In 1920 the Daytona Beach Islanders joined the Florida State League and actually played here although it was not much of a stadium at the time. It was called the Daytona City Island Ballpark. It has wooden bleachers and eventually the ballpark was upgraded. Alot of the configuration had stayed the same like the grandstand, press box, road around the ballpark etc. Their was even a Segregated area built here to comply with the Florida's Jim Crow Seating Law. In 1951 renovations were made and the ballpark was updated but Hurricane Donna destroyed much of it in 1960. Hurricanes are very rare to the Daytona area so this stadium was not use to such high winds.

They were going to tear down the ballpark but instead the city commissioners voted to restore the park and in 1962 new grandstands and a press box were added. Today they still exist if you were to visit here. They added clubhouses and bleachers in 1972 when the Montreal Expos used the stadium for spring training. A new roof was put in 1999 when Hurricane Floyd ripped of sections of the old one. 

But the park itself is said to have existed since 1915 according to the National Trust For Historic Preservation saying the cubs used it in 1917 and 1930 when the park was opened. But then others say 1962 since it was demolished in the hurricane and rebuilt. 

It was not always called Jackie Robinson Memorial Ball Park. Although the story goes as this that Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player to play in an official game. He started as a member of the Montreal Royales of the International League in March of 1946. Eventually he signed onto the Brooklyn Dodgers that same year. Both the Royales and Dodgers that year were turned from many previously scheduled spring training exhibition ball parks when word got out that Robinson was Black. In Sanford the police chief threatened to stop the game if Robinson played and in Jacksonville they padlocked the doors on the ballpark on game day. Then in DeLand the game was called off due to fault electrical lighting at Conrad Park which we also investigated. However in Daytona at City Island Ballpark they allowed Robinson to play and the following season he broke the color line at the major-league level. The city named the stadium in 1988 after Robinson and it was placed on the Register Of Historic Places. The statue of him was dedicated in 1990 and is located in front of one of the entrances on the other side of the stadium.

Today the Daytona Cubs play many baseball games here and all though its minor league baseball many fans come on out to support these players who eventually end up sometimes going to major league much like Robinson. Also the ballpark serves as a baseball museum so it really is a wonderful place to walk around at. 

With the ballpark is different areas where one can test their athletic abilities such as a long jump, base sliding, a 10 foot basketball rim, a high jump and other things. You can only imagine that our paranormal team went through the entire course and ya know what? We may have actually made the team lol believe it or not. 

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Rick-AngelOfThyNight