Philly's Baker Bowl was old enough that it was originally built with space under the left field seats for bicycles and horse carriages. Different time, different requirements.
@@MrDan708 Baker, Shibe/Connie Mack, Polo Grounds, (pre-1976) Yankee Stadium, Old Navin/Briggs/Tiger Stadium …I liked seeing pictures of these old ballparks that had character and odd dimensions. At least Fenway and Wriggly are still around to represent that era.
Many of the old parks have been torn down and something else is now there [parking lots, churches, apartment buildings etc], but it is interesting that League Park is still there; the grandstands are gone, but the field is still there, and is used for amateur and school games.
@@gregb6469 Oh i missed that we were talking baseball fields only. Yes a soccer field (Nickerson Field). But the ticket booth, right field bleachers, and parts of the original fence still exist
Only two remain in the MLB: Wrigley and Fenway. It's a damn shame that Tiger Stadium and Comiskey Park were not retrofitted, and that's true of Yankee Stadium as well, though it was retrofitted and then torn down. Another one could have had the facade put back in place.
Old Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, we called it the mistake by the lake. Best memory: Early 80's me and my buddy went down to catch a game at the last minute, we managed to get front row seats for cheap off the guy who had 4 season tickets. We used the dugout roof as our beer holder, we paid $8 per seat for our tickets. Good times!
Nice memories of catching a few games at “Exasperation” stadium. A buddy in college could get discounted tickets so a couple afternoons we caught games between classes. Even on a sunny day in early season you could freeze your buns off when the wind came off of the lake.
You may want to look up videos of Sick's Stadium (I'm not kidding, that was a real MLB stadium's name in 1969). It was home to the Seattle Pilots for that one season. In 1970 they became the Milwaukee Brewers.
@@StanSwan Like hell. The old Yankee stadium was a cathedral unlike that old green rat trap that your Red Sucks play in where you still have to change the scores by putting up wooden placards. What a joke!Comparing the two is like comparing St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome to a dirty storefront church. We celebrated 26 World Championships in that edifice. How many did you losers put up in that old green barn of yours? As someone once told me, once a Red Suck fan always a jealous sore loser. LOL!
Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, which hosted the A's (1955-67) and the Royals (1969-72), had goats and sheep in a small zoo beyond the right-field fence.
@@mrmoose6619 Just looked it up and it looks like they still have it. Pretty fitting for a team called the "Yard Goats" which is probably one of my favorite Minor League team names. It's up there with the Rocket City Trash Pandas and Albuquerque Isotopes.
@@natemorton5575 A great name for sure, but a yard goat is actually a slang term for a switcher engine used to maneuver railcars from one track to another.
The first game I ever attended was the opening day game in Griffith stadium in1960. The Senators beat the Red Sox 10-1 and the only run Boston got was a Ted Williams homer out of the park! If you look closely at the film clip, you can see the flagpole just at the point where the walls meet as they angle back toward center field. The ball he hit went OVER that flag pole! It was Williams' final opening day game. I also just recently learned that a MLB record was set that day that still stands today. Washington pitcher Camilo Pascual struck out 15 batters which is still the record for an opening day game!
I remember going to old Griffith Stadium with my dad when I was a kid. It was the Red Sox vs. the woeful Washington Senators. The Sox beat the Senators (I forget the score), and Ted Williams hit a monster HR over the old green wall (I think the distance down the right field foul line was about 302 feet from home plate). As a young, die-hard "Nats" fan, I was disgusted, but I'd never seen my father that excited. It might have been the year Williams hung up his cleats for good. Also, supposedly Mickey Mantle hit the longest HR of his career at the old park, a screamer that is estimated to have traveled about 550 feet.
I watched that game on TV, and the spectators cheered Ted with the respect due for a superstar in the twilight of his career. The Senators answered with four home runs to put the game away. One of Pascual's strikeouts was with a changeup about which the announcer said something like, "He swung a month and a week before the ball got there."
yeah, I love the ol' Ted Williams story about Briggs Stadium (later renamed 'Tiger Stadium')! Ted always said he saw the ball better in Briggs Stadium than another ballpark! one day during batting practice he hit the first pitch for a home run! the second pitch for a home run, only a little deeper!! the next pitch for a home run, only a little deeper still!! then the next pitch only deeper!!! for 10 straight pitches, Ted Williams hit home runs, each one deeper than the last one!!! it is said, it was the first and only time a batter ever received a Standing Ovation during batting practice........ FROM THE SPORTS WRITERS!!!!
Oracle Park has the knotholes in the right field arcade where you can watch a game free of charge. If there is high demand they start cycling people every 3 innings.
Tiger Stadium once had seating that jutted out further towards right field; they were removed after their star of the future, one Mr. Al Kaline, crashed into them several times while fielding pop flies.
Oracle Park in San Francisco allows fans to watch games for free through the right field fence, as a tribute to the "free" seats in past ballparks. Of course, it's regulated. It's first come first served and the crowd is cycled through every few innings depending on demand.
Ebbets Field had a towering right field wall/fence combination. Carl Furillo could read it better than anyone else. When the Indians, now the Guardians, began playing at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium, there was no inner outfield fence. Straightaway center was 470 feet from home plate. No one ever hit a ball on the fly into the bleachers. Ted Williams hit the only inside-the-park home run of hie career there.
Under miscellaneous I would also add the right field fence at Ebbets Field, which was not completely vertical but the bottom half was sloped like a steep ramp. Not sure why. Also the Astros stadium (formerly Enron Field) used to have a hill in front of the center field fence with a flagpole on it. Relatively not too long ago
Great video! Interesting in-play features might be a good follow up video. Wrigley still has ivy, Fenway still has a ladder. Lots of older (and some retro) ballparks had flag poles, elevation changes, and in Yankee Stadium they used to have the monuments in-play. And having bullpens in unique places would be interesting too.
I miss old Tiger Stadium in Detroit. It wasnt the prettiest of the old original ballparks, but it was fun going there, even if you had to sit behind one of those iron support beams. You just leaned off to one side or another. I grew to like Comerica Park. It took a while but, of course, it just isn't the same feel as Tiger Stadium.
I was wondering if somebody would mention The Hill at Crosley Field. Even the great Willy Mays fell victim to it his first time there. Legend has it that Babe Ruth made the decision to retire after falling on the slope.
@@zachmartin1458 I wish they had recreated Crosley Field's left field terrace when they built GABP. They couldn't do it at Riverfront because the Bengals also played there, but why not GABP?
Left field at Crowley Field in Cincinnati went uphilll. During games at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, they used to roll the batting cage, still assembled, not folded up, and put it up against the center filed wall on the field, in play.
What you call Tiger Stadium was Briggs Stadium back in the day. When we went to the game we parked in people's driveway or front yard for $5. I remember steel columns that blocked your view from some lower deck seats. I saw Al Kaline, Harvey Kuenn, and Walt Dropo. I can't remember the others.
You should of mentioned the LA coliseum when the Dodgers played there after moving from Brooklyn. They had a gigantic screen in left field that was only 298 feet from home plate.
It was only 249' down the LF line. Some sources say 250'. Either way that's pretty short. I went to the game back in '08 at the Coliseum between the Dodgers and Red Sox that drew a record crowd of 115K+. That's more than double the capacity of Dodger Stadium.
I miss Tiger Stadium. It was rustic, yet beautiful. It had its charms throughout the whole stadium. I cannot stand Comerica Park. If you go to a day game at the CoPa, 95% chance that you'll sit in the sun and bake. At least with Tiger Stadium you had an option of being under the upper deck, or even far enough back in the upper deck to stay out of the sun and not only keep cooler, but you weren't blinded by the sun, and could see the game. Just about every seat in Tiger Stadium was real close to the action, so there wasn't really bad seat. Even obstructed view seats were still pretty good. I watched Jack Morris beat the Yankees from an obstructed view seat in September 1984, for the Tigers' 100th win of the season. I was behind home plate in box seats, which were discounted because of the poles, and got to see a great victory. God, I really miss that stadium. So much history and character. I'd like to go to Fenway Park and Wrigley Field before those are gone. Just to try to recapture some of the magic that old ballparks like Tiger Stadium had.
I was able to attend a series with my 3 sons against the Twins during Tiger Stadium's last season. We sat in 3 different parts of the stadium: right field under the overhang, center field upper deck, and lower level behind first base. We also walked around and sat in other places. I'm glad we got to go there. It was a beautiful stadium. I live in Chicago now, so I have been to some games at Wrigley Field. I have also been to games at the new White Sox Park, but I never made it to old Comiskey Park. I took my family on a trip to the east coast in 2002, and we went to a game at Fenway and a game at the 2002 version of Yankee Stadium. You should definitely go to Fenway and Wrigley. I took my boys to a few games at County Stadium in Milwaukee before it was replaced. I grew up in South Jersey, and my dad took me to a number of games at Connie Mack Stadium, including the last game there. I went to Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia a few times, but I didn't like it.
@@andrewm4564 My first MLB game was a Noon start weekday game in April 1983 at Wrigley. Cold, cloudy and mist, 2nd week of the season and maybe 10K people there. LOVED IT. No lights, no bullshit scoreboards in outfield; beautiful park (Then). Went to a game at old Comiskey in 1990. Fenway in 1985, County Stadium in Milwaukee a few times in the early 90's The REAL Yankee Stadium and Tiger Stadium were the two that got away from me. Dad got real lucky. He got to Yankee stadium, Ebbets Field, The Polo Grounds, Shibe Park, Wrigley, Comiskey, County Stadium (Milwaukee), Sportsmans Park, Fennway, Dodger Stadium, Miller Park, The Met in the Twin Cities... That's all I can think of.
@@seththomas9105 Thanks for sharing your MLB experiences, especially about Wrigley Field. You got me thinking more about old stadiums I have seen games in (and not seen games in). I don't blame you if you don't read all of this, but I enjoyed thinking about it and writing it. I grew up in South Jersey. My first MLB game was at Connie Mack Stadium in 1964 when I was 9 years old. I remember walking in and seeing the beautiful green field below me. I did go to a game at Wrigley in 1965. My seat was obstructed behind a support pillar. The Cubs lost to the Mets. For some reason, my memories of that game are in black and white, not color. I was too young to appreciate the historical significance of Wrigley Field in 1965. I have lived near Chicago since 1997, so Wrigley has had lights, and now it has the big scoreboards. As you said, Wrigley is not the same with the flashy scoreboards. Before they put in the big scoreboard behind left field, I went early to a game and got a batting practice home run ball out on Kenmore Ave. behind left field. Another time I was walking along Sheffield, and I got a bp ball out there behind right field. It is hard to do that now because of the scoreboards. I managed to get tickets to opening day of 2003 at Wrigley. It was a day game. I watched that game in my winter coat with snow falling. They did complete that game. In the mid-70's, I worked with a company that had season tickets at Yankee Stadium. I could have gone to a game with their tickets, but I never did. I still regret not taking that opportunity. My dad lived in Brooklyn for a while. I don't know for sure, but I guess he probably went to a game at Ebbets Field. I really wish I could have gone to games at the Polo Grounds and Ebbets. Your dad got to see games at some great old stadiums. I've been to RFK Stadium in DC in 1971 and Memorial Stadium in Baltimore in 1980 (I've walked around the outside of Camden Yards; that looks like a good place to see a game). I saw a game inside the Metrodome in Minneapolis, and I went to a game in Dodger Stadium around 1985. I took my boys to some games at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City about 20 years ago. That wasn't a bad place to watch baseball. We also went to the Negro Leagues' Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City. I lived in Seattle from 1981-1997, and I went to a lot of games in the Kingdome. The Kingdome has a terrible reputation (deservedly), but I still enjoyed going to games there. It usually wasn't very crowded. I usually went early for batting practice, and I was able to get a lot of baseballs. The Mariners were good in 1995 and made the playoffs. They filled up the stadium toward the end of the season and in the playoffs, so it was pretty exciting to go to games with people yelling and the sound reverberating off the walls. The M's made it to the ALCS that year, and I had tickets to all of their home playoff games. You had to buy all of the tickets for all of the playoff games. I had World Series tickets, too, but I had to return them to get a refund. Finally, I made a list of old stadiums from the 20th century that you didn't mention that neither your father or I have seen games in: Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, Griffith Stadium in DC, Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, and Crosley Field in Cincinnati. I have never seen a game at any stadium in Cleveland. Thanks again letting me write about my baseball memories.
@@seththomas9105yeah, I got to Wrigley Field in 1960 with my brother when I was 9 and he was 8 (couldn't do that today, God NO, with the crime in that city)!!! saw Eddie Matthews hit an inside the park home run and Billy Williams and Leo Durougher get ejected from the game on that play! the 3rd baseman from the Cubs (can't remember his name [recently elected to the Hall of Fame]) hit a homer in the bottom of the 9th to win the game. the next day, he hit a homer in the bottom of the 12th to win the game. saw many games in Wrigley and old Comiskey before the turn of the century! saw baseball in KC's old Memorial Stadium, Cincy's Crosley Field, 'Beertown's old County Stadium, saw many Fulton County Stadium Braves games in 'Hotlanta' (even got two major league baseballs on my birthday there), got a ball at the Met in Bloomington and had it signed by Butch Wyneger and Tony Olivia, saw baseball in Fenway Park on 'Jimmy Fund Night' where I talked to Ted Williams, saw baseball in Cleveland's old War Memorial Stadium where Rocky Colavito's 500 foot batting practice home run skipped off my catcher's mitt, saw baseball in Baltimore's Memorial Stadium, got a baseball off Al Ferrara's bat at the Houston Astrodome, and three major league baseballs in 'The House That Babe Built' (one off the bat of Billy Bryan and two hit to me by Dick Scholfield)!!!
It's amazing how much that area has changed. 10 years ago I worked in the Navy Yard neighborhood and the area looked like a desert with the stadium and DOT sticking out of the ground. Two weeks ago when I was back it looked like a regular downtown area full of high rises. I used to leave work on Saturdays and get a seat for $5. And the 2019 world series run was an absolute blast. I never enjoyed the game so closely and so regularly as when I worked essentially next door to Nats Park
PacBell Park/SBC Park/AT&T Park used to offer free “seats” (standing room only) in the outfield fence near McCovey Cove. Maybe Oracle Park still does it, I haven’t been to a game in years but I waited in line for about 7 hours a few times to watch 3 innings of a couple World Series games
Grew up a Cubs fan, but very rarely would catch a White Sox game on TV. I remember the first time I saw the Green Monster, circa 1980, I thought it was some kind of embarrassingly contrived gimmick, and absolutely guffawed at it. It didn't help that "Green Monster" was also the name of a plastic "Big Wheel" style tricycle at the time. I simply had no clue that it was just one relatively minor oddity among dozens of others in the ball parks of years gone by.
Dude, the overhang in left field at the Polo Ground extended 21 feet over the field! You ought to do a entire video on the Polo Grounds, so many bizarre features in addition to the overhangs (extreme dimensions short and long, bullpens in the outfield, base of the outfield wall eight feet lower than home plate, insane amount of foul territory).
I don't want to say I'm old, but I started out watching Phillies games at Connie Mack Stadium (though my grandfather would call it Shibe Park to his dying day). I was at the last game at Connie Mack in 1970, and the first game at Veterans Stadium in 1971. The Vet was imploded and replaced by the current stadium, Citizens Bank Park, which just turned 20 years old.
I was at the last game at Connie Mack Stadium with my dad. People went crazy when the game ended. My dad got us out of there. I managed to pick up a bolt that I found on the ground. It was a bolt that had been used to connect the seats.
The old stadiums had so much more character. The stadiums today are mostly the same aside from colors and scenery above the outfield walls. Now, they build these new parks and charge people a hundred and thirty bucks for a decent seat and the food is over 20 bucks for a simple damn hotdog.
The old parks were more interesting in terms of bricks and steel. But the new parks have so much more inside the parks. Today we have hot tubs and stingray tanks. Fine dining and brew pubs. A hotel.
I think that ALMOST EVERYTHING FROM THE 19TH CENTURY WAS SO MUCH COOLER!! 20th century architecture was lame! 21st century stuff is now getting back to old nostalgic feels, so that's cool 😎 👌 😄 👍 😀 👏
3:00 Toronto's Exhibition stadium! In the background on the right, I see the CNE's Alpine Ride (now removed) - we took our baby and baby buggy on that, in 1993 (I think) - and some of the old buildings for horses (still there!).
My dad and uncle used to race cars at the CNE Grandstand (the outfield bleachers part of Exhibition stadium) back in the 50s and 60s. I loved Exhibition Stadium, in 93 I saw a Neil Young/Pearl Jam/Soundgarden show there. Good times. Cheers
@@writerconsidered The Huntington Avenue Grounds were located where Northeastern University is at now. Along Huntington Ave on the side of one building there's a green historical marker plaque noting how that is the location of the outside fence, I think. If you walk onto their campus there's a statue of Cy Young where the pitcher's mound used to be located. It's outside of a building named Churchill Hall. I've stopped by and snapped a picture before when in the area. It's pretty cool.
@@BAYAREA-kd1ig we were given a private tour because we were biding on their EV parking. I was handed the keys to the castle. It was amazing. The bowling alley is technically in a speak easy. For players families only. It's so pretty inside.
Don't forget the terrace at old Crosley Field, in Cincinnati, and the sun/moon deck in right field. The old Braves Field in Boston had some far flung walls, also. They were brought in later, so in right field, they had the jury box, named because usually there were only twelve people seated there.
With the distance of the center field wall at the Polo Grounds, it should make you appreciate the ground Willie Mays had to cover to make that over the shoulder catch and then having to throw the ball back in for the tagging up runners in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series.
Little known fact: in the Spring Training Cactus League, outfield fences are pushed back by 10’-20’ feet from that of the occupant team’s home ballpark to compensate for the higher elevation in Arizona than most of the MLB team cities.
They've tried to build in some of these quirks in new ballparks (Tal's Hill in Minute Maid Park, the "Great Wall of Flushing" or as I called it at the time, the "Black Monster" in Citi Field, etc.) but players and fans just complain about them so they take them out. It seems like everybody wants all the parks to just be the same. But I would have loved to have seen a game at a place like the Polo Grounds where it's like 230 feet down the lines and 505 feet to center - that would have been wild. Parks like that had to have made the games more interesting. Teams on defense would have had to change their defensive strategy to suit the park, and hitters too.
Due to the row houses beyond left field at Shibe Park(Connie Mack Stadium) and the ability to watch the game for free, the Phillies ownership built the left field wall higher so those people couldn't see anymore.
Griffith Stadium (longtime home of the Senators) had that weird-angled wall in deep CF (to the right of 2B side) and it's my understanding outfielders who obviously were focused on especially well-hit baseballs...well BAM right into that stupid corner.
All of this would have made more sense if you had given it better context. These parks that had immense dimensions were built IN THE DEAD BALL ERA when the ball would never carry 400' and when the batter had to circle the bases while outfielders were chasing after the ball. Yes, once upon a time ALL home runs were "inside the park" home runs. That's why it was called a home run: The batter had to RUN ALL THE WAY HOME.
I saw my first games in the Polo Grounds in 62 and 63. Massive centerfield, very short foul lines, the visitors bullpen was on the left field warning track and in play! Fond memories
The old Clark Field at the University of Texas had a limestone bluff in left field called Billy Goat Hill. The Longhorn outfielders could navigate it pretty well but it bedeviled opposing outfielders. As a kid, I saw an opposing fielder run up the bluff in anticipation, only to have the ball fall short; so he had to run back down while runners were circling the bases.
When the Dodgers first moved to Los Angeles, they played at the Coliseum. Down the left field line was 250 feet from home plate and they installed a 40 foot high screen to cut down on the number of home runs
I see someone has mentioned this below, but I'd add the small hill in left field of the old Crosley Field in Cincinnati. As you can imagine, it drove the visiting team's outfielders crazy.
For 4 years, when they first moved to LA, the Dodgers played at the LA Coliseum. The left field wall was 40' high. I saw Koufax strike out 18 Giants there.
I heard at one point the center field warning track at the Polo Grounds was was 8’ below the grade where the dugouts were. If that were true then that distance would make for a very hard through to the infield.
Nashville's Sulfur Dells Park: Sulphur Dell's infamous outfield was born out of this realignment. The new distances to the park's outfield walls were 334 feet (102 m) to left field, 421 feet (128 m) to center, and 262 ft (80 m) to right. Even with such a short distance to right field, the ballpark had a significant "terrace" or sloping outfield: a steep incline that ran along the entire outfield wall, most dramatically in right and center fields. The top of the right field terrace was 22+1⁄2 feet (7 m) above the infield. Right fielders were often called "mountain goats" because they had to go up and down the hills in right-center and right. They usually played on the 10-foot-wide (3 m) "shelf" one-third of the way up the incline. Occasionally, the shelf was used for overflow seating, cutting the already-short right field distance to 235 ft (72 m).
The garbage bags on the outfield walls and the plexiglass in the old metrodome were so bizarre! Oakland is the last of the multiuse stadiums with giant foul territory.
Its two most famous plays would be impossible today: the Shot Heard 'Round the World would be a double off the Monster at Fenway and a routine fly ball anywhere else, while in any modern MLB ballpark, the fly ball Willie May's Caught would be so far gone the center fielder wouldn't even move on it.
@@TPTGopherAnd the home run hit by Dusty Rhodes that won Game 1 of the 1954 World Series over the Cleveland Indians would have been a long out in any other ballpark, or would have had to travel a lot further.
I always find it interesting to see how people dressed in the past to go out. They put on their best outfit to go to a baseball game where as now you see people in anything from swimsuits to pj's!
(From Wikipedia) Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss "hated cheap home runs and vowed he'd have none in his park", which led him to design a large playing field for Forbes Field. With such a large outfield space, triples and inside-the-park home runs were common. Can't think of anything cheaper than an inside-the-park home run...😉
In Toronto if you go up to the observation deck of the CN tower there is a small section of transparent glass flooring that allows you to see into the Rogers Centre (formerly Skydome) provided the roof is open. But from that height the players look like tiny ants!
@@forgottenplaces9780, three of the former rooftop buildings have been approved to be leveled. The new scoreboards blocked most of the views. But what do I know. I just live here.
Early baseball was actually played in parks and often didn't have walls around the outfield. As the games moved into stadia walls were added but players were often injured running into the walls in pursuit of the out. To lessen the injuries, warning tracks were added to give the players notice that they were getting close to the wall, but not everywhere. Some fields, like Cincinnati's Crosley, used a ramp or 'terrace' instead, I'm surprised you didn;t mention it.
Tals Hill in modern Houston was bizarre. I'm surprised you didn't mention it. In center field, the field incorporated a legit rise in the playing surface between the warning track and CF wall. It was stupid and a safety concern, so they did away with it in 2016.
Grew up in NE Ohio in the 70s. Paid $3 to sit in the bleachers in CF in the old Municipal Stadium. Just wooden benches, but the view of the game was fine. I was thrilled just to be in an MLB ballpark, with the other 3,000 people back then.
Tiger Stadium’s flagpole still stands in the townhouse complex that was built after the stadium was demolished. The field is the “courtyard” and high school and little league games use it now.
Crosley Field in Cincinnati used to have a slope rather than a warning track. How many visiting outfielders fell because of it? How many homers were robbed by Redleg players who knew how to "get taller" using the slope? And speaking of deep outfields, Bosse Park in Evansville, Indiana is cavernous. Although it is the 3rd oldest ballpark in continuous operation, it was never a major league park. Its home to dead center distance is around 455 feet. Hank Greenberg hit a home run there as a minor leaguer, which showed what a hammer he was. An unaffiliated Class A team plays there now, the Evansville Otters. The distance to dead center is reduced by an inner wall to 415 feet.
yeah, I saw Jackie Brant (one of the best centerfielders in the American League) chase a batted ball up that 'slope' and fall down! while stretched out, the ball hit in his glove and plopped out. the official scorer gave him an error! I thought it was a bad call!!
Also, all the old ballparks were downtown because people lived there and did not have transportation. These day they are building ballparks far away from the downtown area. Not all the reasons for this are good ones
I think a big issue with the Wrigley rooftops is once people realized they could take it fully commercial is when it kind of lost the charm of just tenants in the building going up on the roof with some beers and a few lawn chairs and a radio. Which is probably when the team and league actually took notice.
i remember as a kid in the 80s watching Mets games in Wrigley and they'd show people on the rooftops up their barbecuing and stuff watching the gane, but it was just 10 or 20 people in lawn chairs who lived in the building.
Don't forget the seats located behind the support posts. Or the ivy on some outfields walls. There was an outfielder for the Cubs, that did commercials for a brand of chewing tobacco, and fans would toss him bags of this tobacco during the game, He would pick them up and stow them in the ivy on the wall.
The last image was from San Diego. The Western Metal Building in left field is a historic building incorporated into the field of play. Padre Stadium is one of the nicest in baseball.
I miss the dual purpose stadiums where when watching a football game you can see the baseball dirt infield. Great tv. Anaheim Stadium, Candlestick Park, San Diego's Jack Murphy Stadium. Please bring that back!
I bet college parks have even more character. I remember the old UT Austin baseball field. There was a granite outcropping on the outfield "billy goat hill" where the ball could land and the outfieldwr had to scramble up the dirt footpath to get the ball.
My college's campus sits on where the Huntington Avenue grounds used to be. I only learned about it when I came across a statue of Cy Young in a courtyard with a plaque marking the location of the pitcher's mound of the first World Series
Death Valley in old Yankee Stadium ran 460 feet to the left center power alley where many a home run went to die. Think of how many more homers Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle (batting right) would have hit in their careers had it been a normal depth. Helped speedy DiMaggio net lots of triples tho. Think of how many more homers Ruth, Gehrig and Mantle (batting left) hit with a normal right field wall.
also had a billboard beyond the green monster, before the seating that now exists was built. In the 60s at least, you could see a bit of left field, a good portion of center, and all of the rest of the field just by climbing the structural steel that supported the billboard.
The baseball parks do at least try to be unique city to city but there are very few parks with a non corporate name. Fenway, Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Nationals Park, Kauffman Stadium. Wrigley might fall into that list if its named after the person rather than the company they owned.
And also light standards inside the outfield walls. At one time it had the longest left field, longest center, and shortest right field in the NL, with a screen in front of the lower right field stands. Babe Ruth’s last HR was the first to travel over the roof covering the upper deck in right
Connie Mack Stadium (Shibe Park) had a huge wall in right field because the Phillies' owner didn;t want the neighbors making money from selling seats on their roofs to watch the games, as is done outside of Wriglet Field.
I got to see the Giants play at Candlestick pre expansion and afterwards. It definitely was a warmer site for a day game after the enclosure. At night it didn't matter: always cold with the wind and fog of summer there. And for football, December games might have been played in a refrigerator, temps usually in the 40s, early shadowing of the field and most of the grandstand, and it was worse for a night game. The narrator of this video doesn't mention how pro football used many of these parks for games. The worst was Pittsburgh using Forbes, with no close seats on one side of the field. Wrigley had its southeast end zone corner cut off by the visiting team baseball dugout.
Philly's Baker Bowl was old enough that it was originally built with space under the left field seats for bicycles and horse carriages. Different time, different requirements.
@@MrDan708 Baker, Shibe/Connie Mack, Polo Grounds, (pre-1976) Yankee Stadium, Old Navin/Briggs/Tiger Stadium …I liked seeing pictures of these old ballparks that had character and odd dimensions.
At least Fenway and Wriggly are still around to represent that era.
Old Tiger Stadium was built by the baseball gods themselves, I miss it very much.
Amen. I think of it every day. Such a needless sin, abandoning it and then demolishing it. Great views and history.
Yes, I thought this video would mention the "obstructed view" seats.
Navin Field, Briggs Stadium!!!
Actually, those names were both before my time.
One of my very few regrets in life was never getting to see tiger stadium from the inside
@@scottstevens8606 😪
It was a magical place if you were a Tiger fan.
Many of the old parks have been torn down and something else is now there [parking lots, churches, apartment buildings etc], but it is interesting that League Park is still there; the grandstands are gone, but the field is still there, and is used for amateur and school games.
The ticket office building is still there as well and is now a museum.
Braves Field in Boston is still around in a similar manner (right field grandstand, ticket office)
@@pillbelichick -- Not really; isn't it being used as a football or soccer field now, not baseball?
@@gregb6469 Oh i missed that we were talking baseball fields only. Yes a soccer field (Nickerson Field). But the ticket booth, right field bleachers, and parts of the original fence still exist
Only two remain in the MLB: Wrigley and Fenway. It's a damn shame that Tiger Stadium and Comiskey Park were not retrofitted, and that's true of Yankee Stadium as well, though it was retrofitted and then torn down. Another one could have had the facade put back in place.
Old Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, we called it the mistake by the lake.
Best memory: Early 80's me and my buddy went down to catch a game at the last minute, we managed to get front row seats for cheap off the guy who had 4 season tickets. We used the dugout roof as our beer holder, we paid $8 per seat for our tickets.
Good times!
Nice memories of catching a few games at “Exasperation” stadium. A buddy in college could get discounted tickets so a couple afternoons we caught games between classes. Even on a sunny day in early season you could freeze your buns off when the wind came off of the lake.
ripping off Cleveland. c'mon man
You may want to look up videos of Sick's Stadium (I'm not kidding, that was a real MLB stadium's name in 1969). It was home to the Seattle Pilots for that one season. In 1970 they became the Milwaukee Brewers.
And $2 tickets to sit in the left outfield grandstand!!!
@@roypavao7498$1 if bought from Dominion. Gawd, I loved the Ex bleachers!
Old Yankee stadium had monuments and a flag pole in play
They copied Fenway Park.
@@StanSwanWrong! The ORIGINAL Yankee Stadium was NOTHING like Fenway Park.
@@SmokinGun55 I know old Yankee Stadium was a dump.
@@StanSwan Like hell. The old Yankee stadium was a cathedral unlike that old green rat trap that your Red Sucks play in where you still have to change the scores by putting up wooden placards. What a joke!Comparing the two is like comparing St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome to a dirty storefront church. We celebrated 26 World Championships in that edifice. How many did you losers put up in that old green barn of yours? As someone once told me, once a Red Suck fan always a jealous sore loser. LOL!
I remember Bobby Murcer having to fish a ball out from behind one of the monuments.
Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, which hosted the A's (1955-67) and the Royals (1969-72), had goats and sheep in a small zoo beyond the right-field fence.
Dunkin Park in Hartford has a Goat Pen behind a very tall wall in center - at least the last time I went a few years ago.
@@mrmoose6619 Just looked it up and it looks like they still have it. Pretty fitting for a team called the "Yard Goats" which is probably one of my favorite Minor League team names. It's up there with the Rocket City Trash Pandas and Albuquerque Isotopes.
@@natemorton5575 A great name for sure, but a yard goat is actually a slang term for a switcher engine used to maneuver railcars from one track to another.
@moby628 It's also a term for goats...that live in yards.
My first MLB game was there. Athletics vs Yankees.
The first game I ever attended was the opening day game in Griffith stadium in1960. The Senators beat the Red Sox 10-1 and the only run Boston got was a Ted Williams homer out of the park! If you look closely at the film clip, you can see the flagpole just at the point where the walls meet as they angle back toward center field. The ball he hit went OVER that flag pole! It was Williams' final opening day game. I also just recently learned that a MLB record was set that day that still stands today. Washington pitcher Camilo Pascual struck out 15 batters which is still the record for an opening day game!
I remember going to old Griffith Stadium with my dad when I was a kid. It was the Red Sox vs. the woeful Washington Senators. The Sox beat the Senators (I forget the score), and Ted Williams hit a monster HR over the old green wall (I think the distance down the right field foul line was about 302 feet from home plate). As a young, die-hard "Nats" fan, I was disgusted, but I'd never seen my father that excited. It might have been the year Williams hung up his cleats for good.
Also, supposedly Mickey Mantle hit the longest HR of his career at the old park, a screamer that is estimated to have traveled about 550 feet.
I watched that game on TV, and the spectators cheered Ted with the respect due for a superstar in the twilight of his career. The Senators answered with four home runs to put the game away. One of Pascual's strikeouts was with a changeup about which the announcer said something like, "He swung a month and a week before the ball got there."
yeah, I love the ol' Ted Williams story about Briggs Stadium (later renamed 'Tiger Stadium')! Ted always said he saw the ball better in Briggs Stadium than another ballpark! one day during batting practice he hit the first pitch for a home run! the second pitch for a home run, only a little deeper!! the next pitch for a home run, only a little deeper still!! then the next pitch only deeper!!! for 10 straight pitches, Ted Williams hit home runs, each one deeper than the last one!!! it is said, it was the first and only time a batter ever received a Standing Ovation during batting practice........ FROM THE SPORTS WRITERS!!!!
Oracle Park has the knotholes in the right field arcade where you can watch a game free of charge. If there is high demand they start cycling people every 3 innings.
If time travel becomes possible before I die, hitting these crazy old ballparks is on the itinerary.
Tiger Stadium once had seating that jutted out further towards right field; they were removed after their star of the future, one Mr. Al Kaline, crashed into them several times while fielding pop flies.
Oracle Park in San Francisco allows fans to watch games for free through the right field fence, as a tribute to the "free" seats in past ballparks. Of course, it's regulated. It's first come first served and the crowd is cycled through every few innings depending on demand.
I believe you can watch for 3 innings
It also has a 24 foot high wall
Surprised you didn't mention Shibe Park's "spite fence", which was nearly 100 feet high to prevent people from watching games from rooftops.
Ebbets Field had a towering right field wall/fence combination. Carl Furillo could read it better than anyone else. When the Indians, now the Guardians, began playing at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium, there was no inner outfield fence. Straightaway center was 470 feet from home plate. No one ever hit a ball on the fly into the bleachers. Ted Williams hit the only inside-the-park home run of hie career there.
Under miscellaneous I would also add the right field fence at Ebbets Field, which was not completely vertical but the bottom half was sloped like a steep ramp. Not sure why. Also the Astros stadium (formerly Enron Field) used to have a hill in front of the center field fence with a flagpole on it. Relatively not too long ago
Tal's Hill. 436 to the wall with a flagpole in play. Gone since 2016.
The original Braves Field in Boston originally had dimensions of 400 ft. down left and right field lines and 500 ft. to center field.
Great video! Interesting in-play features might be a good follow up video. Wrigley still has ivy, Fenway still has a ladder. Lots of older (and some retro) ballparks had flag poles, elevation changes, and in Yankee Stadium they used to have the monuments in-play. And having bullpens in unique places would be interesting too.
At 2:05, You can see a young Yankee Stadium in the upper right backround.
Nice catch
Wow. Is that true? Could see old Yankee Stadium from Polo??? Amazing
@@phineasbluster2872Yep! And this was before the completion of the massive curling arms of the upper deck were built.
@@phineasbluster2872They were basically across the Harlem River from each other. One in Manhattan, one in The Bronx.
I miss old Tiger Stadium in Detroit. It wasnt the prettiest of the old original ballparks, but it was fun going there, even if you had to sit behind one of those iron support beams. You just leaned off to one side or another. I grew to like Comerica Park. It took a while but, of course, it just isn't the same feel as Tiger Stadium.
Forgotten were the 60 feet high left field screen at Los Angeles Coliseum and the inclined outfields of Minute Maid Park and the weird Crosley Field.
I was wondering if somebody would mention The Hill at Crosley Field. Even the great Willy Mays fell victim to it his first time there. Legend has it that Babe Ruth made the decision to retire after falling on the slope.
@@zachmartin1458 I wish they had recreated Crosley Field's left field terrace when they built GABP. They couldn't do it at Riverfront because the Bengals also played there, but why not GABP?
@@CopiousJohn You should have told them. Now I know who to blame!
Left field at Crowley Field in Cincinnati went uphilll. During games at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, they used to roll the batting cage, still assembled, not folded up, and put it up against the center filed wall on the field, in play.
It's CROSLEY FIELD.
@@kbrewski1 Of course. Misspelling.
Tiger Stadium also was 440 to dead center.
What you call Tiger Stadium was Briggs Stadium back in the day. When we went to the game we parked in people's driveway or front yard for $5. I remember steel columns that blocked your view from some lower deck seats. I saw Al Kaline, Harvey Kuenn, and Walt Dropo. I can't remember the others.
It was Navin Stadium before it was Briggs Stadium. But it was Tiger Stadium from 1961 onward.
@@marksieving7925 It was Bennett Park before Navin Field, lol
@@rklewis2 Not quite. Bennett Park was demolished in 1911 and Navin Field was built on the same site.
@@marksieving7925 Didn't Bennett have wooden grandstands? Just wondering. I know a lot of old parks did.
You should of mentioned the LA coliseum when the Dodgers played there after moving from Brooklyn. They had a gigantic screen in left field that was only 298 feet from home plate.
It was only 249' down the LF line. Some sources say 250'. Either way that's pretty short. I went to the game back in '08 at the Coliseum between the Dodgers and Red Sox that drew a record crowd of 115K+. That's more than double the capacity of Dodger Stadium.
Please stop using "would of", it immediately invalidates anything you might correctly state.
You missed the ultimate OVER-HANG…the basket, at Wrigley Field…nothing like it…anywhere.
I miss Tiger Stadium. It was rustic, yet beautiful. It had its charms throughout the whole stadium. I cannot stand Comerica Park. If you go to a day game at the CoPa, 95% chance that you'll sit in the sun and bake. At least with Tiger Stadium you had an option of being under the upper deck, or even far enough back in the upper deck to stay out of the sun and not only keep cooler, but you weren't blinded by the sun, and could see the game. Just about every seat in Tiger Stadium was real close to the action, so there wasn't really bad seat. Even obstructed view seats were still pretty good. I watched Jack Morris beat the Yankees from an obstructed view seat in September 1984, for the Tigers' 100th win of the season. I was behind home plate in box seats, which were discounted because of the poles, and got to see a great victory. God, I really miss that stadium. So much history and character. I'd like to go to Fenway Park and Wrigley Field before those are gone. Just to try to recapture some of the magic that old ballparks like Tiger Stadium had.
I was able to attend a series with my 3 sons against the Twins during Tiger Stadium's last season. We sat in 3 different parts of the stadium: right field under the overhang, center field upper deck, and lower level behind first base. We also walked around and sat in other places. I'm glad we got to go there. It was a beautiful stadium. I live in Chicago now, so I have been to some games at Wrigley Field. I have also been to games at the new White Sox Park, but I never made it to old Comiskey Park. I took my family on a trip to the east coast in 2002, and we went to a game at Fenway and a game at the 2002 version of Yankee Stadium. You should definitely go to Fenway and Wrigley. I took my boys to a few games at County Stadium in Milwaukee before it was replaced. I grew up in South Jersey, and my dad took me to a number of games at Connie Mack Stadium, including the last game there. I went to Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia a few times, but I didn't like it.
@@andrewm4564 My first MLB game was a Noon start weekday game in April 1983 at Wrigley. Cold, cloudy and mist, 2nd week of the season and maybe 10K people there. LOVED IT. No lights, no bullshit scoreboards in outfield; beautiful park (Then). Went to a game at old Comiskey in 1990. Fenway in 1985, County Stadium in Milwaukee a few times in the early 90's
The REAL Yankee Stadium and Tiger Stadium were the two that got away from me.
Dad got real lucky. He got to Yankee stadium, Ebbets Field, The Polo Grounds, Shibe Park, Wrigley, Comiskey, County Stadium (Milwaukee), Sportsmans Park, Fennway, Dodger Stadium, Miller Park, The Met in the Twin Cities... That's all I can think of.
@@seththomas9105 Thanks for sharing your MLB experiences, especially about Wrigley Field. You got me thinking more about old stadiums I have seen games in (and not seen games in). I don't blame you if you don't read all of this, but I enjoyed thinking about it and writing it. I grew up in South Jersey. My first MLB game was at Connie Mack Stadium in 1964 when I was 9 years old. I remember walking in and seeing the beautiful green field below me. I did go to a game at Wrigley in 1965. My seat was obstructed behind a support pillar. The Cubs lost to the Mets. For some reason, my memories of that game are in black and white, not color. I was too young to appreciate the historical significance of Wrigley Field in 1965. I have lived near Chicago since 1997, so Wrigley has had lights, and now it has the big scoreboards. As you said, Wrigley is not the same with the flashy scoreboards. Before they put in the big scoreboard behind left field, I went early to a game and got a batting practice home run ball out on Kenmore Ave. behind left field. Another time I was walking along Sheffield, and I got a bp ball out there behind right field. It is hard to do that now because of the scoreboards. I managed to get tickets to opening day of 2003 at Wrigley. It was a day game. I watched that game in my winter coat with snow falling. They did complete that game. In the mid-70's, I worked with a company that had season tickets at Yankee Stadium. I could have gone to a game with their tickets, but I never did. I still regret not taking that opportunity. My dad lived in Brooklyn for a while. I don't know for sure, but I guess he probably went to a game at Ebbets Field. I really wish I could have gone to games at the Polo Grounds and Ebbets. Your dad got to see games at some great old stadiums. I've been to RFK Stadium in DC in 1971 and Memorial Stadium in Baltimore in 1980 (I've walked around the outside of Camden Yards; that looks like a good place to see a game). I saw a game inside the Metrodome in Minneapolis, and I went to a game in Dodger Stadium around 1985. I took my boys to some games at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City about 20 years ago. That wasn't a bad place to watch baseball. We also went to the Negro Leagues' Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City. I lived in Seattle from 1981-1997, and I went to a lot of games in the Kingdome. The Kingdome has a terrible reputation (deservedly), but I still enjoyed going to games there. It usually wasn't very crowded. I usually went early for batting practice, and I was able to get a lot of baseballs. The Mariners were good in 1995 and made the playoffs. They filled up the stadium toward the end of the season and in the playoffs, so it was pretty exciting to go to games with people yelling and the sound reverberating off the walls. The M's made it to the ALCS that year, and I had tickets to all of their home playoff games. You had to buy all of the tickets for all of the playoff games. I had World Series tickets, too, but I had to return them to get a refund.
Finally, I made a list of old stadiums from the 20th century that you didn't mention that neither your father or I have seen games in: Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, Griffith Stadium in DC, Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, and Crosley Field in Cincinnati. I have never seen a game at any stadium in Cleveland. Thanks again letting me write about my baseball memories.
Yes. Too sterile
@@seththomas9105yeah, I got to Wrigley Field in 1960 with my brother when I was 9 and he was 8 (couldn't do that today, God NO, with the crime in that city)!!! saw Eddie Matthews hit an inside the park home run and Billy Williams and Leo Durougher get ejected from the game on that play! the 3rd baseman from the Cubs (can't remember his name [recently elected to the Hall of Fame]) hit a homer in the bottom of the 9th to win the game. the next day, he hit a homer in the bottom of the 12th to win the game. saw many games in Wrigley and old Comiskey before the turn of the century! saw baseball in KC's old Memorial Stadium, Cincy's Crosley Field, 'Beertown's old County Stadium, saw many Fulton County Stadium Braves games in 'Hotlanta' (even got two major league baseballs on my birthday there), got a ball at the Met in Bloomington and had it signed by Butch Wyneger and Tony Olivia, saw baseball in Fenway Park on 'Jimmy Fund Night' where I talked to Ted Williams, saw baseball in Cleveland's old War Memorial Stadium where Rocky Colavito's 500 foot batting practice home run skipped off my catcher's mitt, saw baseball in Baltimore's Memorial Stadium, got a baseball off Al Ferrara's bat at the Houston Astrodome, and three major league baseballs in 'The House That Babe Built' (one off the bat of Billy Bryan and two hit to me by Dick Scholfield)!!!
The Polo Grounds also had an overhanging upper deck.
MUCH bigger than little Tiger Stadium.
Some of the new apartments opposite Nats Park have a view in. I sometimes see people up there watching
Same with Petco in SD.
Toronto's stadium has a hotel overlooking the outfield. On game days, field-side rooms cost more. Don't know whether the team gets a cut.
It's amazing how much that area has changed. 10 years ago I worked in the Navy Yard neighborhood and the area looked like a desert with the stadium and DOT sticking out of the ground. Two weeks ago when I was back it looked like a regular downtown area full of high rises.
I used to leave work on Saturdays and get a seat for $5. And the 2019 world series run was an absolute blast. I never enjoyed the game so closely and so regularly as when I worked essentially next door to Nats Park
PacBell Park/SBC Park/AT&T Park used to offer free “seats” (standing room only) in the outfield fence near McCovey Cove. Maybe Oracle Park still does it, I haven’t been to a game in years but I waited in line for about 7 hours a few times to watch 3 innings of a couple World Series games
Grew up a Cubs fan, but very rarely would catch a White Sox game on TV. I remember the first time I saw the Green Monster, circa 1980, I thought it was some kind of embarrassingly contrived gimmick, and absolutely guffawed at it. It didn't help that "Green Monster" was also the name of a plastic "Big Wheel" style tricycle at the time. I simply had no clue that it was just one relatively minor oddity among dozens of others in the ball parks of years gone by.
I think that's such a neat thing. Uniqueness on there levels is rare and dieing. The standardization of things directly lowers the charm.
You could watch games at Forbes Field from the Cathedral of Learning
You mean God's Penis?
Dude, the overhang in left field at the Polo Ground extended 21 feet over the field! You ought to do a entire video on the Polo Grounds, so many bizarre features in addition to the overhangs (extreme dimensions short and long, bullpens in the outfield, base of the outfield wall eight feet lower than home plate, insane amount of foul territory).
Dead Zone … Dodgers playing in the colosseum … and Wally Moon climbing the chain link fence in left field for outs …
I don't want to say I'm old, but I started out watching Phillies games at Connie Mack Stadium (though my grandfather would call it Shibe Park to his dying day). I was at the last game at Connie Mack in 1970, and the first game at Veterans Stadium in 1971. The Vet was imploded and replaced by the current stadium, Citizens Bank Park, which just turned 20 years old.
I was at the last game at Connie Mack Stadium with my dad. People went crazy when the game ended. My dad got us out of there. I managed to pick up a bolt that I found on the ground. It was a bolt that had been used to connect the seats.
Too bad they couldn't preserve it. Shibe Park was the most beautiful of the Jewel Box ballparks.
my favorite stadiums of the past, Polo Grounds and the Baker Bowl
The old stadiums had so much more character. The stadiums today are mostly the same aside from colors and scenery above the outfield walls. Now, they build these new parks and charge people a hundred and thirty bucks for a decent seat and the food is over 20 bucks for a simple damn hotdog.
True 😊😊
The old parks were more interesting in terms of bricks and steel. But the new parks have so much more inside the parks. Today we have hot tubs and stingray tanks. Fine dining and brew pubs. A hotel.
Yeah, but the food is much better.
I think that ALMOST EVERYTHING FROM THE 19TH CENTURY WAS SO MUCH COOLER!!
20th century architecture was lame!
21st century stuff is now getting back to old nostalgic feels, so that's cool 😎 👌 😄 👍 😀 👏
3:00 Toronto's Exhibition stadium! In the background on the right, I see the CNE's Alpine Ride (now removed) - we took our baby and baby buggy on that, in 1993 (I think) - and some of the old buildings for horses (still there!).
My dad and uncle used to race cars at the CNE Grandstand (the outfield bleachers part of Exhibition stadium) back in the 50s and 60s. I loved Exhibition Stadium, in 93 I saw a Neil Young/Pearl Jam/Soundgarden show there. Good times. Cheers
I know a lot about old ballparks, but, somehow, I never knew that about Huntington Avenue Grounds until watching this video. That's so interesting.
Neither did I. And as a Bostonian I can't imagine where something that big could even sit on Huntington ave?
@@writerconsidered The Huntington Avenue Grounds were located where Northeastern University is at now. Along Huntington Ave on the side of one building there's a green historical marker plaque noting how that is the location of the outside fence, I think. If you walk onto their campus there's a statue of Cy Young where the pitcher's mound used to be located. It's outside of a building named Churchill Hall. I've stopped by and snapped a picture before when in the area. It's pretty cool.
Fenway Park's left field once featured a 10' incline nicknamed "Duffy's Cliff"
There's a hidden bowling alley in the Giants stadium. I played on it once.
I been to that stadium off and on for 24 years. This is first time hearing about this, thanks for bringing this up!
@@BAYAREA-kd1ig we were given a private tour because we were biding on their EV parking. I was handed the keys to the castle. It was amazing. The bowling alley is technically in a speak easy. For players families only. It's so pretty inside.
Don't forget the terrace at old Crosley Field, in Cincinnati, and the sun/moon deck in right field. The old Braves Field in Boston had some far flung walls, also. They were brought in later, so in right field, they had the jury box, named because usually there were only twelve people seated there.
Yep, the dreaded incline at Crosley Field.
With the distance of the center field wall at the Polo Grounds, it should make you appreciate the ground Willie Mays had to cover to make that over the shoulder catch and then having to throw the ball back in for the tagging up runners in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series.
Little known fact: in the Spring Training Cactus League, outfield fences are pushed back by 10’-20’ feet from that of the occupant team’s home ballpark to compensate for the higher elevation in Arizona than most of the MLB team cities.
They've tried to build in some of these quirks in new ballparks (Tal's Hill in Minute Maid Park, the "Great Wall of Flushing" or as I called it at the time, the "Black Monster" in Citi Field, etc.) but players and fans just complain about them so they take them out. It seems like everybody wants all the parks to just be the same. But I would have loved to have seen a game at a place like the Polo Grounds where it's like 230 feet down the lines and 505 feet to center - that would have been wild. Parks like that had to have made the games more interesting. Teams on defense would have had to change their defensive strategy to suit the park, and hitters too.
Due to the row houses beyond left field at Shibe Park(Connie Mack Stadium) and the ability to watch the game for free, the Phillies ownership built the left field wall higher so those people couldn't see anymore.
I believe that was in right field.
@@allenmurray7893 I believe you're right.
4:48 Camden Yards brought that back in fashion, if not completely by accident
Griffith Stadium (longtime home of the Senators) had that weird-angled wall in deep CF (to the right of 2B side) and it's my understanding outfielders who obviously were focused on especially well-hit baseballs...well BAM right into that stupid corner.
All of this would have made more sense if you had given it better context. These parks that had immense dimensions were built IN THE DEAD BALL ERA when the ball would never carry 400' and when the batter had to circle the bases while outfielders were chasing after the ball. Yes, once upon a time ALL home runs were "inside the park" home runs. That's why it was called a home run: The batter had to RUN ALL THE WAY HOME.
I saw my first games in the Polo Grounds in 62 and 63. Massive centerfield, very short foul lines, the visitors bullpen was on the left field warning track and in play! Fond memories
The old Clark Field at the University of Texas had a limestone bluff in left field called Billy Goat Hill. The Longhorn outfielders could navigate it pretty well but it bedeviled opposing outfielders. As a kid, I saw an opposing fielder run up the bluff in anticipation, only to have the ball fall short; so he had to run back down while runners were circling the bases.
When the Dodgers first moved to Los Angeles, they played at the Coliseum. Down the left field line was 250 feet from home plate and they installed a 40 foot high screen to cut down on the number of home runs
Could watch this stuff all day.
4:48 Polo Grounds, Sept 23, 1962, Cubs at Mets. New York wins on Frank Thomas' RBI single in the ninth, scoring Choo-Choo Coleman.
This was a fun video! I wish I could have seen some of these old ballparks. I have been to a game in the Astrodome, and many games at Candlestick.
I see someone has mentioned this below, but I'd add the small hill in left field of the old Crosley Field in Cincinnati. As you can imagine, it drove the visiting team's outfielders crazy.
For 4 years, when they first moved to LA, the Dodgers played at the LA Coliseum. The left field wall was 40' high. I saw Koufax strike out 18 Giants there.
I heard at one point the center field warning track at the Polo Grounds was was 8’ below the grade where the dugouts were. If that were true then that distance would make for a very hard through to the infield.
Nashville's Sulfur Dells Park: Sulphur Dell's infamous outfield was born out of this realignment. The new distances to the park's outfield walls were 334 feet (102 m) to left field, 421 feet (128 m) to center, and 262 ft (80 m) to right. Even with such a short distance to right field, the ballpark had a significant "terrace" or sloping outfield: a steep incline that ran along the entire outfield wall, most dramatically in right and center fields. The top of the right field terrace was 22+1⁄2 feet (7 m) above the infield. Right fielders were often called "mountain goats" because they had to go up and down the hills in right-center and right. They usually played on the 10-foot-wide (3 m) "shelf" one-third of the way up the incline. Occasionally, the shelf was used for overflow seating, cutting the already-short right field distance to 235 ft (72 m).
Wow you including meters was really helpful
The garbage bags on the outfield walls and the plexiglass in the old metrodome were so bizarre!
Oakland is the last of the multiuse stadiums with giant foul territory.
The Polo Grounds is the MLB stadium with the weirdest shape ever
Its two most famous plays would be impossible today: the Shot Heard 'Round the World would be a double off the Monster at Fenway and a routine fly ball anywhere else, while in any modern MLB ballpark, the fly ball Willie May's Caught would be so far gone the center fielder wouldn't even move on it.
@@TPTGopherAnd the home run hit by Dusty Rhodes that won Game 1 of the 1954 World Series over the Cleveland Indians would have been a long out in any other ballpark, or would have had to travel a lot further.
I always find it interesting to see how people dressed in the past to go out. They put on their best outfit to go to a baseball game where as now you see people in anything from swimsuits to pj's!
(From Wikipedia) Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss "hated cheap home runs and vowed he'd have none in his park", which led him to design a large playing field for Forbes Field. With such a large outfield space, triples and inside-the-park home runs were common.
Can't think of anything cheaper than an inside-the-park home run...😉
The Forbes Field batting cage was actually stored in left-center field, and was in play.
Fenway still has a ladder in play that’s on the green monster as well.
In St. Louis you can see games from both the arch or neighboring hotels
I think my folks were visiting St. Louis and were in the arch when the Cardinals won the NL pennant in 1985 against the Dodgers.
In Toronto if you go up to the observation deck of the CN tower there is a small section of transparent glass flooring that allows you to see into the Rogers Centre (formerly Skydome) provided the roof is open. But from that height the players look like tiny ants!
Great video! I wish it was a half hour longer though
The rooftops at Wrigley are all but gone with the remodel a couple years ago.
I dont think so
@@forgottenplaces9780, three of the former rooftop buildings have been approved to be leveled. The new scoreboards blocked most of the views. But what do I know. I just live here.
Early baseball was actually played in parks and often didn't have walls around the outfield. As the games moved into stadia walls were added but players were often injured running into the walls in pursuit of the out. To lessen the injuries, warning tracks were added to give the players notice that they were getting close to the wall, but not everywhere. Some fields, like Cincinnati's Crosley, used a ramp or 'terrace' instead, I'm surprised you didn;t mention it.
Tals Hill in modern Houston was bizarre. I'm surprised you didn't mention it. In center field, the field incorporated a legit rise in the playing surface between the warning track and CF wall. It was stupid and a safety concern, so they did away with it in 2016.
Another interesting video.
I’ve always been fascinated how ballparks are built.
Thanks!
Grew up in NE Ohio in the 70s. Paid $3 to sit in the bleachers in CF in the old Municipal Stadium. Just wooden benches, but the view of the game was fine. I was thrilled just to be in an MLB ballpark, with the other 3,000 people back then.
Tiger Stadium’s flagpole still stands in the townhouse complex that was built after the stadium was demolished. The field is the “courtyard” and high school and little league games use it now.
That flagpole was just inside the 440 foot mark-straight away center field. Don’t forget the open trough urinals in the men’s bathrooms.
@@toddjones1403 Same at Joe Louis, freaked me out as kid
I miss Forbes Field, I went to the first ball games I ever saw there with my dad and uncle,those were happy days.
Crosley Field in Cincinnati used to have a slope rather than a warning track. How many visiting outfielders fell because of it? How many homers were robbed by Redleg players who knew how to "get taller" using the slope? And speaking of deep outfields, Bosse Park in Evansville, Indiana is cavernous. Although it is the 3rd oldest ballpark in continuous operation, it was never a major league park. Its home to dead center distance is around 455 feet. Hank Greenberg hit a home run there as a minor leaguer, which showed what a hammer he was. An unaffiliated Class A team plays there now, the Evansville Otters. The distance to dead center is reduced by an inner wall to 415 feet.
I appreciate the Bosse Field nod as an Evansville kid. Go Otters and Go Reds!
yeah, I saw Jackie Brant (one of the best centerfielders in the American League) chase a batted ball up that 'slope' and fall down! while stretched out, the ball hit in his glove and plopped out. the official scorer gave him an error! I thought it was a bad call!!
Also, all the old ballparks were downtown because people lived there and did not have transportation. These day they are building ballparks far away from the downtown area. Not all the reasons for this are good ones
This goes hard. Thank you.
Every time this guy posts I am happy
Not mentioned: Ballparks where the playing field wasn’t flat.
Check out the so-called spite fence that was added to Shibe Park in Philly to prevent spectators from "free viewing" into the park.
I think a big issue with the Wrigley rooftops is once people realized they could take it fully commercial is when it kind of lost the charm of just tenants in the building going up on the roof with some beers and a few lawn chairs and a radio. Which is probably when the team and league actually took notice.
As with everything else in this world…follow the money.
i remember as a kid in the 80s watching Mets games in Wrigley and they'd show people on the rooftops up their barbecuing and stuff watching the gane, but it was just 10 or 20 people in lawn chairs who lived in the building.
Don't forget the seats located behind the support posts. Or the ivy on some outfields walls.
There was an outfielder for the Cubs, that did commercials for a brand of chewing tobacco, and fans would toss him bags of this tobacco during the game, He would pick them up and stow them in the ivy on the wall.
The last image was from San Diego. The Western Metal Building in left field is a historic building incorporated into the field of play. Padre Stadium is one of the nicest in baseball.
Great video, really enjoyed it. I hope to get to the old League Park site someday soon.
Gotta love unique ball parks.
Tal’s hill at Minute Maid Park. A hill at the end of center field. They’d remove it after the Astros moved to the American League.
I miss the dual purpose stadiums where when watching a football game you can see the baseball dirt infield. Great tv. Anaheim Stadium, Candlestick Park, San Diego's Jack Murphy Stadium. Please bring that back!
The green seats and green grass, the aromatic smell of hot dogs and cokes and beer at Tiger Stadium created lasting memories of summers gone by!
I bet college parks have even more character. I remember the old UT Austin baseball field. There was a granite outcropping on the outfield "billy goat hill" where the ball could land and the outfieldwr had to scramble up the dirt footpath to get the ball.
My college's campus sits on where the Huntington Avenue grounds used to be. I only learned about it when I came across a statue of Cy Young in a courtyard with a plaque marking the location of the pitcher's mound of the first World Series
Death Valley in old Yankee Stadium ran 460 feet to the left center power alley where many a home run went to die. Think of how many more homers Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle (batting right) would have hit in their careers had it been a normal depth. Helped speedy DiMaggio net lots of triples tho. Think of how many more homers Ruth, Gehrig and Mantle (batting left) hit with a normal right field wall.
RIP Tal's hill
Fenway Park used to have the flagpole in the field of play, in the mini triangle at the end of the Green Monster.
also had a billboard beyond the green monster, before the seating that now exists was built. In the 60s at least, you could see a bit of left field, a good portion of center, and all of the rest of the field just by climbing the structural steel that supported the billboard.
There were seats at Forbes Field just past 3rd base where you could see home plate from.
Everything is so corporate now...
Commercialized
The baseball parks do at least try to be unique city to city but there are very few parks with a non corporate name. Fenway, Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Nationals Park, Kauffman Stadium. Wrigley might fall into that list if its named after the person rather than the company they owned.
Forbes Field used to park the batting cage in the deepest part of the outfield.
And also light standards inside the outfield walls. At one time it had the longest left field, longest center, and shortest right field in the NL, with a screen in front of the lower right field stands. Babe Ruth’s last HR was the first to travel over the roof covering the upper deck in right
Don't forget the monument to owner Barney Dreyfus which was also in the field of play.
Connie Mack Stadium (Shibe Park) had a huge wall in right field because the Phillies' owner didn;t want the neighbors making money from selling seats on their roofs to watch the games, as is done outside of Wriglet Field.
You mean the A's owner/manager, Connie Mack.
I got to see the Giants play at Candlestick pre expansion and afterwards. It definitely was a warmer site for a day game after the enclosure. At night it didn't matter: always cold with the wind and fog of summer there. And for football, December games might have been played in a refrigerator, temps usually in the 40s, early shadowing of the field and most of the grandstand, and it was worse for a night game. The narrator of this video doesn't mention how pro football used many of these parks for games. The worst was Pittsburgh using Forbes, with no close seats on one side of the field. Wrigley had its southeast end zone corner cut off by the visiting team baseball dugout.
How about rooftop press boxes? They were built onto existing parks to accommodate radio and later TV as well.
I think Griffiths Stadium had the angled inward fence due some tree that no one wanted to cut down.
a homeowner who refused to sell out and move when they built it .....
Fun fact..Babe Ruth had his last at bat in Philadelphia at the Baker Bowl.He was a player-coach for the Boston Braves..I believe he grounded out.
You forgot the left field terrace at Cincinnati's Redland Park/Crosley Field. This was the inspiration for the now-leveled incline at Houston's park.