St. Louis has always been a baseball town. Even on the hottest, muggiest summer days, St. Louisans flock to the ballpark to hear the crack of the bat or the satisfying thwack as another strike slams into the catcher’s mitt. But in the 1920s and early 1930s, the most exciting baseball in St. Louis wasn’t being played at Sportsman’s Park, the legendary home of the Cardinals and the Browns. No, from 1928 to 1931, the best baseball in St. Louis was being played at one of the most unique ballparks in baseball history—Stars Park.
Located at the corner of Compton and Laclede in Mill Creek Valley, a historic African American neighborhood, Stars Park was the home of a storied Negro League franchise—the St. Louis Stars. Completed in 1922, Stars Park was one of the few stadiums in the entire country built explicitly for Negro League baseball.
Known as a hitters park, the signature feature of Stars Park was the city trolley shed that served as the right field wall. While the shed was tall, it was also located a mere 250 feet away from home plate. Power hitters swatted the ball over the shed with relative ease, prompting awed cheers from the more than 10,000 fans who packed the stadium. These home runs came so frequently that, for several seasons, the Negro National League forced the Stars to count balls smacked over the wall as ground rule doubles instead of home runs!
African American St. Louisans loved the Stars. During home games, fans filled the huge grandstand of Stars Park to root for their home team. While the Stars struggled on the field during their first several years in Stars Park, by 1929 they had become a juggernaut.
They were led by three future Baseball Hall of Famers—the lightning fast James “Cool Papa” Bell, the power hitting George “Mule” Suttles, and the defensive wizard at shortstop, Willie Wells. Behind these team leaders, the Stars won Negro National League titles in 1929, 1930, and 1931.
However, the Stars didn’t shine for long at Stars Park. The Negro National League folded in 1931, and the Stars faded away. Cool Papa Bell and the other Stars signed on with other teams. Stars Park was sold to the city, and eventually demolished. While the Stars may have dimmed, baseball is still being played where Stars Park once stood. Today, that ground serves as the baseball field for the Harris-Stowe State University Hornets.
