Lon Goldstein Field
Grand Prairie, TX
Review by Gary
Located just 10 miles south of downtown Fort Worth, Texas, Lon Goldstein Field served as the home of the 2001 Fort Worth Cats of the short-lived All-American Association. When the league folded after just one year, the Cats pounced around FIVE leagues until they ran out of lives in 2014.
As it was when it was built in 1975, Lon Goldstein Field is one of the athletic fields of the Fort Worth Independent School District and seats approximately 2,000 baseball enthusiasts. The Cats played here while their new ballpark was constructed on the site where the original Cats prowled from 1926 to 1964. The reincarnated Cats moved to the rebuilt LaGrave Field, just 11 miles away near the Fort Worth Stockyards, in time for the 2002 campaign.
All of Lon Goldstein Field’s fixed seats are contained within a two-story concrete wedge of a grandstand. Concessions and ticket booths are found under this cement structure while the wooden press box rises above the center of the seating area. Both dugouts are also made of wood and are situated adjacent to the concrete stands.
The aluminum fence encasing the outfield is composed of a faded sheet metal fence that indicates the corner distances of 340 feet and a 380-foot marker to dead center. Little has changed to the look of the ballpark since attending a Cats game in 2001, but this is no surprise as football is the sport that reigns supreme in Texas.
This quaint ballpark is named after Lon Goldstein, one of the top hitters in the Fort Worth Major City baseball league of the 1940’s. Goldstein played for the Cincinnati Reds during the 1943 and 1946 seasons. Lon Goldstein’s hitting prowess did not transfer to “The Bigs” as he amassed just one hit in 10 at-bats during his 11-game major league career, which was interrupted due to his enlistment in World War II. Goldstein’s local baseball heroics coupled with his desire to swap baseball flannels for a military uniform certainly make this ballpark worthy of his name.
2001
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