League Park was a baseball stadium located in Cleveland, Ohio.
It was home to the Cleveland Spiders, the Cleveland Indians and the
Cleveland Buckeyes of the Negro American League. It was located at
Lexington Avenue and E. 66th Street.
1910:
Left Field - 385 ft
Left-Center - 415 ft
Center Field - 420 ft
Right-Center - 400 ft
Right Field - 290 ft
Backstop - 60 ft
League Park was opened on May 1, 1891, and sat 9,000 on wooden seats at
the time. The Spiders played there until going out of business after a
disastrous 20–134 season in 1899. They were replaced two years later by
the Indians. The stadium was rebuilt for the 1910 season, with concrete
and steel grandstands, now seating 21,414.
James Dunn, who owned the stadium for a time, had the stadium called
Dunn Park from 1916 to 1927. The Cleveland Buckeyes won the 1945 Negro
League World Series in League Park.
The Indians began playing night, holiday and weekend games at the far
larger Cleveland Stadium in 1932. They split games between the two
stadiums until the end of the 1946 season. Lights were never installed at
League Park, and it was thus impossible to play night games there. For
1947, the Indians moved to Cleveland Stadium full-time.
Fly
to the site of League Park!
If you have Google
Earth installed, click here
to be "flown" to the site of the League Park. Of course
the stadium is no longer there, but you can see the park that now
resides there. (If you do not have it installed, get
it from Google. It allows you to view virtually anywhere on
Earth in 3D using satellite imagery.)
Because of a need to squeeze the stadium into the Cleveland street grid,
the stadium was rather oddly shaped by modern standards. It was only 290
feet down the right field line—though batters still had to surmount a
60-foot fence to hit a home run (by comparison, the Green Monster
at Fenway Park
is only 37 feet high). The fence in left field was only five feet tall,
but batters had to hit the ball 375 feet down the line to hit a home run.
When the park opened in 1910, the deepest part of the park left of center
field was a mammoth 510 feet from home plate! It was moved in as close as
450 feet by 1920.
After the demise of the Negro American League Cleveland Buckeyes
following the 1950 season, League Park was no longer in use as a regular
sports venue. The Cleveland Browns football team would continue to use the
aging facility as a practice field until the late 1960's.
A public park, including a baseball field—where a small section of
the old first-base lower deck stands remain alongside a baseball diamond
where the original was situated, and also the old ticket office behind
what was the right field corner—stands on the site today.
League Park!
League Park was
used for 15 seasons by the Indians afterCleveland
Stadium was built.
Courtesy
of LCPC
FIRSTS
at LEAGUE PARK
Game
04/21/1910
Tigers 5, Indians 0
Umpires
Jack Sheridan, John Kerin
Managers
Deacon McGuire, Indians
Hughie Jennings, Tigers
Starting Pitchers
Cy Young, Indians
Ed Willett, Tigers
Ceremonial Pitch
American League President Ban
Johnson
Attendance
18,832
Batting
Batter
Matty McIntyre (ground out)
Hit
Nig Clarke (single)
Run
Oscar Stanage
RBI
Ed Willett
Single
Nig Clarke
Double
Oscar Stanage
Triple
Sam Crawford (04/22/1910)
Home Run
Roy Hartzell (05/28/1910)
Grand Slam
Ivy Olson (05/18/1911)
IPHR
Roy Hartzell (05/28/1910)
Stolen Base
Sam Crawford
Sacrifice Hit
Oscar Stanage
Sacrifice Fly
George Stovall (04/22/1910)
Cycle
Ski Melillo (05/23/1929)
Pitching
Win
Ed Willett
Loss
Cy Young
Shutout
Ed Willett
Save
N/A
Hit by Pitch
Ed Willett hit Joe Birmingham
Wild Pitch
Cy Young
Balk
George Kahler (05/25/1911)
No-Hitter
Wes Ferrell (04/29/1931)
Primary
research by Jim Herdman & David Vincent
Courtesy of Retrosheet.
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