Bloch Park
Selma, AL
Review by Gary
Bloch Park is a baseball facility found one mile west of downtown Selma, Alabama, and the famous Edmund Pettus Bridge. The stadium is on the grounds of an original ballpark that was built in 1901, which was once the original spring training home of the Chicago Cubs. When that wooden grandstand burned, a local businessman with a passion for baseball funded the construction of the current stadium that bears his name.
The ballpark was home to the Selma Cloverleafs of the Alabama-Florida League (1951-1962) and another minor league team of the same name in the Southeastern League from 2002-2003. The team left Selma after playing only three games of its second season in 2003 when the team owners could not pay the league a $100,000 safety net.
All Bloch Park’s seats are covered by a roof that also shades the press box at the top of the stands. An entrance walkway splits the benched seats while fans may also sit on seating of their own behind the fenced backstop area. Covered dugouts are at field level and are painted the same color as the grandstand.
The oddest and most notable feature of Bloch Park is the location of the scoreboard, which is planted close to the third base bag in foul territory, rather than beyond the outfield fence, as is usual, which benefits nearsighted fans, players, coaches, etc. The ballpark holds around 1,500 fans of different vision strengths, but is certainly in need of an upgrade. As of March 2026, it was reported that Bloch Park and the neighboring Memorial Stadium would receive $100,000 in funding to improve both venues.
The baseball field at Bloch Park was once dedicated to former Major Leaguer, Terry Leach, who was born in Selma, but the sign bearing his name at the entrance was nowhere to be found on the day of my visit. If anyone happens to visit Bloch Park and notices either the stadium upgrades occurring or the Terry Leach Field sign having been reinstalled, please let us know!
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2026
306
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Mike says...
"Looking at Gary's photos of Bloch Park, I can't help but notice that the football field next door, Memorial Stadium, appears to have a baseball grandstand on one corner of the gridiron. It certainly doesn't look like any football configuration I've ever seen. Can anyone out there confirm if there use to be another baseball stadium right next to Bloch Park?"
