Bosse Field -1984
The legendary Jack Morris made a couple of stops in AAA-Evansville for the Tigers. Once in 1977 and again in 1979. Jack Morris would go on to have Hall of Fame career. He was a three-time World Series champion. He won in 1992 with the Blue Jays and was named World Series MVP in 1991 with the Twins when he outdueled John Smoltz in Game 7 in what some believe is the greatest pitcher’s duel in the history of baseball. His third World Series victory came in 1984 with the Tigers.
That Tigers team included fellow Triplets, Lance Parrish, and Kirk Gibson. While former Evansville players were off celebrating their world championship, Evansville baseball came to an end.
Baseball didn’t come back until three years after the movie was filmed.
Bosse Field – The Otters Era
Ultimately, the Evansville Otters of the Frontier League made themselves at home in 1995 and they have been there ever since. Like most of the other versions of professional baseball in Evansville, the Otters have dominated their league in attendance numbers.
Evansville is home to some of the greatest baseball fans in the country. They may not get the recognition because they don’t have a major-league team, but they are there. Supporting the Cardinals, the Cubs, the Reds, and more, all the while making the Bosse Field the place to be on a summer’s night in southern Indiana.
The legends of the likes of Warren Spahn and Brad Meyer reverberate off the banks of the Ohio River and can be found amalgamating into a smooth blend of nostalgia and the here-and-now, all under the banner of the game of baseball.
It’s like blending a touch of chocolate syrup into vanilla ice cream and then stirring it all up. By the end, your arm is tired and your mouth is watering, but the shake is a united chocolate color… How was I going to tie this into baseball? Who cares, now I want some ice cream.
I took my kids to their first pro-baseball games at Bosse Field and watched players fielding grounders and smashing hanging breaking balls on the same field that hosted Hank Greenburg, Warren Spahn, and Tom Hanks.
Walking through the tunnel and into the grandstand at Bosse Field can feel like stepping out of a time machine. In a way, it is. You can feel the history of the game and the look of the old stadium is well preserved.
Go and find an empty baseball field in southern Indiana at night and shut your eyes. The spirituality of the game lingers in the air like chili fart on a humid Sunday afternoon. You can still hear the crack of the bat, you can still hear Jim Leyland cursing at the umpires, you can still hear Brad Meyer singing to himself between batters, “I wish I was an Oscar Meyer wiener…”
If you are ever near the Evansville area and you fancy yourself a baseball fan, do yourself a favor and catch a game at 23 Don Mattingly Way.