Athletic Park was the home of the

Minneapolis Millers The Minneapolis Millers were an American professional minor league baseball team that played in Minneapolis, Minnesota, through 1960. In the 19th century a different Minneapolis Millers were part of the Western League. The team played first in ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

team from 1889 to mid-season 1896. The park was located behind the

West Hotel Opened in 1884, the West Hotel was Minneapolis's first grand hotel. It had 407 luxuriously furnished rooms, 140 baths, and featured an immense and opulent lobby which was claimed to be the largest in the nation. These elements combined to make wha ...

at 6th St and 1st Ave North in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

near where

Target Center Target Center is a multi-purpose arena located in Minneapolis that opened in 1990. It hosts major family shows, concerts, sporting events, graduations and private events. Target Corporation, founded and headquartered in Minneapolis since 1902, ...

and

Target Field Target Field is a baseball stadium in the historic warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis. Since its opening in 2010, the stadium has been the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins. The stadium hosted the 2014 Major Leag ...

are today. Mplsathleticpark 18941896

The park was originally built in 1889 under the supervision of local architects Fremont D. Orff and

George W. Orff George W. Orff (1835-1908), was an American architect of Bangor, Maine and Minnesota.Deborah Thompson, ''Bangor, Maine, 1769-1914: An Architectural History'' (Orono: University of Maine Press, 1988) Life and career George W. Orff was born March ...

. Bleachers seating roughly 1,600 people were added in 1890; a grandstand with capacity for 1,800 people was built in 1892. The park burned down in 1893, but was rebuilt the next year and further improved. Athletic Park's playing field was very small with distances estimated at between to to the left and right field foul poles. This meant home runs were common in an era otherwise not known for them.

Perry Werden Percival Wheritt "Perry" Werden (July 21, 1865 – January 9, 1934) was an American baseball player. He was a first baseman for the St. Louis Maroons (1884), Washington Nationals (1888), Toledo Maumees (1890), Baltimore Orioles (1891), St. Louis ...

's 42 home runs in 1894 and 45 home runs in 1895 were several times higher than contemporary

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

players and would not be challenged until

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

's rise in the 1920s. The park's shallow outfield meant hits (particularly to right field) still required batters to run hard to first base to avoid being thrown out. High fencing and wire mesh in the outfield helped prevent balls from leaving the field. The park's small dimensions also required some

ground rules In baseball, ground rules are special rules particular to each baseball park (grounds) in which the game is played. Unlike the well-defined playing field of most other sports, the playing area of a baseball field extends to an outfield fence in fa ...

for ruling whether outfield hits were counted as a

ground rule double A ground rule double is a baseball rule that awards two bases from the time of pitch to all baserunners including the batter-runner, as a result of the ball leaving play after being hit fairly and leaving the field under a condition of the ground ...

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

. The park was the stage for one major league game: a contest between Columbus and Milwaukee of the American Association on October 2, 1891. Milwaukee won 5-0 thanks to excellent pitching from former Minneapolis Miller

Frank Killen Frank Bissell "Lefty" Killen (November 30, 1870 – December 3, 1939) was a professional baseball player. He was a left-handed pitcher over parts of ten seasons (1891–1900) with the Milwaukee Brewers, Washington Senators (NL), Pittsburgh Pi ...

. Several other games had been planned, but cold and rainy weather prevented playing on October 1st and 3rd. This would be the last major league baseball game played in Minnesota until the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

were founded in 1961.

Ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

was played here in 1896 when the

Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey The Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey team is the college ice hockey team at the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. They are members of the Big Ten Conference and compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) ...

team played the

Winnipeg Victorias The Winnipeg Victorias were a former amateur senior-level men's amateur ice hockey team in Winnipeg, Manitoba, organized in 1889. They played in the Manitoba Hockey Association (MHA) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Victorias wo ...

. The

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team also made use of the field. The ballpark was sold during May of the 1896 baseball season and the Millers were evicted. They returned from a June road trip and opened their hastily-constructed new facility,

Nicollet Park Nicollet Park was a baseball ground located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The venue was home to the minor league Minneapolis Millers of the Western League and later American Association from 1896 to 1955. The ballpark opened on June ...

. The site remained open as a site for various events, until finally being turned over to developers. In 1901, the so-called "baseball block" was purchased by

T. B. Walker Thomas Barlow Walker (February 1, 1840 – July 28, 1928) was an American business magnate who acquired lumber in Minnesota and California and became an collection (artwork), art collector. Walker founded the Minneapolis Public Library. He was amon ...

and later developed into the

Butler Square Butler Square (originally the Butler Brothers Company building) is a former warehouse and office building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The building is located within the Minneapolis warehouse district and was listed on the National ...

warehouse.

References

External links

1891 LOC map showing the ballpark, near right edge about halfway down (point of interest 37)

References

External links

Further reading