 Entrance to Bloch Park, Jul-2004. |
 The compact behind-the-plate seating bowl, with the press box on top. |
 A view from behind the plate. |
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Entrance to Bloch Park, Jul-2004. |
The compact behind-the-plate seating bowl, with the press box on top. |
A view from behind the plate. |
Site visitor Gord Brown pointed me to a site commemorating the old Alabama-Florida League that identifies Bloch Park as the team’s home from 1957 to 1962, pushing the park’s opening at least that far back. Another site visitor, Earl Wilson, tells me that the Bloch Park stadium structure arose after the second World War around the previously existing Rowell Field, home to the Cloverleafs as well as high school football in the 1930s and ’40s. Wilson was a bat boy for the Cloverleafs in high school. It is possible the park was in use in 1927, the team’s first appearance in the Southeastern League, or even earlier.
The most recent professional baseball use for the facility came with the independent Southeastern League, which revived the historic Cloverleafs name for 2002. However, the team abandoned Bloch Park after just two games of the 2003 season. The entire league folded at year’s end.
The field at Bloch Park is dedicated to former major leaguer Terry Leach.