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| From Baseball's Canadian-American League by David Pietrusza: Lack of a fence was a pretty common condition in those days. This malady also plagued Ottawa, as it started 1936 without a proper barrier. Lansdowne Park, on the Rideau Canal, was a 10,000-seat football stadium built in 1909 for $100,000. “A fence is being erected,” reported the Oswego Palladium-Times on June 3, 1936. “It will be placed about 300 feet from home plate and give the batters something to shoot at.” As noted earlier, the park was employed by the Canadian Army in World War II as a troop training site. On other occasions the team was forced to vacate the premises to make way for the Central Canada Exposition. “It was a rough park. The field wasn’t kept up,” says Spencer Fitzgerald. “The stands were really long and the troops lived under them.” “No one ever hit a ball out of that park. It was over 400 feet to left. I think they had a standing offer of $1,000, from Jack Dempsey or someone who had been up there, if anyone hit one out. Nobody ever collected,” says “Dutch” Howlan, who pitched for the Border League’s Ottawa Nationals. Lansdowne Stadium was also used for the International League’s Ottawa Athletics in the mid-1950s, and was expanded to 17,301 seats in 1961. In 1966 the old grandstand was demolished to make room for the city’s Centennial project, the Civic Centre, a multipurpose facility consisting of a 33,000 square foot exhibition hail, a 9,355 seat arena, offices, meeting rooms, and dressing rooms. All of this was incorporated into a new 14,842 seat stadium grandstand. Lansdowne stadium now features Astroturf and hosts the Canadian Football League's Ottawa Rough Riders. |
| Lansdowne Park Ottawa, Ontario |