In 1913, the brand new Athletic Park opened in Vancouver and it was quite a marvel.
Like Recreation Park, the stadium was an all wooden facility... though with a sleeker and slightly more
"modern" feel to it. Athletic Park would serve professional (and amateur) baseball
for the next 40 years and bring Vancouver into the spotlight as one of the
great baseball towns of the Pacific Northwest. Throughout its final 3 years
at Recreation Park … into the 40 years at Athletic Park and all the way through
into helping Vancouver into the new Capilano Stadium II (aka Nat Bailey Stadium)
where Vancouver's professional baseball teams still play today… Bob Brown was
there as their guiding light, before finally succumbing to illness at the age
of 85 in 1952. He would forever be known throughout Vancouver as Mr. Baseball
or the "Father of Baseball" in Western Canada. |