La Grave Baseball Field in Fort Worth

FORT WORTH'S LA GRAVE FIELD

Fort Worth's Professional Ballpark

After a long absence, professional baseball, in the form of a team named the Cats, returned to Fort Worth in 2001. For the new team a new ballpark was cobbled together at the same location as an old ballpark. And given the same name. La Grave Field.

In the late Winter of 2003, in the sports section of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in an article about the coming baseball season, the Fort Worth Cats and La Grave Field, the writer said that La Grave Field, in its short existence, had become "the envy of the league...". It was decided to have a look at this Ballpark which had become the envy of the league, as it was assumed it must be spectacular, what with the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington just down the road a few miles. And just a few more miles north of Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, smaller in population than Fort Worth, with the Oklahoma Redhawks playing in Bricktown Ballpark, the Redhawks a Triple-A affiliate of a major league team called the Texas Rangers.

But, unlike the Oklahoma City team, the Fort Worth Cats do not play in the Triple-A minor leagues. It is not known what type league the Fort Worth Cats play in. However, it is known that the Fort Worth Cats are in the East Division of something called the Central Baseball League, along with the Alexandria Aces, the Jackson Senators, the Shreveport Sports and the Ozark Mountain Ducks. The West Division of the Fort Worth Cat's league consists of the Edinburg Roadrunners, the San Angelo Colts, the Amarillo Dillas, the Coastal Bend Aviators and the Rio Grande WhiteWings.

Like all the other teams in the Central Baseball League, the Fort Worth Cats has an official website where you can read all about them and their history. Links to all the Central Baseball League Official Websites are in a box below.

Now, let's take a look at La Grave Field.

click a thumbnail to view a photo Above is the Fort Worth Cat's Ticket Office where you can buy tickets for the opening day game against something called Coastal Bend. This Ticket Office sat in front of La Grave Field when it first opened. It is now gone.
	A look into La Grave Field towards the grandstand in right field. Roofs are being added to some of the seating areas. Previously, spectators sat exposed to the mild Texas sun.
	Another ticket booth, with the skyline of downtown Fort Worth a few miles to the south. You can see the Ticket Office you saw in the first photo, to the right in this photo.
	A look in from the left field side. Those are the restroom facilities on the left. There are plans to someday add permanent facilities to the most envied ballpark in this league. La Grave Field is just south of the famed Fort Worth Stockyards, a location where indoor plumbing is brag worthy. La Grave Field's restroom situation seems to have a bit of that Stockyard's sensibility, but without the Stockyard's type charm.

	A look at some of the uncovered seating on the left field side, looking at home plate.
	A look at the left field temporary restroom facilities.
	A view of La Grave Field from the dike of the Trinity River.

	A view into the ballpark, the scoreboard, and some more temporary restroom facilities.
	Another view of La Grave Field's right field side. It is not known what this architectural style is called, perhaps Primitive Minimalist.
	Inside La Grave Field on a day sunnier than the day these other photos were taken. This photo shows the prime $9 seats behind home plate. Prime seats with nothing like a roof to obstruct views of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, or to shade fans from the gentle Texas sun of summer. Up close and inside, La Grave Field seems a pleasant old-style ball field, the sort that any town of 20 to 30,000 population would be proud of.
	La Grave Field is situated in a very utilitarian neighborhood of rugged industrial activity. Landscaping is minimal to non-existent..
	Another of the buildings adjacent to the La Grave Field property. You really don't find things like this at the Ballpark in Arlington, or the Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City, or Safeco Field in Seattle, Seattle being another city of similar size to Fort Worth, with a slightly larger and more, well, modernized, ballpark.
	Another view of the La Grave Field neighborhood, looking towards the ballpark, with the ticket office sitting under the stop sign.
	A good view of what La Grave Field looks like to baseball fans from the parking lot.
	We'll leave La Grave Field with a look at the road leading to it, with downtown Fort Worth in the distance and the ballpark to the left.

It is not known why Fort Worth is in this League, with this Ballpark. Why bother, one might wonder, when Big League Baseball is played in a Big League Ballpark just a few miles to the east. It is probably safe to say that if Fort Worth played in the same league Oklahoma City plays in that even the exaggeration prone Fort Worth Star-Telegram would not try to claim that Fort Worth's La Grave Field ballpark was the envy of that league.

The Towns of the Central Baseball League
and links to their official websites

Coastal Bend Aviators, Robstown, population 12,849
Rio Grande WhiteWings, Harlingen, population 58,300
Amarillo Dillas, Amarillo population 172,400
Alexandria Aces, Alexandria population 46,100
Jackson Senators, Jackson population 190,400
Ozark Mountain Ducks, Springfield population 142,200
Shreveport Sports, Shreveport population 189,900
Edinburg Roadrunners, Edinburg population 38,900
San Angelo Colts, San Angelo population 89,800
Fort Worth Cats, Fort Worth population 624,067

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