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 FieldThe 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.
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 FieldIn 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.
In 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.
Related Article:
0 comments:
Post a Comment