City of Cleveland restores League Park; will host amateur games
CLEVELAND -- On the corner of E. 66th St. and Lexington Ave., it had stood as a ramshackle reminder of another time. There were broken windows and rotting brickwork lining its exterior, squatters sleeping in its former ticket booth, weeds springing out from the once-lush field of green where luminaries like Cy Young, Babe Ruth and Bob Feller once roamed.
League Park, a home to the Indians from 1901-46, was not unlike much of its surroundings in the Hough neighborhood, an area long ago known as "Little Hollywood" that became a typical symbol of urban blight in 20th-century America.
But with the help of Cleveland's $6.3 million restoration project, a ballpark that once served as a symbol of Hough's faded past is now the centerpiece of its hopeful future.
The official unveiling will be at 1 p.m. ET Saturday, in a ceremony that will be attended by Mayor Frank Jackson, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and former Indians Andre Thornton and Travis Hafner, among others. The Cleveland Blues, a vintage baseball club, will take the field, as will the city's RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) team. Hafner will don 1920s-era Tribe garb and put on a home-run-hitting display.
MORE: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/cle/renovated-league-park-in-cleveland-ready-to-open?ymd=20140821&content_id=90730424&vkey=news_cle
Babe Ruth hit his 500th home run here. Link says the plan is for it to hold Little League, high school, college and recreational games, and maybe pro fantasy camps.
League Park, home of the Cleveland ball club from 1901-46:
Field restoration:
