Top 10 Historical Ballparks pt. 2 (5-1)

5. South End Grounds

The first home of the Boston Braves (aka Red Stocking or Beaneaters) was a castlesque stadium built in 1817. Over it’s 97 years of baseball it was torn (or burn) down twice and rebuilt. The most magnificent incarnation of the field was South End Ground II which was nicknamed the Grand Pavillian. In a pre-Fenway Boston, South End Grounds was the Mecca for Boston baseball. The Braves abandoned the South end Grounds at the end of the 1914 regular season because their fans could no longer fit in the one time palace of the National league. The teamed played their home games at Fenway Park until Braves Field opened on August 18th 1915.


4. Forbes Field

The year before Comiskey Park opened 450 miles east Barney Dreyfuss had his concrete and steel ballpark built (the third baseball stadium to be constructed as such). Following the four month construction of Forbes Field, from March to June of 1909, the Pittsburgh Pirates claimed residence replacing their previous home, the wood constructed Exposition Park. The stadium helped set the tone for construction of future stadiums with the inclusion a three tier grandstand. In 1958 the stadium was sold to The University of Pittsburgh for $2M. The University leased the Stadium to the Pirates for the remainder of their time there. In total the team played at the stadium for 60 years before moving to the Three Rivers Stadium in 1970. After its closure the abandoned stadium was damaged by 2 fires before it was demolished in 1971. While most of the original site has been built over by the University portions of the brick outfield wall still remain. For the 2006 All-Star Game at PNC Park, the current home of the Pirates, the Forbes Field wall was restored and a new entrance to emulate the former ticket box and players entrance was built close to it.


3. Shibe Park

In the early 1900’s any professional ballparks that were built of the popular concrete and steel can thank Shibe Park. Philadelphia Athletics owner Benjamin Shibe had the park built in 1909 to contain larger crowds than the A’s former home Columbia Park. The most visually stunning part of the stadium was the Beux Arts coupla/tower and French renaissance façade at the main entrance of the grand stand. Nearby residence that lived close to the right filed fence of the park installed wooden bleachers on their roofs and watched the games free of charge. This infuriated partial owner Connie Mack and after loosing his lawsuit against the home owners he erected a higher right field fence to block the view. In midseason 1938 the Phillies left their previous stadium, the Baker bowl, and moved into Shibe Park to share the upkeep and benefits with the A’s. The A’s played at the Shibe until their move to Kansas City in 1954. The Phillies continued to play their home games on the field until their move to Veteran Stadium in 1971. During the final game fans began dismantling parts of Shibe to take home with them, but it was a fire in 1971 that damaged the stadium to the point of demolition which was completed in '76.

2. Ebbets Field

In 1908 Charlie Ebbets, owner of the Brooklyn Dodger began purchasing lots of land in the block of Bedford Avenue, Sullivan Place, McKeever Place, and Montgomery Street and in 1912 construction began on Ebbets Field. Ebbets field celebrated is grand opening on April 9th 1913 between the Dodgers and Phillies; however an exhibition game played between the Dodgers and Yankees was played three days before. The ballpark was historic on multiple levels but most notably it is where Jackie Robinson made his major league debut breaking the color barrier in professional sports. Though the Dodgers saw great success in the stadium it was in a deteriorating neighborhood and after Walter O’Malley acquired the team in 1950 he soon began planning for another ballpark (at one point he planned to build the first domed baseball stadium.) The City Building Commissioner Robert Moses fought O’Malley over the location of the stadium. In retort O’Malley threatened to move the Dodgers to the west coast and take the Giants with them. In 1957 When Moses wouldn’t budge O’Malley and the Dodgers move to LA and the Giants to San Francisco. Ebbets was demolished in 1960 but it park left a profound mark on the game. The cornerstone of the stadium resides in Cooperstown. When the Mets built Citi Field they used Ebetts as inspiration for the grandstand entrance.


1. Yankee StadiumIn 1913 the New York Yankees moved into Polo Grounds, sharing the stadium with the Giants. After acquiring Babe Ruth in 1920 the Yankees began drawing larger crowds than the Giants and even though the Giants won the '21 World Series, franchise owner Charles Stoneham told the Yanks they needed to find another place to play. Yankees owners Tillinghast Huston and Jacob Ruppert decided to built their own stadium, and with Ruth as the main attraction Yankee Stadium was designed twice as large as most ballparks of the era seating 58,000. Yankee Stadium was the first ballpark to actually poses the title stadium. It was also the first to have three tier seating. Constructed out of steel and concert the stadium was finished in 284 days. A 15' copper frieze (though it is more commonly referee to as the facade) was built around the top of the third deck and eventually painted white. Even though Stoneham was hoping to that the Yankees would move further away (to Queens) the land purchase for the stadium was less than a mile away from Polo Grounds. The Yankees opened the stadium on April 18, 1923 to a reported crowd of 73,000 breaking the record for the largest cows to attend a game. With the renovations made to the stadium in 28 and 37 the capacity grew to 80,000. The stadium was home to some of the greatest players to take the field with names like Ruth, Gehrig, Dimaggio, and Mantle. After years of baseball the deteriorating stadium was sold to the city and the Yankees moved out of the stadium following the 1973 season. For two seasons the Yankees took up residence in Shea Stadium while their home park was renovated. They reopened the Stadium on April 15, 1976 with more modern amenities such as plastic seats, elevators, escalators, and remodeled restrooms. The Yankees remained at the stadium through the 2008 season before moving across the street to New Yankee Stadium. Over it's 85 years Yankee Stadium housed 26 Championship teams. The demolition of Yankee stadium was completed in 2010. The land is now being converted into Heritage Park, a public park that will contain baseball and softball fields. The original shape of the stadium will be outlined by 12,000 trees.

Top 10 Historical Ballparks pt. 1 (10-6)

This started off as a simple blog post but it has taken me almost a month to write it and in the process I have become enamored with baseball history. I hope you enjoy my post(s):

I love baseball. I have always loved baseball. There is something about the crack of a bat, the smell of hot dogs, and the roar of the crowd that still leaves me mesmerized. One of the reasons I will always love baseball is that it embraces its rich history. It is my love of baseball and my love of history that lead me to recently spend hours reading and learning about old baseball stadiums. So I have decided to compile a list of the Top 10 historical stadiums I wish I could have gone to. Since Fenway and Wrigley are still in use they are not included on the list, mainly because I do intend to visit them.

10. Wrigley Field

William K. Wrigley Jr., owner of the Chicago Cubs acquired a second team in 1921, the Los Angeles Angels. Not to be confused with the American League Angels of today the team acquired by Wrigley played in the Pacific Coast League. While the PCL is now a Triple-A league at it’s inception it was just as much a competitive league with top talent as the National or American Leagues. To house his new team Wrigley had a stadium built in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles inception of Wrigley was designed similar to its Chicago predecessor but sported red roofs and a white façade to match surrounding California/Spanish architecture. The Stadium was actually the first “Wrigley” field since the Chicago stadium did not change its name to Wrigley Field until the year after the LA stadium opened. The stadium also had an office/bell tower extending skyward to the right of the grandstand entrance. When the Dodgers and Giants moved to the west coast following the 1957 season hopes were high that Wrigley would house a major league team but the ballpark had no takers. The Angels were pushed out by the new pro ball clubs in the are and the stadium was vacated. During that time Wrigley served as a set location in multiple TV shows and movies, including The Pride of the Yankees. While the PCL Angels were the longest tenants in the stadium the American League Los Angeles Angels (Now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) played their inaugural season in the stadium. In the mid 60’s the neighborhood and stadium were decaying and the decision was made to demolish it.


9. Tiger Stadium (Navin Field/Briggs Stadium)

Navin field opened April 20, 1912, the same opening day as Fenway Park in Boston. Named after team owner, Frank Navin, the ballpark, made of concrete and steel, replaced the wooden Bennett Field previously located on the same site. The home of the Detroit Tigers originally held 23,000 but saw extensive renovations (and name changes) from 1912 until the Tigers last game, played on September 17, 1999. The stadium hosted just about every great American League player of the previous century. It is regarded by some as the greatest stadium the game has ever seen and is most assuredly on of the most popularnplaying fields of the past century. The stadium sat empty for eight years and even though historical or preservation groups tried to save a portion of the stadium demolition began in 2007. While the structure was demolished the field itself still stands and is kept up by volunteers who loved their stadium.


8. League Park

League Park was first built in 1891 and housed three different teams from three different leagues during its time. The National League Cleveland Spiders played in the park until their termination in 1899. The following year the American League Cleveland Indians took up residence on the field playing there until 1946 when they moved permanently to Municipal Stadium (Lakefront Stadium), which was dubbed “The Mistake by the Lake,” (Municipal Stadium was built to attract the 1932 Olympics but the event had already been awarded to Los Angeles by the time Cleveland broke ground.) The Third team to play at League Park were the Cleveland Buckeyes, a team in the Negro American League. The Buckeyes shared the field with the Indians beginning in 1943 and played there until 1949 when they moved to Louisville Kentucky. League Field was demolished in 1951 with the exception of the ticket box office and brick facade along the first base line which have been preserved. The League Park Society is currently raising funds for the renovation/rebuilding of the historic facility.

7. Polo Grounds (II & III)New York was once (and some argue still is) the throne room of baseball. Hosting a staggering fourteen different professional teams over the past 140 years the city that never sleeps never stops playing baseball either. Polo Grounds was originally a polo field but became best known as the home of the New York Giants. The original grounds were demolished in 1889 after the city decided to redirect a street through the middle of the field. The new Polo Grounds (II) opened on July 8th of the same year at a new location, a hollow that sat in the shadow of Coogan's Bluff at the cross streets of 155th St and Eighth Ave. In 1890 Brotherhood Park opened right next to Polo Grounds, and was home to the other New York Giants a team in the newly founded Players League. It was said that fans in the upper decks of both stadiums could watch each other’s games. After one season the Player’s League disband and the original Giants moved the Brotherhood Park renaming it…Polo Grounds III. In 1957 the Giants moved to San Francisco abandoning the Grounds which were demolished in 1964. The only remaining remnant of the ballpark is a stairway that bears the name of former owner John T. Brush.

6. Old Comiskey Park

Five years before construction began on Wrigley Field Charles Comiskey purchase land in Chicago that had previously been the city dump. On July 1st 1910 the White Sox played their first game at the location in the newly constructed White Sox Stadium. The stadium was only the fourth professional ball park built of concrete steel and for a brief amount of time it was known as “The Baseball Palace of the World.” In 1913 it was renamed after the team’s owner. Over the years the park was a pioneer in stadium innovation installing one of the first electric scoreboards and the very first exploding scoreboard that featured the famous pinwheels that lit up when a Sox player would hit a homerun. Comiskey was also home to the famous 1919 team and Black Sox Scandal that left eight men banned from baseball including “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. The Sox played at Comiskey for eighty years. When the team moved to the New Comiskey Park (now U.S. Cellular Field) in 1990 Comiskey was the oldest stadium in the league.