A beloved community baseball stadium used for scenes in the 1992 film “A League of Their Own” and other Hollywood movies was damaged in a fire late Thursday in Ontario, California.
Flames tore through the wooden grandstand and other parts of historic Jay Littleton Ball Park, a decades-old baseball gem that is currently home to Little League games and amateur leagues. Witnesses said they heard an explosion at about 11:30 p.m. Thursday.
Daylight revealed significant damage to the grandstands.
“It’s a sad day for the city of Ontario,” said fire investigations supervisor Dan Kloosterman. “It has a lot of history.”
Details about a cause were not immediately available. Kloosterman said there likely was old, dry wood in at least part of the grandstand structure, which can burn quickly.
Baseball has been played at the field at Fourth Street and Grove Avenue in the community east of Los Angeles for more than 80 years. The wooden grandstand was finished in 1937. …