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This feature is my memorial to the grand and not so grand ballparks of the past that have been replaced, if not in our hearts, by a parking lot and a new boondoggle for the owner. The way they're cranking out new ballparks (and some darn good ones, too) this section could overflow unless I rotate them. |
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When the expansion Colorado Rockies initially planned to play their first two seasons at Mile High Stadium, the home of the NFL Denver Broncos, baseball purists were offended. I wonder how many of them realized that Mile High Stadium was originally built in 1948 as Bears Stadium for the Denver Bears minor league baseball franchise in the the Western League. The original capacity was 10,884 seats, but after adding 8,100 seats in the South Seat Stands in hopes of landing a franchise in the proposed major-league Continental League, there was continued and sporadic expansion to the present-day 76,000. This sounds like a recipe for aesthetic disaster. Admittedly, it did look like a hodgepodge. The South Seats were a bastion unto themselves. So were the moveable East Stands, which are reunited with the rest in a horshoe for football games. Still, if 70,000-plus fans were willing to come out each night for a good time, it seems a shame to move to the pricier 40,000-seat Coors Field with seats sold out to business interests and the richer segment of society. In fact, it is the cheap seats that were the charm of Mile High Stadium. In the deep centerfield bleachers in an area nicknamed the RockPile, seats went for a buck on the day of the game. And unlike the drunken rowdies of the Wrigley Field bleachers, this place had a family atmosphere. Even if you didn't manage to snare a RockPile seat, there were plenty of $4 general admission seats in the upper left-field grandstand. You were not as close to the action, but it was the only place you could have a view of the real Rockies, i.e., the mountains. The classy purple-and-black uniforms of the Rockies were incongruous in the colorful orange-and-blue decor of Mile High. The Rockies' hip color scheme made sense, however, as they had excellent graphics on their souvenirs without relying on anthropomorphic animals wielding bats. Also such fast-food franchises as Taco Bell, Itza Pizza, Domino's, and Subway, provided more variety of fare than I've come to expect at a football game. There is a lot to be said for Front Range Baseball and I know the majors do their best to get all games in, but why did we have to put up with a two-hour rain delay? |
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Cleveland Municipal Stadium has now lost all its occupants. First the Indians moved into the absolutely marvelous new Jacobs Field. Then robber baron Art Modell took the NFL Browns to Baltimore. (That's the second Browns club that Baltimore stole. The first was the St. Louis Browns in 1953.) As far as Modell goes, the poor guy just couldn't make a decent living off decades worth of sellouts and the NFL television money. The old horseshoe-shaped stadium was a much better football stadium than baseball park. You just can't fill seventy-thousand-plus seats night after night over the long haul with a lousy team. When the team was good, you could. Their last world championship in 1948 netted them a then-record 2.6 million fans. It would be three decades before the Los Angeles Dodgers would top that mark. In the dog days before theJacobs took over, the fans would come to Opening Day with open minds, see how bad the club was, curse Gabe Paul, and wait until next year. The ballpark was cavernous and dark. I swear the lights were not up to major-league standards. But I liked it. You could still get good box seats at the start of the game, and if you were really cheap you still could get fairly close to the action with bleacher seats. And if somebody's cigar smoke bothered you, there were plenty of seats to move to and stretch out so nobody could get close enough to bother you. Other bonuses to such an empty park: the concessionaire would keep piling on the sauerkraut to your dog until you said when. As you can see, there was plenty of parking space---and if you were as cheap as I am you could park find some free parking at the nearby marina. After the game there was plenty of good time rock'n'roll a few blocks away. |
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Indianapolis used to have a great treasure. There was an old-time ballpark, Owen J. Bush Stadium, and in the 1980s, the Indians used to win one American Association title after another:1986 to 1989. Since then, their cartoon Indian logo has been replaced by a politically correct Native American blanket, and a new $18 million-dollar ballpark, Victory Field, designed by HOK, the same people who designed Camden Yards and Jacobs Field, has replaced Bush Stadium. With their resume it must be a topnotch park, but I haven't gotten back to Indianapolis since 1990. Built in 1931 by owner Norman Perry, it was based on Wrigley Field in Chicago down to the ivy on the red-brick walls, but without the upper deck. Hence Eight Men Out, the film based upon the 1919 Chicago White Sox scandal, was filmed here. I recommend this and all John Sayles' movies. When the city bought the stadium in 1967, it was named in honor of the Indians President and the former roommate of Ty Cobb. Before their string of championships in the 1980s, Bush Stadium hosted franchises for all three Triple AAA leagues: the defunct American Association, the International League, and, what were they thinking, the Pacific Coast League. Sluggers Roger Maris and Hank Aaron both played here, though Aaron played for the Negro League Indianapolis Clowns. I'll admit that it was no longer up to AAA standards, but it had great atmosphere, and there was a teepee beyond the centerfield wall. The personnel were terrific and, as you can see, there were nice sunsets behind third base as well. |
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This was the original Comiskey Park in Chicago. The last game was played here in 1989. The new ballpark has come in for a lot of criticism but it is actually pretty nice and is based in large part on the Ewing M. Kauffman Stadium (formerly Royals Stadium) in Kansas City, which was the best of the 1970s-era stadiums. Comiskey and Tiger Stadium in Detroit had the best upper deck bleacher seats though overhanging the field. In fact, those seats were closer to the action than any of the upper deck reserved seats in the the new Comiskey Park, or as they called it when I was there in 1990 Comiskey II. The stands were badly showing their age but they had atmosphere. It reminded you of one-time owner Bill Veeck, a little rickety, a little saucy, but a darn good place to be for a good time. The bleacher bums at Comiskey weren't as nasty as the ones in Wrigley Field. The sausages were terrific and still are at the new stadium, which is a lot cleaner and more family oriented. Comiskey was accessible via the L, Chicago's elevated subway. The Whites Sox ownership has been complaining that the reason fans aren't flocking to the new ballpark is that the neighborhood is a seedy. But it's right next door to the old ballpark. Doesn't sound like good planning by ownership. The old park was built in 1910 by the ruthless Charles Comiskey, one of the founders of the American League. Some authors have even blamed him for forcing the 1919 White Sox to turn to gamblers to earn a decent wage. Seems a shame to pass that name on to the new park, but then again, the current owner Jerry Reinsdorf, a major player in the 1994 strike, has no shame. |
