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The Evansville Otters, a Frontier League Independent team, play at Bosse Field. It was built in 1915 seating 5,110. It is the third oldest ballpark still in use today for professional baseball (only Wrigley and Fenway are older). It is a nifty old stadium with a complete brick wall surrounding it and a castle-like brick entrance. It is named for the mayor of Evansville at the time it was built, Benjamin Bosse. It had a redo in 1930 and 1958. It was built as a municipal stadium and is now owned by the Evansville School District. The seats go from just past 1st to just past 3rd with a flat pillared roof over all. There are new plastic green seats in the three rows below the aisle and old wood slatted seats above the aisle. There are tent-roof-covered picnic areas just beyond the seats at the end of 1st and 3rd. There is an area in right center where you can stand to watch the game. There is a wooden fence in front of the brick one in the outfield. Jim thinks that he saw that the centerfield was 460+ feet to the brick wall. Until the school season is finished the bullpens are between the two fences. Later they are brought onto the field in the foul area down each baseline. Bosse Field was also one of the primary facilities used in the taping of "A League of Their Own" the Penny Marshall film about professional women's baseball in the 1940s. At the back of the seating area on both sides are large signs that say "Support the Racine Belles" (from the movie). Besides being home to the Otters today, Bosse Field was also home to the Evansville Triplets, a Triple A team of the Detroit Tigers in the 1970s and 1980s. The Otters were playing the Florence (KY) Freedom. It started out looking like it was going to be a high scoring game, but then the Otter's pitcher got under control and the Otters won 5-1. The box score was Freedom R-1, H-7, E-0 and Otters R-5, H-8, E-1. The current field lines are RF & LF-315' and RC & LC-385' and CF-415'. Our seats were on the third base side right behind the visitor dugout. The other pair of pictures are from down the 1st baseline. While the National Anthem is sung the flag is raised by the same fan each night. Evan, the otter, is the mascot and is involved with the fans throughout the game, even the hot, humid evening that we were at the game. Attendance was 1,567. Several different between inning activities were seen. In one a young man had to run the bases placing a newspaper in the delivery box at each base. He wore a helmet with part of a bat glued vertically to the top of it. The staff and Otterbelles did a stuff the taco activity, placing different parts of a taco in a taco costume wrapped around one of their teammates. There are two regular women fans who have large stuffed otter collections that they bring to the game and place in seats next to them. They also bring cowbells and one husband and another man bring their old car horns. Outside the main entrance is a fish painted like a baseball player. In the window of the team store is a large carved otter player. We would like to thank Andrew Aldenderfer for the tickets and the Frontier League game used baseball. New Logo 2007. |
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