A Lunchtime Run across a piece of Cleveland's History

Many days when I can sneak out at lunch, I take the opportunity to run with a group of guys and ESpeed (when she can get out).  Now these runs are always interesting.  There are few boundaries for where the conversation may go, lots of trash talk and most often the runs have some sort of theme.  There also seems to be a flare for runs surrounding Cleveland history and running in the most ghetto of neighborhoods.  It seems the more uneasy it would make the common person, the more these guys seem to like the route.  They are rather tough looking with their long lean bodies! ;-)  Also, I always try to make sure when I go on these runs that I will be able to keep up with the average pace which will generally range from 7:30-8:10 over the duration of 7-9 miles because I never like the idea of running by myself through most the neighborhoods!

Today's run was a new one for me which I found rather interesting.  We ran out Payne to E70th along some random side streets and made our way to run across the historical League Park.  This was new to me!  The only thing that really remained was the ticket booth.  We stopped for a minute to check out the historical marker.

League Park, located at E66th and Lexington, opened in 1891 and was once home to the Cleveland Spiders which sat 9000 on wooden seats at that time.  The stadium was rebuilt in 1910 and the Cleveland Indians played there until 1947 when they moved to the Cleveland Stadium full-time.  Also of note, Babe Ruth hit his final home run there in 1929!  I learn something new about my city all the time and who knew this would be thanks to one of my lunch runs.  Very cool to run across a piece of history, yet strange to see how it sits vacant in a run-down part of the city.

Who knows what I will discover on my next lunch run...  :-)