Looking Back

Greg Field

Professional baseball once had a home in Ocala

BY CARLTON REESE WITH THE HISTORIC OCALA PRESERVATION SOCIETY

Ocala’s equine history is certainly well-chronicled as is the town’s affinity for high school football and golf. Somewhere along the line, the sport of baseball stepped to the side while the track, gridiron and links took over as the town’s sports staples.

There was a time, however, just like the rest of the country, when baseball was the biggest game in town and its home was Gerig Field. Located at what is now the Martin Luther King, Jr., Recreational Complex, Gerig Field hosted professional baseball for many years up to the early 1970s and saw the likes of Carl Yastrzemski trod its hallowed grounds.

Named for former Ocala Mayor John Jacob Gerig who as a big baseball fan was instrumental in securing necessary funding for the project, Gerig Field was built in 1936 at a cost of around $100,000 as part of the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. In those days, Gerig Field was a state-of-the-art baseball stadium that hoped to eventually attract a minor league franchise.

In 1939, the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association made Gerig Field its home for spring training and would share the facility in 1940 and 1941 with the Tulsa Oilers, a Texas League affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.

When World War II started, both the Brewers and Oilers stopped coming to Gerig.

The year 1940 also coincided with the first professional team to play a full schedule at Gerig. The Ocala Yearlings played as a member of the Class D Florida State League and struggled to losing seasons in their only two years of existence. Of note is that the 1940 team was managed by Wilbur Good, who played outfield 11 seasons in the Major Leagues’ “Deadball” era from 19081918. In the middle of the 1940 season and sporting a 21-26 record, Good was relieved of his position “because of an economy rule adopted by the club” according to the Tampa Tribune. In other words, the team could not afford to pay a Major League veteran of his stature.

With the demise of the Yearlings and World War II stopping any organized play at Gerig Field, it would not be until 1948 that baseball would return. The Southern Association’s Birmingham Barons, an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, would make

Current site of old Greg Field

Gerig its spring training home.

In 1958 the Red Sox would bring in affiliates Memphis Chicks, Allentown Red Sox, Raleigh Capitals, Waterloo Hawks and Corning Red Sox to train at Gerig with the Barons, which had become a New York Yankees affiliate in 1953.

In 1959, the Barons would cease training at Gerig, but the Red Sox relationship with Ocala would last until 1971 when the Red Sox moved its entire minor league operation to Winter Haven. Along the way, future Hall of Famer Yastrzemski trained at Gerig as a member of the Capitals in 1958.

After 1971, Gerig would no longer host professional baseball with semi-pro teams and tournaments playing there sporadically.

In 1993, the stadium structure which had become not only outdated but structurally weak was demolished. Today, Pinkney Woodbury Field exists there while parts of the original limerock wall still stand.