Baseball Ground

The Baseball Ground was a football (soccer) stadium in Derby, UK and was the home of Derby County F.C. from 1895 to 1997.

As the name suggests, the stadium was originally used for baseball. It was originally called Ley's Baseball Ground an was part of a complex of sports grounds built and owned by businessman Sir Francis Lay for workers at his foundary. The stadium was the focus point of the complex and was part of a personal quest by Lay to introduce baseball to the UK.

Derby County had occassionally used the stadium for their home matches and, with baseball not proving to be a success, made it their permanent home in 1895.

At its height, the Baseball Ground could accommodate around 42,000 spectators (all standing). The record attendance was 41,826 for a match against Tottenham Hotspur in 1969. Later, the stadium was slowly converted to become all-seater and the capacity eventually dropped to 18,300.

Derby County moved to the brand new Pride Park Stadium in 1997. The last league match to be played there was against Arsenal, though the stadium continued to be used for reserve team games for a few seasons afterwards. In 2003, the Baseball Ground was demolished to make way for housing.

The Baseball Ground was once used for an international match. England beat Ireland 2-1 in a British Home Championship match on February 11 1911.