CLEVELAND (AP) — Cries of "play ball" should be in the air
again this summer on the site of League Park, where the Cleveland
Indians played in the early 1900s and Babe Ruth hit his 500th career
home run.
A $6.3 million city-funded project to restore and
renovate what’s left of the old ballpark on Cleveland’s east side should
be done by mid-July, The Plain Dealer (http://bit.ly/1gSMHey) reported.
"We
are looking for this to be a destination, not just a ball field," said
Michael Cox, Cleveland’s Director of Public Works.
"We’re hoping to
give tours."
Little remains of the ballpark that opened in 1891
when Cleveland Spiders pitcher Cy Young, now the Hall of Fame namesake
of major league baseball’s pitching award, threw the first pitch. The
original first baseline grandstand wall and the three-floor ticket house
are part of the restoration effort.
A new artificial turf field
will be added in May with home plate with home plate in the same spot
where it was for the Indians. The field’s dimensions will be the same,
too — 460 feet from center field, 375 feet from the left-field corner,
and just 290 feet down the right-field line
Bleachers will be
added behind home plate. City leaders say the new field will be
available for adults and hope it will host high school games. A clay
ball field and paved walking path were completed last year beyond the
outfield fence.
"I love that it’s a replica of what was there,"
Cox said. "I played on that field as a kid growing up. It was great to
play there, and it will be exciting to see the kids on the field again.
We can teach them the historical value of League Park when they play
there."
The site has a lot of history in addition to Ruth’s
historic 500th home run in 1929. The Indians won their first World
Series at League Park in 1929, and Joe DiMaggio got the last hit there
in his 56-game hitting streak in 1941. It’s also where the Cleveland
Buckeyes won the 1945 Negro League World Series.
The Indians played their final game at League Park in 1946, and much of the ballpark was torn down five
years later.
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