LaGrave Field is an abandoned

baseball park A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into the infield, an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined, and the outfield, where dimensions can vary widely from place to pla ...

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

. It was primarily used for

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 ...

and was the home field of the

Fort Worth Cats The Fort Worth Cats was a professional baseball team based in Fort Worth, Texas, in the United States. The Cats were a member of the South Division of the now disbanded United League Baseball, which was not affiliated with Major League Baseball. ...

independent

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

team. Its original version was the home of the predecessor Panthers/Cats team of the

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

from 1926–1958; the

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 ...

in 1959; and then in the Texas League again in 1964. It also served as the part-time home of the

Dallas Rangers The Dallas Rangers were a high-level minor league baseball team located in Dallas, Texas from 1958 to 1964. The team was known by the Dallas Rangers name in 1958, 1959, and 1964 and as the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers from 1960 to 1963. It played in ...

during 1960–1962. The ballpark was rebuilt during 2001 and opened in 2002 after the club played one season at Lon Goldstein Field. The ballpark sits on land bounded by a parking lot and then North Calhoun Street (southwest, first base); Northeast 6th Street (if extended) (southeast, right field); Northeast 7th Street (if extended) (northwest, third base); and the banks of a branch of the Trinity River (northeast, left field). The imaginary line running from home plate through second base runs roughly east-southeast. During the team's inaugural 2014 season, LaGrave Field hosted home games for the

Fort Worth Vaqueros FC Fort Worth Vaqueros FC is an American amateur soccer club based in Fort Worth, Texas, which began play in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) in May 2014. The Vaqueros play in the Lone Star Conference of the South Region. The club is based a ...

of the

National Premier Soccer League The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) is an American men's association football, soccer league. The NPSL is a semi-professional league, comprising some teams that have paid players and some that are entirely amateur. The league is officially ...

History

LaGrave Field opened in 1926 replacing

Panther Park Panther Park was the name of two ballparks located in Fort Worth, Texas. They were the home fields of the Fort Worth Cats, Fort Worth Panthers from 1911 to 1925 and from 1926 onward, respectively. The first park was initially called Morris Park, ...

, which had been opened in 1911, and was located on the "west side of North Main Street, a few blocks from" the eventual LaGrave Field. Panther Park, in turn, had replaced Haines Park, located on the southeast corner of Pine Street and Pacific (now Presidio) Street (per city directories). After winning consecutive

championships during 1919–1925, the club owners decided to build a new ballpark, which was named for the club's principal owner, Paul LaGrave. It turns out that the last year of the old ballpark was also the last year of the Panthers/Cats string of league titles, but the club would go on to win several more league titles in the 1930s and 1940s. Early in the 1949 season, on May 15–16, the ballpark was attacked on several fronts by a destructive fire and then rains and floods. The ballpark was rebuilt and rededicated in time for the 1950 season. After baseball left the city in 1965, the site languished for years, but parts of it remained. When the site was rebuilt during 2001, the original dugouts were retained and renovated as dugout suites, making LaGrave the only ballpark in

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to house "four dugouts".Fort Worth Cats Official Website
The original location of home plate was also retained. Even at that, the ballpark was planned to be only a temporary site, to be replaced by an $8 million

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

stadium owned by the Fort Worth Sports Authority; however that plan never materialized, due to

soil contamination Soil contamination, soil pollution, or land pollution as a part of land degradation is caused by the presence of xenobiotic (human-made) chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment. It is typically caused by industrial activity ...

and

water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water ...

at the city-owned site

Recent financial challenges

In February 2010, former

owner Carl Bell defaulted on $30 million in notes with LaGrave Field as collateral. Although

Amegy Bank Amegy Bank of Texas (previously known as Southwest Bank of Texas) is a US bank operating in Texas that is a subsidiary of Zions Bancorporation. It is headquartered in the Five Post Oak Park building in the Post Oak Park business park in Houston, ...

had the right to foreclose on the field and some of the adjacent acreage, the bank did not decide to immediately exercise that right.LaGrave Field not being foreclosed on for now
/ref> Former owner Bell also owed over $195,000

in property taxes and penalties for 2010 and sought a buyer for the stadium A scheduled (January 3, 2012) foreclosure auction was averted due to a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing by LaGrave Reconstruction Company Several months later, the debt holder Amegy Bank of Houston finally completed foreclosure and became the landlord of the Cats. On Tuesday, October 2, 2012 it was announced that LaGrave Field had been bought by an affiliate of the team's new ownership group for $4.5 million USD. The Cats eventually folded following the 2014 season. The facility has since been abandoned and vandalized, and in July 2017 the park suffered a fire in a concession stand.

Members of Baseball's Hall of Fame

A sign outside the field states the following information:

Additional Uses

* The southeast end of the stadium's parking lot serves as an official parking area for the

Tarrant County Courthouse The Tarrant County Courthouse is part of the Tarrant County government campus in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. History The Tarrant County Courthouse was designed by the architecture firm of Frederick C. Gunn and Louis Curtiss and built by ...

. *

Texas Wesleyan University Texas Wesleyan University is a private Methodist university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was founded in 1890 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The main campus is located in the Polytechnic Heights neighborhood of Fort Worth. Its mascot is th ...

, an NAIA University also in

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

, played home games at LaGrave Field. * LaGrave Field also hosted various community events such as outdoor

concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety a ...

Boy Scout A Scout (in some countries a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or Pathfinder) is a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split ...

campouts and

auto Auto may refer to: * An automaton * An automobile * An autonomous car * An automatic transmission * An auto rickshaw * Short for automatic * Auto (art), a form of Portuguese dramatic play * ''Auto'' (film), 2007 Tamil comedy film * Auto (play), ...

swap meets.

References

External links

A photo of the original LaGrave Field

Anglea Sports Fields
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lagrave Field Sports venues in Fort Worth, Texas Baseball venues in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex Minor league baseball venues Soccer venues in Texas National Premier Soccer League stadiums 2002 establishments in Texas Sports venues completed in 2002 College baseball venues in the United States