Kyle Baseball Field was a baseball venue located in

College Station, TX College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, situated in East-Central Texas in the heart of the Brazos Valley, towards the eastern edge of the region known as the Texas Triangle. It is northwest of Houston and east-northeast of Austin. ...

and was approximate to the football stadium,

Kyle Field Kyle Field is the American football stadium located on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, United States. It has been the home to the Texas A&M Aggies football team in rudimentary form since 1904, and as a permanent con ...

. The ballpark was installed at the same time as the football stadium in 1904;

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M Unive ...

were one of the original members of the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma ...

in 1914 but did not begin baseball until 1915.

Field conditions

As compared to the more modern

Olsen Field Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park is a baseball stadium in College Station, Texas, that is home to the Texas A&M baseball program. The stadium was dedicated on March 21, 1978, and is named in honor of C. E. "Pat" Olsen, a 1923 graduate of Texas A ...

, Kyle Baseball Field gave birth to rocks because it was constructed on an ancient parking lot, and the rocks came up through the surface. Each day preceding practice, the team had to line up across the field and went from one end to the other, removing the rocks so the infielders wouldn't get injured in the face from bad hops.

Field contraction

The ballpark had a grandstand finished in June 1923 which cost $7,500 at the time. With

expansion Expansion may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''L'Expansion'', a French monthly business magazine * ''Expansion'' (album), by American jazz pianist Dave Burrell, released in 2004 * ''Expansions'' (McCoy Tyner album), 1970 * ''Expansio ...

to Kyle Field in 1929, 1954, and 1969, the baseball field, in contrast, kept shrinking. Due to the small capacity of the baseball field, the Aggies had to play the 1959 District 6 playoffs with the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. ...

at Travis Field in nearby

Bryan Bryan may refer to: Places United States * Bryan, Arkansas * Bryan, Kentucky * Bryan, Ohio * Bryan, Texas * Bryan, Wyoming, a ghost town in Sweetwater County in the U.S. state of Wyoming * Bryan Township (disambiguation) Facilities and structur ...

; the Aggies lost the two games in the double-elimination by identical 1–0 in front of 6,000. From 1972 to 1975, Texas A&M had to make Travis Field their home away from "home" because the school representatives took Kyle Baseball Field from the baseball team during another series of augmentation of Kyle Field. The Texas A&M Aggies played their last seasons at Kyle Baseball Field in 1976 and 1977. With the opening of UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin in 1975, the Aggies knew they had to construct a new facility in order to compete with their in-state rivals which led to

in 1978.

Legacy

The Aggies won

titles in 1931, 1934, 1942, 1951 (co-champions with UT-Austin), 1955, 1959, and 1977 while calling Kyle Baseball Field their home.

Sources

* "Southwest Conference's Greatest Hits," Neal Farmer, c.1996

References

{{coord missing, Texas Baseball venues in Texas Defunct college baseball venues in the United States Texas A&M Aggies baseball venues 1904 establishments in Texas Sports venues completed in 1904 Sports venues in College Station, Texas