“There’s no crying in baseball” – Jimmy Dugan

Most of my road trips are centered around seeing a game, and may include a side trip or fun local spot. This trip, though, was the opposite. I ventured to SW Indiana for a family visit with my family. My brother and his family live in Newburgh, IN, just outside of Evansville, and my sister and her husband made the trek from St. Petersburg, FL. for a fun weekend. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with all the family reunion photos (as some might be incriminating). We were talking about things to do over the weekend, and come to find out, my brother and sister in law had never been to an Evansville Otters game. I felt a duty to suggest we go!

Pre game

We stopped at Turoni’s Pizzery & Brewry in downtown Evansville. What a great pizza joint, and they brew their own beers. Initially we were just going to pre game it there and maybe have an appetizer, but decided to go all out and get pizza. It’s some of the best za I’ve ever had. If you are in the Evansville area, I highly recommend it!

Bosse Field

Bosse Field opened in 1915, and is the third oldest baseball stadium in continuous use, behind Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. (Note: Birmingham’s Rickwood Field is older, opening in 1910, but the Barons moved out of Rickwood in 1987. Rickwood does hold a throw back game every year, though. For more on Rickwood, you can read my post on the throw back game I attended here.)

Bosse Field is named after Benjamin Bosse, who was the mayor of Evansville from 1914-1922, and who worked out an agreement to buy the land and build the stadium. It was the first publicly owned baseball park. Around the outer concourse of the stadium are some construction photos.

Bosse Field had its first game under the lights in 1929, six years before the Cincinnati Reds hosted major league baseball’s first night game. Here’s a photo of a night game at Bosse Field in 1931 (photo credit: Evansville Otters)

More recently, Bosse Field is known to baseball and movie fans alike as one of the primary shooting locations for “A League Of Their Own.” Bosse was the backdrop of the Racine Belles.

The cast at Bosse Field. (Photo credit: Evansville Otters)

Fans are greeted with this great view as they enter.

The fam inside the gates.

In game experience

Inside the gates was an awesome experience. I love old ballparks. Sure, you can’t see the game from the concourse. The beams mean some obstructed views. There are no cupholders either!

But the views are incredible. And notice in the second photo how close the dugouts are to homeplate.

I thought having the old time light fixtures still in the stadium was pretty cool too.

I even made yet another new friend!

During the game, I caught sight and sound of a fan with a very loud cowbell. One can never have too much cowbell! I went down and met Steve, the Secret Weapon! Super nice guy, and I wish I chatted with him longer, but I didn’t want to block the view of others behind him. Everyone needs to have a cowbell like his and enjoy banging it as much as he did!

I think the fam had a good time too.

Food and souvenirs

Since we had pizza before the game, I didn’t buy any food during the game. But I did check all the eats out. They did have a pretty decent selection of food found both under the stands and outside the stadium. You definetely wouldn’t go hungry or thirsty here!

The gift shop was small but did have some pretty good stuff. And of course, cool shirts. I chatted with the woman running the shop, and she said, surprisingly enough, they didn’t even off the no crying shirts until last year! She said many fans would come to Bosse Field and just ask to look around, based on the movie, and so they decided to start carrying the shirts.

In game action

I didn’t get as many game shots as I normally do, since I had company with me. But I did grab some good shots of the Otters and the Florence Freedom. It was Military Appreciation night, so the Otters were wearing these spiffy unis.

The Freedom really flashed some leather two plays in a row. First, an over the shoulder catch, then a tumbling catch in the outfield!

Out at first.

But safe at second!

And another safe at second.

A little low.

Coming at ya!

Other random shots:

Wrap up

What a great night at Bosse Field with the Otters. This is why I love minor league ball. Or, more specifically in this case, independent Frontier League baseball. Parking was free, seats were just $5, and the fans were awesome. And I think my fam had a good time as well. I’m definetely going to push for another family reunion during baseball season and catch the Otters again.

Here’s the view on the way out, and we had a full moon that evening!

Post Script

My brother had never seen “A League Of Their Own” all the way through, so when we got home, we ended up watching it on Amazon Prime. Great ending to a great night.