Gene Hooks Field at Wake Forest
Baseball Park
Entrance to the park
Gene Hooks Field at Wake Forest Base-
ball Park is a collegiate, and formerly a
minor league, baseball park in Winston-
Salem, North Carolina. The full-time home of
the Wake Forest University baseball team,
starting in 2009, it was previously the home
of the Winston-Salem entry in the Carolina
League (currently the Winston-Salem Dash)
since the park opened in 1956. It is located at
401 Deacon Boulevard, directly east of
Groves Stadium, home of the Wake Forest
University "Demon Deacons" football team.
Formerly known as Ernie Shore Field, the
park was named for major league pitcher and
North Carolina native Ernie Shore, who was
a teammate of fellow pitcher Babe Ruth when
they played for the Boston Red Sox during
the 1910s. After Shore retired as a ballplay-
er, he served as Forsyth County Sheriff and
baseball guru for many years. He helped
spearhead the drive for a new ballpark, after
the decades-old South Side Park had burned.
The effort was successful, and the "Twins", as
they were then called, had a new home.
Since then, the team has gone through
various nicknames and is currently called the
"Dash".
The park was also the home field of the
Demon Deacons baseball team until they
opened Gene Hooks Stadium on campus in
the early 1990s, and because Hooks Stadium
lacks lights, some early-season and necessary
night games are played here.
The baseball park was used for some key
scenes in the 1990 movie Mr. Destiny star-
ring Jim Belushi and Linda Hamilton. In that
movie, Belushi’s character travels back in
time to "try again" in a life-altering high
school ball game.
With the resurgence of minor league base-
ball during the 1980s and 90s, the stadium
underwent many renovations to modernize
the facility.
In December 2006, the tentative agree-
ments were put into place to sell the field to
Wake Forest University after a new stadium
is built in downtown Winston-Salem for the
Dash. [1]. The sale was completed prior to
the 2009 baseball season. The new Dash s