 Exterior of Jay Littleton Ball Park, Jul-2008. |
 The seating bowl, as seen from down the third-base line. |
 Fans view the lush green field from behind a thick screen. |
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Exterior of Jay Littleton Ball Park, Jul-2008. |
The seating bowl, as seen from down the third-base line. |
Fans view the lush green field from behind a thick screen. |
They started playing ball here over 90 years ago, and by 1937 a wooden grandstand was completed which stands to this day. Surprisingly, professional baseball only visited here for one season, 1947, with the Ontario Orioles, but the field continued to be utilized by amateur baseball. The day I visited, a regional tournament for the Senior League (ages 15-16) division of Little League Baseball was just getting started.
The park, officially dedicated to Joe (Jay) Littleton in 1998, was maintained expertly by the City of Ontario. Its well-preserved condition enticed many a film crew to make the 50-mile trip east from Hollywood on I-10 to utilize the facility. Most notably, scenes from the movie Eight Men Out were shot here. The site also saw use by numerous crews shooting commercials.
This was no slouch of a ball park, either. Foul territory was quite expansive, and the distance from the plate to the center-field wall, 402 feet, made it seven feet deeper than Dodger Stadium, as one city staffer was quite proud to point out.
Sadly, the entire facility was consumed by a fire of unknown origin in August 2024. It is way too early to know if the stadium will be rebuilt in any form.