Washington Park Baseball

On May 2, 1920, at Washington Park, the first game of the new Negro National League saw the Indianapolis A.B.C.s defeat the Chicago Giants. Indianapolis native Oscar Charleston began his career with the A.B.C.s in 1915, and segregation in professional baseball from 1887 to 1947 kept him from playing in the major leagues; he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976. Baseball grew popular in Indianapolis after the Civil War, and in 1902 W.H. Watkins organized the Indianapolis Indians in the new professional American Association league. The Indians dedicated Washington Park on April 19, 1905, won 3 league pennants there, and the city’s first night game was played there in 1930 before the park closed at the end of the 1931 season.

Indianapolis city (balance), Indiana · United States