A multi-year effort to restore one of the last standing Negro League baseball stadiums was celebrated in Hamtramck on Monday with a Juneteenth celebration. The $2.6 million project is now complete with the finished construction of the grandstand.
Funding for the effort came from a variety of sources, including a Wayne County Community Development Block Grant, National Park Service African American Civil Rights grants, the Detroit Tigers Foundation, the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, and the Kresge Foundation.
The Friends of Historic Hamtramck Stadium (FHHS) hosted the ceremony, which included government officials and a tribute to Detroit-native Ron Teaseley Sr., one of four living players from the Negro League. Teaseley played for the New York Cubans and was part of the Brooklyn Dodgers farm system. He's in the Wayne State Athletic Hall of Fame and coached at Northwestern High School for decades. Former students from Northwestern honored Teaseley at the ceremony.
The rededication was followed by a tribute game with high schoolers representing the Detroit Stars and Chicago American Giants.
The finished grandstands were filled with supporters of the project, family, friends, community members, and fans who came to watch the game.
Hamtramck Stadium and Norman “Turkey” Stearnes Field sits in Veterans Memorial Park in Hamtramck, near Keyworth Stadium. It was built in 1930 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. It's one of five Negro League fields remaining. High school and little league teams used the field for years, but the grandstand and field have been in rough shape for a while. The field is now kept up by the Hamtramck Stadium Grounds Crew (including many members of the Navin Field Grounds Crew).
