Book Chapter 3- There Use To Be A Ballpark

THERE USED TO BE A BALLPARK

Ah yes, the first signs of spring. The Indians are in spring training in their brand new stadium in Goodyear, Arizona. Before you know it, opening day at Progressive Field will be upon us. But in another time, in another place, the cry “Play Ball” was heard. The National Anthem echoed in the air. There was the crack of a bat and the cheers of thousands of baseball fans. But now the walls are silent, the field overgrown, the grounds unkept. Most of the red brick edifice that once saw some of the most historic baseball ever played is in ruin. Before Progressive Field, before Municipal Stadium, there was League Park.

League Park opened in May of 1891. Nine thousand fans sat on wooden bleachers to watch the legendary Cy Young pitch for the Cleveland Spiders of the National League, the forerunners of the Indians. It was a more elegant time and baseball was a more elegant game.

The park was the brainchild of Frank DeHaas Robinson, a pioneer in the street railway lines and owner of the Spiders. Robinson built League park on his Payne Avenue streetcar line on the corner of E. 66th Street and Lexington Avenue to increase ridership on his Cleveland City Cable Railway and, in turn, baseball game attendance.

Designed by Osborn Engineering, the Park was to be built as a neighborhood park in much the same style as Philadelphia’s Shibe Park or Brooklyn’s Ebbet’s Field. The stadium is uniquely shaped due to the need to fit the ball field into a city street grid. The diamond, situated in the northwest corner of the block, was turned slightly counterclockwise. The right field line was only 290 feet but batters had the extra challenge of clearing a 60 foot fence to hit a home run. By comparison, the Green Monster at Fenway Park is only 37 feet! In left field the fence was only five feet high but the left field line was a full 375 feet. The deepest part of the field was 460 feet to the scoreboard.

The Spiders played at League Park until the end of disastrous a1899 season. That year the Spiders won only 20 games out of a 154 game season. The very next year the Spiders’ were replaced by the “Naps”, an American League Team. In turn, the Naps were replaced by the Cleveland Indians.

On April 29, 1901, the Tribe played their first game in League Park against the Milwaukee Brewers, beating them 4-3. By the time the 1910 season rolled around, attendance had increased so much that the park was enlarged and rebuilt with a concrete grandstand to accommodate 21,000 fans. A second level was also added and box seats became available for the first time.

In 1916 the name of the park was changed to Dunn Field, after Sonny Jim Dunn who was owner of the Cleveland Indians at the time. After ownership changed hands again in 1927 the name reverted to League Park.

1920 saw the World Series come to Cleveland and League Park pitting the Cleveland Indians against the Brooklyn Robins, later know as the Dodgers. The 1920 Series is arguable one of the best ever played and certainly the best played by the Indians. Not only did the Tribe win the series but League Park was the site of the first grand slam home run in World Series history. In that same series, Indians second baseman Bill Wambsgass made the only unassisted triple play in a World Series, ever!

Unfortunately, the success of the Tribe in the 1920 series was overshadowed by the death of shortstop Ray Chapman. The date was August 16, 1920 and life was being good to “Chappie”, as his teammates called him. The Indians were playing the Yankees at the Polo Grounds in New York. Carl Mays, the Yankee’s pitcher, was known for having a nasty disposition and throwing “high and tight.” Chappie was crowding the plate when Mays delivered a raising side arm pitch hitting Chapman in the temple, fracturing his skull. In spite of efforts to save him, Chappie died the next morning from his injuries. It remains to this day the only death during a game in major league history. Baseball history abounds at League Park.

Another notable event from baseball history occurring at League Park was the 500th home run of Babe Ruth in August of 1929. Interestingly , the “Sultan of Swat” credits Indians left fielder, Joseph Jackson, otherwise know as “Shoeless Joe” with his hitting success. Ruth was quoted as saying “I copied Jackson’s Style because I thought he was the greatest hitter I had ever seen, the greatest natural hitter I ever saw. He’s the guy who made me a hitter.” In 1999, the “Sporting News” ranked Shoeless Joe 35th on their list of the 100 greatest baseball players.

Baseball history abounds at League Park. In 1936, one of the greatest names in Cleveland sports began his long and illustrious career. That was the year that Bob “Rapid Robert” Feller began his 18 year career with the Cleveland Indians. The Indians were the only team he played for and he was part of the “Big Four in the Indians pitching rotation in 1950. In his career he amassed 266 victories, 2,581 strikeouts and led the American League seven times in strikeouts. For Feller baseball was not only a game but a philosophy. “Everyday is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind you and start over. That’s the way life is, a new game everyday, and that’s the way baseball is.”

Other events that assured League Park’s place in the baseball stadium hall of fame were Joe Dimaggio’s 56th and last hit of his record breaking hitting streak, the first season with over one million in fan attendance (1946) and Ted Williams only inside the park homer, also in 1946.

The Indians were not the only Cleveland professional ball team to play at League Park. The Cleveland Buckeyes of the Negro League started play at the site under the name of the Cleveland Tate Stars. The Buckeyes were organized by Ernest Wright and Wilbur Hayes. Wright was a nightclub owner from Erie, Pennsylvania and Hayes, a local sports promoter. In 1945, the Buckeyes compiled a record of 53-16 to win the Negro League Championship. That was backed up in 1947 with a pennant win in the Negro American League. Success on the field did not necessarily mean success of the team. The Buckeyes lost money and eventually disbanded in 1950.

For all its fame and glory, the beginning of the end came sometime in 1931 when a new stadium was built on the shores of Lake Erie, Cleveland Municipal Stadium. At first the Indians played at the new stadium only on Sundays and holidays. By 1946, games were split between the stadiums. Then in 1947 the Indians moved to the Cleveland Stadium full time under the ownership of Bill Veeck.

Lights were never installed at League Park making night games impossible. The last game played there was on September 21, 1946 against the Detroit Tigers. So it came that after fifty-five years, professional baseball ceased to be played at League Park. The city bought the property in 1951.

The venerable old ballpark served as the practice field for the Cleveland Browns from 1945 until the late 1960’s. By this time the neglected and decaying stands were torn down to make room for a playground. The bright spot is that in 1979 League Park was declared a Cleveland landmark and earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

Unlike its contemporaries, Shibe Park and Ebbets Field, both of which are still intact, very little remains of League Park. But you can still visit. A public park now occupies what used to be the baseball field and only a small section of the brick facade along the first base side that remains standing. The old ticket office still stands proudly on the corner of East 66th Street and Lexington. The last remaining grandstand was deemed unsafe and taken down in 2002.

On the romantic side, the grass is still green, the ticket office intact and if you listen closely, the echoes of the shouts and cheers of thousands of frenzied fans may be heard in the breeze and the aroma of hotdogs and popcorn may still linger in the air.

I think a song written by Joe Raposo and recorded by Frank Sinatra says it all:

And there used to be a ballpark
where the field was warm and green.

And the people played their crazy game
games with joy I’d never seen.

And the air was such a wonder
from the hot dogs and the beer.

Yes, there used to be a ballpark
right here.



Pay this old veteran a visit. Want more information, visit the website at theleaguepark.org. In the meantime, as you sit in the comfort of Progressive Field, give a thought to those who went before. To a place called League Park.