Parkway Field is the name of a

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 ...

that stood in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. It was home to

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

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 ...

, and

negro league The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

teams throughout its life, with the longest stints by the

Louisville Colonels The Louisville Colonels were a Major League Baseball team that also played in the American Association (AA) throughout that league's ten-year existence from 1882 until 1891. They were known as the Louisville Eclipse from 1882 to 1884, and as ...

of 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 ...

from 1923 into the mid-1950s, and the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

baseball team for several decades until they abandoned it in 1998 in favor of

Cardinal Stadium Cardinal Stadium, formerly known as Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, is a football stadium located in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, on the southern end of the campus of the University of Louisville. Debuting in 1998, it serves as the home o ...

. Prior to its demolition, Parkway Field had become a home run haven for U of L Head Coach Gene Baker's "Over the Wall Gang." The Cards led NCAA Division I in long balls in 1991 and 1992 while finishing runnerup in 1995. The 1991 squad featured six Cardinals who tallied at least 15 roundtrippers each, Richie Hawks, Rob Newman, Greg Gooding, Dan Kopriva, Charlie Allen, and Darren Oppel. The 1992 club also topped the nation in team batting average and team slugging percentage.

Dimensions

In the Louisville ''Courier-Journal'' of August 16, 1936, p.41, the dimensions were given as follows: home plate to left field ; center field ; right field ; backstop . Later, signs were posted on the fences, stating left field 329, center 507, right 345. The Louisville ''Courier-Journal'' of June 10, 1944, p.13, reported that the ballpark had been re-surveyed, and that centerfield (whose wall had been moved inward a few years earlier) was "only" from home plate; the foul line distances of 329 and 345 were confirmed.

Remnants

The ballpark site is south of

Eastern Parkway Eastern Parkway is a major road that runs through a portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, it was the world's first parkway, having been built between 1870 and 1874. At the time of ...

and west of Brook Street, near the university campus. The field itself remains, and is still used for intramural football and soccer at the university. The stadium seating has long since been demolished. In the early 2000s there were still some visible remnants of the ballfield, including the poorly kept diamond, backstop, dugouts and outfield walls. Those have since been removed, leaving just a chain-link fenced, rectangular football/soccer field.

References

* ''Ballparks of North America'', by Michael Benson.

External links

Parkway Field remnants

Defunct baseball venues in the United States Defunct National Football League venues Minor league baseball venues Negro league baseball venues Louisville Cardinals baseball Louisville Cardinals football Sports venues in Louisville, Kentucky Demolished buildings and structures in Louisville, Kentucky American football venues in Kentucky Baseball venues in Kentucky {{Louisville-sport-stub

Dimensions

Remnants

See also

References

External links