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A new stadium in W-B ushered in a new era for professional baseball.

The Wilkes-Barre Record from May 5, 1909 provided plenty of coverage of the new stadium.

Times Leader file photo

One hundred years ago on May 10, 1909, the dome was lit for the first time on the opulent new Luzerne County Courthouse. It was a big deal among the citizenry of Wilkes-Barre, but not nearly as big as what happened five days earlier – the opening of Diamond Park, the brand new home of the Wilkes-Barre Barons minor league baseball team.
The park was built on an old YMCA field purchased by the Barons’ owners President James Monks, Secretary Ellis and Treasurer George Stegmaier.
During the first week of March workmen from the Sturdevant Engineering Co., working in deep snow, surveyed the land. Construction started on April 8.
On April 21 the magnates, as team owners were called in those days, agreed on the name Diamond Park, selecting it over 20 suggestions, including Baron Park, Stegmaier Park, West Side Park, Clymer Park and Athletic Park.
With Barons President Monks, who was a contractor and builder, in charge, the park was completed in less than a month and was ready for opening day on May 5.
Fans began arriving hours before the 3 p.m. opening ceremonies. On foot and alighting from the trolleys they stepped into a large open space between the tracks and the black and white trimmed horse shoe-shaped grandstand that extended 60 feet behind the plate and 50 feet down the right- and left-field lines.
Entering the grounds through two pedestrian passageways on either side of a large carriage gate and the ticket windows, fans with reserved seat tickets walked along a cinder walk to the grandstand pavilion, then up an inclined path to an aisle behind the last row, from where wide aisles led to the individual rows and seats. In front of the pavilion was a row of boxes with opera chair seating for 200 dignitaries or well-heeled fans.
The outfield fence, which was 450 feet deep in center field, was ringed with bleachers. The grandstand had a capacity of 2,400 and the outfield bleachers, 2,244, for a total of 4,644.
The grandstand also had a retiring room, with a maid, for female fans and a press box on the roof. Flag poles on the roof held streamers representing the New York State League teams, which were reordered from top to bottom to indicate the league standings as needed. A clubhouse in the southeast corner of the grounds was equipped with showers, tubs and lockers for 20 players.
The “splendid view” from the grandstand looked over the trees in Rutters’ Grove, the river common park and the courthouse dome and mountains in the distance.
The infield was considered the park’s best feature. It was said that for the first time, in Wilkes-Barre, baseball would be played on a grass diamond, which was described in the Wilkes-Barre Record as “a beautiful award of green as level and as smooth as a billiard table.”
No wonder the park was considered the finest in the New York State League, if not the finest Class B team park in the country.
Paid attendance was 3,901 for the opener, while more than 600 dignitaries with free passes brought the crowd to the 4,600 capacity.
Before the game the players from both teams, accompanied by Rowley’s Band, traveled around Wilkes-Barre in a special trolley car to Public Square, where they boarded the West Market Street line to the park.
At the park the players from both teams formed a semicircle in front of the center-field flag pole. As managers William Roach, of the Barons’ opponents, the Binghamton Bingoes, and Malachi Kittridge of the Barons raised the flag and the national anthem was played, the crowd fell silent until the flag reached the top of the pole when they cheered wildly.
The players marched to the grandstand led by New York State League president John Farrell and Monks, Ellis, and Stegmaier. Stegmaier threw the first pitch to Farrell.
The 1909 Barons lost that opening game 4-3 to the Bingoes and by the end of May they were in last place. But they rose to first place with a 13-game wining streak in July. When the Barons came back to Wilkes-Barre on July 20 from a road trip during that winning streak, more than 1,000 fans met them at the Hart Hotel and led them in a parade to Diamond Park with the players riding in 15 private automobiles. All along the route citizens lined the streets and greeted the players with rousing cheers.
So popular were the 1909 Barons that on Sept. 7 they set a New York State season attendance record of 121,000, which was believed to be a record for Class B Leagues.
The Barons clinched the league pennant on Sept. 20, the last day of the regular season, when they won the first game of a doubleheader against Scranton. The Barons also won the second game.
The first-place Barons were 88-53. The rest of the teams from second to eighth places were the Utica Pent-Ups, Albany Senators, Elmira Colonels, Binghamton Bingoes, Syracuse Stars, Troy Trojans and the Scranton Miners. This was a near complete reversal from 1908 when Scranton had won the pennant with an 85-51 record and Wilkes-Barre was seventh at 60-78.
The Barons beat the Lancaster Red Roses, champions of the Tri-State League, 4-games-to-1 in a postseason series, sponsored by the Philadelphia Inquirer, which presented the Barons with a championship pennant proclaiming them the Class B Champions of Pennsylvania. Manager Kittridge gave each of the Barons diamond cuff links inscribed “The Wilkes-Barre Barons 1909 Champions of the New York State League.”
Kittridge was given much of the credit for the Barons success as he had been the Scranton manager in 1908. With a 14-season major league career as a catcher from 1890-1906 with five different teams and as a manager for Montreal, Dayton and Scranton, he had the connections to find and sign good ballplayers.
The Barons were the only team with four pitchers with double-figure wins led by Fred Applegate, who was 22-7. Joseph Bills was 17-9, Herm Malloy 17-10 and Levi Knapp 12-10. Applegate and Malloy had previous major league experience, albeit brief.
Only seven league batters hit over .300 and four were Barons: Delos Drake was second at 328 and led the league in hits with 188. James Catiz batted .309, Pete Noonan .305, and Rube DeGroff .301. Jay Kirke was also in the top 10 in batting.
DeGroff and Drake were first and second in extra base hits. DeGroff had 24 doubles, 18 triples and was the only player in the league with double digits in home runs, with 10. DeGroff, Drake, Noonan and Kirke all had major league experience.
Where was Diamond Park? While none of the stories in the research answer the question precisely, there are clues.
The reference to the West Market Street Trolley line is one. One description says “the grandstand was located in the southwest corner of the field faced northeast and looked directly toward the new courthouse.” Also “Pedestrians flowed from Kingston as well the Wilkes-Barre side of the Valley.”
A later story about a rained-out game said fans walked across a bridge to get to the park.
Diamond Park might have abutted Market Street in what is now Kirby Park or sat across Market in Nesbitt Park. There was no dike at the time. Or the stadium might have been where Artillery Park is now.