Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

It just figured the wall would be the last thing to come down.

It challenged hitters, startled motorists and had been Ray Winder Field’s signature feature for years. Now the outfield wall, especially the section in right with the 50-foot screen on top, is being dismantled at night – when most crimes are committed – as the city of Little Rock finishes demolishing the ballpark that has stood for 80 years and was the home of the Arkansas Travelers until closing in 2006.

My daughter Chloe drove by the old place the other day and called immediately to tell me how the sight of Ray Winder Field in ruin made her sad. Of course she was sad. Chloe, now a young mother, and her younger siblings Hannah and Nathan, practically grew up there.

Not everyone gets a chance to see their childhood home torn down.

Ray Winder Field opened to great fanfare as a modern brick and steel ballpark in 1932. In those days its location was far from the town center, and fans would get to games on street cars that ran from downtown and turned around at Fair Park, Ray Winder’s location.

Back then the outfield walls were of average height, and the street behind the ballpark was a dirt road.

I didn’t encounter Ray Winder Field until the early 1990s, and by then the big screen had taken its place atop the right-field wall to protect drivers on I-630.

The greatness of home runs at Ray Winder Field was measured by where they landed. For right-handers, that meant hitting the National Guard Armory beyond the left-field wall; for lefties that meant a soaring, majestic drive over the screen in right.

An early version of the screen was actually a net, and during a gusty exhibition featuring the St. Louis Cardinals in the late 1970s, the screen came loose and threatened to engulf an outfielder.

Once in place the screen mostly did its job. But every now and then a passing car got dinged. During night games the risk was assumed by the drivers and the Travs weren’t liable for damages, and I was told the team had insurance to cover them if a daytime driver got hit.

I was on my way to the park during batting practice once and I saw the car ahead of me lose its passenger side mirror in an explosion of glass and plastic. I could see the ball bouncing among the other cars like an angry hornet looking for something else to sting.

But for all the years the wall did its best to protect traffic, it has been stopping traffic this week. The city has had to close lanes at night in order to finish the dirty work of bringing the wall down.