Fort Wayne, IN

Memorable Moment

• May 4, 1871: The first organized professional baseball game took place, where the Kekiongas beat the Forest Citys of Cleveland 2-0 before a crowd of 200.

In the early spring of 1870, with news of a baseball league forming, the denizens of Fort Wayne built a ballpark to hold their team.

According to the Old Fort News: "The local citizenry, visualizing a possible championship for their fine team, jumped into the project with a vengeance and raised funds to erect a beautifully ornamented grandstand on the site of the ball park. The grandstand when finished was christened the 'Grand Duchess,' so lavish was its construction."

This from the Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, May 21, 1870: " The Kekiongas have a splendid ground for playing upon this year. They have six acres enclosed with a high, tight board fence, measuring 1,900 feet lineal, and seats for the convenience of spectators, with canopy overhead."

Also, from the Old Fort News, November 6, 1871: "The alarm of fire about 8 o'clock, last evening, was occasioned by the burning of the Grand Duchess at the Kekionga Base Ball grounds. The fire department turned out in force, but its services was not required, as the flames had gained too much headway. Ere long all souveniers (sic) of that once grand organization will have passed away."

Many reference sources site that this game took place at Hamilton Field, which was a park that was located at the southwest corner of Lewis and Calhoun Streets. The land for this park was donated by banker Allen Hamilton, and this was the home of the Summit City Club that organized in 1862. The one photographed above is land just west of the Main Street Bridge, near the Nickel Plate Rail Road tracks. These were two separate parks. This information was gathered also from Twentieth Century History of Fort Wayne, by John Ankenbruck, and "Batter Up: Fort Wayne's Baseball History", Old Fort News, vol. 30, no.3.

Additional notes from Bill Griggs:

• The crowd of the first game was also estimated at about 500 by an out of town reporter.
• The ball park was built in 1870. Kekionga was challenging other nines in the state for the mythical state championship as well as scheduling professional teams such as Rockford Forest City, Cincinnati Red Stockings, Philadelphia Athletics, Baltimore Marylands, from whom they pilfered four players, and the Chicago White Stockings. The first three scores were 32-3, 70-1 and 110 -5, which explains why they enticed players to leave the Marylands who had only beat them 28-10 & 29-6. As you know The Grand Duchess was named after its namesake at the Union Grounds at Lincoln Park in Cincinnati where Kekionga had been the second victim (not counting two earlier victories against picked nines) of the 57-0 1869 Red Stockings.

Many thanks to Bill Griggs and Linda Chapman of the Allen County Public Library for their help.

© 2004-17 Paul Healey.