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From the Corner of Lexington St and E.66th

At the corner of Lexington St. and E. 66th on May 1st 1891 Cy Young throws the first pitch ever at League Park. Cy gets the win in a 12-3 Victory over the Cincinnati Reds.Years later it's where Babe Ruth hit his 500th home run ( over the 40 foot tall right field wall) and Joe DiMaggio ended his hit streak.However,in recent years it was nothing more than a memory and an abandoned field with crumbling buildings. I was intrigued by this forgotten temple and went to see it a few years ago and it may have been nothing but there was something more to it than the forgotten palace of World champions. You could still feel something special while you were there. Whether it was Denton Young's fast ball, Nap Lajoie's quick bat or the ghosts of Shoe less Joe and Ray Chapman, I don't know. What I do know is on that field the greatest ball players of all time played and won championships and you could still feel them.I thought that if I listened closely I might hear an umpire call a strike or the maybe the wind would carry the unassisted triple play call from game five of the 1920 world series. Of course nothing happened but Today League park was reopened as a recreational baseball park and Cleveland baseball heritage museum . Maybe you'll find things like memorabilia from Addie Joss's perfect game or the 1895 Temple Cup possibly even something of the 1945 Negro League World Champion Cleveland Buckeyes . I can only hope Francona takes the boys down to the park and tries to capture some of the Tribes greater moments maybe the team finds some inspiration at the sandlot.

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