Radiology Associates Field at Jackie Robinson Ballpark

Jackie Robinson Ballpark
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Tenants
Daytona Tortugas, Bethune-Cookman University

Radiology Associates Field at Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona Beach, FL, is the home of the Daytona Tortugas, the Cincinnati Reds' Low-A Florida State League farm team. Baseball at "The Jack" dates to 1914, at what was originally only a diamond and possibly - sources conflict - one set of wooden bleachers.

Arguably the minors' oldest active park - when did it become "this" park? - it is historic no matter how far back it dates. A year before breaking big-league baseball's color line, Jackie Robinson - then with the Montreal Royals - faced the Brooklyn Dodgers here in a March 17, 1946, spring-training game that was the first openly integrated non-barnstorming contest since 1889. The ballpark was renamed for Robinson in 1989 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

During the 1946 season, Robinson practiced at since-demolished Kelly Field in Daytona Beach. On April 15, 2020 - Jackie Robinson Day - the city announced plans to bring baseball back to the site, explaining that ground would have been broken that day but the Coronavirus pandemic forced a delay.[1] On October 23, 2022, with the lot still vacant, the city unveiled a historical marker there.[2]

The Jack's site became something much more resembling a ballpark in 1921, with (more?) grandstands and a press box. How much 1930 and 1951 renovations changed it is unclear, but it is quite likely that 1962's made it unrecognizable from 1960. That project was forced by damage inflicted that September by Hurricane Donna. Again, sources differ but at the very least the press box and most if not all of the first-base grandstand were destroyed. Most sources are less specific, saying the grandstands and press box date to '62. The overall damage was such that the city considered demolishing the ballpark - with, in a pre-echo of 2021, its historic importance preventing that.

Daytona Beach was very nearly lost in MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization. Reportedly, The Jack's history carried the day but with the admonition that there would be no exception to the ballpark standards the shuffle mandates by 2025. The Tortugas are seeking $30 million to get their playpen up to that bar.

The Jack is one of two ballparks in the minors that are located on an island - both of them, coincidentally, named City Island. Daytona Beach's is in the Halifax River; the other, in Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River, is the home of the Harrisburg Senators.

The Jack is now the only FSL stadium whose team does not also host its parent club's spring training. Not only has that been true for most of the site's history - the exception being the 1936-1937 St. Louis Cardinals parenting the Daytona Beach Islanders - the as-is ballpark has never married up an FSL team and its own parent. The as-is park did host spring training and FSL baseball in four of the Montreal Expos' 1973-1980 spring tenure, but never with an Expos-affiliated FSL club. No MLB team has spring-trained here since those Expos, and the FSL didn't return until the now-Tortugas franchise arrived as the Daytona Cubs in 1993.

The Jack went to artificial turf in 2019.

Radiology Associates purchased field naming rights before the 2014 season.