main page of the City of Hornell’s website, accessed February 2024. https://www.cityofhornell.com/.

2 “Farm Industry Value Outlined at Rotary,” Hornell (New York) Evening Tribune-Times, February 8, 1929: 5; “Mayor Proposes to Sell Park,” Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle, September 27, 1904: 3. The full Maple City Park complex – including the former ballpark site, now the high school – is currently bounded by Adsit, West Genesee, State, and Seneca Streets.

3 “Two Ex-Leaguers Trounced,” Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle, June 1, 1897: 11; “Corning Went Down,” Elmira (New York) Daily Gazette and Free Press, June 15, 1897: 5; “A Crushing Defeat,” Elmira Daily Gazette and Free Press, June 26, 1897: 6. The city of Hornell was known as Hornellsville until 1906, and the name appears in coverage of these and other city events from the period.

4 “Labor Day Was Most Fittingly Celebrated Yesterday,” Elmira Daily Gazette and Free Press, September 5, 1899: 5.

5 “Chicago Americans 4, Hornellsville 0,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, August 19, 1904: 14.

6 “Race Horses Endangered by Incendiary Fire,” Buffalo Courier, September 6, 1908: 31.

7 “The Grandstand Wrecked,” Olean (New York) Evening Times, July 13, 1910: 1.

8 “Maple City Grandstand Slightly Damaged by Fire,” Buffalo Express, May 1, 1925: 1.

9 “Hornell Winds Up Season by Defeating Wellsville,” Hornell Evening Tribune-Times, September 14, 1914: 6; “Hornells Take First Game of League Series from Wellsville,” Hornell Evening Tribune-Times, May 21, 1915: 10. As of March 2024, the FultonHistory.com website included scans of several Hornellsville Evening Tribune stories that mentioned the Hornell team playing at Maple City Park in 1906. The newspaper did not print the date of the issue on each page, and the site does not provide dates, though one story can be dated to mid-July 1906 based on Associated Press stories elsewhere on the page.

10 “Hornell Moose to Oppose Wings Today,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 30, 1932: 18; “Hornell Team to Play Elmira Red Wing Nine,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 14, 1933: 17. The New York-Penn League in which the 1933 Elmira Red Wings played was the predecessor of the Double-A circuit known in later years as the Eastern League; it was not the same New York-Penn League in which the 1957 Hornell Redlegs played.

11 “Bath to Play Here Thursday,” Hornell Evening Tribune-Times, August 7, 1923: 8.

12 “Famous Colored Ball Club to Play Here Tomorrow at 4:15,” Hornell Evening Tribune-Times, June 25, 1923: 8.

13 The National Commission, which governed baseball before the Commissioner’s office was created, ruled in 1911 that players on the two World Series teams could not participate in postseason barnstorming. Allan Wood, “Babe Ruth,” SABR Biography Project, accessed February 2024. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/babe-ruth/.

14 “Rain Spoils Babes Effort to Stage Ball Gome [sic] in Hornell,” Hornell Evening Tribune-Times, October 21, 1921: 2. The newspaper reported that Ruth and company drew a nearly full house – but estimated that half of those on hand had entered without paying because of insufficient police coverage.

15 “Babe Ruth to End Tour in Two Weeks,” Munster (Indiana) Times, October 21, 1921: 14.

16 “Ruth Sorrowful Now,” Tacoma (Washington) Daily Ledger, October 22, 1921: 6.

17 Wood, “Babe Ruth.”

18 “No High School or Semi-Pro Baseball for Hornell,” Buffalo Courier, April 12, 1926: 11.

19 “Buccaneers Will Play Rochester,” Pittsburgh Press, September 24, 1929: 36; “Bucs Will Play Ball at Hornell,” Olean Evening Times, September 18, 1929: 14. As of February 2024, Baseball-Reference listed Waner as having made only one professional pitching appearance, working two innings for the 1924 San Francisco team of the Pacific Coast League, two seasons before he reached the majors.

20 “Bucs Will Play Ball at Hornell.”

21 “Almonds Encounter Elmira Heights Team,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, July 9, 1932: 22.

22 The league played its last season in 2019; all minor-league activity was halted in 2020 by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Major League Baseball, which had taken over control of the minors, announced the end of the New York-Penn League in December 2020. Justin Ritzel, “Era Comes to Close,” Auburn (New York) Citizen, December 10, 2020: B1.

23 “Hornell to Seek Ball Franchise in PONY Loop,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, August 1, 1941: 30; “Hornell Opens Drive to Secure PONY Baseball Loop Franchise,” Olean Times Herald, October 30, 1941: 16. Some sources list the amount of the fundraiser as $10,000 or $11,000. Subsequent stories indicated that Hornell was able to reduce the cost of the ballpark upgrades by buying a used lighting system from Maryland, which may account for the difference in the amount the city needed to raise.

24 Vic McKenty, “Snapshots on Sport,” Kitchener (Ontario) Daily Record, November 19, 1941: 8; International News Service, “Jimmy Jordon Let Out as Field General,” Bradford (Pennsylvania) Evening Star and Daily Record, November 19, 1941: 10; “Hornell Gets Pony League ‘41 Franchise,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, November 20, 1941: 6D.

25 Baseball-Reference refers to the Pirates’ Hornell farm club of 1942-1947 as the Maples, but contemporary news accounts call the team the Pirates. Previous Hornell teams were coincidentally also called the Pirates, including the squad that faced the Pittsburgh Pirates in September 1929. “Pirates Win From Hornell, 12-1,” Indiana (Pennsylvania) Gazette, September 24, 1929: 8.

26 “S.C.M.,” “PONY League Phan Fodder,” Jamestown (New York) Post-Journal, April 7, 1942: 10.

27 “Five-Run Rally by Wellsville Beats Hornell,” Jamestown Post-Journal, April 30, 1942: 20. Baseball-Reference lists Murphy as playing exclusively in the outfield during his seven-season minor-league career, but the box score in the Jamestown paper has him starting at shortstop.

28 “Falcon Flashes,” Jamestown Post-Journal, May 15, 1942: 14.

29 “Falcons Play Two Nights in Pirates’ Lair,” Jamestown Post-Journal, May 15, 1942: 14.

30 Frank Hyde, “DeCrudyt on Hill for Jamestown Tonight; Falcons Drop Opener to Maple Leafs, 5-3,” Jamestown Post-Journal, May 3, 1948: 18. The 293-foot figure to right field is also cited in Johnny Nelson Jr., “Sport Corner,” Bradford (Pennsylvania) Era, June 14, 1946: 11.

31 Baseball-Reference lists the 1949 Hornell team as hitting 116 home runs, with Jamestown in second place with 89. A news story from 1950, purportedly based on “final official PONY League averages,” credited Hornell with 118 homers, describing that total as “almost twice as many as any other team in the circuit.” Lou Simon, “Official PONY Records Reveal Poor Pitching Kept Hornell in Fifth,” Hornell Evening Tribune, January 27, 1950: 8. Information on Hornell breaking the previous league record from “Littrell Hits 4 Homers as Hornell Wins,” Olean Times Herald, August 16, 1949: 9.

32 “Littrell Hits 4 Homers as Hornell Wins.” Littrell reached double-digit homer totals in four minor-league seasons, peaking at 22 homers with Portland of the Pacific Coast League in 1956. However, he hit only two homers in 279 big-league plate appearances across four seasons between 1952 and 1957.

33 With two ties.

34 “Pittsburgh Pirates Sell Hornell Club,” Bradford Era, December 17, 1947: 13.

35 “Bucs Crush Hornell, 20-5,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 18, 1944: 12. Still another Hall of Famer, former Pirate great Honus Wagner, coached for Pittsburgh for many seasons. The author assumes Wagner was present in Hornell for the exhibition but could not find a news account that specifically mentioned him.

36 Associated Press, “Lockport Pitcher Hurls No-Hitter,” Elmira Star-Gazette, June 10, 1943: 27. For the full season, Tepler walked 143 and struck out 254 in 179 innings.

37 United Press, “Fran Smith Pitches No-Hitter at Hornell,” Shenandoah (Pennsylvania) Evening Herald, June 4, 1946: 8; United Press, “Lockport’s Smith Hurls No-Hitter; Falcons Nip Olean,” Dunkirk (New York) Evening Observer, June 4, 1946: 10.

38 “Al Antinelli Loses Despite No-Hitter,” Hornell Evening Tribune, June 16, 1950: 10.

39 “Double No-Hit Game Won by Nunda High Nine,” Buffalo Evening News, June 3, 1953: 79.

40 Associated Press, “Hornell Gets Bosox Tie Up,” Elmira Star-Gazette, September 29, 1948: 14.

41 With one tie.

42 Kerns appeared in a single big-league game on August 18, 1945, against Washington. In a ninth-inning pinch-hit appearance, he grounded to second base.

43 “Baseball Pull,” Broadcasting Telecasting magazine, October 2, 1950: 76. https://archive.org/details/broadcasting391unse/page/n81/mode/2up?q=%22hornell+dodgers%22&view=theater.

44 Baseball-Reference refers to the 1949 team as the Maple Leafs, but in contemporary news coverage, the team was called the Red Sox or Hosox.

45 “Hornell Closes Season in 5th; Set Attendance Record of 86,000,” Hornell Evening Tribune, September 6, 1949: 8. Haering, a first baseman and outfielder, hit .301 with 18 homers and 78 RBIs in 84 games. He played five minor-league seasons, peaking at Class B.

46 “Hornell Baseball Group Annual Meeting Friday,” Hornell Evening Tribune, October 27, 1949: 14.

47 Dick Young, “Yanks Release Charley Keller,” New York Daily News, December 7, 1949: 86.

48 “Len Schulte Leads Olean to League Title,” St. Charles (Missouri) Weekly Cosmos-Monitor, September 27, 1950: 5.

49 Associated Press, “Hornell Pitcher Hurls No-Hit Game, But Allows 1 Run,” Buffalo Evening News, May 16, 1951: 65.

50 “Bud Dowling’s Condition Fair After Accident” and “Oilers Split Two Tilts Over Weekend; Dowling Is Out with Fractured Jaw,” both Olean Times Herald, May 21, 1951: 8.

51 In 1951, Wills finished second to Angel Scull of Wellsville, who stole 60 bases. Scull never played in the majors but appeared on a baseball card in the 1954 Topps set, depicted as a member of the Washington Senators.

52 Wills also had a brief, unsuccessful stint as Seattle Mariners manager in 1980 and 1981.

53 Neal played for the 1959 Dodgers; Zimmer for the 1955 and 1959 Dodgers; and Tracewski for the 1963 and 1965 Dodgers and 1968 Detroit Tigers.

54 Associated Press, “Spanish Books Help Fans Root for Cubans,” Washington Post, May 14, 1952: 17. https://archive.org/details/per_washington-post_1952-05-14_27726/page/n15/mode/2up?q=%22hornell+dodgers%22. The news item spelled Alvarez’s first name Ultas, but Baseball-Reference spells it Ultus. Alvarez was an outfielder, first baseman, and third baseman who played 1,360 minor-league games over 12 seasons in the US, peaking at Triple-A. Masip, a pitcher, peaked at Class B during a four-season minor-league career. As of February 2024, Baseball-Reference had no listing for Ricardo Lopez playing for Hornell in 1952, though a pitcher by that name appeared the previous season for the Dodgers’ Class C affiliate in Billings, Montana.

55 “Spanish Books Help Fans Root for Cubans.”

56 Comparison of 1952 and 1955 aerial photos of the site, posted at HistoricAerials.com, shows a visibly smaller grandstand in the latter photo. Neither photo shows first- or third-base bleachers; it may be that the bleachers were removed when baseball was not being played, and the photos were taken outside baseball season.

57 “Hornell Hopes to Rebuild Grandstand,” Elmira Star-Gazette, February 21, 1955: 3; “More or Less About Sports,” Wellsville Daily Reporter, April 8, 1955: 7; “Corning, Wellsville Win PONY Openers,” Elmira Sunday Telegram, May 1, 1955: D1; “Caught on the Fly,” The Sporting News, March 23, 1955: 27.

58 “Minor League Highlights: Class D,” The Sporting News, July 11, 1956: 48.

59 Jimmy Breslin, “Hardships, Casual Conditions Kill Minor League Players Enthusiasm [sic],” Lansing (Michigan) State Journal, August 17, 1955: 40.

60 The attendance comparison between 1951 and 1956 is skewed by the fact that the PONY League had eight teams play a full season in 1951. Only six played the full season in 1956 following the early-season folding of teams in Bradford, Pennsylvania, and Hamilton, Ontario. On the other hand, the disappearance of two teams about two weeks into the season is, in and of itself, proof that public interest was ebbing.

61 All attendance figures in this paragraph were sourced from Baseball-Reference’s pages on the 1951 through 1956 PONY League seasons, accessed in February 2024.

62 “Hornell, Brooklyn Continue Agreement,” Elmira (New York) Advertiser, February 2, 1957: 7.

63 “Renew Hornell Team Bid,” Elmira Advertiser, February 26, 1957: 10. The Kitchener rumor proved to be untrue, as Kitchener was not represented in the 1957 New York-Penn League.

64 United Press, “Hornell Decides to Quit D League,” Buffalo Evening News, March 9, 1957: Sports: 5.

65 The loss of Hornell made scarcely a ripple on Brooklyn’s minor-league system, as the Dodgers operated or contributed to 14 minor-league affiliates in 1957 (the same number as the previous season).

66 Baseball-Reference refers to the 1957 Bradford team as the Beagles, but contemporary news coverage called them the Blue Sox. The Bradford team had initially announced Zeke Bonura, former major-leaguer and beagle fancier, as its manager, although Bonura never managed the team. One sample news reference to the Blue Sox: “Bradford Bows to Braves 11-3,” Wellsville (New York) Daily Reporter, May 23, 1957: 9.

67 Associated Press, “NYP League to Seek Aid from Stabilization Fund,” Elmira Advertiser, May 17, 1957: 10.

68 Associated Press, “Hornell Joins NYP,” Elmira Star-Gazette, May 25, 1957: 6.

69 “Corning Rips Olean, 14-4; Redlegs Split,” Elmira Advertiser, August 31, 1957: 6; attendance figure taken from accompanying box scores. Erie finished second in the regular season to the Wellsville (New York) Braves. The New York-Penn employed a Shaughnessy-style four-team playoff that season; Erie beat the Corning Red Sox in the first round and the Batavia Indians in the finals.

70 Associated Press, “Council Offers Free Ball Park,” Hazleton (Pennsylvania) Standard-Sentinel, January 17, 1958: 33.

71 Associated Press, “Geneva Granted Franchise in NY-Penn Baseball Loop,” Wilmington (Delaware) Morning News, January 27, 1958: 19.

72 “Hornell Gets Report on School Situation,” Elmira Star-Gazette, February 17, 1957: 1B.

73 “Choice of Hornell School Site in Air,” Elmira Star-Gazette, December 15, 1957: 1B.

74 “Steel Plays Important Role in New Hornell High School,” Elmira Telegram, April 28, 1963: 7B; “Steel Supplied by Heights Plant Has Vital Role in New Penn Yan Academy,” Elmira Telegram, April 5, 1964: B6. (The person doing public relations for steel clearly earned his or her pay in 1963-64.)

75 “Hornell Gets Bids on Park Projects,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, May 19, 1963: 2B. As of February 2024, the HistoricAerials.com website hosted aerial photos showing the ballpark and surrounding complex from 1952, 1955, and 1963, as well as numerous aerial photos of the high school complex from the 1980s and beyond. As of 2024, it appears that the rear portion of the current building and an adjoining parking lot occupy part of the old ballpark’s former footprint.

76 “Board May Get New Bids on Grandstand,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, June 5, 1964: 1B.

77 “New School Look Awaits Hornell Students,” Elmira (New York) Telegram, August 29, 1965: 3B.

78 “Board May Get New Bids on Grandstand”; “Batavia Employs Alternate QBs in 38-7 Triumph,” Buffalo Evening News, October 9, 1965: C2; “Grandstand Plan Revised to Cut Cost,” Elmira Star-Gazette, June 10, 1964: 21. When the author visited the second Maple City Park to see a Hornell Dodgers game in July 2017, the grandstand behind home plate provided the park’s only permanent seating. Many fans brought folding chairs and sat along the foul lines, a safe distance back from the field.

79 Photos on HistoricAerials.com, accessed February 2024.

80 Jason Jordan, “Hornell’s Pro Baseball History Runs Deep,” Hornell Evening Tribune, posted January 20, 2019, https://www.eveningtribune.com/story/news/local/2019/01/21/strong-hornell-s-pro/6242707007/; Andy Malnoske, “Hornell to Remove Dodgers Name in NYCBL,” MyTwinTiers.com, posted March 24, 2022 and updated March 25, 2022. https://www.mytwintiers.com/sports/hornell-to-remove-dodgers-name-in-nycbl/.

Days before the start of the 1889 National League season, New York Governor David Hill vetoed legislation that would have rescued the Polo Grounds from imminent demolition by New York City officials. With his club’s ballpark lost, New York Giants principal owner John B. Day activated his fallback plan. Until Day could build a new facility somewhere in Manhattan, the Giants would play their home games in vacant St. George Grounds, a Staten Island ballpark that had hosted the recently disbanded New York Metropolitans of the major league American Association during the 1886-1887 seasons. But the St. George Grounds playing field needed work before it was ready for the Giants. As a result, the Giants were obliged to play their home opener in Oakland Park, an undersized ballpark located in Jersey City.

The Giants’ temporary quarters were a short-lived playing grounds so obscure that modern-day baseball historians often misidentify it as Oakdale Park (a late-19th century ballpark located in Philadelphia).1 Any attempt to profile Oakland Park today is handicapped by the unavailability of essential information. Among other things, the physical layout and playing field dimensions of the ballpark are unknown. No photograph, ink drawing, or other image of Oakland Park exists. Even the ballpark’s street location is not entirely certain. Nevertheless, using the scanty data reposed in vintage newsprint, this essay will attempt to recall long-vanished Oakland Park.

Like Newark, Hoboken, Irvington, and various other North Jersey municipalities, Jersey City was a hotbed of the early game, with local amateur nines dating from the mid-1850s.2 Professional baseball came to town in 1885, when the Jersey City Skeeters enrolled in the minor Eastern League. Seven weeks into the campaign, however, the Skeeters were supplanted by the circuit’s Trenton franchise, relocated to Jersey City.3 The home field of the Skeeters/Trents was a local ballpark known as the Grand Street Grounds, a facility that continued to service Jersey City’s pro clubs through the 1887 season.

Among the grounds available to Jersey City’s thriving contingent of semipro and amateur baseball clubs was Oakland Park, situated in a tough working-class neighborhood of the sprawling Jersey City Heights district. Although there is contrary evidence, the ballpark was most likely situated on 4.63 acres bounded by Oakland Avenue, Hoboken Avenue, Fleet Street, and Bonner Street.4 Construction of the ballpark was underwritten by a group of local investors newly incorporated as the New Jersey Exhibition Company.5 The real property on which Oakland Park was built was owned by the Erie Railroad and leased by the NJEC.

Ground was broken on April 20, 1885,6 and the small wooden ballpark was ready for use in early May.7 Little description of Oakland Park appears in newsprint. All that can be said with assurance is that the grounds were entirely encased by a high board fence; that a covered grandstand of undetermined size was situated behind home plate and extended a short distance along the foul lines, and that grandstand spectators seated behind home plate were protected by wire meshing. A locker room and an office were also placed on the property.8

Oakland Park was in regular use during its first summer and often featured games between local teams for a cash purse.9 But the revenue produced by small-time baseball proved meager and the ballpark soon became a financial sinkhole for NJEC investors. In October 1885, the grounds and its improvements were advertised for sale at public auction, but ultimately escheated to the railroad, which permitted its use by local teams to continue.10 Later that month, Oakland Park received its first taste of major league baseball when the New York Giants played a postseason exhibition game against the Eastern League’s Jersey City Trents there.11

The exact timing is unclear, but the lease to Oakland Park was eventually assumed by Giants club boss John B. Day sometime in August 1888. In the meantime, the ballpark was likely operated by one Matthew Ludlow of Hoboken12 and thereafter by Fred Chapin, a Jersey City tavern and theater owner.13 Oakland Park began the 1886 season as the home ballpark of the Climax, a fast amateur team sponsored by the Lorillard Tobacco Company, one of Jersey City’s largest employers. Another Oakland Park tenant was the Hudson Colored Club of Jersey City, a Black amateur team.14 Among the features of the season’s early going was a rare interracial game between Hudson Colored and “a hastily gathered nine of white and black players.”15

With the 1886 baseball campaign heading toward its close, Oakland Park’s seating was expanded to accommodate crowds anticipated for the circus, wild west shows, and other non-athletic entertainments coming to Jersey City. In mid-September, nearly 100 patrons attending an evening performance of an Indian Village show were injured when a recent addition to the grandstand collapsed.16 One account of the incident stated that the combined new and previously built “stands had a seating capacity of 1,774 persons.”17 During the ensuing months, Oakland Park sustained further damage, being plagued by “young hoodlums…tearing down doors, seats, and fencing, and carrying them away for firewood.”18

With the Climax club having abandoned Oakland Park for the Grand Street Grounds, baseball activity slackened during 1887. The only nines regularly using the grounds were the teams of a locally stationed military regiment.19 The main park attractions that year were the circus and a horse show.20

But that changed dramatically in 1888. Over the preceding winter, the Jersey City Skeeters had transferred their affiliation from the minor league International Association to the newly organized Central League. The club also changed its home field, switching to Oakland Park. That August, title to the Jersey City team was acquired by New York Giants principal owner Day. Junior partner in the new operation was Pat Powers, the holdover field leader of the Skeeters ball club.21 By the time that the two men joined forces, improvements intended to make Oakland Park “the finest [ballpark] in the state” had already been undertaken.22

As part of his entry onto the local baseball scene, Day assumed the lease for Oakland Park.23 Guided by manager Powers, the club posted a sterling 84-25 (.771) record but lost the Central League crown by an eyelash to its archrival, the (83-23, .783) Newark Little Giants. With his New York Giants winning the National League pennant and the ensuing World Series against the AA champion St. Louis Browns, and with revenue pouring into his Metropolitan Exhibition Company’s coffers, Day stood at the pinnacle of his sporting life success in late 1888. Within a year, however, his fortune rapidly spiraled downward. And Oakland Park became an incidental casualty of Day’s misfortunes.

Likely because Day was highly esteemed and popular with fellow club owners, various major league teams booked his Oakland Park for spring 1889 exhibition games. Day himself, however, was distracted, locked in a desperate fight to save his big-league club’s ballpark from destruction by New York City officials. The Polo Grounds and the large, often unruly, crowds that attended Giants games had long been anathema to inhabitants of the tony Central Park North neighborhood of Manhattan where the ballpark had been built. In 1888, sympathetic officeholders in city government adopted a plan to redress resident complaints – by running a new street through the Polo Grounds outfield.

After his courtroom challenges to the city’s action proved unavailing, Tammany Hall stalwart Day turned to political allies in New York state government. As the 1889 baseball season drew near, a bill nullifying the condemnation of the Polo Grounds was passed in the state legislature and sent to New York Governor David Hill.24 But days before the baseball season was scheduled to begin, Hill vetoed the bill, deeming it an affront to the sovereignty of local government and the principle of home rule.25

Although bitterly disappointed by the veto, Day was not without recourse, having prudently devised a standby ballpark strategy. If the Polo Grounds were lost, Giants home games would be played in vacant St. George Grounds, the Staten Island ballpark formerly used by the by then defunct New York Metropolitans of the American Association. A $6,000 rental agreement signed by Day with St. George Grounds owner Eratus Wiman promptly cemented the Giants’ relocation.26 One obstacle still remained: the diamond in Staten Island had lain dormant during the previous baseball season and would not be in condition for play by opening day.

Agreeably for the New York Giants and John B. Day, the schedule of the newly organized minor league Atlantic Association placed its Jersey City Skeeters club on the road during the first week of the 1889 season.27 That made Oakland Park available for the Giants’ opener, but simultaneously posed “the great question [of] what to do with the crowds, as the [Oakland Park] stands can only hold so many.”28 Given that the Giants had no other playing field option, the question was largely academic.

Oakland Park entered the ranks of major league ballparks on April 24, 1889, hosting the world champion New York Giants’ season opener against the Boston Beaneaters. The New York Herald began its coverage of the contest by grousing about the transportation inconveniences endured by those making their way over from Manhattan, crammed like “sardines in a box” on Jersey City-bound ferries.29 A less critical Gotham daily approved of Oakland Park’s festive appearance, noting that “floating far above the grand stand and outfield fences were flags which, while the oncoming crank was yet far away from the grounds, caught and held his eyes.”30 As game time approached, “a steady stream of people kept the turnstiles in constant motion. The crowd soon filled the seating capacity of the grounds and overflowed upon the field.”31 With throngs turned away at the gate, official game attendance was pegged at 3,042.32

Much to the dismay of the New York faithful, the Beaneaters prevailed, 8-7. Significant for our purposes, the game’s extensive newspaper reportage was devoid of mention of Oakland Park’s playing field dimensions,33 architectural design,34 or surrounding atmospherics.35 Nor were ballpark details incorporated into coverage of minor league games played at Oakland Park – either before or after. This lends itself to the conclusion that there was nothing particularly distinctive about the grounds. Oakland Park was likely nothing other than a small-capacity but conventional late 19th century wooden ballpark.

The second and final major league game at Oakland Park was played the following day. This time, the Giants were victorious, 11-10, before a reported crowd of 1,424.36 As the day before, neither local nor national game reportage included mention of Oakland Park’s attributes. It was only identified as the site of the contest.37 Overnight rain thereupon forced the cancellation of the New York-Boston series rubber match.38 With the St. George Grounds now whipped into playing condition, the Giants swiftly moved their operations to Staten Island. Oakland Park’s time as a big-league venue had come to a close.

The following week, Oakland Park hosted the home opener of the Atlantic Association Skeeters. A reported 1,200 fans including Jersey City Mayor Orestes Cleveland were on hand to see the home side deliver a 14-5 pasting to Worcester.39 Shortly thereafter, the ballpark gates opened for play by the teams of the Hudson County Amateur League.40 And in late June, Oakland Park was the site of an open-air carnival that featured broadsword combat on horseback.41 Such attractions helped sustain the ballpark, as its primary tenant was encountering financial difficulties. In late July, Day, having “lost money on his Jersey City venture,” allowed “the club to go under.”42 Upon the folding of the Jersey City Skeeters, Day refocused his attentions on the operation of the New York Giants, and Fred Chapin reassumed day-to-day oversight of Oakland Park activity.43 The Giants club boss, however, remained the holder of the ballpark lease.

Over the winter of 1889-1890, attempts to revive Jersey City as the site of an Atlantic Association franchise were hampered by the difficulty that local club backers encountered in reaching agreement with Day on sub-letting Oakland Park.44 “The enormous price that Mr. John Day asks for the lease of Oakland Park and the grand stand” proved an “obstacle” to the proposed club’s use of the grounds.45 Day had made a fistful of money during the first eight years of his Metropolitan Exhibition Company’s existence,46 but he was now beginning to feel the financial pinch of construction of the New Polo Grounds, the Giants’ spacious new ballpark in far north Manhattan.47 Day was also obliged to marshal his monetary resources for the looming battle with Players League forces in New York. In the end, however, a deal was reached, and the newly minted Jersey City Gladiators began the 1890 season with Oakland Park as their home field.

The havoc wreaked on the baseball scene by the arrival of the Players League is beyond the scope of this essay. Suffice it to say that with five major league ballclubs,48 as well as the Newark Little Giants of the Atlantic Association, all playing within 15 miles of Jersey City, the competition for paying customers faced by the fledgling Gladiators was daunting. The Jersey City club then sealed its fate by getting off to a dismal playing start. On July 19, 1890, with a record of 27-46 (.370), the Jersey City Gladiators disbanded.49 And with that, the Oakland Park connection to Organized Baseball was irrevocably severed. From then on, activity at the ballpark was confined to semipro and amateur baseball, plus occasional soccer, football, and lacrosse matches. The circus, wild west shows, and other non-athletic amusements also used Oakland Park on a random date basis.

The absence of a professional baseball tenant quickly took its toll on the grounds. Neglected outer premises frayed and locker room pipes and fixtures were ripped out by thieves.50 But Oakland Park prospects brightened when the deep-pocketed Lorillard Athletic Club entered negotiations with Day for use of the ballpark. By that time, the New York Giants were locked in a death struggle with their local Players League rival and hemorrhaging red ink. But while Day was hard pressed for ready cash, he remained firm in his $2,000 per annum rental demand. Deeming that price exorbitant, the local press warned that Day risked having “a white elephant on [his] hands if he does not accept a fair offer, for the ground begins to show the need of a responsible party to keep it from going to ruin or being carried away piecemeal.”51

Negotiations stalled, and in late May 1891, it was reported that Oakland Park had been sub-let for five years by a different party, one Harry Powers.52 Yet less than two weeks later, it was announced that the Lorillard AC had succeeded Day as holder of the lease to Oakland Park and would be using the grounds as home field for association athletic teams.53 In its final year under Day’s control, Oakland Park had fallen into disrepair. To rectify the situation, the new lessee promptly dispatched “a large force of laborers” to renovate the property and to install a cinder track around the perimeter of the playing field. The clubhouse was enlarged, restroom facilities for event attendees were enhanced, and seating was replaced in the grandstand.54 Later, the wire mesh behind home plate was repaired and a canvas roof was extended over a bleacher section that had been added to the ball field.55

Once refurbished, Oakland Park served as the home field for the Lorillard AC baseball, soccer, lacrosse, and track and field teams. Lorillard also continued the practice of making the grounds available for local amateur clubs, as well as for the circus. Unhappily, the onset of hard economic times decimated the Lorillard AC membership, and in March 1893 the club abandoned the lease to Oakland Park.56 The property reverted to Erie Railroad control, but it is unclear how Oakland Park was managed from that point on. Amateur teams continued to have access to the grounds, but activity began to dwindle.

Beginning in early 1895, the Hudson City Improvement Authority periodically approached the railroad about acquiring Oakland Park. Erie was willing to lease the grounds for up to 25 years but declined to sell the property.57 Negotiations continued but eventually foundered as it became clear that expending funds on the acquisition of parkland was not a priority of Jersey City political leaders.58

As the 19th century trickled to a close, so did activity at Oakland Park. The last discovered event taking place there was a baseball game between two local youth clubs played in early September 1899.59 Oakland Park lay dormant at the time that Jersey City reentered Organized Baseball with a short-lived entry in the 1900 Atlantic League. The new club used the Johnston Avenue Grounds instead.60 Early in 1906, the Erie Railroad sold the ballpark property to the National Realty Company of Jersey City, which promptly subdivided it into building lots.61 All remaining trace of Oakland Park soon vanished.

More than a century after Oakland Park saw its last athletic activity, the tough Jersey City Heights neighborhood where it once sat has undergone transformation. Today, the old ballpark property provides addresses for a dense mix of modern commercial and residential buildings. Beyond living memory and without any token of commemoration, Oakland Park, the undersized local grounds that hosted the 1889 season-opening game of the world champion New York Giants, is long forgotten.

Acknowledgments

The writer is indebted to John Beekman, chief librarian at the Jersey City Public Library, for his assistance in the research of this essay, which was reviewed by Rory Costello and David H. Lippman and fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo.

Sources

Specific sources for the information imparted above are cited in the endnotes. Generally consulted was The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, eds. (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, Inc., 3d ed. 2007), and Baseball-Reference.com.

Notes

1 See e.g., Philip J. Lowry, Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of Major League and Negro League Ballparks (New York: Walker & Company, 2d ed., 2006), 108. Full disclosure: The writer has made the same mistake.

2 For more on the early baseball scene in Jersey City, see John G. Zinn, “Pioneer Base Ball Club of Jersey City” and “Excelsior Base Ball Club of Jersey City” in Base Ball Founders: The Clubs, Players and Cities of the Northeast That Established the Game, Peter Morris, William J. Ryczek, Jan Finkel, Leonard Levin, and Richard Malatzky, eds. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2013), 194-198.

3 See “Their Last Inning: The Jersey Citys Disbanded – The Trentons Transferred to This City,” Jersey City Argus, June 24, 1885: 1. See also, “Patrick T. Powers, Promoter of Sports,” (Jersey City) Evening Journal, November 19, 1898: 27.

4 The writer’s imagining of Oakland Park’s location and layout is reflected in the crude street grid diagram that accompanies this essay.

5 Per “Sporting Notes,” (Jersey City) Sunday Tattler, April 5, 1885: 3. The corporation president was local investor Robert E. McDermott.

6 See “Another Base Ball Park,” Evening Journal, April 20, 1885: 1.

7 The scheduled May 2 ballpark opener had to be postponed “owing to the bad condition of the grounds.” Sunday Tattler, May 3, 1885: 3. The first discovered game played at Oakland Park took place on May 13, 1885, when the amateur Oaklands defeated the Marions, 5-4. Sunday Tattler, May 17, 1885: 3.

8 Details about Oakland Park were extracted from random Jersey City newspaper articles. See e.g., “Ten Persons Injured,” Sunday Tattler, September 12, 1886: 2.

9 See e.g., “Sporting Notes,” Jersey City Herald, August 1, 1885: 1, promoting a game between the amateur Jerseys and the semipro Jersey Blues, with a $250 stake going to the winner.

10 See “A Miserable Failure,” Sunday Tattler, October 11, 1885: 3.

11 As reported in “The Waning Baseball Season,” Jersey City Argus, October 22, 1885: 4.

12 Ludlow bought NJEC honcho McDermott’s interest in the corporation in September 1885. See “Personal,” Sunday Tattler, September 13, 1885: 2.

13 “Sporting Notes: Base Ball,” Evening Journal, August 12, 1886: 2: “Fred Chapin has taken charge of Oakland Park, and has put the ground in good condition for ball playing.”

14 “Base Ball Notes,” Evening Journal, May 13, 1886: 2.

15 “A Mixed Game,” Evening Journal, May 22, 1886: 3. The mixed-race nine was recruited after the advertised opposition, “the Mabies, a colored club of Englewood,” New Jersey, failed to show up.

16 See “The World’s News in Brief, “Bayonne (New Jersey) Times, September 16, 1886: 2.

17 “A Horrible Crash,” Evening Journal, September 13, 1886: 1.

18 “Boys Destroying Oakland Park,” Evening Journal, November 6, 1886: 1. The vandals “were pounced upon” by ballpark proprietor Chapin and sent to juvenile detention by a city magistrate.

19 See “Military Notes,” (Jersey City) Sunday Morning News, July 17, 1887: 5.

20 As reflected in advertisements published in the Sunday Morning News, April 24, 1887: 5, and July 3, 1887: 4.

21 Per “Patrick T. Powers,” above. The New York Giants franchise was officially owned by the Metropolitan Exhibition Company, Day’s corporate alter ego.

22 As reported in “Base Ball,” (Hoboken, New Jersey) Hudson County Democrat-Advertiser, April 21, 1888: 2.

23 Coverage of an early May exhibition game between the Skeeters and the NL Philadelphia Quakers at Oakland Park appeared in “Jersey City Wins,” New York Evening World, May 4, 1888: 1. Periodic advertisements for 1888 Jersey City home games at Oakland Park were also published in The Sporting Times.

24 As reported in “The State Legislature,” New York Sun, April 20, 1889: 3; “Day Hears of It,” New York Evening World, April 19, 1889: 1; and elsewhere.

25 See “Goodby, Polo Ground!” New York Tribune, April 24, 1889: 10; “It Is Vetoed,” New York Evening World, April 23, 1889: 1.

26 As reported in “Foley Looks Over Field,” Boston Herald, April 22, 1889: 3; “Abandoning the Polo Grounds,” New York Tribune, April 19, 1889: 3; and elsewhere. Three years earlier, Wiman had purchased the New York Mets franchise from the Day-controlled Metropolitan Exhibition Company and initiated the ill-fated relocation of the club to Staten Island.

27 Over the winter, the Central League was re-formed as the Atlantic Association.

28 “Baseball Notes,” Jersey City News, April 24, 1889: 1.

29 “Boston Gets First Blood,” New York Herald, April 25, 1889: 10.

30 “Losers,” New York Evening World, April 24, 1889: 1. The three banners commemorated the 1888 New York Giants National League pennant, World Series victory, and triumph over the AA Brooklyn Bridegrooms for the New York metropolitan area championship.

31 Same as above.

32 As noted in “Contest Begun,” Fall River (Massachusetts) Daily Herald, April 25, 1889: 1; “The Champions Defeated,” Philadelphia Times, April 25, 1889: 2; and elsewhere. A disapproving Manhattan sportswriter sniffed that “they would have had 15,000 at the Polo Grounds.” George E. Stackhouse, “Manhattan Cocktails,” Sporting Life, May 1, 1889: 3.

33 Like the short-porch left field fence at Lakeshore Park in Chicago.

34 Like the elegant façade and grandstand at Brooklyn’s Eastern Park.

35 Like the factory smokestack soot and the city dump stench that pervaded Metropolitan Park in Manhattan.

36 Per the game box score published in the New York Tribune, Trenton Evening Times, and elsewhere, April 26, 1889.

37 See e.g., “Hardie Bats Very Hard,” Jersey City News, April 26, 1889: 3; “All Right,” New York Evening World, April 26, 1889: 1 (local); “New York 11, Boston 10,” New Orleans Times-Democrat, April 26, 1889: 2; “National League Games,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 26, 1889: 6 (national).

38 See “They Will Play on Monday,” Jersey City News, April 27, 1889: 2; “Local Ball Games Postponed,” New York Evening World, April 26, 1889: 1.

39 Per “The Atlantic Association,” New York Sun, April 30, 1889: 8.

40 “Diamond Dust,” Jersey City News, May 3, 1889: 3.

41 As reported in “A Great Show at Oakland Park,” Jersey City News, June 26, 1889: 3.

42 “Our Ball Club Must Go,” Jersey Evening Journal, July 27, 1889: 4. The Jersey City Skeeters disbanded on July 25, 1889.

43 Per “Miscellaneous Sporting Gossip,” Jersey City News, August 5, 1889: 1.

44 Backers of the new club had recently organized as the Jersey City Baseball and Exhibition Company. See “The New Baseball Club,” Jersey City News, January 30, 1890: 1.

45 “Baltimore at the Bat,” Jersey City Sunday Morning News, December 1, 1889: 9. See also, “That Baseball Team,” Jersey City News, January 13, 1890: 3; “Baseball in This City,” Jersey City News, December 2, 1889: 3; and “Gossip of the Meeting,” New York Sun, November 12, 1889: 4.

46 In 1889, it was reported that the Metropolitan Exhibition Company had cleared a staggering $750,000 profit from the operation of its ball clubs. See “An Offer for the Giants,” New York Times, September 6, 1889: 3. The figure is outlandish as the NY Giants never reported a single-season profit in excess of $35,000 while the NY Metropolitans actually lost money for the MEC. Nevertheless, Day and his corporate cohorts had done very well financially.

47 The Giants abandoned the St. George Grounds as soon as the New Polo Grounds was built and played their first game there on July 8, 1889.

48 The major league clubs close by Jersey City were the (Real) New York Giants and Brooklyn Bridegrooms of the National League; (Big) New York Giants and Brooklyn Ward Wonders of the Players League; and Brooklyn Gladiators of the American Association.

49 As reported in “Ready to Bid It Good Bye,” Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Daily Patriot, July 19, 1890: 1; “Jersey City to Go Under,” Baltimore Sun, July 18, 1890, S1; and elsewhere. Jersey City’s place in the Atlantic Association was promptly assumed by the Harrisburg Athletics of the recently-deceased Inter-State League.

50 See “Caught the Thief,” Jersey City News, September 22, 1890: 1

51 “Want Oakland Park,” Jersey City News, September 26, 1890: 3.

52 “The World of Sport,” Jersey Evening Journal, May 29, 1891: 3. The new lessee was not related to former Jersey City Skeeters manager Pat Powers.

53 “The World of Sport: The Lorillards Have Secured a Lease of Oakland Park,” Jersey Evening Journal, June 11, 1891: 3.

54 “Athletic,” Jersey Evening Journal, June 29, 1891: 3.

55 “Athletic,” Jersey Evening Journal, July 27, 1891: 3. The property was officially retitled the Lorillard Athletic Grounds, but the new name never took.

56 “World of Sport: Athletic,” Jersey Evening Journal, March 1893: 3.

57 See “A Park for the Fourth District,” Jersey City News, February 21, 1895: 3; “A New Park Bill,” Jersey Evening Journal, February 21, 1895: 1.

58 See “Citizen Managers,” Jersey Evening Journal, March 21, 1896: 4.

59 Per “Games of Baseball,” Jersey Evening Journal, September 1, 1899: 6.

60 The Jersey City club folded five weeks into the season. The Atlantic League followed suit two weeks later.

61 Per “Big Boom in Lower Jersey City Section,” (Hoboken, New Jersey) Observer of Hudson County, March 27, 1907: 12.