IronPigPen: History of Allentown's Bicentennial Park

You might disagree with his political views, but no one can dispute IronPigPen's love for baseball. That's no surprise. He comes from Allentown. Their semi-pro Dukes defeated the vaunted New York Yankees in 1923 at Edgemont Field (2d & Susquehannah) by a score of 8 to 7. The Bambino himself went down swinging in the 9th with bases loaded.

IronPigPen has an interesting history of Bicentennial Park, which a cash-strapped Mayor would like to sell to LANTA. Here's an excerpt.

"EARL F. HUNSICKER BICENTENNIAL PARK, located where South Howard Street intersects with Lehigh Street on the city’s South Side, is a small, multi-purpose facility with an official seating capacity of 4,600. Perhaps the fact Bicentennial is literally squeezed into one of the city’s average, unassuming neighborhoods – not too rich, not too poor – adds to its charm and appeal. Knocking a ball out of that place involves the intentional litter of a citizen’s backyard or a public street.

"The place, Bicentennial, was actually first developed and opened as FAIRVIEW FIELD in 1939. It would be of interest to note that it was Alvin Butz’s construction company that built Fairview Field at that point in history. It was also at that juncture of time when Adolf Hitler’s Germany would storm Poland and officially set off the Second World War.

"IronPigs fans are well aware, of course, that the ALVIN H. BUTZ construction company that would, sixty-nine years later, in 2008, errect COCA-COLA PARK, the current home of the AAA Lehigh Valley IronPigs, on the East Side of Allentown.

"The inaugural tenants of Fairview Field were the Allentown Dukes, a minor league affiliate of the National League’s old Boston Braves. The Dukes (the third Allentown professional team in history, no less, to adopt the royalty-related moniker) were owned by Pete Weimer and played in the Class C Interstate League at the Braves’ behest. For these Dukes, the reign was short-lived, however, and they lasted but a single season.

"The Dukes did not exactly rule at the box office and Weimer, who was running with an empty wallet, got ole’ Alvin Butz himself to accept the Dukes team as completion of Weimer’s payment for the construction job. The team were rechristened the Fleetwings and a new affiliation with the National League’s St. Louis Cardinals was arranged for the 1940 season.

"'Dad always said it was the worst business decision of his life,' stated Lee Butz, son of Alvin Butz and current chairman of Alvin H. Butz, Inc., later. (The Morning Call, Jeff Schuler, 'Baseball Has Been Down, But Not Out' – March 30, 2008)

"Alvin Butz would, eventually, complete the sale of the Fleetwings with St. Louis Cardinals owner Sam Breadon at the 1943 Major League All-Star Game, which was held in Philadelphia that season. Lee Butz, then all of nine years old, was present for negotiations, but that’s another story. The Fleetwings would be rechristened the Cardinals to match their Major League sponsors for the 1944 campaign. Considering the anniversary of D-Day is in just two days, it is noteworthy that, during the course of World War II, the known-morale booster of professional baseball operated at the corner of South Howard and Lehigh Streets in Allentown.

"By 1948, however, the Allentown Cardinals had been moved to a new stadium, Breadon Field, which was a new ballpark with a capacity of 5,000 that had opened in Whitehall Township, which neighbors the city to the north.

"Baseball fans visiting Coca-Cola Park from the west of Allentown traveling US ROUTE 22 EAST heading west must pass the 7th Street / MacArthur Road exit and surely notice the Lehigh Valley Mall off on the left. The Lehigh Valley Mall would be the former site of Breadon Field, for those taking notes of such matters. Truth is, while the new ballpark for the old Allentown Cardinals was being built along the Seventh Street Pike, the US Route 22 highway, as current Lehigh Valley residents are accustomed to, did not exist.

"Meanwhile, Fairview Field got a face-lift in the middle of the 1970s and was re-opened as Earl F. Hunsicker Bicentennial Park to coincide with the United States of America’s two hundredth anniversary in 1976. Thus, if for that reason alone, the aging stadium is in every sense of the term a piece of both local and national history. And, therefore, no better nor worse than any other national icon, such as the Liberty Bell itself.

"(The Liberty Bell and Allentown is a another story for another day)

"More research would be required, but I seem to recall a semi-pro baseball team called the Allentown Wings who played at Bicentennial in the seventies for a little while. Harder to forget that, in the 1990s, an independent league baseball team posing as professionals called the Allentown Ambassadors came and went. More on that shortly.

"Nowadays, Bicentennial Park is home to the Philadelphia Force, a team in the National Pro Fastpitch league, which is women’s professional softball.

"As for Bicentennial itself, the ballpark can do nothing but project the image of a tiny little old stadium in desperate need of major cash infusion to cure many ills. The Philadelphia Force are fine people doing nice things. Unfortunately, however, the realities of situations see to it that women’s professional softball teams do not have piles of capital on hand all the time for renovation projects.

"There are people in the city of Allentown, from what I have read on the Internet, with some truly outstanding ideas of vision and growth involving a restaurant or two and a Bicentennial Park – Patriots Park softball complex."