Brookside Stadium

[Govbarney]

I was watching Ken Burns Baseball Chapter 3 tonight , and it was noted during the episode that the highest attend game in baseball history was played On October 15, 1915 in a amateur championship game between White Motor Company and Luxus at a place called Brookside Stadium on the west side of Ctown with a attendance of more then 115,000 people.
I did a little research and it looks like according to bing maps the stadium still exists south of Denison Avenue, between Fulton Road and West 46th Street. Next week when I'm back home I'd like to visit the site, I'm just curious about it from people on this site who may have had the same idea.... Is there anything still there, is there a placket or anything...? What should I expect?

[skatingtripods]

I was watching Ken Burns Baseball Chapter 3 tonight , and it was noted during the episode that the highest attend game in baseball history was played On October 15, 1915 in a amateur championship game between White Motor Company and Luxus at a place called Brookside Stadium on the west side of Ctown with a attendance of more then 115,000 people.
I did a little research and it looks like according to bing maps the stadium still exists south of Denison Avenue, between Fulton Road and West 46th Street. Next week when I'm back home I'd like to visit the site, I'm just curious about it from people on this site who may have had the same idea.... Is there anything still there, is there a placket or anything...? What should I expect?

If you're talking about what I'm thinking of, it's just a park now with a few diamonds. I haven't been there in a long time, but it's called Brookside Reservation now and part of the Metroparks System.

It could be somewhere else, but I'm pretty sure that's what you're talking about. It's very close to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

[googleeph2]

Interesting.

If my memory serves, when I was a kid, ca. 1970, my dad played softball there.
There was a steep hill past the outfield, and every so often, a minibike would try to scale it. Sometimes they wouldn't make it all the way up, and everyone would watch to see how they would get down.

Maybe the hills were how all those people could view that game back 100yrs ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Brooklyn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyL8jI8S1L8

http://www.clemetparks.com/visit/index. ... ns_id=1007

http://www.ohioanderiecanalway.com/Main ... a/127.aspx

[neoleo]

I was watching Ken Burns Baseball Chapter 3 tonight , and it was noted during the episode that the highest attend game in baseball history was played On October 15, 1915 in a amateur championship game between White Motor Company and Luxus at a place called Brookside Stadium on the west side of Ctown with a attendance of more then 115,000 people.
I did a little research and it looks like according to bing maps the stadium still exists south of Denison Avenue, between Fulton Road and West 46th Street. Next week when I'm back home I'd like to visit the site, I'm just curious about it from people on this site who may have had the same idea.... Is there anything still there, is there a placket or anything...? What should I expect?

If you're talking about what I'm thinking of, it's just a park now with a few diamonds. I haven't been there in a long time, but it's called Brookside Reservation now and part of the Metroparks System.

It could be somewhere else, but I'm pretty sure that's what you're talking about. It's very close to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

That's the place. I played a lot of summer league baseball games there. Nothing special, a nice park with some regular ball fields. I don't think it ever was an actual stadium, but like was already mentioned, there was a grandstand and then just a lot of open space and hills to pack people into.

[Govbarney]

I think its located just South West of the intersection of Denisen and Foulton Ave 41.452441,-81.717726 ,and North east of those softball fields. You can tell it used to be a old large baseball field, looks way to big to be softball. I used a distance calculator and its exactly 370ft from what looks like home plate to center field. It doesnt look like its been used in years according to what I see on google maps.

[Larvell Blanks]

Interesting.

If my memory serves, when I was a kid, ca. 1970, my dad played softball there.
There was a steep hill past the outfield, and every so often, a minibike would try to scale it. Sometimes they wouldn't make it all the way up, and everyone would watch to see how they would get down.

Maybe the hills were how all those people could view that game back 100yrs ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Brooklyn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyL8jI8S1L8

http://www.clemetparks.com/visit/index. ... ns_id=1007

http://www.ohioanderiecanalway.com/Main ... a/127.aspx

It was more fun when kids would attempt to ride their Huffy's or Mongoose bikes down the hill.

Brookside redid their fields. Now there are 2 softball fields and 1 baseball diamond. The field at the base of the hill is non existent. They added some soccer/flag football fields as well closer to the railroad tracks. Play Sunday morning there and played a few Metro tournaments there as well.

[peeker643]

Brookside attracted thousands and thousands for softball back in the 70's and 80's for the Cleveland Metro tourney. It was huge in terms of numbers of teams and numbers of spectators.

Even as recently as early 90's it got good crowds but it's dead now pretty much like softball itself is dead now. No sponsors, too many people chasing dollars, too many 150lb assholes buying jacked up bats so they can hit a ball over a 300 foot fence.

It was a thrill playing down there in front of hundreds in the semis and the finals before it died completely. Can't imagine playing in front of thousands.

And yeah, it's near the zoo and down that way.

[skatingtripods]

Last time I saw Brookside was when it was on an episode of Crime 360 and they found a dead body down there.

[neoleo]

Last time I saw Brookside was when it was on an episode of Crime 360 and they found a dead body down there.

Ha, I saw that too.

[1Perry]

[googleeph2]

Wow 1P! Got a link to that?

[1Perry]

No, it's an eBay auction. I tried to save the pic in case anyone is ever interested in the future.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1915-Final-game ... 7955551%26

Actually a very cool piece for anyone to display. If it was an original I would have loved to have it.

[googleeph2]

http://www.clevelandareahistory.com/200 ... ended.html

Awesome. Click on the photos for high resolution.

[Govbarney]

Man have times changed, 115,000 Clevelanders to see a amature baseball game, when today 20,000 is considered good for the Tribe on a Saturday night.

[1Perry]

http://www.clevelandareahistory.com/2009/12/cleveland-home-to-most-attended.html

Awesome. Click on the photos for high resolution.

There we go. Those are pretty cool pictures. It looks like Brookside Park was a pretty popular destination in general for Clevelanders in the early part of the 20th century.