Baseball lovers and preservation advocates are working to win historic designation for a Hamtramck ballpark that was home to Negro League games in the 1930s.
The Detroit Stars played at Hamtramck Stadium between 1930 and 1937.
Gary Gillette is a baseball writer and and editor of the ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia. He says Hamtramck Stadium is one of only five Negro League sites that have survived.
"Three of the others are in real jeopardy, and only one of them has been preserved – Rickwood Field in Birmingham Alabama, which is currently the oldest professional ballpark in the country still standing."
Getting onto the National Register of Historic Places would allow supporters to qualify for tax credits and raise money for renovating the grandstand and field.
Gillette says he hopes to see it used for amateur baseball, and perhaps special events like Negro League tribute games.
