For more than 120 years, Brookside Stadium's natural amphitheater has served as a place of recreation where visitors have enjoyed community events, festivals, and even a concert by John Philip Sousa. Engineered by William Stinchcomb, chief architect of the Cleveland Metroparks, it officially opened as a premier space for sandlot baseball in May 1909. As amateur baseball gained increased esteem locally and nationally, Brookside Stadium regularly drew thousands of spectators. On Sunday, October 10, 1915, it hosted the National Inter-City Amateur Championship, when an estimated 115,000 people watched the White Autos defeat the Omaha Luxus 11 to 6. Although no formal ticketing system verified the exact attendance, photographs taken that day strongly suggest that Brookside Stadium hosted the largest crowd in amateur baseball history.
