Bovard Field was a

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, on the campus of the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. The Trojans

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team played here until they moved to

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the Los Angeles Coliseum or L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park, Los Angeles, Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. Conceived as a hal ...

in 1923 and it was the home of USC baseball until Dedeaux Field opened in 1974, about to the northwest. The football stadium and running track held 12,000 people at its peak, and ran southwest to northeast, near and parallel to today's Watt Way. The

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of the field is approximately above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. The baseball field was aligned (home to center field) similar to Dedeaux Field, but a few degrees

clockwise Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions or senses of rotation. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands relative to the observer: from the top to the right, then down and then to ...

, nearly

true north True north is the direction along Earth's surface towards the place where the imaginary rotational axis of the Earth intersects the surface of the Earth on its Northern Hemisphere, northern half, the True North Pole. True south is the direction ...

, but just slightly west. Home plate was located in today's E.F. Hutton Park and left field was bounded by Watt Way. Beyond first base, a large

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

tree came into play; while its trunk was in foul territory, some of its branches crossed into fair territory and guarded the foul line in shallow right field.

Mickey Mantle

In March 1951, a 19-year-old

Mickey Mantle Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995), nicknamed "the Mick" and "the Commerce Comet", was an American professional baseball player who played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career (1951–1968) with the New York ...

of the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

, about to embark on his rookie season in the majors, went 4-for-5 with a pair of home runs, one from each side of the plate against the Trojans in an exhibition game. The home run as a leftie was a massive shot that went well beyond the right field fence into the football practice field, during spring drills. He also had a triple for a total of seven runs batted in for the game, which the Yanks won 15–1.

References

External links

Stadium information
American football venues in Los Angeles Athletics (track and field) venues in Los Angeles Baseball venues in Los Angeles Defunct athletics (track and field) venues in the United States Defunct college football venues Defunct college baseball venues in the United States USC Trojans baseball venues USC Trojans football venues 1973 disestablishments in California Sports venues demolished in 1973 {{LosAngeles-sport-stub