Oppenheimer Park: Powell Street

Downtown Eastside Dept: At Powell Street Grounds, now called Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, a legion of baseball fans would be crowded around the dirtpatched diamond, according to Vancouver Sun. Birthed in 1914 by Harry Miyasaki, the Asahi assembled the best amateur Japanese players in the area to compete against Vancouver's Caucasian clubs, at a time when the popularity of the sport was at a frenzy across North America's West Coast and imagine yourself on Powell Street on a sunny Vancouver afternoon in 1921, past the tea houses and schools, past Morimoto & Co. Dry Goods, into the heart of bustling Japantown. You would hear things typical in any town across North America at the time: the splintering of the baseball bat, the warm thud of a ball hitting a glove, the proclamations of a confident umpire. On the field, a remarkable story was starting, starring a band of Japanese-Canadian baseballers called the Asahi. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.