Stan Galle Field

Strike out, walk, single, or home run, the result has no bearing on one undeniable fact: Every ball player will one day step in the batters box for their final at bat. So when you have a chance to stand in the same batters box as Babe Ruth, you take full advantage!

A trip to Stan Galle Field, on the campus of Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, is one of the ultimate baseball pilgrimages. It is the oldest continuously used college baseball field in the United States. Intercollegiate baseball was first played on this Spring Hill site in 1889, but games were played on the field much earlier than that. It’s also the birthplace of Cuban baseball. Of course, there was also that time in 1924 when Babe Ruth and a few of his teammates visited the field and took batting practice with the team! But enough of the history, you can easily find that on many sites.

Stan Galle Field can’t really be considered a stadium. There’s no seating on the home side of the field because there’s literally an administrative building in the way. (Though some fans set up chairs on the building concourse for games.) The top of the home dugout has been made into a deck where fans can sit. On the visitors side, a small metal bleacher is available for fans who didn’t bring their own chairs. There’s also a few picnic tables set up under the trees down the left field line.

The feeling you have when you walk on this field, knowing that some of the greatest players to ever play the game once walked this grass, is something you can’t explain.