# "Baseball on the Rock" (National Park Service, Alcatraz Island)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/nps-baseball-on-the-rock/

National Park Service page on inmate recreation at Alcatraz: two hours of yard time each Saturday and Sunday, softball rather than baseball, eight teams in 1938, and cell radio jacks installed on 4 October 1955. It names Volney Davis as a pitcher.

The page says inmates were allowed two hours of yard time each Saturday and Sunday and played softball on a small patch of lawn, with gloves, bats and balls provided and no uniforms. In 1938 there were four amateur and four league teams. It says some inmates, "like bank robber and kidnapper Volney Davis, actually played for both amateur and league teams," and that in 1938 Davis was the Oilers' pitching ace, appearing in 18 games with an 11-7 record. The page also says that on October 4, 1955, radio jacks were installed in the cells so that nearly 300 inmates could hear Game 7 of the World Series.

This entry takes only the recreation facts and the reference to Davis. The page's other passages on fights and tensions in the yard are not used. Davis's own record is [his warden's notebook page](/items/nara-236735104-volney-davis-alcatraz-1935/).

## Sources

- National Park Service, Alcatraz Island (Golden Gate National Recreation Area): https://www.nps.gov/alca/learn/historyculture/baseball-on-the-rock.htm