August 11 marks the 79th anniversary of Babe Ruth's 500th
career home run. That in itself might make for an interesting post, but what
caught our eye was that Ruth hit the homer in League Park,
a stadium that served Cleveland Indians fans from 1891 to 1946, before being torn down -- well, most of it, anyway.
Thinking about League Park
reminded us of all the other great ballparks that have gone to the great beyond
-- and more specifically about Yankee Stadium:
The "House That Ruth Built" will meet the wrecking ball after the
2008 season.
There's something irreplaceable about an old ballpark. Looking
at the field at Yankee Stadium
or Wrigley Field
or Fenway Park,
one can almost see the great players
who stood on that grass and dirt
in decades past.
Baseball is a game about constant comparisons between the
past and the present, and old stadiums allow us to see both simultaneously.
That's why it's so heartbreaking when a grand old lady like Tiger Stadium or Comiskey Park or Ebbets
Field is demolished; something
is taken out of the world that is irreplaceable.
We're grateful for the new generation
of quirky
and individualistic
stadiums like PNC Park
and Oriole Park at Camden Yards
-- so many new ballparks, in fact, that 1962's Dodger Stadium
will soon be the third-oldest in the majors -- but they just can't conjure up
the memories that Sportsman's Park, Crosley Field,
or Forbes Field
did... or they won't for a while, anyway.
So, as we come down to the end of another season, we encourage you to get out
and visit one of these parks while you still can They may not all be as old as Rickwood Field, but it’ll
be about as close to the Field of Dreams
as you can come.
Suggested Sites...
- Ballparks by Munsey and Suppes - details about every MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL stadium, past, present, and future.
- Stadium Journey: Minor League Ballparks - photo gallery of minor league baseball stadiums.
- Baseball Pilgrimages - a personal odyssey through America's baseball stadiums.
- Rickwood Field - if it's America's oldest ballpark, surely it must be the world's oldest.
- Endangered Ballparks - help save these national treasures from being demolished.
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