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Maxwell Park

Maxwell Park was a professional baseball park located on the Arkansas-Texas border in Texarkana, AR/TX and was the home field of the Texarkana Twins of the South Central League in 1912 and the Texarkana Tigers of the Texas-Oklahoma League from 1913-1914.

History

Maxwell Park was located on West 29th street between Magnolia and Laurel streets in Texarkana.1 The ballpark was situated such that the Arkansa-Texas state line was parallel with the right field fence.2 Consequently, it was possible at Maxwell Park to hit a homerun from the home plate in Texas over the right field fence into Arkansas.

Maxwell Park was built in 1912 and named for Bert Maxwell, a well-known Texarkana native who played professional baseball between 1904-1914.3 The ballpark hosted baseball for three seasons between 1912-1914.

Excerpts

"Texarkana, Ark., March 25. — The [New York] Giants toyed with the local South Central League team this afternoon in an exhibition game that was considerable for a spectacle, but a poor game. The final stood 26 to 3 in favor of New York. Only a little grading had been done on the new park when the Giants arrived at the field, but the diamond had been smoothed off, base bags set, and the base lines marked out before the scheduled starting time. The field proper was in Texas, but the right fielder of the home boys spent most of the afternoon chasing Giant hits over the state line in Arkansas. The boundary runs a few feet beyond the right field limit. . . . Texarkana is Bert Maxwell's home, the new park is named after him, and the game was played in his honor."4

"Texarkana, Ark., March 25. — In a game played under most remarkable conditions, the Giants won from Texarkana this afternoon by a score of 26 to 3. The home plate was laid in Texas and all the infielders were in the same state. The Arkansas line cut the field just back of right field, and as the left-hand batters of the Giants were particularly active, the Texarkana right fielder spent most of the afternoon in Arkansas. This is Bert Maxwell's home town, and the reason the game was played in the new park is because it was named Maxwell Park this morning and the Giants wanted to initiated it in honor of one of their teammates."5

"It is not often a ball player stands in one state and hits a ball so hard that it goes over into the adjoining state, but that is what happened. Stellbauer, on his home run drive, sent the ball from Texas into Arkansas. The state line runs parallel with the right field fence and when he put the ball over the wall it dropped on "razorback territory.""6