League Park - Structure

Structure

When it originally opened in 1891, it had 9,000 wooden seats. A single deck grandstand was behind homeplate, a covered pavilion was along the first base line, and bleachers were located at various other places in the park. The ballpark was shoehorned to fit into the Cleveland street grid, which contorted the dimensions into a rather odd rectangular shape by modern standards. The fence in left field was 385 feet (117 m), a tremendous 460 feet (140 m) away in center, and a short 290 feet (88 m) down the right field foul line. However, batters had to hit the ball over a 60-foot (18 m) fence to get a home run (by comparison, the Green Monster at Fenway Park is only 37 feet (11 m) high).

It was essentially rebuilt prior to the 1910 season, with concrete and steel double-decker grandstands, expanding the seating capacity to 21,414. The design work was completed by Osborn Engineering, a local architecture firm that would go on to design several iconic ballparks over the next three years, including Comiskey Park, the Polo Grounds, Tiger Stadium, and Fenway Park. The front edge of the upper and lower decks were vertically aligned, bringing the up-front rows in the upper deck closer to the action, but those in back could not see much of foul territory.

The fence was rejiggered, bringing the left field fence in 10 feet closer (375 feet (114 m)) and center field fence in 40 feet (420 feet (130 m)); the right field fence remained at 290 feet (88 m).

League Park circa 1905 (top), and in 2009 (bottom).

Batters still had to surmount a 60-foot (18 m) fence to hit a home run (by comparison, the Green Monster at Fenway Park is only 37 feet (11 m) high). The fence in left field was only five feet tall, but batters had to hit the ball 375 feet (114 m) down the line to hit a home run, and it was fully 460 feet (140 m) to the scoreboard in the deepest part of center field. The diamond, situated in the northwest corner of the block, was slightly tilted counterclockwise, making right field not quite as easy a target as Baker Bowl's right field (which also had a 60-foot (18 m) wall), for example.