Tinker Field was an outdoor

baseball stadium 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 ...

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

, United States. Named after

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

r Joe Tinker, it was located in the West Lakes neighborhoods of

Downtown Orlando Downtown Orlando is the historic core and central business district of Orlando, Florida, United States. It is bordered by Marks Street in the north, Mills Avenue ( SR 15) in the east, Orange Blossom Trail ( US 441) in the west, and Kaley Avenue in ...

, adjacent to the

Camping World Stadium Camping World Stadium is a stadium in Orlando, Florida, located in the West Lakes neighborhood of Downtown Orlando, west of new sports and entertainment facilities including the Amway Center, the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, ...

and one mile west of the

Amway Center Amway Center is an indoor arena located in Downtown Orlando, Florida. The arena is home to the Orlando Magic of the NBA, the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL, and the Orlando Predators of the National Arena League. Amway Center hosted the 2012 N ...

. In April 2015 the City of Orlando tore down the grandstands and removed all other extant buildings. Constructed in 1914, Tinker Field was the spring training home of the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, Californi ...

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

, Washington Senators, and

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 ...

. It was also the home park of the Orlando Rays

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 No ...

baseball team before they moved to Cracker Jack Stadium in 2000. It was located directly adjacent to the western side of the

Orlando Citrus Bowl Stadium Camping World Stadium is a stadium in Orlando, Florida, located in the West Lakes neighborhood of Downtown Orlando, west of new sports and entertainment facilities including the Amway Center, the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, an ...

and boasted a capacity of 5,100 before the grandstands were removed in 2015.

History

The field first saw use for baseball in 1914; the first known stadium built on the site was in 1923. It was all-wood construction and seated 1,500. For the next 10 years, the Cincinnati Reds would call Tinker Field their spring training home til 1933. The Brooklyn Dodgers trained there in 1934 and 1935. In 1936 Clark Griffith moved the Washington Senators to Orlando, where the Washington Senators/

would train until after the 1990 season. The stadium was rebuilt again in 1963, and when

Griffith Stadium Griffith Stadium stood in Washington, D.C., from 1911 to 1965, between Georgia Avenue and 5th Street (left field), and between W Street and Florida Avenue NW. The site was once home to a wooden baseball park. Built in 1891, it was called Boundar ...

in Washington, D.C., was demolished, nearly 1,000 of the stadium's seats were moved to Tinker Field. The remaining seats were sold by the City of Orlando in 2015. The old press box next to the home side dugout was the original press box and can be seen in photographs as early as the 1920s. Tinker Field was added to the United States

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2004. With One of the most historical non-baseball events to take place at Tinker Field was a visit from Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

on March 6, 1964. He spoke before thousands of people from the pitcher's mound in his only public speech in the city. On January 28, 2014, during the groundbreaking of the Orlando Citrus Bowl Stadium reconstruction, it was announced that the grandstands and all other extant buildings surrounding Tinker Field would be torn down. The reasons cited were that the expansion of the Orlando Citrus Bowl Stadium would shorten right field so much that it would make it unusable even if it the entire building complex was renovated. On March 9, 2015, Orlando City Council approved an ordinance to demolish the grandstands and buildings, and allocated money to re-create the area surrounding the field. In September, 2015, the City of Orlando held a public input meeting and unveiled preliminary plans to memorialize Tinker Field. Tinker Field History Plaza opened in May 2018, memorializing civil rights and baseball in Orlando.

Present

Each November, Tinker Field hosts the

Electric Daisy Carnival Electric Daisy Carnival, commonly known as EDC, is an electronic dance music festival organized by promoter and distributor Insomniac. The annual flagship event, EDC Las Vegas, is held in May at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and is currently t ...

—a three-day festival that features electronic dance music with celebrity DJs, visual effects, rides, and art. On September 6, 2015, Tinker Field was the site of West Lakes Family Fun Day—an event held by members of the neighborhoods surrounding the field prior to the MEAC/SWAC Challenge. Each June or July, Tinker Field hosted the Orlando

Vans Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running tour ...

—a one-day festival that features

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States a ...

with popular bands from around the world.

Gallery

File:Tinker Field original interior.jpg, Interior of the original Tinker Field File:Orlando Tinker Field02.jpg, Updated Entry that was added in 1990. File:Orlando Tinker Field03.jpg, View from Tampa Ave along the Left Field line. File:Orlando-Tinker-Field04.jpg, Looking down on Tinker field from The Florida Citrus Bowl.

References

External links

Orange County listings
a
National Register of Historic Places

a
Orlando: A Visual History

{{Senior Professional Baseball Association Brooklyn Dodgers spring training venues Cincinnati Reds spring training venues Grapefruit League venues Minor league baseball venues Minnesota Twins spring training venues National Register of Historic Places in Orange County, Florida Sports venues in Orlando, Florida Washington Senators (1901–1960) stadiums Baseball venues in Florida Sports venues on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida 1914 establishments in Florida Defunct baseball venues in the United States Defunct minor league baseball venues 2015 disestablishments in Florida Sports venues completed in 1914 Sports venues demolished in 2015