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The sun is setting on pro baseball at Ernie Shore field
In its long history, the field has been affiliated with 6 major-league teams
Journal photo by Lauren Caroll
Ernie Shore Field has gone through many changes since the 1950s. It will be used by Wake Forest University after this year.
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Published: August 24, 2008
Updated:
"Winston-Salem now has the most beautiful and most modern minor-league baseball park in the nation." -- Warren LeTarte, business manager of the Winston-Salem Twins, March 17, 1956.
To those who cared about the fate of professional baseball in the city, Ernie Shore Field was essential. Because of it, Winston-Salem is the only city in North Carolina to have had professional baseball every season since World War II.
Southside Park, which was near the Happy Hills area, had been the home for the city's minor-league teams. It was nice enough in its day, but that day had long since passed. As early as 1953, the St. Louis Cardinals had expressed dissatisfaction with the accommodations afforded the players it sent to Winston-Salem to play in the Carolina League.
And that was before a fire destroyed much of the stadium during the dead of a May night in 1955, by which time the New York Yankees had replaced the Cardinals as the city's major-league affiliate.
Tom Wicker, who later became a star reporter for The New York Times, was a 28-year-old sports editor for the Winston-Salem Journal at the time. On Oct. 21, 1955, Wicker reported that the donation of land by Charles H. Babcock would allow the new park to be built, and what that meant for the city.
"It had been understood all along that the team could remain in the league only if new playing grounds were provided," Wicker wrote. "(The team) performed most of the 1955 season in front of jerry-built stands at Southside Park, where little comfort and convenience were available to spectators."
Babcock, an investment banker whose father-in-law was R.J. Reynolds, was one hero of the story behind Ernie Shore Field.
He gave the city the land north of the fairgrounds to build the park, with the stipulation that the park also be available to the baseball team of Wake Forest College, which had moved to Winston-Salem not far from the donated land. Wake Forest wound up playing there until its current on-campus field was built in 1977.
Winston-Salem's mayor in 1955, Marshall Kurfees, called the new ballpark "a wonderful thing for the city."
"I think it will ensure us a modern baseball park and continuing professional baseball,'' Kurfees said. "All our citizens should be grateful to Mr. Babcock for this new evidence of his generosity."
The other leading man was the one for whom the park would be named.
Ernie Shore, a former major-league pitcher and roommate of Babe Ruth, was in the 21st of his 34 years as sheriff of Forsyth County. He was enlisted to head a committee assigned to raise money for the project.
Although the committee did well enough to raise $125,000, the city was still considerably short of the $200,000 price tag. E.A. Darr, the president of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., was appointed chairman of a steering committee to raise the remaining $75,000.
The committee reached the goal in the fall of 1955, and on Dec. 5, Fowler-Jones Construction Co. began rolling in the heavy equipment to start excavating. Costs, which included moving 75,000 yards of dirt, soon ran so high that corners had to be cut.
The steel light poles called for in the original blueprints were instead made of wood, saving more than $20,000. Rather than 12 showers for each team, the park opened with eight available to the home team and three to the visitors. And the press box was downsized to three cubicles of 6-by-8 feet for the press, radio and public address.
Bill Slack came to Ernie Shore Fieldearly in its existence as the manager of the Winston-Salem Red Sox and stayed for 121/2 seasons. He came here from Wellsville of the New York-Penn League.
He was smitten by the ballpark, then only 7 years old.
"I always felt like it was a picture-postcard park, with the grassy area going all the way down one side and all the way down the other side," he said. "That's the first thing that struck me.
"I came in here and said, ‘This is the big leagues compared to Wellsville.'"
In the years since, six of the eight Carolina League cities have built parks, the exceptions being Kinston (Grainger Stadium) and Lynchburg (City Stadium). Like all ballparks, Ernie Shore Field has required repeated renovations, both to appeal to paying customers and to keep up with professional baseball standards.
New lights were installed in 1975, a second deck added around the outfield fence and a fresh coat of bright blue paint applied in 1985. The most significant changes were made in 1993, when the bleachers were extended down the banks, a clubhouse was built in the left-field corner, chairback seats were installed dugout to dugout, a new office was built in the front, and the rusty wire screen was replaced by modern mesh.
In 2001, the right-field clubhouse was enlarged, and a year later the wooden grandstand roof and press box were torn down to make way for the current smaller, lightweight roof.
Pete Fisch, 42, spent nine seasons as the general manager of Winston-Salem's minor-league team, when most of the major renovations were made or completed.
"It's a great ballpark, and I have great memories," said Fisch, who came to Winston-Salem in October 1994 and was the general manager until June 2003.
Fisch was single when he arrived in Winston-Salem, but he married soon after. He and his wife, Melissa, have two sons, Drew, 12, and Garrett, 9.
"Not only did my sons literally grow up there, I grew up there as well," Fisch said.
Don Beaver owned the franchise when Fisch was general manager, and he still works for Beaver, helping run his three minor-league teams and the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn, a Champions Tour golf tournament.
Fisch, who still lives in Winston-Salem, noted that while some other larger cities were losing their baseball franchises, Winston-Salem's survived.
"You think about the history that's come through there since 1956, it's pretty amazing," said Fisch, who estimates that he saw about 600 games during his time as general manager. "I mean, the stadium had its quirks, but it had a minor-league feel, and it had a heartbeat. Sometimes its heartbeat was strong and other seasons it wasn't so strong, but it survived, and that's something other cities can't say about their ballparks."
Fisch said that two of his most memorable games at Ernie Shore Field were the Fourth of July game in 1995, when more than 10,000 fans crammed into the stadium, and the 1998 exhibition game between the Minnesota Twins and the Montreal Expos.
The ownership of the club has changed nine times, and the local team has been affiliated with six major-league teams (Yankees, Cardinals, Red Sox, Cubs, Reds and White Sox).
Ernie Shore Field, aging but still a beauty, will see at least one more change of ownership and affiliation.
When the Winston-Salem Warthogs move to their new ballpark on the western edge of downtown, the Wake Forest baseball program will move back into Ernie Shore Field, although whether the name will be retained has not been decided.
And a ballpark that is the essence of baseball will be saved from the wrecking ball.
■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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