A crowd of about 5,500 on Thursday as a bit of baseball history was recreated at the Old Joliet Prison.

The Joliet Slammers played an exhibition game against the Gateway Grizzlies in the same prison yard that was the home field for inmate teams that played baseball for decades at the former Joliet Correctional Center.

The crowd included actor Bill Murray, a co-owner of the Slammers, who observed while mingling at the ballgame, “It’s probably one of the greatest games played here because the players all will be able to go home to their families.”

Some players of yesteryear went home after the games, because the prison would host visiting teams from the outside.

One such team was the Palos A’s, a men’s team that included Al Budding of Palos Heights.

Budding was at the game on Thursday and shared some memories of what it was like to play at the prison in the 1960s.

“Unique, different, interesting – a little nerve-wracking," Budding said.

[ Photos: Joliet Slammers take their game to the Big House ]

The Palos A’s turned in all their equipment when entering the prison and got it back when they got on the field.

Inmates in the stands were as likely to cheer for the A’s as for the prison team, he said.

On the field, Budding said, “The game was baseball. There were no shenanigans. There were no complaints. There were prison-inmate umpires.”

The history of baseball at the prison was told in banners on display for visitors, many of whom stopped to learn about the history.

Warden Edmund Allen, who got the job in 1913, described his introduction of “one hour a day for recreation” as “one of my first innovations” in a report to the state the following year, according to the banners. He reported baseball being played “on a field set apart for that purpose within the prison walls.”

The home team, Redwings, would host games against teams from other prisons and military bases, including Great Lakes Naval Training Station.

They also played local baseball clubs like the Palos A’s.

“We heard from many people in Joliet who remember coming here to play baseball with the prisoners,” said Greg Peerbolte, chief executive officer for the Joliet Area Historical Museum that manages the prison.

Peerbolte said the 5,500 attendees on Thursday would make what was called the “Big House Ballgame” the most attended event yet at the prison, which has hosted two Blues Brothers concerts featuring Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi.

Slammers Executive Vice President Night Train Veeck said he believes the team could have sold 25,000 tickets for the game based on the number of calls it got.

“It’s a really unique event in a unique place,” Veeck said.

Ticket buyers were largely from the Joliet region and places nearby, Veeck said.

But there were people from places well beyond Joliet.

Matt Nelson of Coralville, Iowa, has a hobby of visiting ballparks.

“This will be my 158th professional ballpark,” he said, noting the game was between two professional teams.

“I can count a new one,” Nelson said of his visit to the Old Joliet Prison. “But it will be unlike anything I’ve ever been to before.”

The prison gates opened three hours before game time, and many of those interviewed commented on the sense of history they gained through the unique access to the prison, which closed in 2002.

“I didn’t know any of this that I’m reading now,” Ray Kucera of Lemont said while reading the banners describing the history of baseball at the Joliet prison.

Jessica and Will Giroux of Plainfield also spent time at the banners, reading about the place of baseball in the Joliet Correctional Center and other prisons.

“Now that we’re here,” Jessica said, “it’s so cool to read about the history and to learn how much baseball was a part of it.”