Baseball’s History in Columbus

Baseball was one of the earliest sports played in Columbus. It started in 1877 with the Columbus Buckeyes. Nearly 150 years later, America’s pastime continues to thrive in the capital city with the Clippers. 

 

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Triple-A All Star Game

Columbus welcomed minor league baseball’s best players for the Triple-A All Star Game, home run derby, and skills competition at…

Big Ten Tournament

The Tournament was hosted in Columbus for three consecutive years, first at Bill Davis Stadium in 2010 then at Huntington Park in 2011…

Fast Facts

 

  • Four professional baseball teams existed in Columbus before the Clippers: The Buckeyes, the Senators, the Cardinals, and the Jets.

  • The New York Yankees “Core Four” players who won five World Series titles together all played for the Clippers in 1994 and 1995 – Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte.

  • The Clippers have made four appearances in the Triple-A National Championship, which is the second most in the league.

  • Tyler Cloyd threw the first no-hitter at Huntington Park in 2014.

  • Huntington Park was named “Triple-A Best of Ballparks” in 2015, 2017, and 2018.
     

Local Teams

The Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, the Clippers, have played in Columbus since 1977. They played at Cooper Stadium until 2008, before moving to Huntington Park in 2009.

They are devoted to honoring the history of baseball, and play the game like it was in the 1800s. They play over 40 games against other vintage teams annually. The Diamonds are a similarly focused team but comprised of all women

Founded in 1881, baseball was the first athletics team at the Ohio State University. Since then, the Buckeyes have won 14 Big Ten titles and a national title in 1966.

The Columbus Buckeyes got started in 1877. Since then the city has been home to various minor league and Negro Leagues teams called the Solons, Blue Birds, Elite Giants and Buckeyes (again). The Senators (1902-30), Red Birds (1931-54) and the Jets (1955-70) had the longest runs before the Clippers…

Frank Howard

MLB legend Frank Howard grew up in Columbus and played at Ohio State before signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958.

Nick Swisher

Columbus kid, Ohio State alum, World Series champ and MLB All-Star. Swished now has the field at Bill Davis Stadium named after him.

George Steinbrenner

Born outside of Cleveland, Steinbrenner attended grad school at Ohio State. Years later he went onto buy the New York Yankees and had…

Hank Gowdy

The Columbus native was the first major league player to enlist in the military and the only to serve in both World War I and World…

1877
1877

The Columbus Buckeyes started play in the International Association

1881
1881

The Ohio State baseball team is founded

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