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| Before Westside Park, Stranahan Field, Fort Lauderdale High School State Archives of Florida |
By Jane Feehan
Fort Lauderdale was fully engaged in baseball, the National Pastime*, by 1913. That’s when pioneer Frank Stranahan donated and cleared land for the sport. The Tarpons, later acknowledged as the “representative team” of the city, played its first game July 4 that year against Stuart at the new Stranahan Field.
The city upped its endorsement of baseball as a community pastime in 1925 by designating $15,000 for construction of Municipal Field, later known as Westside Park. Located off Northwest 4th Street, the four-acre park included a concrete grandstand for 600 spectators with concession stands to sell sandwiches and soft drinks. Lauded as perhaps the finest in the state, the park included dressing rooms and showers below the grandstand to serve home and away teams. Baseball stories and stats filled sports pages of the day, so a press box in the grandstand hosted assigned reporters and photographers. Bleachers were added after opening day, July 19, 1925.
As master of ceremonies at 3:30 that afternoon, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Will Reed proudly led the Tarpons from the dugout onto the field under rain-threatened skies. About 600 eager fans filled the grandstand. It was time for the team, managed by “Pop” Lewis, to “cross bats” with the Coconut Grove team, nicknamed the Schulzmen and managed by “Rabbit” Schulz.
Skies opened up after a few innings, soaking the field and equipment; the game was called but soon resumed. In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Tarpons lost to Coconut Grove 6-3, the first of a four-game loosing streak. According to the Fort Lauderdale News sports reporter Howard Babb, the “team lost after many innings of disturbed playing.”
The Tarpons, a Minor League Baseball team played in the Florida State League in 1928 when its teams included the Fort Meyers Palms, Clearwater Pelicans, West Palm Beach Sheriffs, the Sanford Celeryfeds, the Tampa Smokers and a list of others with just as interesting names. The Tarpons, affiliated with the Pittsburg Pirates, also played for the Florida East Coast League from 1940 to 1942. They won a championship in 1940. The roster of teams in the FECL included the Miami Beach Flamingos, the Miami Wahoos and the Fort Pierce Bombers.
The Fort Lauderdale Tarpons folded in 1942 due to financial difficulties and World War II concerns, but its demise did not spell the end of the city’s affiliation with baseball. Fort Lauderdale hosted spring training for the Boston Braves in 1946 (see https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/07/boston-braves-first-mlb-team-in-fort.html) and the New York Yankees for a few years beginning in 1962 (see https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/06/yankees-come-to-fort-lauderdale-in-1962.html)
Westside Park closed in 1957. Today, it is the site of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department Headquarters.
Sources:
Miami Herald, July 18, 1921
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| Lineup for park's opening day, Jul. 19, 1925 |
Fort Lauderdale News, July 20, 1928
Fort Lauderdale News, April 26, 1942
Wikipedia
