Latta Park Baseball Field

Last updated
Latta Park Baseball Field
1911LattaPark.png
Latta Park Baseball Field between 1908 and 1911
LocationLennox Ave & East Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28203
OwnerCharlotte Consolidated Construction Company
Capacity 1,000
Field sizeLeft Field – ft
Center Field – ft
Right Field – ft
SurfaceGrass
Construction
OpenedMay 20, 1891
Renovated1892, 1897
Closed1912
Tenants
Davidson Wildcats (football) (1896-1903)
Charlotte Hornets (VNCL) (1901, 1905), (CA) (1908)
Brooklyn Dodgers (NL) (spring training) (1896-1897, 1901)
Philadelphia Phillies (NL) (spring training) (1899–1900)
Philadelphia Athletics (AL) (spring training) (1902)

The Latta Park Baseball Field was a ballpark located in Latta Park in Charlotte, North Carolina. Its capacity was approximately 1,000 for baseball.

Edward Dilworth Latta, Mayor F. B. McDowell, and others formed the Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company (the "Four Cs") in 1890 to develop the Dilworth neighborhood of Charlotte. To attract visitors and residents, the Four Cs constructed an electric trolley route at the end of which they built a recreational area called Latta Park with gardens, walking paths, a lake, and playing fields including the Latta Park Baseball Field.

The first game was played at the park's grand opening on May 20, 1891 with a game between teams from Winston, North Carolina and Columbia, South Carolina. A grandstand for the baseball field was built in 1892, and the field renovated and rededicated in September 1897. [1] As of 1899, a third of a mile bicycle track encircled the playing field. [2]

Latta Park Baseball Field was home to the Charlotte Hornets minor-league baseball team [3] until the opening of Wearn Field in 1912.

The first college football game in Charlotte was played at Latta Park in 1892 when the University of North Carolina defeated Virginia Tech 32-5. [4]

Davidson College played football games at the Latta Park Baseball Field between 1896 and 1903.

On November 28, 1901, Clemson defeated the University of North Carolina in football at Latta Park in front of 1,000 fans. [5]

Charlotte and Latta Park hosted the Brooklyn Dodgers for spring training in 1896, 1897, and 1901; the Philadelphia Phillies in 1899 and 1900; [6] and the Philadelphia Athletics in 1902. [7]

As the Dilworth neighborhood grew, the Four Cs made plans to redevelop recreational areas of Latta Park. The Charlotte Hornets had played at Latta Park through the 1908 season but moved to the newly opened Wearn Field constructed and managed by the team's owner, J.H. Wearn. [8] The Charlotte Baseball Association had signed a ten year lease to utilize Latta Park's Baseball Field and played games at Latta Park through the 1912 season.

Latta Park is commemorated at Charlotte's Truist Field along the outer wall of South Graham Street. [9] [10]

Related Research Articles

The Charlotte Hornets were an American minor-league baseball franchise based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The club was founded in 1901 and lasted in some form until 1973, capturing 11 league titles during its history. From 1937 to 1942 and 1946 to 1972, the Hornets were a farm system affiliate of the original Washington Senators franchise and its post-1960 successor, the Minnesota Twins. The 1931 and 1951 Hornets have been recognized as being among the 100 greatest minor-league teams of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Carolina Tar Heels football</span> College Football Bowl Subdivision team; member of Atlantic Coast Conference

The North Carolina Tar Heels football team represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the sport of American football or Gridiron Football. The Tar Heels play in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

Athletes and sports teams from North Carolina compete across an array of professional and amateur levels of competition, along with athletes who compete at the World and Olympic levels in their respective sport. Major league professional teams based in North Carolina include teams that compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Soccer (MLS), and National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). The state is also home to NASCAR Cup Series races. At the collegiate and university level, there are several North Carolina schools in various conferences across an array of divisions. North Carolina also has many minor league baseball teams. There are also a number of indoor football, indoor soccer, minor league basketball, and minor league ice hockey teams based throughout the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball</span> Intercollegiate basketball team of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The North Carolina Tar Heels Men's basketball program is a college basketball team of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels have won six NCAA championships in addition to a 1924 Helms Athletic Foundation title (retroactive). North Carolina has won a record 133 NCAA tournament matchups while advancing to 31 Sweet Sixteen berths, a record 21 Final Fours, and 12 title games. It is the only school to have an active streak of reaching the National Championship game for nine straight decades and at least two Final Fours for six straight decades, all while averaging more wins per season played (20.7) than any other program in college basketball. In 2012, ESPN ranked North Carolina No. 1 on its list of the 50 most successful programs of the past fifty years.

Clark Griffith Park or better known as Griffith Park was a stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, located at 400 Magnolia Avenue in the Dilworth section of town. It replaced Hayman Park, which was located at South Graham Street and West Bland Street, and was originally called Wearn Field when it opened in 1908.

Thomasville, North Carolina was home to several minor league baseball teams from 1937–1969.

The North Carolina State League was a Class D level league in Minor League Baseball. The original version of the league played from 1913 to 1917 as the successor to the Carolina Association. The second version of the league was established in 1937 in part in order to compete with the Piedmont-region independent league, the Carolina League, and ran through 1953 when it combined with the Western Carolina League to form the Tar Heel League.

The following lists the events of the 1899 Philadelphia Phillies season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009 Meineke Car Care Bowl</span> College football game

The 2009 Meineke Car Care Bowl was the eighth edition of the college football bowl game, and was played at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The game started at 4:30 p.m. US EST on Saturday, December 26, 2009, and was telecasted on ESPN and ESPN360. The Pittsburgh Panthers defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels 19–17 with a 33-yard field goal and .52 seconds remaining in the game.

The 1897 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina as an independent during the 1897 college football season. Led by first-year head coach William Ayres Reynolds, the Tar Heels compiled a record of 7–3. Arthur Belden was the team captain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latta Park</span>

Latta Park is a 31-acre urban park at 601 East Park Avenue in the Dilworth neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina. It features courts for tennis, volleyball, and basketball, as well as many benches and picnic facilities, playgrounds, walking trails, fitness trails, and soccer fields. Latta Park was designed to be kid-friendly and is one of the five Charlotte parks that feature a "sprayground", a water themed playground where children can splash and jump.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 ACC Championship Game</span> College football game

The 2015 Dr Pepper ACC Championship Game was the eleventh football championship game for the Atlantic Coast Conference. It featured the Clemson Tigers, winners of the ACC's Atlantic Division, and the North Carolina Tar Heels, the winners of the ACC's Coastal Division. It was the first time in ACC championship game history in which both participating teams were undefeated in conference play. This was the game's sixth consecutive year at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The game had a controversial finish when North Carolina recovered an onside kick with a chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter, but a phantom offsides call forced a rekick which Clemson recovered.

The 1900 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina in the 1900 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association football season. They played eight games with a final record of 4–1–3. The team captain for the 1900 season was Frank M. Osborne.

The 1901 North Carolina Tar Heels football team was an American football team that represented the University of North Carolina as a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) during the 1901 SIAA season. In its first season under head coach Charles O. Jenkins, the team compiled a 7–2 record. Albert M. Carr was the team captain. The team was suspended from the conference in 1902 for paying baseball players.

The Statesville Owls were a minor league baseball team 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.

The Virginia–North Carolina League was a minor league baseball league that played in the 1901 and 1905 seasons, folding before the end of the season in both years. The Virginia–North Carolina League played as a six–team Class C level league in 1901 and as a four–team Class D league in the 1905 season. As the name indicates, the league consisted of teams based in Virginia and North Carolina. The Raleigh Senators (1901) and Danville Tobacconists (1905) captured the league championships.

The Carolina Association was a minor league baseball league that played from 1908 to 1912. The Carolina Association played as a six–team Class D level league. The league consisted of teams based in North Carolina and South Carolina, with the same six franchises playing for the duration of the league.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wearn Field</span>

Wearn Field was a ballpark located in Charlotte, North Carolina and home to amateur and professional baseball in Charlotte from 1912 to 1940. Wearn Field was built and owned by Hornets club owner J. H. Wearn alongside his lumber mill. Home plate was at the corner of South Graham and Winona Streets; the right field corner was at South Graham and Commerce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Duke's Mayo Bowl</span> Postseason college football bowl game

The 2021 Duke's Mayo Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 30, 2021, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The 20th edition of the Duke's Mayo Bowl, and the second under its current name, the contest featured the North Carolina Tar Heels of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the South Carolina Gamecocks of the Southeastern Conference. The game began at 11:30 a.m. EST and was televised on ESPN. It was one of the 2021–22 bowl games concluding the 2021 FBS football season. Duke's Mayonnaise served as the game's title sponsor.

The 2022 ACC Championship Game was a college football conference championship game that was played on December 3, 2022, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina to determine the champion of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) for the 2022 season. The game featured the Clemson Tigers, the champion of the Atlantic Division, and the North Carolina Tar Heels, the champion of the Coastal Division. The 18th annual ACC Championship Game, the contest began at 8:00 p.m. EST and aired on ABC. Sponsored by restaurant chain Subway, the game was officially known as the Subway ACC Championship Game.

References

  1. Morrill, Dan L. (July 2020). "Dilworth's Early History 1890-1911" (PDF). historysouth.org. History South. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
  2. "Passed Balls". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. March 17, 1899. p. 4.
  3. "Real Freaking History In Charlotte: Baseball". tangentsmag.com. August 17, 2017. Retrieved 2022-11-23. The history of the class D minor league team stretched back to 1892 when they played in a baseball stadium in Latta Park.
  4. Walker, Richard (August 29, 2015). "A look back at Charlotte's rich college football history". gastongazette.com. Gaston Gazette. Retrieved February 22, 2023. In what is believed to be the first major college football game played in Charlotte, North Carolina routed Virginia Tech 32-5 three weeks after the Tar Heels had wrapped up the inaugural championship of the first-year Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
  5. "Clemson Beats the Tar Heels in Charlotte". The Morning Post. November 29, 1901. p. 1 via Newspapers.com.
  6. Powell, Lew (August 18, 2012). "Charlotte's appeal to teams: 'absence of temptation'". blogs.lib.unc.edu. NC Miscellany. Retrieved 2022-11-23. Charlotte provided spring training for at least two National League baseball teams. After the Philadelphia Phillies trained there in 1899… The Brooklyn Dodgers followed in 1901.
  7. Pomrenke, Jacob (April 5, 2011). SABR Spring Training Database: Sorted by host city (PDF). Society for American Baseball Research. p. 29.
  8. Perry, Maria (March 14, 2015). "Wearn Field". Lost Charlotte: The Queen City of the South’s Past Revisited. MariaPerry1. Retrieved 2022-11-24.
  9. "Knights Pay Tribute to Charlotte Baseball Past, Present & Future". milb.com. MLB Advanced Media. March 27, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
  10. "A history of baseball in Charlotte". cmlibrary.org. Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. August 15, 2019. Retrieved February 21, 2023.

"Latta Park". statscrew.com. Stats Crew. 2022. Retrieved 2022-11-23.