Take a last look inside LaGrave Field before the historic baseball stadium is demolished

Inside Look stories give Star-Telegram subscribers exclusive sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes reporting. Story suggestion? Editors@star-telegram.com.

After years of uncertainty, the fate of LaGrave Field in Fort Worth is sealed.

The abandoned baseball stadium will be demolished at some point soon to make way for Panther Island development.

The Fort Worth Cats started playing at the original LaGrave Field in 1926, first as an independent team and eventually as a part of the Brooklyn Dodgers farm system. Baseball legends like Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson and Lou Gehrig all took their turns gracing the base paths during the Cats’ nearly 40-year stint in Fort Worth.

The existing ballpark was built in 2002 by Fort Worth businessman Carl Bell. It reincarnated the Fort Worth Cats as part of a Texas independent baseball league.

The Cats played there until 2014. It has remained abandoned for the last 10 years.

The Tarrant Regional Water District took ownership of the field in July 2018 and there were hopes of restoring the field. Those hopes ended when the water district’s board voted 5-0 in mid-June to tear down the 4,100-seat stadium.

Here’s an inside look at how LaGrave Field looks today.

⚡ More trending stories from our newsroom:

→‘Amazing!’: First shopper at new Mansfield H-E-B camped outside 2 days

→ Can you speed to pass a car in Texas? Here’s the law

→ Riders jump off Roaring Rapids at Six Flags to escape stuck raft: video