NEW ORLEANS From Bienville to Bourbon Street to bounce. 300 moments that make New Orleans unique.

WHAT HAPPENED The Pelicans’ 1718 ~ 2018 first game was April 17,1887 when the team defeated 300 Mobile 5-2. TRICENTENNIAL

The sport was played here seriously starting in 1859 Long before New Orleans became when New Orleanians created a league with seven teams and played in fields near what is now Louisiana Avenue. a football city, it was a town. Baseball quickly became the city’s most popular sport. Seven years later, local businessmen secured a minor league franchise, the New Orleans Pelicans, which played

in New Orleans for 73 years. The team saw notable play- SHOELESS JOE JACKSON ers, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, Dazzy Vance and Pelican Park , come through town, according to baseball was first called Heinemann Park historian S. Derby Gisclair. The team played in several for owner A.J. locations: Sportsman’s Park, near City Park Avenue and Heinemann. It Interstate 10; and Pelican Park, at the corner of Carrollton DAZZY was renamed VANCE Pelican Park in and Tulane avenues where they played until 1957 when 1938. The site the site was cleared for a hotel. The Pelicans played two was cleared in 1957 to make final seasons at City Park Stadium before being sold and way for a hotel. moved to Little Rock. The Pelicans were revived in 1977 EARL for a single losing season in the Superdome. WEAVER The city was also home to several Negro League teams, including the Black Pelicans, the New Orleans Stars and the New Orleans Eagles. From 1870 to 1939 the

Pelican Park, at the COLLECTION ORLEANS NEW HISTORIC THE city routinely hosted corner of Tulane and spring training camps Carrollton avenues, was the Pelican’s for teams, most fre- third home. The quently the Chicago first, Athletic Park White Sox and Cleve- was on Tulane Ave- NEW ORLEANS PUBLIC LIBRARY nue between South land Indians; but also Members of the Negro Carrollton Avenue the St. Louis Browns and the Brooklyn Dodgers, accord- League’s New Orleans and South Pierce ing to Gisclair. Eagles conduct a NORD Street. The second, baseball clinic at Pelican from 1908 until Baseball returned to the city New Orleans regained a team in Stadium in the 1940s. 1915, was on South in 1993 with the New Orleans Carrollton Avenue 1993 when the AAA Denver Zephyrs moved to the city. Zephyrs, renamed in 2016 to the between Banks and Baby Cakes. The team, now a farm team for the Miami Marlins, was Palymra streets. rechristened in 2016 as the New Orleans Baby Cakes.