Decades of decay and dormancy struck out Saturday, as Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson inaugurated the revival of historic League Park.

Built in 1891, the city considers the field a treasure.

Jackson and other community leaders booted ceremonial shovels into the original spot of home plate, from which Babe Ruth hit his 500th homerun.

The site, at 6601 Lexington Ave., will gain an acre, and fully functional baseball diamond. The mayor said there also will be extensive improvements to the landscape and streetscape.

The Indians won the 1920 World Series there, the Cleveland Buckeyes won the 1945 Negro League World Series there. Leroy "Satchel" Paige dominated the Negro Leagues from the pitcher's mound there before becoming the oldest rookie in Major League Baseball when he joined the Cleveland Indians in 1948.

"People will come to Cleveland. One of the historic places they will visit is here," Jackson said Saturday from inside an open tent to ward off cold wind and rain.

The major said the dozens of citizens, neighbors and public officials who turned out in spite of the weather were as a testament to the project's importance. "I played here when I was little. We didn't win," Jackson quipped, "but we played here."

Michael Cox, the city's Director of Public Works, said the revival is "20 years in the making."

The late Fannie Lewis, council representative for the 7th Ward, started pressing for the park's revival then. T.J. Dow, the current councilman, continued the campaign, and Cox said that when Jackson became mayor "this was one of the projects he wanted to do."

Dow said Saturday that the project will include restoration of the original ticket house, which still stands, along with the right-field fence. The city will add another acre to the grounds to accommodate an all-purpose field and an artificial-turf diamond.

There will also be a visitor's center, and there are hopes of moving the Cleveland Baseball Heritage Museum there, from its home in the Old Arcade, said Jay Murphy, who was baseball coach at Cleveland State University from 1996 to 2006.

Cox expects to start moving earth in the next few weeks, with completion of the project around next September.

The project will cost $6.3 million from general-obligation bond proceeds and Ohio Cultural Facilities and ward allocation funds.