Andrews Field: A Replete History

The site for Andrews Field, comprising four city blocks, lies between south Fifth and Seventh Streets, and South B and D Streets. The property, included with other properties, was ceded to the city of Fort Smith by a Congressional Act dated May 13,1884, and reads in part, "... and the same, is hereby granted to the city of Fort Smith, to be held in trust by said City for the use and benefit of the free public schools of the single school district of Fort Smith, and to be applied to the benefit of all children of school age without distinction of race."

In 1919, John M. Andrews, Sr., President of the Public Schools Athletic Association, began a fund-raising campaign to build a park on the site granted in 1884. He and the Noon Civics Club raised enough money to construct a $25,000 grandstand and baseball diamond. They sold planks for a dollar a piece to build the board fence around the park.[1]

In 1920, the Twins became an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. Andrews Field opened for the 1921 season, as home of the Fort Smith Twins. It replaced their original park, Stadium Park, which was located on 9th and Carnall, the current location of the Sebastian County Jail. It would remain the home of Fort Smith minor league baseball teams for the remainder of Fort Smith's minor league tenure.

In 1921, the Twins won the second half title but lost the league championship series 4 games to 3 to Chickasaw. In 1922 and 1923, they finished just above last place. Then in 1924, they rebounded with a 97-63 record good for second place.

In 1925, they finished with the best record in the league but did not win either half's title and failed to win the league championship. In 1926, they finished 1 game back of the league champion to again finish 2nd. In 1927, Fort Smith finally broke through and won the league title with an 81-51 record. In 1928, Fort Smith ceased to be a farm club for the Cardinals and subsequently became a farm club for the Detroit Tigers. 

That year, in what was a mirror image of the 1925 season, they won the most games in the league but did not claim either half's title again and failed to win the league title. In 1929, Fort Smith won the second half title but there was no league championship series played. From 1930-1932 the Fort Smith Twins had losing seasons all three years and the team packed up and moved to Muskogee.

On April 8, 1937, some 6,500 fans, a new local record, packed the stands to watch the 1936 National League champions, the New York Giants, in a contest with the outstanding Cleveland Indians of the American League. Bob "Rapid Robert" Feller was 18 years old at the time and pitched three innings for the Indians under the management of Steve O'Neill. Giants' manager was Bill Terry. Pitcher was "Prince Hal" Schumacher, and catcher was Gus Mancuso. Mancuso had caught for the Fort Smith Twins in the Western Association in 1924. Roy Weatherly, outfielder for the Cleveland Indians, had played with the Twins in 1930 when they had been in the Detroit Tiger system. 

The late Johnnie Porter, sports editor for the Southwest Times Record, predicted in his column that it was doubtful if even the major leaguers would hit any homers over the fence. "Every board in the fence," he wrote, "is 360 feet, 5 inches from home plate, a fair poke in any league." But Hal Trosky and Earl Averill, both of the Cleveland Indians, did just that. However, Mel Harder, another great Cleveland pitcher, came on in the fourth but was tagged with a dozen hits, nine Giants' runs, and the loss of the game. 

Trosky and Averill made the only two runs for the Indians, and the score was 9-2. Mel Ott, home run king for the Giants, was up to bat four times but could get only one single against Feller and Harder. The gate for this game was almost $4,000, which translated into today's dollars with an inflation calculator, is about $61,200. Grady Secrest relates that the enthusiasm of the Fort Smith fans was so great that the Giants placed a farm club here the following year (1938).[2]

They were called the Fort Smith Giants and were affiliated with, of course, the New York Giants. In their first season, they made the league's post season but lost to Ponca City. That year, 87,578 fans attended games in the park(1,251 people per game), an attendance record in the Western Association. In 1939, they won the league title with an 83-50 record. In 1940, they made the league championship series but lost to St. Joseph.

Also in 1940, Dizzy Dean pitched a game for the Chicago Cubs against the St. Louis Browns in April, 1940. Approximately 3,500 fans turned out for the game, and it was also a memorable event for the field.[3]

In 1941, they failed to make the playoffs. In 1942, they won the second half title and the league title over Topeka 4 games to 3. From 1943-1945 the league play was suspended due to World War II.

In 1946, the Fort Smith Giants made the league title but lost to Hutchinson 4 games to 2. In 1947 they finished 2nd from last, and in 1948 and 1949 they finished 2nd from the top. Also in 1949, the Leavenworth Braves had the worst winning percentage in the history of the league with a record of 25-112. In 1950, Fort Smith moved to Enid Oklahoma.

Fort Smith didn't wait long to start up a new team. In 1951 the Fort Smith Indians took the field and finished dead last as an affiliate for the Cleveland Indians. They finished last in 1952 also. In 1953, they changed their team name to the Fort Smith-Van Buren Twins and dropped their Cleveland Indians affiliation. The new name meant nothing in the standings, as for the third year in a row, they finished dead last. Apparently someone was tired of losing money on a last place team and Fort Smith folded after the 1953 season.

Andrews Field has also hosted exhibition games between Major League Clubs during the "barnstorming" days. One such game was the New York Giants against the Cleveland Indians. In 1956, Andrews Field hosted a very special Negro League game. It included many players who had broken through to the Majors by then, some of whom were well on their way to all-time MLB greatness status. This game brought the likes of Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Joe Black, Monte Irvin, and Al Smith to Fort Smith. During Fort Smith's time as a New York Giants affiliate, they had many guests of the ball club including Baseball Hall Of Fame Pitcher Carl Hubbell, who threw out the first pitch at one of their home games in 1940.

The Fort Smith Twins and Giants played all of their home games at Andrews Field just off Wheeler Avenue, except on Sundays when they had to play games in nearby Oklahoma to avoid blue law violations. Andrews Field is unfortunately being demolished to make room for the National Cemetery to expand it's grounds. Between the Twins and Giants, they picked up 6 league championships and 10 total first or second half league pennants. At some point after 1953, there was another minor league team in Fort Smith known as the Fort Smith Red Sox.

Under the direction of Jimmy Vaughn and Charles Elkins, a massive clean-up and reconstruction got under way for the renovation of the park in the early 1970's. After $30,000 and a very large number of volunteers, the park was again dedicated for use — this time for the Sebastian County Softball League. Vaughn's wife, Claudia, was then and still is the District Commissioner of the Amateur Softball Association of Arkansas. The date was May 18, 1975.[4]

It hosted many softball and baseball games from 1975 into the 2000's.  It served as the home for the Northside Lady Bears Softball team for many years.  In Spring of 2010, Andrews Field was torn down to make way for expansion of the Fort Smith National Cemetery.  It stood for 89 years.

Many greats in baseball history, and some Hall of Fame members played or visited the grounds of Andrews Field for special events. Some of these include: Carl Hubbell, Branch Rickey, Rogers Hornsby, Pepper Martin, Jo Jo White, Gerome (Dizzy) Dean and his brother Paul (Daffy) Dean, Stan Musial, Mel Ott, Bob Feller, Mickey Mantle, and Joe Garagiola.

One player who has a special place in Fort Smith history who played for the Fort Smith Giants and later the NY Giants was Pitcher Harry Feldman. According to Baseball-Reference, his statistics are as follows: For Fort Smith, he played 2 seasons, 1938 and 1939. In 1938, he split time between Blytheville & Fort Smith. He was 32-16 over 2 seasons. He posted a 3.99 ERA in 1938, while his 1939 ERA is unknown. Over the 1 1/2 seasons he spent with Fort Smith he pitched 373 innings, including 276 innings in 1939. 

He later moved on to Double-A New Jersey and was called up to the Major League Giants in 1941. He played from 1941 to 1946 and compiled the following career statistics: 35-35 record, 3.80 ERA, 22 complete games including 6 shutouts, and 254 strikeouts. As a batter he hit .172 with 2 home runs and 20 RBI.

Harry was one of the players who jumped from MLB to the outlaw Mexican League. MLB decided that any players who left MLB for the Mexican League would be banned from MLB for life. This was to prevent many of MLB's greatest stars, who could actually make more money in the Mexican League, from leaving MLB. He was later re-instated to MLB, and finished his career in the minor leagues, playing for PCL San Francisco in 1949 and 1950. Harry lived the rest of his life after baseball in Fort Smith until his death in 1962, and is buried at Rose Lawn Park Cemetery in Fort Smith. Here is his page on Find-A-Grave: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8782705

[1][2][3][4] Information obtained from a PDF report: Andrews Field by Sarah Fitzjarrald
http://www.uafortsmith.edu/attach/Library/JFSHSVol8/08-02_Andrews_Field.pdf