Messer Street Grounds

A Park Built Overnight

The lease for the Messer Street property was signed February 26, 1878. Opening day was May 1, and the park was not finished. A crew worked until dark on April 30, came back before dawn, and cleared the last debris five minutes before the umpire called play ball. Rain threatened and never arrived. Six thousand fans filled the park to capacity. Boston beat Providence 1-0.

What they had rushed to finish sat on a plot 500 feet square, enclosed by a fence 12 feet high. A grandstand held about 2,000; bleachers, roughly 4,000 more. Benjamin Douglas Jr. arrived from Hartford that winter to line up the businessmen who funded the club, and Col. Winship secured the Messer Street location. Harry Wright remarked that the grounds were beautiful. The infield was smooth as a billiard table, the base paths the only break in the greensward — no wide patch of rolled dirt as a modern park carries. The park stood on Messer Street from 1878 to 1885.

The Slaughter Pens

The left field fence was close enough that one reporter complained a ball hit near the foul line post was not a long hit. One National League season saw only eight home runs at the park: four over that left field fence, and an inside-the-parker by Paul Hines. Behind the plate, the Providence Grays became the first professional club to install a backstop, adding screens along the grandstand in 1878. The area was known as the slaughter pens, for foul ball injuries.

One Afternoon

In the fifth game of that opening Boston series, the Grays won 24-5, scoring 12 runs in the eighth and 7 more in the ninth. Every Boston player committed at least one error; Manning made four. In an 1878 game against Boston, Paul Hines caught a fly ball and ran to tag third before either runner could retouch, retiring both — widely considered the first unassisted triple play in baseball history. For over fifty years, fans argued whether teammate Sweasey had assisted on the play.

Reporting: SABR, Wikipedia. Park data: Retrosheet, via the Fever engine.