OLD JOLIET PRISON’S ‘NEW SPIRIT’ ON FULL DISPLAY AT BIG HOUSE BALLGAME

By Brendan Gallian, May 3 2026

Feature Photo: Brandon Ritsos/@brandonmedia25

The chapel at the Old Joliet Prison pulled double duty during Thursday’s Big House Ballgame between the Joliet Slammers and Gateway Grizzlies, serving as both the teams’ and umpires’ locker room. Overlooking the field from just behind the first base line, the chapel bore an excerpt from Ezekiel 18:31 chiselled above its doors: 

“MAKE YE A NEW HEART AND A NEW SPIRIT”

The prison showed some new spirit as America’s pastime returned to the former correctional facility, bringing Joliet together in the old prison for a new purpose. 

“It's just a phenomenal opportunity to bring life back to a place like this,” said Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy. “It's really phenomenal that we're able to do this.”

Joliet Prison sat abandoned for 15 years from its closure in 2002 until 2017, when the City of Joliet took control of the site. 

For almost as long as the prison was in operation, Joliet was known as “prison city” to those around it. In their efforts to revive the site, the Joliet Area Historical Museum is trying to bring a new character to its walls. The Ballgame was a big step in that transformation. 

“For decades, this prison defined the city,” said JAHM Board President Quinn Adamowski. “In 2017, we decided it was Joliet’s turn to define the prison.” 

In the years before the city took control of the prison, its grounds fell victim to vandalism and decay, leaving the prospect of a baseball game inside the limestone walls seemingly impossible to those in the area. 

“It's amazing. You'd never thought there'd be something like this for us to see,” said Slammers fan Frank Passini, who was watching the same with his son Eric and grandson Mason. 

The Passinis were among over 5,500 fans who were itching to get into prison to catch the game. Also present was Slammers fan Randy Jones, who hasn’t been to the site in over 40 years. 

The last time he was there, he caught a glimpse of perhaps the prison's most famous (but fictional) residents as he watched the opening scene of the classic movie ‘The Blues Brothers’ being filmed. 

“I think this is a great idea, I really do, I mean, look at the people here,” Jones said. “It’s simply amazing.”

Jones said that the game, coupled with the opening of the new Joliet City Square on Friday, made for an exciting weekend for the city. 

As much as the game benefited Joliet, the community was also instrumental in organizing it. The JAHM has been restoring the site for nearly a decade, and when it came time to host the game, a plethora of local performers and food trucks were on hand. 

“They say that it takes a village, and I firmly believe that, but I think ‘it takes a prison’ is now the phrase,” said Joliet Slammers Executive Vice President and General Manager Night Train Veeck. “It's just been an unbelievable group putting it all together.” 

That group also included Sportsfields Inc., which brought a field back to the heart of the prison for the first time in over 20 years. When completed, the diamond in front of the west cellhouse looked right at home to Greg Peerbolte, Chief Executive Officer of the JAHM. 

“It just feels like it belongs here,” Peerbolte said. “You're kind of worried when you put something new in a 150-year-old place that's been abandoned for nearly 20 years, ‘is it going to stick out like a sore thumb?’ And there's just a natural presence to the field where it does not feel out of place.”

“There's this harmonious feeling when you're walking around looking at it,” he said.

The story of baseball within the prison’s walls is more than a century old, and Thursday’s game was more of a continuation of that story rather than a new beginning. 

According to Peerbolte, Warden Edmund Allen introduced the game to Joliet Prison in 1913, and it was a regular fixture for the following decades. When the prison closed in 2002, so too did the story of baseball within its walls — until the Big House Ballgame added another chapter. 

“It's magic and humbling,” Veeck said. “I think for us to have the ability to be able to bring the baseball history back to the prison and bring a little joy to a place that hasn't always had is a really wonderful thing to be able to do.”

The community was quick to rally around the event. 

Slammers catcher Joshua Cunniff, a Joliet native, said the game had been the talk of the town for months leading up to Thursday’s contest. 

“Ever since this came out, it's been a huge thing for the whole town,” Cunniff said. “I've been hearing about it for a while from a lot of different people.”

The Ballgame was just the latest promotion befitting a Slammers team with a Veeck at the wheel, and it certainly won’t be the last. Despite the Slammers dropping the rain-soaked affair 14-3 to the Gateway Grizzlies, it seems the game served its true purpose: to give Joliet something to enjoy. 

“To be able to get people out in the Joliet community to come in and enjoy it and have fun — nothing like it,” Veeck said.