Golden's "History of Woodlawn Cemetery" as ISU Baseball Neighbor

[BankShot]

TODD AARON GOLDEN: Where home runs come to rest

Todd Golden writes about the area where home runs at Indiana State's Bob Warn Field sometimes land, Woodlawn Cemetery, a major part of Terre Haute's history. Who rests where those

www.tribstar.com

During my '72 "Coaching of Baseball" class under then ISU HC Jim Rendel, one of our assignments was visit Valle Field and do a "critique/analysis" of the playing field. Keep in mind, ISU did NOT own this facility, which was in rundown area just east of 25th St. & S. of 8th Ave. It was owned & managed by the TH Babe Ruth League, but was the responsibility of Coach Rendel to groom & maintain. ISU players boarded a blue & white ISU school bus or drove their own vehicles to practice & home games. At the time, their were three (3) fields w/ backstops aligned w/ a central concession/equipment building. All three fields were enclosed by chain link fences w/separate small sections of bleacher seating. A huge junkyard and train tracks bordered Valle Field to the east & south. It had very few natural aesthetics. Few ISU fans attended these games. Scholarships were usually "tuition-only" at best. Players were actually somewhat embarrassed to even talk about being on the team. I had a few fraternity bros. who played, but rarely discussed the games.

Because ISU didn't own the facility, they didn't pump any $$$ into it. Coach Rendel spent countless hours draining water off the infield. rom the 2B-3B surface. BOTH the OF & IF had "dead spots" in the uneven grass. Mickey Mantle would've loved chasing down a long fly ball here! The fence had numerous low spots which allowed balls to escape "live action." In a nutshell, the facility was a shit hole compared to the CURRENT field.

 

[sycamore tuff]

I like stuff like that. Pretty good article with a lot of history included.

 

[sycamore tuff]

Valle field was a nice place to play ball. I played in the Terre Haute men's senior league for a while. We played at Valle before moving south behind the fairgrounds.

 

[landrus13]

Valle Field was used for babe ruth baseball until recently. Now it's mainly used for youth football. I'm not sure why they quit playing baseball out there. It was pretty nice when I played there.

 

[CardLake49]

Really enjoyed that article. Love hearing/seeing stuff about Terre Haute history.

 

[BankShot]

Valle field was a nice place to play ball. I played in the Terre Haute men's senior league for a while. We played at Valle before moving south behind the fairgrounds.

I recall that THS Babe Ruth facility as well.

Valle Field in the mid-60's (when BASEBALL was the only thing to do for 13-15 yr. olds) was hopping. Every night of the week all three (3) fields had games. I've since umpired IHSAA games from Jeffersonville-Madison- Seymour/N. Vernon, Lafayette-Vincennes-Tell City, and areas in between. experiencing both good & bad. I thought in '61 when Otter Creek beat Tommy John's Gerstmeyer squad @ Spencer field (which had NO OF fences then) it was a nice field because it had GRASS! It's all relative.

In the 80's I moved to FL and called FHSAA games from Daytona - Vero Beach along the I-95 corridor. Also called AAU games at Cocoa Expo, Viera, Disney, Lakeland-Winter Haven & Tampa. Many of those facilities were under municipal management and "professionally" maintained. Vero Beach had one of the finest facilities & was owned by the Indian River Schools. But during renovation in the mid-80's, received significant support from the Dodge organization (although Dodgerton was a separate facility).

My Aunt lived @ 3rd Ave & 25th, a couple blocks S. of the Warren School. Those were "The Avenue's" where blue collar Hautean's were bred, producing some of THs all-time greats in sports, most who attended Gerstmeyer & Garfield. Boy have things changed.