Miami Stadium
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Miami Stadium, later officially known as Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium, was a
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
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 ...
in
Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
. It was primarily used as the home field of the
Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League East, East Division. The ...
minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...
team, as well as other minor league teams. It opened in 1949 and held 13,500 people. left, View of the stadium in the 1950s The stadium was located on the block bounded by Northwest 23rd Street (south – first base), Northwest 10th Avenue (west – third base), and Northwest 8th Avenue (east – right field), with an open area behind left field extending about a block north. A distinguishing feature of the ballpark was a high arched
cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...
-type roof over the grandstand, in contrast to the typical styles of either flat and slightly sloping, or peaked like a house. This design enabled the ballpark to have a roof that covered most of the seating area without any posts blocking the spectators' view.
Al López Field Al López Field was a spring training and Minor League baseball ballpark in West Tampa, Tampa, Florida, United States. It was named for Al López, the first Tampa native to play Major League Baseball (MLB), manage an MLB team, and be enshrined i ...
in
Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...
employed a somewhat similar design with a less dramatic curve and less coverage. It was the
spring training Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spri ...
home of the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers from 1950 to 1958 (for most of their "A" games). The Dodgers played their first game as the Los Angeles Dodgers at the ballpark when they opened their 1958 spring training schedule against the Phillies on March 8, 1958, in front of 5,966 fans. It was used during the spring by the
Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. As one of the America ...
from 1959 to 1990. At the time of its construction, Miami Stadium was remarkably modern and well-appointed, although in time it would be surpassed by later designs. left, Inside view of stadium in 1950s On June 6, 1958, Orioles president James Keelty Jr. reached agreement with
Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League East, East Division. The ...
president George B. Storer to move the Orioles spring training home from Scottsdale, Arizona to Miami Stadium for the 1959 spring training season. On May 25, 1990, the Orioles announced that the team would move their spring training home games from Miami Stadium to
Bradenton Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698, up from 49,546 at the 2010 census. It is a principal city in the Sarasota metropolitan area. Dow ...
and
Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Ba ...
in 1991. The Orioles had trained at Twin Lakes Park in Sarasota prior to spring games in 1989 and 1990. The Miami City Commission voted unanimously in favor of the renaming in February 1987, and the ceremony took place the following month. The ballpark became known officially as Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium in honor to the famous Cuban baseball entrepreneur
Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium, later officially known as Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium, was a baseball stadium in Miami, Florida. It was primarily used as the home field of the Miami Marlins minor league baseball team, as well as other minor league teams. It open ...
. Said Maduro's widow Marta to herself, "Gordo (fat one), they finally know who you are." The City of Miami had proposed razing the stadium and selling the property for warehouses. But a sale price of $1.6 million plus demolition cost of $725,000, scared away would-be developers. The City rezoned the property in 1998 for housing. St. Martin Affordable Housing Inc. purchased the property from the City of Miami for $2.1 million in 1999 to raze the stadium and build a rental housing project. A large apartment complex (called The Miami Stadium Apartments) now stands where the stadium was.
Estadio Quisqueya Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal ( Spanish for ''Quisqueya Stadium Juan Marichal'') is a baseball stadium in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It is the only stadium in the Caribbean region to host two different baseball teams, Tigres del Licey ( ...
, in
Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...
,
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
(inaugurated in 1955), is an almost exact replica of the stadium. A
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
documentary, ''White Elephant: What Is There To Save?'', was produced in 2007 about the stadium's history. In 2017, Abel Sanchez, a Miami native, created a
GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the ...
page which raised $2,500 to get a historical marker for the site. The Florida Department of State's State Historical Marker Council reviewed and ultimately approved the application.


References


External links

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An article about Miami Stadium
{{Senior Professional Baseball Association Baltimore Orioles spring training venues Baseball venues in Florida Grapefruit League venues Sports venues in Miami Minor league baseball venues Demolished sports venues in Florida Defunct baseball venues in the United States Defunct minor league baseball venues Brooklyn Dodgers spring training venues 1949 establishments in Florida Sports venues completed in 1949 2001 disestablishments in Florida Sports venues demolished in 2001