League Park / Dunn Field

**Jobu Voodoo** · 05-25-2012, 09:03 AM

By the way, are there any other Clevelanders here? If so, do you plan on going?

**chip** · 05-25-2012, 09:07 AM

First of I'll believe it when I see it.

Second Can you re-post this in the League Park thread that already exists?

Thanks

**Jobu Voodoo** · 05-25-2012, 09:13 AM

I didn't know there was a league park post. Is it on the front page?

**Chevy114** · 05-25-2012, 09:26 AM

Can we see renderings because that would be so cool!

**chip** · 05-25-2012, 09:36 AM

bump for voodoo

**chip** · 05-25-2012, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by Jobu Voodoo

I didn't know there was a league park post. Is it on the front page?

That's O.K.

I bumped it up for you.

**Jobu Voodoo** · 05-25-2012, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by Chevy114

Can we see renderings because that would be so cool!

Here you go Chevy...

leaguepark1.jpg leaguepark2.jpg leaguepark3.jpg leaguepark4.jpg leaguepark5.jpg

The pictures were found here http://www.leaguepark.org and I believe they are the Cleveland-Based group that received the $5 million dollars. I guess they received a grant from the city. "The old ballpark, once home of the Cleveland Indians and the 1945 Negro League champion Cleveland Buckeyes, and adjacent parkland will undergo $5 million in renovations, said Ken Silliman, chief of staff for Mayor Frank Jackson. Silliman said work will begin late this spring or in early summer and be finished in about a year."

**chip** · 05-25-2012, 12:55 PM

There is no way all of that would cost only $5 million.
That is definitely not the plan they are doing.

**kpennington** · 05-25-2012, 02:14 PM

I was thinking the same thing.

**Jobu Voodoo** · 05-25-2012, 03:34 PM

Originally Posted by chip

There is no way all of that would cost only $5 million.
That is definitely not the plan they are doing.

You really don't think so? I believe it is definitely possible to renovate/build it for $5,000,000 or at least pay for most of it. It isn't going to be built like a modern day Major League field, nor even like a modern day Minor League field. Based on that draft, seating only goes from behind home plate and then wraps out to 1st and 3rd with no seating past either base and no seating in the outfield. Not to mention, it wouldn't be like Jacobs field where there are three stories where you can walk around just about the entire stadium on each level.

For instance, these were estimates to build a full size field in Wyoming with bleacher seating down 1st and 3rd.

http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/...p_06-05-11.txt Granted, that field doesn't have the building structures, but I highly doubt it would cost more than $5 million to build them. Not to mention, quite a bit of League Park appears to still be standing.

**EdTarbusz** · 05-25-2012, 03:48 PM

I'm a transplanted Clevelander who thinks that doing a huge renovation to League Park would be a huge boondoggle, especially since it doesn't border a main street and there is no real parking in the area. I worked in the community center across the street from the League Park site and I think it would be better to just make a nice park out of it.

**Jobu Voodoo** · 05-25-2012, 06:17 PM

Well, the main street issue isn't really a problem, because there are multiple main street access points that are only a stone's throw away. However, my concern with it is the surrounding neighborhood. Either way, if and when it is done, I'd HAVE to go see it at least once.

**chip** · 05-26-2012, 03:29 AM

This is from the Plain Dealer Feb, 8, 2011

You can see what $5 Mill will get you........

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- After years of fits, starts and disappointment, the late Councilwoman Fannie Lewis' plan to develop historic League Park in Cleveland's Hough neighborhood will become reality in the next few years.

City Council on Monday approved spending $387,000 to hire an architectural firm to create plans and oversee the renovation of the former home of the Cleveland Indians at East 66th Street and Lexington Avenue.

Mayor Frank Jackson's administration has committed $5 million to complete the first phase of the project, which is expected to be completed in 2012.

That will include restoration of the ticket house and bleacher wall, which are still standing, and construction of a ball diamond on same footprint where the Indians won the World Series title in 1920, Babe Ruth swatted his 500th home run in 1929 and the Cleveland Buckeyes won a Negro League championship in 1945.

The League Park project has languished for more than a decade. Councilman T.J. Dow, who eventually succeeded Lewis after her death in 2008 at age 82, has been working with the Jackson administration and a group of Hough residents the last year to get the League Park project moving.

Dow and Ken Silliman, Jackson's chief of staff, said residents have been instrumental in voicing their ideas and concerns about what they wanted League Park to be.

"They want to make sure it's accessible to the community and kids can enjoy the space and can play some on that field," Dow said.

City officials hope to leverage plans, drawings and momentum to raise another $3.5 million in private donations to pay for the project's second phase, which could include bleachers, locker rooms, a concession stand and other amenities.

Silliman said he has had preliminary talks with an official from Major League Baseball, a potential source of funding, about how a rebuilt League Park could help spark a baseball renaissance in the inner-city.

Lewis' vision for League Park was about much more than baseball, however. She saw the project as a way to help revive a community charred by riots, poverty and neglect.

While Lewis advocated for and oversaw progress in the neighborhood, League Park remained an important piece of unfinished business for her. Dow is pleased that Lewis' legacy will be further enshrined in what had been her field of dreams.

"I think she's looking down and is very happy," Dow said.

**milladrive** · 05-26-2012, 05:41 AM

Originally Posted by chip

That's O.K.

I bumped it up for you.

Heh, nine outta ten times, more gets accomplished if I'm contacted.

Anyway, I think this is pretty terrific news and hope it comes to fruition, but, after all the talk and the rumors, I'll, like you say, believe it when I see it.

**chip** · 05-26-2012, 09:55 AM

Thanks milladrive,
I'll try and remember next time.

**POLO GROUNDS 1957** · 07-13-2012, 01:22 PM

League Park.png

Drawing of League Park Cleveland

**alpineinc** · 07-22-2012, 06:11 PM

MUCH larger size of one of the blueprints I posted in January. From 1909.

League%u00252520Park_2.JPG

Huge 2560x1712 size!

League Park detail from a "Layout of Baseball Parks" by Osborn Engineering.

League%u00252520Park%2520Four.JPG

Overview of the "Layout" with 7 ballparks. I'll have to chop 'em up and put others in their respective threads too.

osborn1.jpg

Much larger size

Album of 49 League Park related pics here (most are contemporary) - https://picasaweb.google.com/joeypdrain/LeaguePark

**The Old Ballpark** · 07-22-2012, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by alpineinc

MUCH larger size of one of the blueprints I posted in January. From 1909.

League Park detail from a "Layout of Baseball Parks" by Osborn Engineering.

Overview of the "Layout" with 7 ballparks. I'll have to chop 'em up and put others in their respective threads too.

Amazing find, Alpine. Thanks

**alpineinc** · 07-27-2012, 06:04 PM

Interesting renderings of many classic parks at the site linked below, and a good job done on League Park. Probably the most interesting thing is having a night time rendering of a park in the pre-night-baseball era. That, and the baffling use of contemporary clothing of the fans milling about (!). Anyway, more details on photos at first link.

League-Park-Large.jpg

Brickwork detail.

League-Park-Brickwork.jpg

Seat figural.

League-Park-Seat-Figural.jpg

Grandstand cutaway

League-Park-Grandstand.jpg

Little more intimate at the old park; cutaways of Progressive Field and League Park side by side

League-Park-Intimacy.jpg

http://www.legendaryballparks.com/Ex...ague-Park.html

http://www.legendaryballparks.com/The-Ballparks.html

**chip** · 07-28-2012, 07:31 AM

Found new renderings of the renovation from City Architecture.....

**PowerAlley21** · 07-29-2012, 11:01 AM

I like the redevelopment proposal above and I'm glad they retained the original footprint of the field. I realize budget is a concern, but down the road perhaps a more substantial scoreboard/batters eye can be erected in CF and a perminent grandstand structure can be built (the bleachers behind HP seem to metal bleachers on concrete slab).

I also noticed the footprint of the old dugout tunnel is delineated in the concourse pavers above. Anybody know if they are salvaging the existing old tunnel?

**J.E.Fullerton** · 08-03-2012, 02:55 AM

The Thos.J. Woodman computer illustrations are very nice after their own fashion, but have some regrettable shortcomings. Aside from the dubious aesthetic decisions such as dismal 90's/aughts grunge-clothed pedestrians shambling about truly classic ballparks in their heyday, and the oddly anachronistic themed 'park banners' displayed so prominently, these depictions really would have benefited from the collaborative input that bkhockey has commendably welcomed in his Yankee Stadium c. 1923 project. Specifically here, he has included a strange and fictitious "League Park" title stone on both sides of the Home Plate corner facade. I do not believe there is the slightest bit of evidence for such. Also, there is photographic evidence that the upper deck of LP was actually of wooden construction, not concrete as indicated in this model. More exactingly, his rendition of the supports of the flagpole mounts is, imo, flawed. The blueprints would seem to indicate the outermost edge of the support bracket to be brick, but he has the entire thing in metal. More explication of this anon.

**SultanOfWhat** · 09-03-2012, 03:45 PM

CLEVELAND - 1920. View of the interior of League Park in Cleveland, with a game in progress sometime in the 1920 season.

11 Oct 1920 --- Original caption: 10/11/1920-Cleveland, OH- Among the veteran ball players who witnessed the fifth game of the World Series at Cleveland Sunday were Cy Young and Napoleon La Joie, both stars of the Cleveland teams of by gone days. Photo shows them with Tris Speaker, La Joie on the left and Young on the right.

CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 16, 1923: Babe Ruth standing before game in visitor's dugout. The Yankees split a doubleheader with the Indians at League Park, losing the first 6-0 and taking the second game 11-7. Ruth scored four runs in game two.

CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 16, 1923: Babe Ruth poses with young fans before Indians- Yankees doubleheader at League Park. The teams spilit; the Indians winning the first game 6-0 while the Yankees took the second 11-7. The Babe had no home runs but scored four times in the second game.