Nearly two weeks ago, the Joplin Blasters professional baseball team played the home opener of its inaugural season at the renovated Joe Becker Stadium in Joplin, Missouri.
Although the stadium’s seating facilities are new after $4.7 million in work, the field itself is almost a century old and once hosted the Joplin Miners minor-league team at the beginning of the Hall-of-Fame careers of Mickey Mantle and Whitey Herzog.
Hanson Sports, with the aid of a drone, filmed this short documentary about opening day and the ballpark’s extraordinary history:
The Blasters are a member of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball and are included with Wichita, Laredo, Grand Prairie and Amarillo in the South Division. The team will have a 100-game season.
Joe Becker Stadium is less than a half-mile north of Seventh Street (aka Route 66) in Joplin (map here).