Henley Field

Henley Field, "Winter home of the Detroit Tigers" ca. 1930-1945

Henley Field in Lakeland, FL, was the home of Lakeland affiliated baseball from 1923 through 1965. After that, the Detroit Tigers moved their spring games into nearby-but-new Joker Marchant Stadium.

A year later, the Tigers put a Florida State League team into "The Joker" - the first such sharing in what is now the FSL norm.

Henley has also been home to Florida Southern College Moccasins baseball for more than a half century, and in late 2015 the city offered to let the school buy it for $1 million. The deal was then held a year so the Tigers' FSL team could use Henley during 2016 renovations to Marchant - the second time the Bengals went back to Henley so their newer home could be improved.

Originally Athletic Field, Henley was renamed in 1942 for the man whose vision had gotten it built 20 years earlier. It hosted Spring Training for the Cleveland Indians from 1923 through 1925 and for the Tigers from 1934 through 1965. It also hosted several teams in the FSL and the now-defunct Florida International League. A 1962 Tigers-Yankees spring game packed in 4,022 fans.

Henley is one of five Florida ballparks that then or previously hosted affiliated or MLB spring-training baseball to appear in the HBO film Long Gone (1987).[1] The others were Marchant, Plant Field at the University of Tampa, Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater and McKechnie Field in Bradenton.

The ballpark joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.