Monday, February 25, 2013

photographs of almost abandoned places

League Park. Cleveland, Ohio.
 
The park was built again in 1910, expanding seating from nine thousand to eighteen, and eventually over twenty-one. The ballpark was originally opened in 1891 at the end of a streetcar line that was also owned by the same man (this was in the age where taxpayers did not give ballparks away). The  Spiders played for the championship of the National League twice before the disastrous final season of 1899, when the owner stripped the team of its best players for his St. Louis club. The team was so bad, other teams refused to come to Cleveland, and Cleveland played almost half of their 'home' games away. In 1900 they became a minor league team, the Cleveland Lake Shores (such lame nicknames were common at the time). In 1901 the American League became a major league, and the team became the Bluebirds, and soon they were named Naps after their star Napoleon Lajoie.  From 1912 to 1915 they were the Molly McGuires (unionists in the coal fields), after which they became the Indians in 1915. The last major league game played here was September 21, 1946. The Buckeyes played here in 1943-8 and two months in 1950. Most of the park was razed in 1951, and some more in 2002. A restoration and building project are supposed to begin this year.[click]
 League Park Center (formerly ticket office), many broken windows.
wall on E. 66th going south (third base line)
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postscriptum: field is in operation, building rehabilitated

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