Offermann site marked

"I kind of said to myself, ‘Why does no one recognize this?'" Boutet said Saturday morning. "I know it's here, others know it's here. But so many people just didn't know this was ever here and that was kind of the date where I decided that something has got to be done."

Boutet wrote a letter to the editor that appeared in The Buffalo News and then started a Facebook campaign to raise money for a marker. The Bisons and the Hall contributed and a plaque marking the old yard was unveiled Saturday morning as about 100 people gathered at the site behind the Buffalo Academy of Visual and Performing Arts.

In addition to Bisons officials and fans, representatives from the families of late Bisons historian Joe Overfield and longtime Buffalo broadcaster Stan Barron attended. So did Frank Offermann Jr. and Paul Offermann, sons of former Bisons owner Frank Offermann Sr., the man whose name was placed on the former Bison Stadium upon his death in 1935.

Frank Offermann Jr., a longtime Buffalo attorney, turned 86 Saturday and the trip to the site was a surprise from his family, who had told him he was going on an architectural tour of the city. The Offermann brothers posed for pictures by the plaque with Boutet and others, including Buster Bison. Some fans even got their autographs.

"The thing I always found most outstanding about the stadium was the field itself," recalled Frank Offermann Jr., who tossed first pitches in 1936 and 1937 after he had turned 10. "The field was like velvet. You talk to anybody who played here at that level, they would tell you that. That's what [former Los Angeles Dodgers manager and Montreal Royals pitcher] Tommy Lasorda said, that it was the finest field he had ever played on."

Former Bisons radio voice and Buffalo Baseball Hall of Famer Pete Weber hosted the ceremony and regaled the crowd with a look back at the park's history, from its opening in 1889 as Bison Stadium through its final days.

The stadium closed after a playoff loss to the old Toronto Maple Leafs and the city took it over to build Woodlawn Junior High School. That eventually became Buffalo Traditional and then the Arts academy. Jackie Robinson played at Offermann in 1946 while with Montreal while Hank Aaron played with a Negro League team from Indianapolis and signed his Boston Braves contract in the Offermann clubhouse in 1952.

Many members of the Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame, of course, also played in the park. Perhaps the most remembered was slugging outfielder Luke Easter, whose home run over the center field scoreboard on June 14, 1957 against Columbus still rates as one of the most famous in the club's 127-year history.

"Offermann Stadium was an inspiration in a lot of ways for the building of then-Pilot Field," Bisons General Manager Mike Buczkowski said in remarks to the fans. "Everything Offermann Stadium represented — a baseball-only stadium, close to the action, beautiful setting — is what we tried in a lot of ways to replicate when our ballpark was built. Not only that, but what we really tried to replicate and still do and have as our mission is to try and do what the Offermann family did for so many years for Buffalo baseball."

Boutet had numerous Offermann artifacts from his vast collection for fans to view, including a 1920s-era Bisons jersey with no numbers on the back. He said the ceremony was an emotional one for him because of the long process that was aided by North District Councilman Joseph Golombek and the Buffalo Arts Commission.

"Maybe it wouldn't have been if it had been quick," Boutet said. "But it took two years to do this. Then to have people like the Offermanns here, how cool is that? It's awesome."

"As Frank Sinatra once said, you're here because there used to be a ballpark here," Weber told the crowd. "[The plaque is] standing as a remembrance to all who came before — players, coaches, owners, broadcasters, workers and fans. Everyone who made baseball special for those 72 years."

email: mharrington@buffnews.com