Municipal Stadium Opening

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Lore & Background

The Indians played all of their games at the stadium from the middle of the 1932 season through 1933, but players and fans complained about the huge outfield, which reduced the number of home runs. As the Great Depression worsened, attendance plummeted, and the Indians returned to their smaller previous home, League Park, for all of the 1934 and 1935 seasons. The stadium hosted the 1935 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and the Indians returned in 1936 to host the New York Yankees on August 2 as part of the Great Lakes Exposition, drawing a crowd of 65,342. In 1937, the Indians began playing Sunday and holiday games at Cleveland Stadium during the summer, adding selected important games there in 1938. Lights were installed in 1939 for night baseball, and from 1940 and from 1942 on, the Indians played the majority of their home slate at the stadium, abandoning League Park entirely after the 1946 season.

In Their Own Story

The original baseball playing field was so large that an inner fence was constructed in 1947 to cut down the size of the spacious outfield. Even after the fence was installed, the distance markers on the bleacher walls remained visible for many years: 470 feet from home plate to the bleachers in straightaway center field, 463 feet to either corner of the bleachers, and 435 feet to the far corners of the main stands in left-center and right-center. No player ever hit a home run into the center field bleachers. According to his autobiography, Indians owner Bill Veeck would move the fence in or out, varying by as much as 15 feet, depending on how it would favor the Indians, a practice that ended when the American League specifically legislated against moving fences during the course of a given season.

Reader's Guide

The Indians set three Major League attendance records during the 1948 season, when they won the American League pennant and World Series behind pitcher Bob Feller and shortstop/player-manager Lou Boudreau. That season, Cleveland had the highest single season attendance, 2,620,627, which was not eclipsed until 1962 by the Los Angeles Dodgers, largest regular season night game attendance of 72,434 for the first major league start of Satchel Paige, and biggest World Series game attendance of 86,288 for game 5 on October 10, 1948. The stadium also hosted three additional all-star games: 1954, 1963, and 1981. Cleveland Stadium and Yankee Stadium are the only venues to host four MLB all-star games. On May 15, 1981, Len Barker threw a perfect game at the stadium, the second in franchise history and eighth in modern Major League history.

Did You Know?

• The stadium was dedicated on July 1, 1931, and hosted a boxing match on July 3, 1931, for the National Boxing Association World Heavyweight Championship between Max Schmeling and Young Stribling, with 37,000 fans in attendance.
• No player ever hit a home run into the center field bleachers at Cleveland Stadium.
• The Indians set a then-major-league-record crowd of 80,184 for their first game at the stadium on July 31, 1932.
• The stadium hosted four MLB All-Star Games (1935, 1954, 1963, and 1981), tying Yankee Stadium for the most all-star games hosted.
• Much of the debris from the stadium's demolition in 1996 was placed in Lake Erie to create an artificial reef.