I was watching the Dodgers-Reds game while eating lunch today, and it occurred to me that, despite my 40-year fandom, I've been in relatively few ballparks in my life. My first game was at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1961 or so, watching a Dodgers game before they moved into Dodger Stadium in 1962. While in LA, I think my dad took me to Wrigley Field once to see the Angels in their first year of existence (Yes, yes -- there was a Wrigley Field in LA, owned by the same Wrigley family which owned the more famous one in Chicago. It was home to the AAA Pacific Coast League LA Angels and the Hollywood Stars). We moved to the Washington DC suburbs in 1962, and I remember going to see an exhibition game between the Dodgers (with Koufax pitching, no less) and Senators at RFK Stadium. That had to be between April 1962, when the first Senators baseball game was played there, and April of 1966, the last spring before Koufax retired. The Senators were so bad that that was probably the only game I saw there before we moved in 1968.
In the summer of 1965 we went to the NY World's Fair, and one afternoon we went over to Shea Stadium and saw Koufax and the Dodgers play the Mets. I'm pretty sure the Dodgers won, since they were headed to the World Series and Koufax was 26-8 that year.
During that drive across country in 1968 we went through St. Louis, and we stopped by Busch Stadium. We took a stadium tour, but the Cardinals were out of town that week, so there were no games to be seen. Then in 1972 on the seventh or eighth week of boot camp in San Diego we got off base to see a ball game at Jack Murphy Stadium. As bad as they were then, I'm pretty sure the Padres lost.
That was the last stadium I saw for quite a while other than Korakuen Stadium (now the Tokyo Dome) in Japan, where I saw the Yomiuri Giants play a game once. Then I moved back to Honolulu and became a devotee of the local AAA baseball team, which played down the hill from me at Aloha Stadium.
When the Islanders died I was out of luck, but by that time my employer had bought a health/tennis club in Los Angeles, and I was travelling back and forth a lot (every other week for about a year). I always made it a point to go out to Dodger Stadium at least every other trip during the summer. Then in 1992 I had a convention to attend in Chicago, and one of our entertainment options was to see a game at the New Comiskey Park, so I took it.
So many of the ones I remember from listening to Dodgers' games are long gone. I regret not seeing Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Crosley Field in Cincinnati, and even Candlestick, home of the hated Giants, in San Francisco. There are a ton of new ones I'd like to see in both leagues: Great American in Cincinnati, Camden Yards in Baltimore, Jacobs Field in Cleveland (combined with a trip to the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame!), and Safeco in Seattle. Then there's the last of the dinosaurs, of course: Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
One of these summers.
Posted by Linkmeister at August 10, 2004 04:27 PMFor major leagues, I've only been to Fenway (of course), Tampa's awful Tropicana Field, The Ballpark in Arlington Texas, and the Astrodome (before the Astros left). There are a couple of pretty neat minor league parks down here (especially the one at Disney and the Tigers' park in Laketown).
I really, really want to visit Cooperstown once, and a dream vacation would be to visit all the parks one summer. When I win the Lotto...
Posted by: Solonor at August 10, 2004 05:39 PMYikes! How could I have forgotten Fenway and Wrigley in Chicago as places I wanna see? And Cooperstown is a must at some point too.
Posted by: Linkmeister at August 10, 2004 08:31 PMIf you ever drop by Boston during the season, drop me some email and I'll take you to a North Shore Spirit game. You could also probably find some other spots you'd love to visit over at Ballparkwatch, a site that has reviews and photos of many, many ballparks.
Posted by: Lisa Williams at August 10, 2004 09:40 PMHey Lisa, do the Spirit play at Fraser Field in Lynn? I can't think of another reasonable ballpark on the North Shore.
In contrast to Steve, I've been to a boatload of MLB ballparks:
NL East -- PHL (Connie Mack, the Vet), NY (Shea), FLA (Pro Player), MON (Big O). Never been to a game in ATL
NL Central -- PIT (Three Rivers), CIN (Riverfront, GABP), MIL (County, Miller), CHI (Wrigley), STL (Busch). No parks in HOU.
NL West -- LA (Dodger), SD (Jack Murphy), ARZ (BOB), SF (Candlestick, Pac Bell/SBC), COL (Coors).
AL East -- BOS (Fenway), TOR (Exhibition), TB (Tropicana), BAL (Memorial, Camden Yards). Never been to Yankee Stadium.
AL Central -- CHI (old Comiskey, new Comiskey), CLE (Memorial), MIN (the Met, Metrodome), KC (Kauffman), DET (Tiger).
AL West -- SEA (Kingdome, Safeco), TEX (TBIA), OAK (Coliseum). No games in Anaheim.
That's 34 major league fields. Of the 30 ballparks in use today, I've seen games in 20.
It would take me awhile to count up the minor league ballparks I've been in. I've seen minor league games in about 20 states.
Posted by: N in Seattle at August 10, 2004 10:38 PMLet's all hate N. Can we? Too late! ;p
Can I count the ones I've seen from the outside (Camden Yards, Shea Stadium, Turner Field, Riverfront, Great American Ballpark)?
Posted by: Solonor at August 11, 2004 01:18 AMMy first baseball game ticket was won as an award for selling a lot of newspaper subscriptions on my paper route while living at Camp LeJeune, circa 1963 or 1964.
Twenty of us rose a bus up to Dodger Stadium to see Sandy Koufax pitch against Juan Marichal.
It was an epic game, going 15 innings (I think), and I loved my souvenir miniature wooden baseball bat (a bit smaller than a policeman's billy club.
Only later in life did I realize I had witnessed two legends head to head.
Posted by: Pixxelshim at August 11, 2004 04:14 AMOoops . . Make Camp LeJeune into Camp Pendleton. heheh I lived in both places.
This shows why I should not post until after my first cup of coffee has worked its daily miracle.
Posted by: Pixxelshim at August 11, 2004 04:16 AMSol, I think N is one of them (shh!) Sabremetrician guys...he went to the recent convention, too. ;)
Pix, if you had a field trip from LeJeune (isn't that in NC?) to Dodger Stadium, you would have needed a bunch of permission slips! ;)
Posted by: Linkmeister at August 11, 2004 08:25 AMSolonor sez:
Can I count the ones I've seen from the outside (Camden Yards, Shea Stadium, Turner Field, Riverfront, Great American Ballpark)?
OK, I'll play this game (one-upsmanship lives!). Seen but not entered includes (at least) Anaheim, LA Coliseum, Mile High, RFK Stadium, Atlanta-Fulton County and Turner Field, Yankee Stadium, Jacobs Field, Citizens Bank Park, PNC Park, Skydome (where I'll see a game next year).
Then again, I've also visited some former sites of vanished ballparks -- (at least) Seals Stadium, Huntington Avenue Grounds and Braves Field, the Polo Grounds, Baker Bowl, Forbes Field (I went to grad school there), Exposition Park, Arlington Stadium, Sick's Stadium.
Posted by: N in Seattle at August 11, 2004 10:25 AMPixxelshim reports:
My first baseball game ticket was won as an award for selling a lot of newspaper subscriptions on my paper route while living at Camp LeJeune, circa 1963 or 1964.
Twenty of us rose a bus up to Dodger Stadium to see Sandy Koufax pitch against Juan Marichal.
It was an epic game, going 15 innings (I think), and I loved my souvenir miniature wooden baseball bat (a bit smaller than a policeman's billy club.
Only later in life did I realize I had witnessed two legends head to head.
*******
Memory is a wondrous phenomenon. Unfortunately, far too often it's completely contrary to the facts.
I'm sure you vividly recall being in Dodger Stadium for this extra-inning thriller between two of the greatest pitchers of the day. But it didn't happen.
Marichal joined the Giants in 1960, and Koufax retired after the 1966 season. I examined the game logs on the Retrosheet website for every one of those years, and found that those two faced each other in Dodger Stadium exactly twice:
June 3, 1961 -- Koufax won 4-3 in the regulation 9 innings
May 11, 1963 -- 8-0 Dodgers, the second no-hitter of Sandy's career
Believe me, you're not the only person whose recollections, no matter how precise and vivid they may be, are erroneous. In the first MLB game I ever attended, I have a memory that Robin Roberts struck out the side on 9 pitches in the 1st, and then left the game. Nothing close to that ever happened in Connie Mack Stadium in the late 1950s. Similarly, I distinctly recall Ed Bouchee hitting 3 homers in a game I attended in Connie Mack; in reality, his only multi-homer game against the Phils was on July 9, 1961 ... a pair of homers, at Wrigley Field. Thankfully, the other 3-homer game I recall attending actually did happen, by Johnny Callison on September 27, 1964.
Posted by: N in Seattle at August 11, 2004 11:01 AM/evangelism mode
So, how come N doesn't have his own baseball team, yet? Hmmm? Moria is available...
You try to explain what I'm talking about, will ya Linky? ;)
/end evangelism mode
Grins. How about it, N? Now's your chance to own a baseball team in The Home of Tolkien Baseball! Just click the link Sol provided!
Posted by: Linkmeister at August 11, 2004 01:15 PMY'know, I've looked at your league on more than one occasion, often after reading one of Scott's reports. And I usually visit the website for no more than a few seconds before going somewhere else.
No offense, but I'm not interested in the slightest. I go for real simulations, meaning games using the names and stats and characteristics of actual baseball players. It's not just that I am completely without knowledge of Tolkien -- I've never read a word of any of his books, never seen a second of any of the LOTR movies (except for trailers and award-show snippets on TV). No, I want to test my player selection and game management skills with recognizable and known quantities.
I do play in a simulation league, using the computer version of the venerable APBA Baseball game, which started as a cards/boards/dice game in 1951. I've been playing it since the mid-70s, made the transition to the computer version in the early-90s, and have stuck with it ever since. The league I'm in was founded in 1979, though it went on hiatus for a few years before restarting in 1999. And my team is very good, thankyouverymuch -- World Series winner in two of the last three years, and lost in the Series the other year. We're replaying 2003 right now, and with about 70% of the season played, my record is 86-30.
I'd put in a link to the league's website, but that would reveal my out-of-blog name.
Posted by: N in Seattle at August 11, 2004 02:48 PMAPBA! I was a Strat-O-Matic man myself. But I also enjoyed the Avalon Hill Statis Pro Baseball game a TON when I was a teenager.
I have a friend who refuses to join our silly computer league for the same reason as you. He played in our sim league for 5 years when I was in Maine, because it used real players, but he just can't get into this one.
C'est la vie. If you ever feel like slumming, we're a lot of silly fun.
Posted by: Solonor at August 11, 2004 03:36 PMN
You must be right....
Indeed, I thought the experience was "seared into my memory" (hat tip to John Kerry), but clearly it is at variance with the facts.
I am now wondering.. it had to be 1963 or 1964 - - what were the longest extra-inning games played by the Dodgers at home?
....
My list of baseball stadiums attended is rather short:
Washington DC. - - to see the old Senators
Houston - - the Astrodome shortly after it opened
New York - Yankee Stadium
Cleveland - both the old and new stadia
Detroit - both the old and new stadia
Chicago - Wrigley and the White Sox stadia
Los Angeles - the Dodgers
...........................
Posted by: pixelshim at August 12, 2004 03:57 AMN: Yes, it *is* Fraser Field. Very astute!
Posted by: Lisa Williams at August 12, 2004 04:26 AMYankee & Shea, of course, the Vet, Royals Stadium, Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, Wrigley and Candestick.
I have a theory that the Cubs and the Red Sox are the perennially jinxed teams because of their anachronistic playing fields, which may put both teams at a disadvantage. I wonder if there's anything to that.
Posted by: the talking dog at August 12, 2004 12:46 PMDog, it's an interesting theory, but there have been plenty of odd fields in the past, and even now. Look at Yankee Stadium and its short porch in right field; it hasn't hurt the Yankees, you'd have to admit. ;)
Posted by: Linkmeister at August 13, 2004 09:40 AMAlso, during the first 60 or so years of their respective droughts, Fenway and Wrigley were typical ballparks rather than anachronisms.
Posted by: N in Seattle at August 13, 2004 12:49 PMSigh. We were *supposed* to go on a baseball odyssey for our honeymoon exactly ten years ago this week, but the impending strike made us change our plans. Good thing, because they struck the week of the wedding. We were going to see Fenway, Yankee Stadium, Baltimore (Camden was new or 1 year old) and visit the Shrine in upstate New York. Alas, we ended up in Puerto Vallarta and pregnant instead!
Meanwhile, I've seen games in Arlington (old and new), Houston ('dome, not Minutemaid nee Enron), Denver (saw McGwire hit a home run the year he set the record). I've seen the outside of Oakland, Candlestick and Wrigley.
I'm so afraid we'll miss Yankee before they tear it down....
Posted by: Skatemom at August 14, 2004 01:51 PMOh, hey, I forgot to mention that in my baseball travels, in addition to the one three-homer games I've attended, I've also seen: