- Tingley Field
Tingley Field (originally named Rio Grande Park) was a
baseball stadium inAlbuquerque ,New Mexico , which served as the home of professional baseball in Albuquerque from1937 to1968 . It could accommodate 5000 fans, with seating for 3000.The stadium was located at the intersection of 10th Street and Atlantic Avenue, across the street from the
Rio Grande Zoo .Design
Tingley Field had a 3000-seat
concrete grandstand with a small pressbox which could accommodate only a few people. The outfield wall was built out ofadobe . There were several light standards and telephone poles within the stadium itself, which occasionally caused problems for outfielders or interfered with potentialhome run s. The park was roughly the same size asAlbuquerque Sports Stadium (360 feet to left field, 350 feet to right field, and 425 feet to center), though the exact dimensions vary by source.ref|rememberingref|memoriesHistory
The stadium was built during the Depression at a cost of $84,000
USD , using WPA funding secured by governorClyde Tingley .ref|tingley It opened onApril 7 ,1937 with a speech bySt. Louis Cardinals general managerBranch Rickey , who praised it as "one of the finest minor league parks in America."ref|duke This was followed by an exhibition game between the St. Louis-affiliated Albuquerque Cardinals and thePittsburgh Pirates , which the Cardinals lost. The Class D Cardinals remained at Tingley Field until1941 , when it was closed for the duration ofWorld War II .Tingley reopened in
1946 with the Albuquerque Dukes, who at that time played in the Class C West Texas-New Mexico League. Apart from a brief hiatus in1959 , the stadium remained the home of various incarnations of the Dukes until1968 , when voters approved the construction of a new stadium in southeast Albuquerque. Tingley Field had begun to show its age, and city officials hoped a larger and more modern ballpark would help the city attract a Triple-A team.ref|stadiumEventually, the city redeveloped Tingley Field into a public park with
softball and football fields. The only remaining parts of the former stadium are the light standards and ticket office.ref|professor A large concrete baseball that originally sat outside Tingley was moved to Albuquerque Sports Stadium in 1969 and remains on display in front ofIsotopes Park .References
# Kailer, J.D. (September 1, 2003). "Remembering Grand, Old Tingley." "The Albuquerque Journal".
# Reed, Ollie (October 27, 2005). "Memories of Albuquerque Cardinals hit home." "The Albuquerque Tribune".
# Kailer, J.D. (May 5, 2000). "Duke City Baseball Has Mixed History." "The Albuquerque Journal".
# Kailer, J.D. (December 23, 2000). "Tingley Was Albuquerque's First Field of Baseball Dreams." "The Albuquerque Journal".
# Maese, Rick A. (May 30, 2001). "Stadium outlook was different 30 years ago." "The Albuquerque Tribune".
# Kailer, J.D. (September 16, 2001). "Professor Tours Old Parks." "The Albuquerque Journal".
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.