Michael Bushnell
Publisher

This week we have a bit of a flashback in terms of long-forgotten ball yards. 

We’re staying in St. Louis for a rundown on Stars Park that once stood at the corner of Compton and Laclede Avenues. 

The park was built exclusively for the St. Louis Stars, formerly the St. Louis Giants, a Negro League team that competed independently from the early 1900s through the 1921 season.

 The team was sold and renamed the Stars in 1922 and competed for the next nine seasons in Stars Park.

Following the 1923 season, the Stars hired a new manager, James Allen “Candy Jim” Taylor. 

 Over the next eight years, Taylor’s team, that boasted future hall of fame players such as “Cool Papa” Bell, George “Mule” Suttles, and Willie Wells, dominated the Negro National Leagues, securing pennants in the 1928, ‘29, ‘30 and ‘31 seasons.

Stars Park was known for its 269-foot left field wall that was built to house a trolley car barn. Special rules enacted during some seasons counted home runs hit over the car barn as ground rule doubles.

Following the 1931 season, the park was torn down. It was thought that no surviving photographs existed but in 2016, the photo shown above surfaced in the collections of the Missouri State Historical Society.

A plaque commemorating Stars Park was erected on the site in 2010.