Baseball behind the prison walls of Eastern State

If you want to see a baseball game in Philadelphia, you should catch the Phillies at home in Citizens Bank Park.

But if you want to see the city's most unique baseball field, you'll find it behind the eerie walls of the abandoned Eastern State Penitentiary at 22nd Street and Fairmount Avenue.

It ranks as one of the most fascinating places I've ever visited.

Eastern State opened in 1829 as the world's first true "penitentiary," a prison designed to inspire penitence in its convicts. The "hub and spoke" floor plan has been copied by more than 300 other prisons. (Read a six-page history of the prison.)

The individual sky-lit cells once held criminals including gangster Al Capone, bank robber "Slick Willie" Sutton, and convicted murderer Sam "Red" Crane of the 1917 Philadelphia A's baseball team.

The prison operated continuously for 142 years, then sat in ruin from 1971 to 1991. It opened as a historic site in 1994, and most of the cellblocks and guard towers have been left in stabilized decay.

Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site executive director Sally Elk says the goal is to preserve the 10.5-acre prison "as a stabilized ruin" and to make the tour route safe for visitors. Visitors were required to wear hard hats until 2003 and sign liability waivers until two years ago.

Regardless of their crime, prisoners lived in solitary confinement in Eastern State's early years of operation, but this system "did not so much collapse as erode away over the decades," according to a prison history.

Group sports became popular after solitary confinement ended, and a combination baseball/football field was added to the prison. It was created where a power plant and carpentry shop once stood. (The photo above is taken from centerfield.)

The baseball backstop, located near the central guard tower, doubled as a goal post when used for prison football games. The left crossbar is still in place.

Fenway Park's "Green Monster" isn't the only imposing left field wall.

A home run at Eastern State had to clear a 30-foot high stone wall and small metal fence (above left).

According to prison legend, it was customary for home run balls in the 1960s to be inspected after being tossed back by people in the neighborhood surrounding the prison. These balls sometimes contained small weapons or other contraband.

The baseball field was an unexpected but pleasant discovery on my self-guided tour of Eastern State in June 2010. (You can take the prison's virtual reality tour.)

When I stood near the backstop, I couldn't help but imagine myself as a pitcher.

Do you think I would've had the courage to deliver a brush-back pitch to an inmate who was crowding home plate?

Color photos taken by Darrin M. Devault on location at Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA. B&W photo courtesy of Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, Inc.

Suggested reading: "Baseball Behind Bars: Prison Baseball at Eastern State Penitentiary in the Early Twentieth Century," by Tim Hayburn of Lehigh University, Journal of Sport History, Vol. 34, No. 2, Summer 2007.