Joe Tinker and the Original Stadium

Joe Tinker and the Original Stadium. April 19, 1923. , Orlando celebrated Opening Day at Tinker Field on April 19, 1923. All businesses closed at noon for the city holiday and gates opened at 2:45 as Mayor Duckworth gave the dedication. More than 1,700 fans from across Central Florida came to see the Minor League Orlando Bulldogs defeat the Lakeland Highlanders 3-1. The Cincinnati Reds had already selected Tinker Field as their Winter Training home, to begin in February 1924. A Cincinnati sportswriter remarked that he has seen no Minor League ballpark in the country as fine as Tinker Field. , In January 1923, three months earlier, The Orlando Athletic Association had initiated plans to create a sports complex outside the western city limits as a modern baseball and multi-purpose athletic field. Local reporters began calling the 16-acre tract “Tinker’s Field” for Joe Tinker, retired Chicago Cubs shortstop and President of the Orlando Athletic Association, and the name stuck. , The Orlando Morning Sentinel reported, “The grandstand … will be modern in every way, every seat designed to permit a clear and unobstructed view of the baseball diamond.” In addition to the wooden grandstands, bleachers allowed for racially seating. The Sentinel noted that, “The left field bleachers are reserved for White persons. The right field bleachers are for Negroes.” In time, Tinker Field would become the primary stage for introducing racial integration in Orlando. , Looking to the future, the Orlando Athletic Association saw Tinker Field as “a necessary factor in the future development of athletics in Orlando” and constructed “a park that will merge all athletic interests, throwing the field open to the schools for track and field meets and to encourage interstate football contests.” Our City continues to enjoy the legacies of this substantial investment and visionary effort.