Hamtramck Stadium

After the Civil War, black and white baseball players could play on the same teams, but by 1900 black players were excluded from white professional leagues. While baseball was segregated, more than 4,000 African Americans and Latinos played in U.S. professional Negro Leagues. The Detroit Stars and Detroit Wolves represented the city in four major Negro leagues, and National Baseball Hall of Fame members who called Hamtramck Stadium home included Norman "Turkey" Stearnes, "Cool Papa" Bell, and "Smokey Joe" Williams, while Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson played there on visiting teams. In the 1930s, the stadium also hosted community and scholastic baseball and football, midget car races, and boxing matches. When the Negro National League was founded in 1920, the Detroit Stars were one of its eight charter teams and played at Mack Park on Detroit's East Side. After a 1929 fire damaged Mack Park, owner John Roesink built Hamtramck Stadium in 1930 on land leased from the Detroit Lumber Company. The new stadium had a twelve-foot-high metal outfield fence, box seating, and bleachers down the right field line. In May 1930, some 9,000 fans attended the grand opening, where former Detroit Tiger Ty Cobb threw out the first pitch, and in June 1930 Michigan's first night baseball game was played there, with the Stars facing the Kansas City Monarchs under a portable lighting system. In 2012, Hamtramck Stadium was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Hamtramck, Michigan · United States