Once Upon A Time....
....the St. Louis Cardinals held their tryouts at Frame Park!
Baseball first got its start in Waukesha in 1868 or 1869. At that time there were around 25 local teams in Wisconsin. Waukesha’s team was known as the Diamonds. The team was part of a league started by a gentleman named Walter Carlin who was attending Carroll College. Andrew Frame, who donated the funds for the park acquisition and development, organized the local team to play against them and was considered one of the three charter members of that league. Early players on the Diamond’s team included several prominent Waukesha residents such as Walter Rankin (served as Carroll University’s President from 1866-1903), Edward Rankin (sibling of Walter Rankin), Charles Gaspar, and William and Henry Blair, and Andrew J. Frame (Waukesha State Bank President). The first ballpark, where this team played, was on West Avenue, in the vicinity of what is now West Avenue and Prospect Court. That ballpark closed in 1905.
Baseball has been a major part of Frame Park for all of the Park’s history and is the longest standing recreational use at the park. It has even been mentioned that baseball was played on the land long before it even became a city park. The field has been the home to College, High School, municipal andlocal recreation leagues for its entire history. The field has even hosted Minor League baseball teams and was the location of local tryouts for professional teams, including the St. Louis Cardinals. In the 1930s the field at Frame Park was considered one of the nicest ball diamonds in the State of Wisconsin, with a grandstand and moveable bleachers which could seat 2,500 fans.
For three years during World War II the Milwaukee Brewers, then a minor-league team that played at Borchert Field in Milwaukee and held their spring training camp at Frame Park to save on fuel costs. The Brewers ground crew assisted in redoing the diamond, adding “professional touches not found on amateur diamonds” at the time to make it suitable for their Spring Training. The St. Louis Cardinals held tryouts in Frame Park in the 1950s! In July, 1954, after numerous years of discussion and planning, the City finally installed lights on the diamond. These lights were replaced after the Common Council approved their purchase in 2011.