League Park

This is a comprehensive history of League Park, primary home field for Major League Baseball in Cleveland from 1891 to 1946, but with a significant history that includes the National Football League, Negro League baseball, college football and boxing, and an uncanny multitude of amazing events and people. This chronicle allows for these grounds to take their place among the more heralded parks of baseball’s past and present. The site has survived to this day as a baseball grounds; a groundbreaking for renovations took place in October 2012.

Ken Krsolovic, an athletic administrator, baseball coach and sports broadcaster at several colleges and universities, was a collegiate sports information director who wrote and designed 30 award-winning team media guides. He lives in Concord, Ohio.

Cleveland prosecutor Bryan Fritz, who previously published a book about the history of John Carroll University football, lives in Fairview Park, Ohio.

Ken Krsolovic and Bryan Fritz

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 228
Bibliographic Info: 106 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6826-3
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9328-9
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi
Preface 1
Introduction 3

1—The Wooden Era 5
2—Concrete and Steel 32
3—1920 and the World Series 54
4—Call It Dunn Field 71
5—Surviving the Stadium 91
6—Negro League Park 126
7—Beyond Baseball 137
8—Decline and Rebirth 157

Appendices 179
A—League Park and Its Teams, by Year 179
B—Box Scores from Memorable Games 181
C—Dunn Field Pointers 196
Chapter Notes 209
Bibliography 213
Index 217

• “[t]he authors have created a well-documented and carefully constructed history of a ballpark, a fan base, and a community…a loving search to explain why the ballpark deserves a worthy place in history. Krsolovic and Fritz do excellent detective work, exploiting primary sources and a mix of histories to present a chronological understanding of the importance of early ballparks to any geographic area, and to those who reside there”—SABR Deadball Committee Newsletter
• “a well-researched look at one of major-league baseball’s quirkier ballparks…generously sprinkled with vintage black-and-white photos of the park”—The Tampa Tribune