Editing Baseball Ground (section)

==History==
As the name suggests, the stadium was originally used for [[baseball]]. It was originally called Ley's Baseball Ground and was part of a complex of sports grounds (Ley's Recreation Centre) built and owned by businessman [[Francis Ley|Sir Francis Ley]] for workers at his foundry, Ley's Malleable Castings Vulcan Ironworks. The stadium was the focal point of the complex and was part of a personal quest by Ley to establish professional organised baseball in the United Kingdom. His Ley's Recreation Club was formed in 1890 and went on to become known as Derby Baseball Club, prior to being dissolved by Ley and replaced with a new Derby Baseball Club, all in 1890.

The Ground was bordered by Shaftesbury Crescent (west-northwest); Vulcan Street (south-southwest); the Ley foundry (east-southeast); and an extension of Cambridge Street (north-northeast) roughly corresponding to Columbo Street. The original stand was built along Vulcan, with standing-room areas along other edges of the field. The diamond was in roughly the southwest corner of the lot. Over the years, additional stands were built around the pitch and were tagged with names corresponding to their orientation with respect to the streets (Vulcan and Columbo) and nearby neighborhoods ([[Normanton, Derby|Normanton]] and [[Osmaston, Derby|Osmaston]]).

The stadium was home to Derby Baseball Club, the baseball club was running away with the first British professional baseball championship, the [[1890 National League of Baseball of Great Britain|National League]] which was established in 1890. However, pressure from other teams in the league over the number of American players Derby used forced them to resign before the end of the league's first season.

Derby County Football Club was formed in 1884, as an offshoot of the [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club]].<ref name = "Inglis149">{{harvnb|Inglis|1996|p=149}}</ref> The football club played on a pitch that was part of the [[County Cricket Ground, Derby|Derby cricket ground]], which at that time was in the middle of a racecourse.<ref name = "Inglis149"/> This site, which had minimal facilities, was chosen to host five FA Cup semi-finals, the replay of the [[1886 FA Cup Final]] and an [[England national football team|England]] international match in 1895.<ref name = "Inglis149"/> Derby had occasionally used Ley's Baseball Ground for their home matches due to [[horse racing]] meetings taking priority.<ref name = "Inglis149"/> With the baseball club in decline, Derby County FC made it their permanent home in 1895 and renamed it The Baseball Ground. A party of Gypsies were forced to move and legend has it that before leaving they put a curse on the ground preventing Derby County winning the [[FA Cup]]. The ground became the property of the club in 1924 when it was purchased from Ley's heirs for £10,000. The Baseball Ground was once used for an international match: [[England national football team|England]] beat [[Ireland national football team (1882&ndash;1950)|Ireland]] 2&ndash;1 in a [[British Home Championship]] match on 11 February 1911.

At its height, the Baseball Ground could accommodate around 42,000 spectators. The record attendance was 41,826 for a match against [[Tottenham Hotspur F.C.|Tottenham Hotspur]] in 1969, just after Derby County were promoted under the management of [[Brian Clough]], at the beginning of the most successful era in the club's history. Clough guided Derby County to the league title in 1972 and his successor [[Dave Mackay]] oversaw another title triumph in 1975.

However, attendances fell at the turn of the 1980s as Derby were relegated from the First Division in 1980, and in 1984 they fell into the Third Division, though an upswing in form followed and they were back in the First Division by 1987. Perimeter fencing was erected between the stands and the pitch during the 1970s to combat pitch invasions by [[Football hooliganism|hooligans]], but this was dismantled in April 1989, within days of the [[Hillsborough disaster]] in which 97 [[Liverpool F.C.|Liverpool]] fans were fatally injured, most of them crushed to death against perimeter fencing. This resulted in policing levels in games at the Baseball Ground being increased by 50%.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}}

===Closure===
Derby County remained at the stadium until 1997, when they moved to the [[Pride Park Stadium]]. The site had first been identified in August 1993, although difficulties with decontaminating the land led to the project being abandoned within 18 months in favour of rebuilding the Baseball Ground into a 26,000-seat stadium. In the meantime, the Baseball Ground had been gradually converted into an all-seater stadium, although its capacity was reduced to just over 18,000 - inadequate for a second-tier club with ambitions of winning promotion back to the top flight.

However, these plans were abandoned in February 1996 and Pride Park was confirmed as the location for a new stadium. Construction work began later in 1996, with the new stadium scheduled to be ready in time for the 1997–98 season. It was, however, confirmed that the Baseball Ground would be retained for reserve and youth team matches for at least a few years after the new stadium's completion. Construction of the new stadium began later that year.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dcfc.co.uk/page/the-baseball-ground |title=The Baseball Ground, 1895 to 1997 |website=[[Derby County F.C.]] |access-date=27 May 2018}}</ref>

The last league match to be played there was a [[Premier League]] fixture against [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]] (where 18,287 people watched Derby lose 3–1, although their top flight status was secured one season after promotion), though the stadium continued to be used for reserve team games for a few seasons afterwards.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oldgrounds.co.uk/baseball_ground_derby.htm |title=Baseball Ground - Derby County |website=Old Football Grounds |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090627084608/http://www.oldgrounds.co.uk/baseball_ground_derby.htm |archive-date=27 June 2009}}</ref>

In late 2003, several months after the youth team played its final game there, the Baseball Ground was finally demolished to make way for housing. The former ground has since been redeveloped to around 150 new homes and, in September 2010 a commemorative statue was unveiled on the site. The {{convert|15|ft}} high metalwork featuring the silhouettes of three footballers dribbling and shooting was commissioned by the builders Spirita and Strata and designed by artist [[Denis O'Connor (British-Irish sculptor)|Denis O'Connor]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Baseball-Ground-sculpture-unveiled/article-2635227-detail/article.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100916202726/http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Baseball-Ground-sculpture-unveiled/article-2635227-detail/article.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 September 2010 |title=Baseball Ground sculpture has been unveiled |newspaper=[[Derby Telegraph]] |date=13 September 2010 |access-date=28 July 2012 }}</ref> A fan, George Glover, 'made history' by scoring the last goal at the Baseball Ground in a game between fans.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/2940830.stm |title=Farewell to the Baseball Ground |date=27 May 2003 |website=BBC News |access-date=27 May 2018}}</ref>