Commons Area At The Riverforks
According to Seneca College's Professor Bill Humber, a noted Canadian baseball historian and author, the site of today's Labatt Park was likely used for recreational games when it was a grassy commons area at the riverforks, prior to becoming Tecumseh Park in 1877.
Baseball's roots are in the immediate area around London. The game of baseball, a derivative of the British game of rounders, had probably arrived in the area from nearby Beachville, Ontario, where the world's first recorded baseball game was played in 1838. (See Baseball Before We Knew It and Origins of baseball for other possible origins).
This is the world's oldest baseball park.
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