World’s Oldest Baseball Park – By Alethe / Creative Commons

London, Ontario – Labatt Memorial Park is believed to be the oldest and most continually used baseball ground in the world. The first game was played here on May 3, 1877. According to historicplaces.ca this was originally called Tecumseh Park, and it was used for baseball (including London’s first baseball team London’s earliest team, the Tecumsehs) bicycle races, and even London’s first moving picture in 1995.

The park, which is located near the forks of the Thames, went into decline and then was rescued by the Labatt family in 1936, who donated $10,000 for its care. After another renovation in the early 199o’s it was voted the best baseball grounds in Canada in a competition run by Baseball Canada. Today Labatt Park is owned by the City of London, and it features the baseball diamond with natural grass field, and grandstand and bleachers (seating for 5,200) that were constructed in 1877 and renovated in 1990.

Labatt Park was listed  as the “World’s Oldest Baseball Field” in the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records, yet it has been challenged by Clinton, Massachusetts’ Fuller Field, which opened a year later, but has had it’s home place in the same spot while the Labatt Park one was moved. Read more…