Ballparks of Baseball

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/

I posted this in Permanent LInks, but I figured that nobody would see it there. This is an amazing website about every Major League ballpark - past, present and future (and some info about minor league parks as well). It's just an amazing resource.

[MFS62]

Thanks, Scarlet.
And here's an interesting one, too.

http://www.ballparkdigest.com/

Ballpark related news from around the country - majors and minors, including reviews of visits to some parks. It is written by a guy who was a minor league GM last year (forgot the team - low minors IIRC)

Later

[RealityChuck]

There's also http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/index.htm

[Benjamin Grimm]

I've been thinking that I'd like to put a tribute to Shea Stadium on the UMDB, given it's limited remaining lifespan.

If anyone wants to assist, feel free to search the web for interesting or quirky photos of Shea. Also, in future visits to Shea over the next two years, if you want to take pictures of some of the nooks or crannies (I prefer nooks, but I know that many prefer crannies) that would be great too.

I wish I had nook-and-cranny photos from the early days of the ballpark. If there are any to be discovered online, that would be great.

[Edgy MD]

Renovating the field:





Great shot of the horsehoe skeleton under contruciton:

[metirish]

Great pics...

[Benjamin Grimm]

Wow, nice. I especially like that skeletal shot.

I don't remember that January 2002 excavation. What was the purpose?

[metirish]

[soupcan]

As a kid whenever I went to Shea for Jets games I always thought it was so cool how the field level seats were basically on wheels and they just moved them to create the rectangle where there used to be a 'V'.

In centerfield beyond the end zone I remember a stage of some sort being in place for a band or some such thing, but were there also temporary bleacher seats erected as well?

[Edgy MD]

Look at the clergy hogging all the best seats. And somehow Betty White got in there.

The excavation was just about replacing a lousy poorly-draining infield. Props to them for making improvements --- at least at the field level --- while negotiating for a new place.

[Edgy MD]

Soup, that b/w shot sure seems to have the temporary bleachers you're referring to.

By the eighties, those wheels weren't moving anymore, right? I only went to one Jets game, and I seem to recall the baseball V-configuration. I agree that the rolling field seats were an impressive innovation.

[metirish]

[MFS62]

Edgy DC wrote: I only went to one Jets game, and I seem to recall the baseball V-configuration.

I thought the reason they installed the rolling seats was because they couln't fit a football field in Shea while in the V configuration.

Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

Many of these are great, but I'm also looking for the odd angles and small details.


Weathered stadium seat


Jamming into the subway entrance after a game


The back of the scoreboard

[metirish]

[Benjamin Grimm]

Whoever said that lightning doesn't strike twice?

[Edgy MD]

MFS62 wrote: Edgy DC wrote: I only went to one Jets game, and I seem to recall the baseball V-configuration. I thought the reason they installed the rolling seats was because they couln't fit a football field in Shea while in the V configuration. Later

I'm sure they could, but it just makes for far less ideal eyelines.

[metirish]

Spiral stairs.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Nice!

[Edgy MD]

MFS62 wrote: I only went to one Jets game, and I seem to recall the baseball V-configuration. I thought the reason they installed the rolling seats was because they couln't fit a football field in Shea while in the V configuration. Later

They could, but it made for less than ideal eyelines.

In this 1980s shot, it seems they were leaving the field boxes in place, but then building new straight sections extending out into what would be left and right fields.

[soupcan]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Jamming into the subway entrance after a game

Not like that's gonna change...

[Benjamin Grimm]

I guess it won't.

There will be fewer fans at sellouts, because there will be about 15,000 fewer seats, but you're right, that part of the experience will carry over to Corporate Name Park.

[Edgy MD]

Unless, you know, the Mets really suck.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Nah, they'll be fine now that they got rid of that Piazza guy and his pajamas.

[Vic Sage]

Edgy DC wrote: Edgy DC wrote: I only went to one Jets game, and I seem to recall the baseball V-configuration. I thought the reason they installed the rolling seats was because they couln't fit a football field in Shea while in the V configuration. Later They could, but it made for less than ideal eyelines.

yes, unlike Shea's normally ideal "eyelines".

Perhaps, if you sit in the OF with your seat pointed at CF, or in the rear loge where you watch the game as if thru a periscope, you should use an eyeliner for better eyelines.

[Edgy MD]

I've got no problem with that usage, but knock yourself out.

[Willets Point]

metirish wrote:

And John Paul makes the catch for the final out! The monsignors storm the field to celebrate!

[MFS62]

When talking about a stadium or indoor arena, isn't the usual term "sight lines"?

Later

[Edgy MD]

Usual, perhaps.

[Vic Sage]

while i was mocking the usage, i was really commenting more about the irony of discussing less than ideal eye or sightlines when discussing Shea, which has had less than ideal sightlines since it opened.

hopefully, that's one of the things the new stadium will fix. Also, why can't they fix the access to the subways and to the pedestrian bridge over to the LIRR/Tennis Center area, that links to the distant parking lots? The bottleneck at the 2 tiny staircases leading up to that area is even worse than the subway access.