Flood could wash away baseball site record

LONDON, Ontario, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- A baseball field in Canada should lose the title of world's oldest existing playing field because it was altered after an 1883 flood, a U.S. historian contends.

A heritage official in Clinton, Mass., says while Labatt Park in the Canadian city of London has been used for baseball games since 1877, the ball field should lose its Guinness World Record designation due to the minor site alterations 125 years ago, the Windsor Star reported Monday.

Clinton historian A.J. Bastarache said after a flood in July 1883 destroyed parts of Labatt Park, which was christened Tecumseh Park, officials moved its home plate as part of a reconfiguration of the baseball diamond.

Bastarache argues such renovations should reset the field's inauguration date.

"If any old baseball diamond can qualify regardless of if it is still in its original location, then Civil War prison grounds could still qualify," he said. "The dispute would be endless."

The Star said if Guinness officials support Bastarache's claim, Clinton's Fuller Field would receive the record thanks to its creation in 1878 and lack of major alterations.