Thillens Stadium is a two field baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois It has 2,200 seats and an average of 17,000 Chicago area children play there each year.
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Thillens is at the northwest corner of Devon and Kedzie on land owned by the Water Reclamation District and annexed by Lincolnwood, Illinois, next to the Chicago city limits. Just 30 minutes from downtown.
Founded in 1938 by Mel Thillens, Sr., owner of Thillens Inc. check-cashing business. Thillens's idea was to have a baseball park that anyone can use, rent-free. It cost Thillens a total of $6 million to build the park. In 1940 the ballpark erected lights for night use. In the 40's, 50's and 60's both Little League games, and men's 16-inch softball games were televised from the park by WGN-TV, with Jack Brickhouse announcing.
It was during a Little League telecast in the 1950's that the centerfield camera, now a staple of all baseball telecasts, was first used. According to Brickhouse, ``One of our cameramen, Chuck Seatsema, told me that the center-field scoreboard was only a couple hundred feet away, he had a feeling that if he put a camera out there, we`d get a nice shot of the little catcher giving signs and the little batter's face over the pitcher's shoulder.`
In 1993, Mel Thillens Sr. died, but his family continued to operate it and a non-profit charitable foundation supported it. However, The foundation couldn't afford it and in March 2005, Thillens closed. The Chicago Cubs and Chicago Park District invested around $2 million in repairs. The stadium reopened its doors in June 2006.
The Annual Chicago Celebrity Softball games are hosted at Thillens Stadium. Those games have featured Michael Jordan, Chris Chelios, Minnie Miñoso, Rich Melman, Fergie Jenkins, Randy Hundley, Billy Williams and Moose Skowron.
On July 28, 2009, the Chicago Bandits played the USSSA Pride in a National Pro Fastpitch women's softball game.