The diamond in Hough League Park's restoration speaks well of Cleveland's past, present and future

League Park restoration as seen on June 3, 2014. The field is on the same footprint as it was in its heyday, so people can stand where Babe Ruth did when he hit his 500th home run. League Park reopens Saturday following a $6.3 million restoration and renovation.

(Tim Warsinskey / The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio – On a day when close to 100,000 fans are expected downtown to watch the Browns, Indians and Gladiators on Saturday, Clevelanders also will gather as they have done since 1891, a couple miles away, to remember and rededicate the place where it all began.

League Park, refurbished and ready for public use at the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 66th Street, will be reopened at a free public ceremony beginning at 1 p.m. This will cap a $6.3 million renovation of a historic facility that had been ignored and deteriorated in recent decades.

Among the improvements is an artificial turf diamond on the same footprint with the same quirky dimensions as the ballpark in its heyday, including the high right-field wall over which Babe Ruth hit his 500th home run onto Lexington. The ticket house, constructed in 1909, was restored, and a visitors center was added behind the first-base line, as well as bleachers behind home plate and a small park beyond the left-field fence.

League Park is considered baseball's oldest existing ball grounds that once housed a major-league team, having been built as the National League's Cleveland Spiders' home in 1891. It was the Cleveland Indians' home from 1901-46, as well as the Cleveland Buckeyes of the Negro League and the NFL's Cleveland Rams. Even the Browns practiced there into the 1960s.

Among those expected to attend Saturday's ceremony are Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Sen. Sherrod Brown, former Indians All-Star Andre Thornton, and writers Ken Krsolovic and Bryan Fritz, co-authors of "League Park: Historic Home of Cleveland Baseball.''

Krsolovic, a Euclid native, is a former Lake Erie College baseball coach, and Fritz is a Cleveland prosecutor. Krsolovic recently took time to answer five questions about League Park:

1. Why does League Park matter?

"It matters from the standpoint of the historical things that a happened there, and the fact that it wasn't recognized like the places that lasted longer. Forbes Field and Shibe Park made it to the early '70s and the Polo Grounds lasted until the '60s, running through to a much-later generation.

"League Park last hosted an Indians game in 1946. It's important from the standpoint of what happened there, and it's also important to the history of the city. A ballpark and its teams tie so closely to the history of the city, and it still exists, and people are fascinated with it, even though they never saw a game there.

Former area baseball coach Ken Krsolovic and Cleveland prosecutor Bryan Fritz have co-authored the definitive history of League Park, which will reopen Saturday.

"There's a sense in Cleveland about the history that is especially strong, and add in the fact that, somehow, that plot of land lasted all these years, most of them as a baseball field. That has kept people enthralled with the place.

"You can stand at the plate where Babe Ruth did and you can stand on the mound where Cy Young did. It's a lot better than going to where the Polo Grounds was, and there's an apartment building and a plaque."

2. What was the impetus for writing this book?

"Bryan and I talked about this for maybe 20 years and we finally got down to it. We worked over the span of more than six years to get it all done. It was a project because the principals, the people who were the decision-makers, are no longer around.

"You always hear about (Joe) DiMaggio's 56th game (of his hitting streak) and Babe Ruth's 500th homer, but there were so many other things that happened there and things that probably were close to being lost in time. We were able to unearth some of those and correct some things. We were able to do the first comprehensive League Park publication."

3. Some favorite tidbits about League Park?

"A lot of the off-beat little stories. In 1908, the Naps lost the pennant by a half-game to Detroit because of a rainout that wasn't made up. Later, George Stovall, who was the Indians' third baseman, said, 'We lost by a half-game because of the rainout, but really we lost because of a sign in left field.' There was sign that said, 'Hit triple, win a pair of shoes.' Stovall said he remembered 17 times that season Cleveland players were thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple to get a free pair of shoes. He blamed the loss of the pennant on that sign.

"In the 20s, there was a kid who got lost inside the park on opening day. Turns out, he got rolled up with the tarp and was stuck there.

"No one ever made a big deal about Walter Johnson's 300th strikeout there. Two (players') 3,000th hits happened there -- Nap Lajoie and Tris Speaker.

"And, of course, so many of the great things that happened. Game 5 of the 1920 World Series alone – the first home run by a pitcher in a World Series, the first grand slam in a World Series and the only unassisted triple play in a World Series, all in the same game.

"There was a preponderance of crazy occurrences and uncanny number of events that happened there. The working title of the book was, 'In a League of Its Own,' because we felt this ballpark was in a league by itself for crazy occurrences and historic happenings.''

4. What was the longest home run hit at League Park and did anyone ever hit one to dead center?

"It's a guess. Balls landed on Lexington all the time. The longest home run purportedly was hit by a pitcher, Walter Johnson of the Senators. He hit one into the left-field bleachers or maybe beyond them, it's not clear. It had to be 450 or maybe approaching 500 feet. Certainly no mention of a ball that was hit over the wall at 460 feet, just right of dead center.''

This architectural rendering of League Park before it was rebuilt in 1910 often is misidentified as a 1924 photo of the historic park, said Ken Krsolovic, co-author of a new book about the historic park.

5. What myths or mistakes about League Park did you uncover?

"A picture that gets used of League Park in 1924 is actually a rendering of the ballpark before the rebuild in 1910. Things like that we caught.

"Also, the height of the wall, for example. There's a comprehensive book on the history of ballparks that says the (right-field) wall was 60 feet high. I'm thinking maybe they guesstimated by looking at photos. The wall originally was 20 feet of concrete, with 20 feet of fencing above it, and in the 1920 rebuild, the fencing was raised eight more feet to 48 feet. We've never found any record that it was 60 feet. We did painstaking research, looking a pictures, to make sure what we saw in print matched.''