Boardwalk and Baseball: Florida's Gone but Not Forgotten Theme Park

Having a father that was a Company Commander at the Naval Base in Orlando in the early 1980's had its perks. Every time his class graduated boot camp, they got a day out at a local theme park of their choice and my father could bring his family. That meant every few months I would get to go to Circus World. Now, I'm not sure why this park was usually chosen (sometimes, we did go to Sea World), but I suspect it had something to do with the fact it had the two best roller coasters in the Orlando area in the 1980's. I however loved it for the circus; I wanted to own one since reading Dr. Seuss's Circus McGurkus when I was young, I wanted to run away and own a circus. However Circus World closed in April, 1986, after being acquired by textbook publishers HBJ. They had an idea for new theme park.

Shortly after Circus World's closing I remember seeing a scale model of HBJ's redevelopment of Circus World into Boardwalk and Baseball and it looked great. The most notable addition was the log flume ride, The Grand Rapids, while most of the existing Circus World rides were still there but just re-themed. Because I loved Circus World I new I wanted to be among the first to experience Boardwalk and Baseball. I convinced some of my friends to go with me on the opening day, April 4th, 1987 (delayed from February 14th, 1987 - the scheduled opening day).

We arrived early on the morning of April first (thanks the my brother and his wife who drove us; I was only 15 at the time). We had hoped to be the first through the gates when the they opened at 9am, but we weren't. It wasn't too busy (in fact, the park never really was) and after some speeches from HBJ executives Leave it to Beaver's Jerry Mathers cut the ribbon opening the park. Now, I'm not sure what Jerry Mathers has do to with baseball or boardwalks, or even what boardwalks had to do with baseball, but like the entire mishmash that was Boardwalk and Baseball it just seemed to work.

Inside the giant building that used to look like a circus tent, there was an IMAX theater showing the film Grand Canyon (again, it sure how that fit in to the theme, but it was fun). There was also a magic show Professor Bubbles Magical Factory, a television studio in which ESPN's quiz show Boardwalk and Baseball's Super Bowl of Sports Trivia was filmed, and a showcase of Baseball memorabilia on loan from The Baseball Hall of Fame.

Other changes included the log flume ride which I had seen in the scale model, the replacement of the concrete walkways with a wooden boardwalk, the Colorado Riders wild west show, and Dance USA - a dance club type venue with a live DJ and occasional dance shows. Actually, Dance USA was one of my mine and my friends favorite areas. On television at the time was the popular dance show Dance Party USA so we used to go to Dance USA and dance to the latest pop hits and pretend we were actually on Dance Party USA. I say Dance USA was one of our favorite areas, the other was the blond girl who, I think I remember sold lemonade, near the front of the park that we all kinda a crush on. Hey, we were 15 years old so what would you expect? Actually, on that first day we bought annual passes so we visited the park, and our crush, several times over the park's first year of operation.

A little less than three years after its grand opening, Boardwalk and Baseball closed. HBJ had sold it's theme parks which also included Sea World to Anheuser Busch. It was rumored that Anheuser Busch only wanted Sea World but HBJ only wanted to sell all their parks as one package. When the sale was complete, as expected Boardwalk and Baseball was closed. An announcement over the park's PA system at about three o'clock in the afternoon January 17th, 1990, informed guests the Boardwalk and Baseball was closing and asked them to leave. With the last guest out of the park, the gates to Boardwalk and Baseball were locked for the last time.

Over the years, anytime I drove from Orlando to Tampa I would see the former park from the Interstate. Outside of the theme park a baseball stadium that was the the spring training home of the Kansas City Royals and was in use until 2003. Soon after 2003 the only thing left on the site was the large building that used to house the Imax theater (and was Circus World's days, the large big top). And finally, this past weekend as I went to Tampa to do some Christmas shopping, I again drove past the site only to see it now was home to Posner Park, a mixed-use development of big box stores and restaurants.