Cooper Stadium was a baseball stadium in Columbus, Ohio , that was built in 1931 and closed in 2008. It was the home of several minor league teams, including the Columbus Clippers from 1977 to 2008.
24-571: Cooper Stadium was built in 1931 as Red Bird Stadium as the home for the then- Columbus Red Birds of the American Association , one of the minor league teams of the St. Louis Cardinals . It was constructed using the same blueprints which were used for building Red Wing Stadium in Rochester, New York in 1929. The Cardinals owned both teams when the respective stadiums were built. When
48-471: A multi-purpose stadium . By April 2017 the first base side of the stadium had been demolished, leaving the third base side and bleachers still standing as what was to become the straightaway grandstands of the proposed race track. No other construction had been completed and according to an article appearing in The Columbus Dispatch , the project appeared to be dead. As of September 2021,
72-556: A dispute with the Cardinals' ownership, and moved up to Major League Baseball as the general manager of three teams between 1933 and 1947, and earned a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame . The 1933 Red Birds were recognized as one of the 100 greatest minor league teams of all time . Columbus produced a number of great players, including Hall of Famers Enos Slaughter and Billy Southworth . Slaughter (who batted .382 for
96-565: A four-page paper which cost 4¢ (102¢ in 2023) per copy. The paper was originally an afternoon paper for the city of Columbus, Ohio , which at the time had a population of 32,000. For its first few years, the paper rented a headquarters on North High Street and Lynn Alley in Columbus. It began with 800 subscribers. On April 2, 1888, the paper published its first full-page advertisement, for the Columbus Buggy Company. In 1895,
120-493: A proposal to turn the site of Cooper Stadium into an auto racing facility was being considered. This is not a completely new use for the facility, as the parking lot south of the stadium has been used for Sports Car Club of America and autocross racing as well as motorcycle training. On June 27, 2011, the Columbus City Council voted to rezone the site to allow for a racetrack to be built. On December 20, 2011,
144-746: A second top-level farm club (St. Louis already owned the Rochester Red Wings of the International League ), they purchased the struggling Senators club and dubbed it the Red Birds, based on the popular nickname for the big-league club. The first business manager of the Red Birds was a baseball novice named Larry MacPhail . A bold promoter, he supervised the building of Red Bird Stadium , championed night baseball games, and tried to make baseball more fan-friendly. Attendance tripled between 1930 and 1932. MacPhail left Columbus after
168-969: A two-year stint as the Washington Nationals ' top affiliate, in 2009 they became the AAA affiliate of the Cleveland Indians . From 1936 through 1942 , the parent Cardinals also operated the Columbus Red Birds of Columbus, Georgia , in the Class A Sally League . When the Sally League resumed play in 1946 after World War II, the Georgia-based farm club changed its name to the Columbus Cardinals. The Columbus Dispatch The Columbus Dispatch
192-597: Is a daily newspaper based in Columbus, Ohio . Its first issue was published on July 1, 1871, and it has been the only mainstream daily newspaper in the city since The Columbus Citizen-Journal ceased publication in 1985. As of November 2019, Alan D. Miller is the newspaper's interim general manager. The paper was founded in June 1871 by a group of 10 printers with US$ 900 in financial capital . The paper published its first issue as The Daily Dispatch on July 1, 1871, as
216-673: The OHSAA Ohio high-school boys baseball State Tournament. The Clippers moved from Cooper Stadium after the 2008 season to a new ballpark, Huntington Park , which is located in the Arena District in downtown Columbus . On September 1, 2008, the final game was played as the Toledo Mud Hens defeated the Columbus Clippers in front of 16,770 fans, the third largest crowd in stadium history. As of May 1, 2008,
240-769: The Ottawa A's franchise of the International League began playing there in 1955. This club, the Columbus Jets , moved to Charleston, West Virginia , in 1970. Ohio's capital was without baseball for seven years until 1977, when the Columbus Clippers joined the IL. The Clippers have played there ever since, most notably as the longtime AAA affiliate (1979–2006) of the New York Yankees . After
264-652: The "C-J", pronounced "See-Jay") was beholden to the Columbus Dispatch for its printing facilities, and controversy surrounded the C-J's demise in 1985. In a sale announced on June 3, 2015, ownership of the Dispatch was transferred to the GateHouse Media subsidiary of New Media Investment Group. With New Media's 2019 acquisition of Gannett , GateHouse Media was rebranded as Gannett, the name under which
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#1732790369686288-479: The 1937 Red Birds with 245 hits ), and won Association titles in 1933, 1934, 1937, 1941–43 and 1950. Southworth managed the 1932 Red Birds. In the early 1950s a series of losing teams, and the encroachment of television, depressed the Red Birds' attendance, and the club moved to Omaha, Nebraska , for the 1955 season and was re-christened the Omaha Cardinals . Columbus immediately gained a new AAA team when
312-508: The 1989 Triple-A All-Star Game . The team of National League -affiliated All-Stars defeated the team of American League -affiliated All-Stars, 8–3. The stadium has also hosted a number of other events, such as roller derbies , music concerts (including Aerosmith , Rush , Bob Dylan & Garth Brooks ), professional wrestling (including Bobo Brazil, the Sheik, & Ali Baba) and hosted evangelist Billy Graham . Cooper Stadium also hosted
336-659: The Association continuously since 1902, was previously known as the Columbus Senators (Columbus is the state capital). It was independently and locally owned through the 1920s. The economic distress of the Great Depression was accompanied by the rise of the farm system — pioneered by the St. Louis Cardinals ' Branch Rickey . The Cardinals purchased minor league teams at all levels to develop their talent as if on an assembly line, and when they needed
360-600: The Columbus Board of Zoning Adjustment approved a special permit by a vote of 4-0 that would clear the way for developer Arshot Investment to build a half-mile racetrack, automotive research and technology center. Arshot planned to spend up to $ 40 million to develop the 47-acre site. Rumored plans also included a $ 22 million overhaul to eventually become the OHSAA stadium for most outdoor events (baseball, football, soccer, lacrosse, etc.). This would then make Cooper Stadium
384-679: The Dispatch is currently held. The Dispatch Broadcast Group , comprising WBNS-AM - FM - TV in Columbus and NBC affiliate WTHR (channel 13) in Indianapolis , remained in the hands of the Wolfe family until 2019, when it was sold to Tegna, Inc. , which promptly absorbed the firm. The sections of the Dispatch include the Front Section, Nation & World, Metro & State, Business, Sports and Life & Arts. The Food section
408-468: The Red Birds moved to Omaha after the 1954 season, the International League 's Ottawa Athletics moved to Columbus as the Jets and took up residence at the stadium. Accordingly, it was renamed Jets Stadium . The Jets moved out in 1970, and the stadium sat dormant for six years. When the International League granted a new franchise to Columbus, the county government bought and renovated Jet Stadium, which
432-406: The former stadium site sits half demolished and abandoned. 39°56′47.06″N 83°1′41.58″W / 39.9464056°N 83.0282167°W / 39.9464056; -83.0282167 Columbus Red Birds The Columbus Red Birds were a top-level minor league baseball team that played in Columbus, Ohio , in the American Association from 1931 through 1954. The Columbus club, a member of
456-449: The hands of the Wolfe family for 110 years. On December 16, 1906, the paper published its first color ad, for Beggs Store. On April 9, 1907, the Dispatch offices were destroyed in a fire, and the building was demolished and rebuilt. In the interlude, the paper ran its offices out of 34/36 North High Street. The paper's editorial staff traditionally has had a conservative slant. Until it endorsed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump ,
480-423: The paper moved its headquarters to the northeast corner of Gay and High streets, a larger building on a site which was previously a grocer. On April 10, the paper published a 72-page edition to mark the move. On December 17, 1899, the paper published its first Sunday edition, a 36-page paper which cost 3¢ (110¢ in 2023), and the daily editions were reduced in price to 2¢ (73¢ in 2023). Two years later on March 3, 1901,
504-542: The paper published its first color comic strips . The paper, renamed The Columbus Evening Dispatch , changed hands several times in its early years. In 1905, it was purchased by brothers Harry Preston Wolfe and Robert Frederick Wolfe, who originally ran a shoe company. It was not the Wolfes' first entry into journalism; they had purchased the Ohio State Journal two years before. The Dispatch would remain in
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#1732790369686528-469: The paper's last endorsement of a Democrat as a Presidential candidate had been for the re-election of Woodrow Wilson in 1916. The Dispatch endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland in the 2006 Ohio elections, but endorsed John Kasich , the Republican candidate running against his reelection, in 2010 A competing paper, The Columbus Citizen-Journal (known locally as
552-520: Was home to the Columbus Red Birds , a farm team for the St. Louis Cardinals ; the Negro league Columbus Blue Birds ; the Columbus Jets ; and, after the renovation was completed, the Columbus Clippers . From 1939 through 1941, Cooper Stadium (then named Red Bird Stadium) was also home to the Columbus Bullies , two-time champions of the third American Football League . Cooper Stadium hosted
576-597: Was renamed Franklin County Stadium , for the newly minted Clippers. In 1984 the stadium was renamed in honor of Harold Cooper , who was responsible for bringing the Jets to Columbus in the 1950s, and had AstroTurf installed, which was removed by 1997. The stadium was owned and operated by the Franklin County government, located in the section of the city known as Franklinton . Over the years, Cooper Stadium
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