The historic Jay Littleton Ball Park, in Ontario, California, that served as the backdrop of the film A League of Their Own burned to the ground in a 5-alarm fire on Thursday, possibly due to homeless people breaking into the park.
The Ontario Fire Department posted a message to social media telling residents that the first fire engine arrived on the scene at 11:30 p.m. to address the fire that started in the wooden grandstands, Fox News reported.
The fire quickly spread, though, and raced beyond the capacity of the 51 first responders to stop it, the department said.
Please see the attached press release. #CommercialFire #JayLittletonBallPark pic.twitter.com/oEcb88An0V
— Ontario Fire Dept. (@OntarioFireDept) August 24, 2024
The resulting fire totally destroyed the historic bleachers and dugouts. The field and scoreboard are left still standing.
The cause of the conflagration “remains under investigation,” officials added.
The park, first opened in 1937, has hosted amateur and youth baseball games for decades. It also served as home base for the Ontario Orioles pro league team in 1947.
But the park was exposed to a world audience when it served as the home base for the 1992 Penny Marshall film, A League of Their Own, starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Madonna.
Recently, though, park officials said that they have been having problems with homeless people gathering under the bleachers.
“We constantly have issues with the homeless at the park,” Aaron Matthiesen, president of the Ontario Eastern Little League, told the media. “In the past, they’ve broken into the building and cut the gas line so they could hook up their own gas…it’s just fallen in disarray, and I unfortunately think that’s what happened.”
The Ontario Fire Dept. has not confirmed whether homeless people caused the fire.
“It’s a terrible loss for our community. Everyone here either played or had relatives or kids who played on that field over the years. In its 87 years of existence, a lot of people played on that field,” city director of communications Dan Bell said.
Other baseball films also used the historic park, including Eight Men Out and The Babe Ruth Story, as well as the failed streaming TV version of A League of Their Own.
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