Babe Ruth played here, Jackie Robinson played here, and on March 6, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his only central Florida speech from the pitcher's mound. Tinker Field, at 287 South Tampa Avenue beside Camping World Stadium in Orlando's West Lakes neighborhood, is one of the most storied grounds in Florida sport. Baseball has been played on the site since 1914; the first stadium, an all-wood 1,500-seater promoted by Hall of Fame shortstop turned Orlando developer Joe Tinker, was dedicated in April 1923 with tickets sold from hotel cigar counters. The field served as spring training home to the Cincinnati Reds from 1923 to 1933, the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1934-35, and the Washington Senators - later the Minnesota Twins - from 1936 all the way to 1990, plus decades of minor league ball through the Orlando Rays' 1999 farewell. A 1963 rebuild incorporated nearly a thousand seats salvaged from Washington's demolished Griffith Stadium, and the grandstand grew to 5,100 seats; later years added concerts from the Beach Boys to Marilyn Manson and the Electric Daisy Carnival Orlando editions of 2011-2013. The Citrus Bowl reconstruction doomed the structures: after the 2014 groundbreaking shortened right field, the city approved demolition, and the grandstands came down in 2015 - though the playing field itself had been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 and was designated a city landmark. The preserved field now serves as an open-air event lawn and staging ground beside the stadium, with a historic marker honoring both the baseball century and the civil rights moment. Two months after Dr. King spoke at Tinker Field, the Civil Rights Act was moving into law - and Orlando keeps the grass he stood on as public ground. The salvaged Griffith Stadium seats closed a poetic loop - chairs that watched Senators baseball in Washington finished their service watching the same franchise train in Florida - and the remaining cast-iron originals were preserved as artifacts when the grandstand came down.

Type: Outdoors

Address: 287 Tampa Avenue South, Orlando, United States, 32805

Opening Date: 19/04/1923

Outdoor Area

Accessible