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.
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.
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