The Joliet Slammers will start the season in the slammer — literally.
The suburban pro baseball team that set a world record by dropping 2,600 hot dogs out of a helicopter last summer will be at it again Thursday, this time playing in the Old Joliet Prison, where the Blues Brothers movie was filmed.
The Slammers will play a game inside the prison in honor of the 100th birthday of Route 66.
“This is going to be a historic event. We’re looking forward to having everybody out and kicking off the national Route 66 celebration,” Slammers owner Night Train Veeck said.
Veeck owns the team with actor Bill Murray and his father Mike Veeck, who’s known for the White Sox 1979 Disco Demolition Night.
The older Veeck and Murray might make an appearance at Thursday’s 3 p.m. game.
“There is always a chance, but never a guarantee. So we’re hoping all the planets align for everybody,” Night Train Veeck said.
The Old Joliet Prison is calling it “The Big House Ball Game.”
“This is actually roughly the spot of the original field,” said Greg Peerbolte, the CEO of the Joliet Area Historical Museum. “Wrigley Field was built in 1914 so this field predates even one of the oldest fields in the state.”
The prison opened in 1858 and, starting in 1913, the inmates were allowed to play baseball as a reward for good behavior up until the prison closed in 2002.
“You even had outside teams. You had, in 1940, the Chicago White Sox, several members came. Ted Lyons, Hall of Fame pitcher, came and played against the prisoners who actually won the game,” Peerbolte said.
“The equipment was actually provided by the Chicago White Sox back in the day, by Charles Comiskey. The jerseys, I think, were a really big point of pride, both for the prison itself, for the inmates,” said Night Train Veeck.
The Slammers will wear jerseys similar to the ones inmates played in.
“We located jerseys on site when we were doing the cleanup here, which started in 2018 and is still continuing,’ said Peerbolte.
The Joliet Area Historical Museum gives tours of the prison, which is owned by the state.
“It really goes to the heart of what we’re trying to do with this project and reclaim the prison as a community space and taking a place where there was so much pain and so many problems and again, redefining it,” said Peerbolte.
After the Slammers play, the prison will host games for local rec league teams.
“With the outpouring of interest we’ve gotten, I think it’s safe to say that baseball is here to stay,” Peerbolte said.
