Photo Exhibits

Photo exhibits spotlight various topics in Florida history, and are accompanied by brief text intended to place selected materials in historical context.

Batter up! A Visual History of Baseball in Florida


Crowd watches World Series results as played out on "metal playing field": Lakeland, Florida (1924)

Image Number: RC10743

This scene at the Lakeland Ledger office, on October 4, 1924, was a familiar one throughout the land at daily newspaper offices during World Series week. Crowds would gather to watch a pitch-by-pitch enactment of the game as news arived on the Associated Press wire. The chief board operator, by means of an electromagnet behind the metal "playing field" would cause a lighweight metal ball to roll from the pitcher's mound to home plate, and then to the appropriate spots on the field. One or more assistants, as needed, would slide discs representing runners along the base paths. An announcer with a megaphone would describe the action.

The score here is 2 to 0, in favor of the New York Giants, after five innings of the first game of the 1924 Series. The Giants won that game, 4 to 3, in 12 innings, but the Washington Senators finally won the Series, four games to three.

Al Lopez Field: Tampa, Florida(between 1960 and 1979)

Image Number: PR00651

African American boys watching a baseball game: Apalachicola, Florida (ca. 1895)

Image Number: PR00331

Al Lang Field: St. Petersburg, Florida (19--)

Image Number: PC4086

Baseball field: Kissimmee, Florida (ca.1920)

Image Number: N033547

Seminole Indian chickee huts by baseball field at the Big Cypress Indian Reservation (ca. 1980)

Image Number: FS80238a

City Island and Islanders Ball Park: Daytona Beach, Florida (193-)

Image Number: N045652

Birds eye view of baseball field. St. Petersburg, Florida (19--)

Image Number: PR09659

Aerial view of Pace Recreation Complex: Milton, Florida (1981)

Image Number: PR24137

Baseball game at Centennial Field: Tallahassee, Florida (ca.1935)

Image Number: RC00902

Crowd watching a baseball game in McFarlane Park: Tampa, Florida (1922)

Image Number: RC09042

Baseball field grandstands: Eustis, Florida (1910)

Image Number: RC10665

Dowdy Field - Hollywood, Florida (1935)

Image Number: N031726

Cleared and reconditioned under FERA project 6-B15-6.

View of a baseball spring training game: Lakeland, Florida (1967)

Image Number: C670079

Aerial view showing Grant Field in the foreground, winter home of the Toronto Bluejays: Dunedin, Florida (197-)

Image Number: N030209

Dick Howser baseball stadium, Florida State University: Tallahassee, Florida (2006)

Image Number: PR20747

Marines having a baseball game in Royal Palm Park: Miami,Florida (1918)

Image Number: RC11259