The Rich History of Bosse Field and Baseball in Evansville, Indiana
By Seth Carter
Bosse Field – Host to the Ghosts of Baseball
Bosse Field has been gouged by the cleats of 100 Hall of Fame players in its history. The stadium was named after the city’s major Benjamin Bosse. It opened on June 17, 1915 as the Evansville Evas shut out the Erie Eries (don’t laugh, they still don’t try very hard on minor league team names) 4-0.
8,082 fans were in attendance to see the new stadium that day, which is very impressive considering the city’s population at that time was between 70,000-80,000 people. Emil Grefe and Punch Knoll represented their hometown on that team.
What’s in a name? They may not have had the best team names back then, but they sure knew how to do people’s names.
Evansville would finish the season 72-50 and would win the Class-B Central League Championship in Bosse Field’s first season.
Leagues, team names, and affiliations changed over the years, but the game remained.
Team Name Alert: In1927, Evansville finished 35 games behind the first-place Peoria Tractors. I wish I could have been in on some of those team-name meetings.
“Tom, what do you think we should name the team?”
”Bill, I don’t care. That field is a wreck and it’s my job to make sure it’s in good condition. I don’t care about the name, I care about the field, and that’s all I’m concerned about. Name the team the tractors because it will take a whole team of John Deeres to have this field ready by opening day.”
(Bill takes another swig of bourbon)
“Done!”