Russwood Park was a stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. It was primarily used for baseball and was the home of the Memphis Chicks [[Minor League [[Memphis Red Sox ( Negro American League)|Memphis Red Sox (1945-47) Baseball|minor league baseball]] team until the spring of 1960. The ballpark was originally built in 1896 and was known as Elm Wood Park or Red Elm Park. In 1915, team owner Russell E. Garner incorporated his name into the ballpark's name. The "wood" part of the name would figure into its demise.
Before its dramatic end, the ballpark was best known for being among the more uniquely shaped ballfields in the country. As with Nashville's Sulphur Dell, it was in a natural "bowl". The slopes were used as convenient foundations for seating areas. Constrained by its topography, a creek, and pre-existing buildings, the park was on an asymmetrical lot, with the deepest parts of left and right fields being significantly farther from home plate than the straightaway center.
City directories gave its street address as 914 Madison Avenue. Its boundary streets included Madison (south, home plate), Dunlap Street (west, left field), and Jefferson Avenue beyond bordering buildings (north, center field). The creek (later covered to make a parking lot) ran outside the right field fence. The outfield dimensions following the 1921 remodeling were: left field 424 feet (129.2 m); center field 366 feet (111.6 m); and right field 301 feet (91.7 m), quickly angling out to a very deep right-center, about 425 feet (129.5 m). The left field distance was shortened somewhat by constructing an inner fence and bleachers. During construction of the foundations for a new stand on December 19, 1921, an unsupported trench caved in, resulting in injuries to six laborers and the death of 25-year-old Dace Smith. [1]
It was also the home field for the Memphis Tigers football team from 1912 to 1928, known as the West Tennessee State Normal School and the West Tennessee State Teachers College.
One of its better-known non-baseball events was a concert by Memphis' adoptive son Elvis Presley on July 4, 1956. Coincidentally, 21 years later, Elvis would be pronounced dead at the Baptist Hospital across Madison Street to the south.
The largest crowd attendance for wrestling in Memphis was set on August 17, 1959, at Russwood Park. The main event was Billy Wicks and Sputnik Monroe fighting in a no-contest for Monroe's Tennessee Championship. Attendance for the event has been reported to be between 17,000 and 18,000. The record would stand until the Monday Night Wars Era.
The final event at the old ballpark was a pre-season exhibition game between the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1960. A reported 7,279 fans watched the Indians beat the White Sox 2-1.
The ballpark was a relic constructed primarily of wood except for steel supports for the roof. A fire of undetermined origin destroyed the ballpark that night after the game. [2] The blaze threatened the Baptist Hospital across the street from it, and patients had to be evacuated.
The Chicks played in several temporary facilities for the 1960 season, including a cramped high school football field a couple of blocks northeast of the ballpark site called Hodges Field, and then a city-owned field called Tobey Park. After the season, the club moved to Macon, Georgia. As it happens, the entire Southern Association disbanded after the 1961 season. A revived minor league entry for the city, called the Memphis Blues, began play in 1968 at Tim McCarver Stadium.
Fenway Park is a baseball stadium located in Boston, Massachusetts, less than one mile from Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the ballpark of Major League Baseball's (MLB) Boston Red Sox. While the stadium was built in 1912, it was substantially rebuilt in 1934, and underwent major renovations and modifications in the 21st century. It is the oldest active ballpark in MLB. Because of its age and constrained location in Boston's dense Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood, the park has many quirky features, including "The Triangle", Pesky's Pole, and the Green Monster in left field. It is the fifth-smallest among MLB ballparks by seating capacity, second-smallest by total capacity, and one of nine that cannot accommodate at least 40,000 spectators.
The Green Monster is a popular nickname for the 37-foot-2-inch-high (11.33 m) left field wall at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball. The wall is 310 feet (94 m) from home plate and is a popular target for right-handed hitters.
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 1940s, the park was also the home field of the Cleveland Buckeyes of the Negro American League.
Griffith Stadium stood in Washington, D.C., from 1911 to 1965, between Georgia Avenue and 5th Street, and between W Street and Florida Avenue NW.
Hadlock Field is a minor league baseball stadium in Portland, Maine. It is primarily home to the Portland Sea Dogs of the Eastern League but also the Portland High School Bulldogs and Deering High School Rams baseball teams. The stadium is named for Edson B. Hadlock Jr., a long-time Portland High School baseball coach and physics teacher and member of the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame.
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.
Sulphur Dell, formerly known as Sulphur Spring Park and Athletic Park, was a baseball park in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. It was located just north of the Tennessee State Capitol building in the block bounded by modern-day Jackson Street, Fourth Avenue North, Harrison Street, and Fifth Avenue North. The ballpark was home to the city's minor league baseball teams from 1885 to 1963. The facility was demolished in 1969.
A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into two field sections called the infield and the outfield. The infield is an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined in part based on the placement of bases, and the outfield is where dimensions can vary widely from ballpark to ballpark. A larger ballpark may also be called a baseball stadium because it shares characteristics of other stadiums.
Borchert Field was a baseball park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The home field for several professional baseball clubs from 1888 through 1952, it became obsolete after the construction of County Stadium in 1953 and was demolished later that year. The site is now covered by Interstate 43.
Tim McCarver Stadium was a stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. It was primarily used for baseball and was the home of the Memphis Blues (1968–1976), the Memphis Chicks (1978–1997), and the Memphis Redbirds (1998–1999).
Swayne Field was a minor league baseball park in Toledo, Ohio. It was the home of the Toledo Mud Hens from July 3, 1909, until the club disbanded after the 1955 season. It was also home to a short-lived entry in the South-Michigan League in 1914.
Sports in Memphis, Tennessee are supported in the city by Memphis Park Services, which offers a wide range of public facilities, including 17 swimming pools, 8 public golf courses, 48 athletic fields hosting a range of 510 youth and 269 adult teams, 130 basketball courts, 7 tennis centers and a soccer complex.
The Roanoke Red Sox was a primary name of the minor league baseball teams based in Roanoke, Virginia. Between 1894 and 1953, Roanoke teams played as members of the Virginia League and Piedmont League (1943–1953), winning five league championships and one pennant. Roanoke teams were a minor league affiliate of the Cleveland Indians in 1940 and Boston Red Sox from 1943 to 1953. Baseball Hall of Fame members Jack Chesbro (1896) and Heinie Manush (1943) played for Roanoke.
Oriole Park was the name of multiple baseball parks in Baltimore, Maryland, all built within a few blocks of each other.
The Scranton Miners was the name of several minor league baseball clubs that existed in Scranton, Pennsylvania, between 1886 and 1953.
The Memphis Red Sox were an American Negro league baseball team that was active from 1920 to 1959. Originally named the Barber College Baseball Club, the team was initially owned and operated by Arthur P. Martin, a local Memphis barber. In the late 1920s the Martin brothers, all three Memphis doctors and businessmen, purchased the Red Sox. J. B. Martin, W. S. Martin, and B. B. Martin, would retain control of the club till its dissolution in 1959. The Red Sox played as members, at various times, of the Negro Southern League, Negro National League, and Negro American League. The team was never a titan of the Negro leagues like wealthier teams in northern cities of the United States, but sound management led to a continuous thirty-nine years of operation, a span that was exceeded by very few other teams. Following integration the team had five players that would eventually make the rosters of Major League Baseball teams and two players that were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Oriole Park (V) is the name used by baseball historians to designate the longest-lasting of several former major league and minor league baseball parks in Baltimore, Maryland, each one named Oriole Park.
The Memphis Chicks were a Minor League Baseball team that played in the Southern Association from 1901 to 1960. They were located in Memphis, Tennessee, and played their home games at Russwood Park. Known originally as the Memphis Egyptians and Memphis Turtles before becoming the Memphis Chickasaws, often shortened to Chicks, they were charter members of the Southern Association.