Bennett Park (Detroit)

Bennett Park
	Bennett Park on October 12, 1907, in a World Series game between the Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Michigan
Location	Detroit
Capacity	5,000 (1896); 14,000 (by 1911)
Construction
Opened	April 28, 1896
Closed	1911
Demolished	1911 to build Navin Field
Tenants
	Detroit Tigers (MLB) (1896–1911)

Last updated November 17, 2022

Bennett Park was a ballpark in Detroit. Located at Michigan and Trumbull Avenues, it was home to the Detroit Tigers and was named after Charlie Bennett, a former player whose career ended after a train accident in 1894.

History

The ballpark sat 5,000 when it opened in 1896 and was gradually expanded to 14,000 by the time it was closed after the 1911 season. When the American League became a major league in 1901 the ballpark seated 8,500, the smallest park in the majors.^[1] Private parties built "Wildcat" bleachers on the rooftops of houses behind the left field fence, to the chagrin of Tiger ownership, since people paid to watch games from those bleachers but the Tigers did not get revenue.^[1]

The park was noted for its dangerous playing surface, with cobblestones beneath the dirt and sometimes protruding over the dirt.^[1]

This small ballpark enjoyed some big success, as the Tigers and their young sensation Ty Cobb won three consecutive pennants during 1907–1909. However, their success ran out in the post-season on each occasion, when they lost to stronger National League teams in the World Series. This ballpark was hallowed ground to fans of the Chicago Cubs, as it was on this site in both 1907 and 1908 that the Cubs clinched their first two World Series championships (and their last one for over a century, until 2016).

Between the 1911 and 1912 seasons, the Tigers acquired the rest of the block, demolished both the wildcat bleachers and Bennett Park, and built Navin Field on the same site, though the new stadium was shifted by 90°, with home plate where the left field corner had formerly been.

First night game

Bennett Park was home to the first nighttime baseball game in Detroit.^[2] On September 24, 1896, the Tigers played their last game of their first season at Bennett Park, an exhibition doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds. Tigers owner George Arthur Vanderbeck had workers string lights above the stadium for the nighttime game. A crowd of 1200 attended the experiment, which was described by a local newspaper as "an amusing and financial success".^[2]

Nighttime baseball did not return to Detroit until June 15, 1948, when the first game under the lights was played at Briggs Stadium.

World Series baseball game at Bennett Park on October 11, 1909. Bennett-park-1909-world-series.jpg — World Series baseball game at Bennett Park on October 11, 1909.

Related Research Articles

Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium located on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Whales of the Federal League, which folded after the 1915 baseball season. The Cubs played their first home game at the park on April 20, 1916, defeating the Cincinnati Reds 7–6 in 11 innings. Chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. of the Wrigley Company acquired the Cubs in 1921. It was named Cubs Park from 1920 to 1926, before being renamed Wrigley Field in 1927. The current seating capacity is 41,649. It is actually the second stadium to be named Wrigley Field, as a Los Angeles ballpark with the same name opened in 1925.

Comerica Park is a ballpark located in Downtown Detroit. It has been the home of Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers since 2000, when the team left Tiger Stadium.

Tiger Stadium, previously known as Navin Field and Briggs Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium located in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit. The stadium was nicknamed "The Corner" for its location at the intersection of Michigan and Trumbull Avenues. It hosted the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1912 to 1999, as well as the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL) from 1938 to 1974. Tiger Stadium was declared a State of Michigan Historic Site in 1975 and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">League Park</span> Former baseball park in Cleveland, Ohio, United States (1891-1946)

League Park was a baseball park located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was situated at the northeast corner of Dunham Street and Lexington Avenue in the Hough neighborhood. It was built in 1891 as a wood structure and rebuilt using concrete and steel in 1910. The park was home to a number of professional sports teams, most notably the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball. League Park was first home to the Cleveland Spiders of the National League from 1891 to 1899 and of the Cleveland Lake Shores of the Western League, the minor league predecessor to the Indians, in 1900. From 1914 to 1915, League Park also hosted the Cleveland Spiders of the minor league American Association. In the late 1940s, the park was also the home field of the Cleveland Buckeyes of the Negro American League.

Crosley Field was a Major League Baseball park in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was the home field of the National League's Cincinnati Reds from 1912 through June 24, 1970, and the original Cincinnati Bengals football team, members of the second (1937) and third American Football League (1940–41). It was not the original home of the current NFL franchise of the same name: the home of those Bengals in 1968 and 1969 was nearby Nippert Stadium, located on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. Crosley Field was on an asymmetrical block bounded by Findlay Street (south), Western Avenue, Dalton Avenue (east), York Street (north) and McLean Avenue (west) in the Queensgate section of the city. Crosley has the distinction of being the first major-league park with lights for playing night games.

Principal Park, formerly Sec Taylor Stadium, is a minor league baseball stadium in Des Moines, Iowa. It is the home field of the International League's Iowa Cubs.

The 1984 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1984 season. The 81st edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Detroit Tigers and the National League (NL) champion San Diego Padres. The Tigers won the series, four games to one. This was the city of Detroit's first sports championship since the Tigers themselves won the 1968 World Series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recreation Park (Detroit)</span>

Recreation Park was a ballpark located in Detroit. It is best known as the home of the Detroit Wolverines of the National League from 1881 to 1888.

West Side Park was the name used for two different ballparks that formerly stood in Chicago, Illinois. They were both home fields of the team now known as the Chicago Cubs of the National League. Both ballparks hosted baseball championships. The latter of the two parks, where the franchise played for nearly a quarter century, was the home of the first two world champion Cubs teams, the team that posted the best winning percentage in Major League Baseball history and won the most games in National League history (1906), the only cross-town World Series in Chicago (1906), and the immortalized Tinker to Evers to Chance double-play combo. Both ballparks were primarily constructed of wood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radiology Associates Field at Jackie Robinson Ballpark</span> Historic baseball field in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States

The Jackie Robinson Ballpark is a historic baseball field in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. It is located at 105 East Orange Avenue on City Island, in the Halifax River.

The following are the baseball events of the year 1935 throughout the world.

Mack Park was the original home field of Detroit's Negro National League baseball franchise, the Detroit Stars. It was constructed in 1914 by Joe Roesink, sponsor of a local semi-professional team, a Dutchman of Jewish descent born in Grand Rapids who owned a chain of haberdasheries.

Burns Park was a baseball park located in Detroit, Michigan that served three seasons as the exclusive Sunday home of the Detroit Tigers baseball club in the American League from 1900 through 1902.

The history of Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball's National League, begins well before the Cubs played their first game in that venue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamtramck Stadium</span> United States historic place

Hamtramck Stadium, also known as Roesink Stadium is one of only 12 remaining Negro league baseball stadiums. It is located at 3201 Dan Street, in Veterans Park, in Hamtramck, Michigan. The stadium was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. The stadium is located near, and occasionally confused with, Keyworth Stadium. The stadium was rededicated on June 20, 2022, as part of the Juneteenth celebration. In 2020, the stadium's field was renamed Norman "Turkey" Stearnes Field, after Detroit Stars player Turkey Stearnes.

The Statesville Owls was the primary name of the minor league baseball teams located in Statesville, North Carolina. Statesville minor league teams played a member of the North Carolina Association (1900), Tar Heel League (1939–1940), North Carolina State League,, Tar Heel League (1953), Western Carolina League (1960–1962) and Western Carolinas League, winning three league championships.

Minor league baseball teams were based in Galveston, Texas in various seasons between 1888 and 1955. The Galveston White Caps played as members of the Gulf Coast League from 1950 to 1953 and Big State League from 1954 to 1955. Earlier Galveston teams played ender various monikers in the Texas League between 1888 and 1937. Galveston teams won four league championships.

Rendezvous Park was a baseball stadium on the grounds of a city park by the same name in Mesa, Arizona. It most notably served as a Major League Baseball spring training ballpark used by the Chicago Cubs from 1952 to 1965 and by the Oakland Athletics from 1969 to 1976.

Hobart-Detter Field is an amateur baseball park in Hutchinson, Kansas, which hosted minor league teams in the Western Association from 1932 to 1959 and teams in the Jayhawk League from 1970 to 1989. The ballpark currently hosts part of the National Baseball World Series, Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons, Hutchinson High School Salt Hawks, American Legion, and other amateur baseball tournaments. The ballpark was built in 1928 as Carey Park Diamond and has been renovated many times over the years. The field was renamed Detter Field in 1962 in honor of Wilbur "Bud" Detter.

References

1 2 3 Ferkovich, Scott. "Bennett Park (Detroit)". Society for American Baseball Research . Retrieved 2018-03-29.
1 2 "Falling stadium lights have history | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press". Archived from the original on 2009-06-05.

External links

Baseball-Almanac.com

Preceded by Boulevard Park	Home of the Detroit Tigers 1896–1911	Succeeded by Tiger Stadium

Coordinates: 42°19′56″N83°4′5″W / 42.33222°N 83.06806°W / 42.33222; -83.06806

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[sabr-1] 1 2 3 Ferkovich, Scott. "Bennett Park (Detroit)". Society for American Baseball Research . Retrieved 2018-03-29.

[DFP-2] 1 2 "Falling stadium lights have history | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press". Archived from the original on 2009-06-05.

[1]

[2]