Bugle Field
An earlier Negro league baseball field was the "Maryland Baseball Park", 1923–1929. Games were also played at the old Westport Stadium, near Old Annapolis Road (Maryland Route 648) and Waterview Avenue, in the Westport neighborhood of southwest Baltimore. The site location was impacted by the routing and construction, in the early 1950s, of the Baltimore–Washington Parkway (Interstate 295) going north into downtown on Russell Street.
Players that the field served include Major League Baseball and Negro league players Roy Campanella, Leon Day, Joe Black, Junior Gilliam, Jud Wilson, "The Ghost" Oliver Marcelle, and Dick Lundy. Short time Washington Senators player Lou Thuman was said to have been discovered by Senators scouts while playing at Bugle Field, which was owned by the owners of the Senators ball club, also operators of a local laundry. Mr. Thuman played a total of five games in 1939 and 1940 with the Senators before being drafted into World War II and enduring a career-ending injury.
Bugle Field had opened in 1910,(Baltimore Sun, September 19, 1949, p. 28) and its 40th season would be its last. The final game was played on September 18, 1949. The Elites defeated the Chicago American Giants 5–4 to take a two games to none lead in the playoff series.(Baltimore Sun, September 19, 1949, p. 18) Despite being compelled to stage their next game at a neutral site in Virginia and finish the series in Chicago, the Elites would go on to sweep the Giants four games to none.(Baltimore Sun, September 23, 1949, p. 42)
Sources
- Baseball in Baltimore, The First 100 Years, by James H. Bready.
- Baltimore News-American Newspaper, September 1949.
- Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper, September 1949.
References
- ^ "Sports in Baltimore Maryland". www.kilduffs.com.
- ^ MacGillis, Alec (December 26, 2000). "Louis C. Thuman, 84, major-league pitcher". The Baltimore Sun.
39°18′34.5″N 76°34′19.2″W / 39.309583°N 76.572000°W
External links
- Photo showing demolition of Bugle Field - note left field distance 332 feet
- Sanborn map showing Bugle Field, 1936