Ryan's (SCP) photo

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Posted By: Steve f

I understand your disapointment Ryan. Still, that is a wonderful panoramic. Would love to study a hi-res scan. Good luck and I hope you recover something for this deceptive auction.

Not 100% certain these clippings and aerial describe the same field in your photo, but Tate Field seems likely.

BASEBALL AND THE BABE JOIN THE VBC

1. Adding to the waterfront excitement was the addition on Mayo's Island of Tate Field in 1920, home of the semi-pro baseball team Richmond Colts. The stadium complex was immediately downriver from the Virginia Boat Club, adjacent to the VBC squash courts. In 1922, Babe Ruth played at Tate Field. While the riverfront location offered baseball fans broad vistas, it also brought seasonal flooding. The final and worst blow to Tate Field came in 1940, when the James swamped Tate Field and the VBC boathouse. Tate Field closed and baseball moved up to the Boulevard site by Scott's Addition to a new stadium called Mooers Field, where the current Diamond now stands. The VBC, however, dug-out, refurbished, and opened again for the 1941 season.

2. Tate Field, originally known as the Mayo Island Sports Park, was the home of the Richmond Colts when the team joined the Piedmont League; previously the team had been in the Eastern League. It stayed the home of the Colts until 1941, when team owner Eddie Mooers constructed Mooers Field. As MLB clubs barnstormed from spring training they would frequently stop in Richmond; it was at Tate Field that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig hit homers -- Ruth's reportedly flew out of the stadium and bounced onto a coal car, where it continued its journey and went down in folklore as the longest home run ever hit.



You may already have discovered this Park's location.

As in the photo you now own, the rail bridge pictured below (west of the island) starts as low-clearance steel GIRDER (pink)for land use, then becomes steel TRUSS (green)-longer spans for barge traffic, then again GIRDER when it traverses the first small island. I'm guessing that ballfield was within the red circle, now divided by the Downtown Expressway".