What to Know
- Ontario community sports landmark Jay Littleton Ball Park was damaged in a late-night fire that tore through the historic baseball field's wooden grandstands that date to 1937.
- The field provided the setting for scenes from the 1992 Tom Hanks and Geena Davis hit "A League of Their Own" and other Hollywood movies.
- Members of the Ontario baseball community gathered outside the ballpark early Friday after hearing about the devastating fire.
A beloved community baseball stadium used for scenes in the 1992 film "A League of Their Own" and other Hollywood movies was damaged in a fire late Thursday in Ontario, California.
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Flames tore through the wooden grandstand and other parts of historic Jay Littleton Ball Park, a decades-old baseball gem that is currently home to Little League games and amateur leagues. Witnesses said they heard an explosion at about 11:30 p.m. Thursday.
Daylight revealed significant damage to the grandstands.
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"It's a sad day for the city of Ontario," said fire investigations supervisor Dan Kloosterman. "It has a lot of history."
Details about a cause were not immediately available. Kloosterman said there likely was old, dry wood in at least part of the grandstand structure, which can burn quickly.
Baseball has been played at the field at Fourth Street and Grove Avenue in the community east of Los Angeles for more than 80 years. The wooden grandstand was finished in 1937. Surrounding John Galvin Park was founded in 1910.
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The ballpark was home to the Ontario Orioles for one season in 1947 and was officially dedicated as Jay Littleton Ball Park in 1998 in honor of an important local figure in baseball and youth sports.
Ontario Eastern League president Aaron Matthiesen rushed to the ballpark early Friday after hearing about the fire. Several other people involved in the Ontario baseball community also stopped by.
"If you look up and down the street, you have baseball lovers everywhere," Matthiesen said, adding that some were in tears. "This ballpark has been the heart of Ontario, the historic ball park, the place to play for our kids. They're not going to get a chance to play in it any more."
He described conditions at the park in recent years as "dilapidated" with a rise in the number of homeless people living there, but said there were signs of improvement at the baseball field.
"I have two young kids in our league, and the dream has always been that they get to play at Jay Littleton," Matthiesen said. "We finally started seeing program of something going towards it. And now, I can guarantee my kids won't be able to play here ever again."
Hollywood films with scenes shot at the picturesque stadium include the Tom Hanks and Geena Davis hit "A League of Their Own," "Eight Men Out" and "The Babe Ruth Story."
"Basically, if it was a baseball movie shot in the '20s, there were scenes shot here," Matthiesen said.
