Historic ballpark scores in Guinness record book

CLINTON - Fenway Park is sacred ground for baseball nostalgists, a beloved shrine that binds generations of Red Sox fans and draws millions of ballpark buffs to its cozy, timeworn confines.

But compared with Fuller Field in Clinton, a modest baseball diamond in a small mill town 35 miles west of Fenway, even the major leagues' oldest park is a relative newcomer to America's pastime. The game has been played on Fuller Field without pause since 1878 - 34 years before Fenway Park opened. Longer, the Guinness Book of World Records recently concluded, than any other baseball diamond in the world.

The historic status, announced three years after a dog-eared 1878 map in a forgotten Town Hall closet illuminated Fuller's past, is now the toast of the town, stirring hope among residents of turning the field into a national tourist attraction for baseball traditionalists.

"It's like a real-life 'Field of Dreams,' " said Selectman Joseph Notaro Jr. "It's always been a gem, a wonderful old field. But to be the oldest is just an awesome thing. There's a tremendous sense of community pride around this."

Don Lowe, the town's director of community and economic development, said the Baseball Hall of Fame has agreed to include the park's history in its archives. Lowe has contacted the state tourism board about potential marketing opportunities and is hoping to persuade the Red Sox to commemorate the honor during the playoffs this month.

"What would be wonderful is to have them announce it at a game, maybe put it up on the scoreboard," he said. "Telling everyone the world's oldest diamond is right here in Red Sox nation."

The designation, following extensive scrutiny by Guinness researchers, is the first of its kind and states that Fuller Field "has been proven to have hosted baseball from 1878 to the present day."

"It's the only place in the world where people can run the same bases as players from the first days of professional baseball," said A. J. Bastarache, a local historian who discovered Fuller's status and won Guinness's certification. "Play on the same field as Tim Keefe? You can't do that anywhere else."

Combing through 19th-century box scores as he researched a local history of the town, Bastarache discovered that Keefe, a future Hall of Fame pitcher, played third base for the Clinton Base Ball Club in 1878. Bastarache wanted to know where the club played its home games, but the box scores referred to the field simply as "the grounds." Its location remained a mystery until Bastarache came upon the oilcloth survey map tucked away in a closet.

Bearing the words "Clinton Base Ball Ground" inside a drawn diamond, the frayed, watermarked map is clearly dated and depicts the field in precisely the same location as today, on the northern edge of town along the Nashua River.

After months of research, Bastarache concluded that organized baseball has been played at the diamond without interruption since at least 1878 and published the finding in his 2005 local history, "An Extraordinary Town." But it took two more years of research to convince Guinness to confirm the claim.

Bob Bluthardt, chairman of the ballparks research committee for the Society for Advanced Research Committee, reviewed Bastarache's research and is convinced that Fuller is the oldest documented diamond still being used.

"I believe it's legitimate," he said. "To have this diamond still in use, relatively untouched after all these years, that's an impressive bit of endurance in my mind."

Locals say the Guinness status has bolstered their bragging rights.

"We've been marketing it based on the book, but this definitely gives it more credibility," said Maegen McCaffrey, executive director of the Wachusett Chamber of Commerce in Clinton, a town of 13,500 about 13 miles north of Worcester.

Still, some baseball historians say Fuller Field's claim is nearly impossible to prove.

"I don't think there are people tracking it below the minor leagues," said Tom Goldstein, who publishes a literary magazine about baseball called Elysian Fields Quarterly. "There are so many old ball fields, I don't know how anyone would know which is the oldest."

Don't tell that to devotees of Labatt Park in London, Ontario, which opened in 1877 and bills itself as the world's oldest baseball grounds in continuous use. Bastarache said the field was moved at one point, disqualifying the park. But Barry Wells, founder of Friends of Labatt Park, said only home plate has moved, and not far.

"It's the exact same field," he said. "They might be the oldest diamond, but that's creating a new category. Put it this way, I'd rather be in our shoes than theirs."

Wells dismissed Guinness's conclusion, saying Labatt had never sought its approval.

Fuller Field has stood at the center of town life for generations, the place where thousands flocked to watch Friday night football games, where middle-age men still play on the same dirt and grass they did as Little Leaguers.

With its sagging fence and rusted metal sign, the field is showing its age. But its grass is lush and well kept and is bounded by a stately stone wall. John Gorman, 62, caretaker of the field for 27 years, said it has a timeless quality. "People who have been away for 30 years make sure to stop," he said. "It's full of memories."

Its new prominence has lent a historic gleam to the old diamond, where organized games are played every summer night and which children use an as extension of their backyards.

"It's different now," Notaro said. "It's almost like when you walk across the bridge in Concord - a very neat feeling."

Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.