The Carmi Rotary club heard an interesting talk on Bosse Field, and the chance of a Major League baseball game coming to Evansville at Thursday’s meeting.
Rotarian Tom Logan told the members about a recent news story from Evansville. Major League Baseball has been in talks with officials from Evansville about the possibility of an actual MLB game at the historic stadium.
This story is even more relevant, following last week’s “Field of Dreams” game in rural Iowa. That game, the first MLB game ever played in the state of Iowa, was held on the famous movie site from the Kevin Costner movie. The game was nationally televised and had a huge audience. The same could happen right here in our back yard.
Bosse Field was built in 1915 and was the first municipally owned park in the nation. Today, the Evansville School District owns the park, which is home field for the Evansville Otters of the Frontier League. The Otters are connected to the majors but are not affiliated with any specific MLB team.
Bosse Field is the third oldest ballpark in America that still hosts actual games. Only Wrigley Field in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston are older.
In year’s past, the Evansville Triplets played at the historic field, and many future big leaguers came through the river city. Of course, the movie, “A League of their Own” was also filmed at the park, with stars such as Tom Hanks and Madonna spending time in Evansville.
To make the MLB game happen there will have to be several renovations completed at the park and the surrounding area. Included in these renovations would be a complete resurfacing of the field, and having the dugouts moved further from home plate. Evansville Mayor Winnecke stated that there will be no problems raising the capital for the improvements through local donors.
Major League Baseball would pay for any temporary remodel costs, which would help the local area out tremendously.
The talks have been going on for some time, and there was initially hope that a game might be scheduled for the 2023 season. It was in the planning stages for a game between the New York Yankees and the Florida Marlins. This would have been very significant, since Evansville native Don Mattingly played his entire career with the Yankees and is now the manager for the Marlins. The address for Bosse Field is actually 23 Don Mattingly Way. (Mattingly wore number 23 as a Yankee).
Interestingly, if this game happens, it will be the first MLB game ever played in the state of Indiana!
With talks ongoing, the hope is that in 2024 there will be a live MLB game played at the great old park, and as Mayor Winnecke stated, it will be nice for Evansville to be featured in a national story, and the attention this even garners will help the whole area and should be a boost for the Otters as well.
The Carmi Rotary club meets every Thursday at noon at the First United Methodist Church on Main Street in Carmi. Anyone wishing to learn more about this civic organization is welcome to attend a meeting or speak with any Carmi Rotarian.
