LaGrave Field /
Fort Worth Cats
Year Opened |
Current incarnation, 2002 |
Capacity |
5,200 |
Dimensions |
320L, 370LC, 400C, 366RC, 330R |
Playing Surface |
Grass |
Last Visit |
2008 |
Web Site |
fwcats.com |
Phone |
817/226-CATS (2287) |
Ticket Prices (2008) |
Reserved Box, $12; Field Box, $10; General Admission,
$6; Berm Seating, $4; Bud Light Plaza Table (seats 4),
$40. |
Address/Directions |
301
NE 6th St., Fort Worth, TX 76164. The ballpark is north
of downtown Fort Worth and south of the Stockyards on
North Main Street. |
Text and Photos by: |
Kevin
Reichard |
Rating |
|
There's a great view of downtown Fort Worth
from the third-base seats.
It is
one of the most unusual ballparks in minor-league
baseball, as Fort Worth's LaGrave Field is a new
ballpark set on the grounds of a former affiliated
classic. As such, it's the best of both worlds.
The
story of LaGrave Field goes back to 1926, when the
original ballpark opened in the midst of a
working-class neighborhood. The original Fort
Worth Cats played at the original iteration of
LaGrave Field, owned most of that time by the
Brooklyn Dodgers and run as a Dodgers farm team,
with greats like Duke Snider and Maury Wills
spending time there and Rogers Hornsby coaching
there. Fort Worth was a mainstay in the Texas
League and regularly led that circuit in
attendance.
But
over time the 10,000-seat ballpark deteriorated,
and the beginning of the end came when the Dodgers
swapped LaGrave Field and the Cats to the Cubs for
the original Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific
Coast League and the West Coast Wrigley Field, in
anticipation of sewing up the Los Angeles market.
The Cubs over time lost interest in Fort Worth and
sold the team and the ballpark, and by 1964 the
Cats were gone, moved to a new ballpark on the
turnpike that eventually became home to the Texas
Rangers. The ballpark, forgotten and unused, was
torn down in 1967.
The grandstand features a small press box and
an owners' suite.
Meanwhile, the ballpark was torn down and the land
undeveloped. Over time nature ran its course, as
trees grew on the site. The person who bought the
ballpark site sat on until 2001 when Carl Bell
approached him with an offer to buy the 14 acres.
He agreed and sold the land for what he originally
paid for it, with two conditions: that Bell use
the land for a ballpark, and that his wife's alma
mater, Texas Wesleyan, play there free of charge.
Bell agreed, and set upon to build a new ballpark
on the old LaGrave Field site.
The Paul LaGrave suite sits down the third-base
line.
As Bell and crew
(which included current Cats president John
Dittrich) set up to map out the old ballpark site,
they got a little lucky. First, they could
determine where the original foul poles stood so
they could map the foul lines and match the
original home-plate location. Though the original
ballpark had been torn down, the job was done on
the cheap, so the original dugouts and walkways
were still there, buried under some rubble. (They
were occupied mainly by snakes -- a challenge to
the crew digging them out.) Early on the decision
was made to keep the original dugouts, but they
were converted into unique seating areas with
their own entrances. The Bobby Bragan Suite (shown
at the top of the page) sits on the first-base
side next to the home dugout, while the Paul
LaGrave Suite sits down the third-base line.
Fans can ride their horses to the ballpark on a
popular riverside trail and tie them to this
hitching post.
Otherwise, the
ballpark was constructed in a modern fashion, with
a large canopy shading the grandstand. Outfield
seating was erected in right field to mimic
seating formerly installed there for a knothole
gang, and over time clubhouses and offices were
added to the mix. The ballpark is located on a
bend of the Trinity River, and riverside trails
running through the city attract walkers and horse
riders; the Cats installed a hitching post and
watering area next to a left-field berm to attract
equestrians to their games.
The right-field seating is reminiscent of the
former knothole-club seating at the original
ballpark.
It is not a fancy
ballpark; there are no suites other than the
dugout suites, and no restaurants or cigar bars.
(It does have a few quirks: the foul poles are
indeed in foul territory, not fair territory as
they are in every other ballpark.) But it is a
historic place, and the Cats ownership and
management has done a great job in maintaining a
sense of history while constructing a modern
ballpark. In fact, we can't think of a better
weekend of baseball than a game at LaGrave Field
and a game at nearby
QuikTrip Park at Grand Prairie: baseball fans
can indeed have the best of both worlds.
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