Jeff Gross is throwing a party Saturday.
Taylor Field is 85 years old, and its manager is welcoming kids of all ages to the stadium at 1201 E. 16th Ave. for a day of games and hanging out with members of the Southeast Arkansas College baseball team.
“Eighty-five is a big number,” Gross said. “The last (anniversary) we did was five years ago, and we wanted to try to honor these special years and everything. This is also the 50th anniversary of the 1975 (Babe Ruth League) World Series that we hosted here, and that was the year Mike Jeffcoat played on that team.”
Jeffcoat is one of a few Pine Bluff natives who made it to the pros after showcasing his skills at an early age at Taylor Field. Torii Hunter did the same as a Pine Bluff High School standout in the 1990s.
Gates will open at 10 a.m. “Everything is $2,” Gross said, including the admission, hot dogs, popcorn and drinks. Kids can also bring their gloves to play catch in the outfield with the SEARK team, which is preparing for its third season and first under Ed Corniel, recently promoted from assistant coach.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The Sharks will play an intrasquad scrimmage at 11:30 a.m., after LeMoyne-Owen College of Memphis pulled out citing a late start to its fall camp, according to Gross.
The birthday celebration is a way for Gross to introduce a new generation to a field that has baseball legends of the 20th century, minor-league teams compete through the 1990s and even a sitting president throw the first pitch.
Bill Clinton did that in 1995 to open the National Amateur All-Star Baseball Tournament, said to be the first president to do so at an amateur tournament. ESPN broadcast the championship game of the tournament, which highlighted teams representing 16- to 18-year-old leagues.
That is one of Gross’ favorite moments from Taylor Field. Another is when Claire Merritt Ruth visited Pine Bluff for the 1972 Babe Ruth World Series. The Babe Ruth League was named for her husband, who was baseball’s all-time leader in home runs until 1974.
Gross encountered Mrs. Ruth at a tournament banquet at the Sahara Temple.
“It was a packed house and sellout crowd,” Gross said. “I was 6 years old, and I remember her when she left and they said no autographs. When they were walking out, I was toward the back and I stuck my hand out and she shook my hand, and that was one of my highlights at the time, which was shaking Mrs. Ruth’s hand.”
Construction on Taylor Field was built in 1939 and completed in 1940 under the Works Progress Administration at a cost of $40,000. It is owned by the city of Pine Bluff and supervised by the Taylor Field Commission.
The field is named after Pinchback Taylor Sr., who donated the land for the ballpark that now seats about 4,200. The Pine Bluff Judges of the Cotton States League brought minor-league baseball to the stadium in the 1940s and 1950s, and the Pine Bluff Locomotives of the Class A Big South League brought it back in 1996. Taylor Field was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
Attendees Saturday can watch a 10-minute video highlighting major leaguers’ impact on Taylor Field, including the New York Giants’ 16-4 shellacking of the Cleveland Indians in a 1951 exhibition game before an overflow crowd of 6,000, and Don Larsen’s spring training workouts. Larsen threw a no-hitter in the 1956 World Series for the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The field also achieved national acclaim by hosting several Babe Ruth World Series tournaments from 1972-2015, many of them in the 13-15 age range. Baseball Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean spoke at the 1972 tournament banquet, with Pine Bluff reaching the championship rounds in 1994 and 1998. And high school state tournaments were held there as recently as the 2010s, with Woodlawn a usual championship contender.
Gross was a senior on Pine Bluff High’s 1984 state championship team, the first Zebra ballclub to make Taylor Field its home.
Jim Hill, a longtime supporter of youth baseball in Pine Bluff, managed Taylor Field before Gross. Hill is memorialized with a portion of 16th Avenue named Jim Hill Way, along with a mini-statue of a boy named Hill’s Angel outside the main entrance.
“You try and do what Mr. Hill did all those years and you try and do a little bit more,” Gross said. “He was out there seven days a week, but I didn’t know you have to be out there 10 days a week. It’s nonstop. Something’s going on all the time. A sign might fall down if the wind is blown. You’ve got to keep the grass cut and manicured. It’s not easy.”
