The oldest baseball field in the world is right in Massachusetts

CLINTON – Fuller Field in Clinton is the oldest continuous-use baseball field in the world, and it’s just 47 miles west of Boston.

Typically, when you think of baseball and old ballparks, places like Fenway Park come to mind. But town of Clinton Historian Terry Ingano said there is a hidden gem rich in history called Fuller Field. It’s the oldest continuous-use baseball field in the world. 

A piece of baseball history

“If you love baseball, you’ve got to come and see Fuller Field in Clinton, Mass. You just have to,” Ingano said. “We trace it to 1878. It was probably a neighborhood baseball field before that even, but in 1878, they fixed it up.” 

A book has been written about the field, and it’s even been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. And from its infancy, the field has had its fair share of Hall of Famers come through. 

“Billy Hamilton was from Clinton, and he played for a while for the Red Sox. Sliding Billy. He’s the third-best baseball stealer in baseball history,” Ingano said. 

Baseball memories  

Improvements have been made over the decades, and the field is maintained by the town’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Tony Gannon remembers playing on Fuller Field when he was a kid. “It’s the oldest baseball diamond continuous in the world, and we never knew it when we were playing on it. But now that we can say we played on it, it’s pretty cool,” Gannon said.  

The Clinton High School baseball team actually won the state championship here back in 1993. “If you lived in this town –  probably 50 percent of our population’s great-grandfathers played here – and you have that sense of community when you touch this field, which is the main reason we don’t let it go,” said Clinton High School Athletic Director John Smith. 

The field is now host to many leagues. In fact, this summer, the town plans to throw a vintage throwback game.

“They are planning to charge a dime because that’s what they charged in the old days. It’s nice to just kind of walk the base paths and know that legendary baseball players ran the same bases and everything else. It’s a great thing for Clinton,” Ingano said.