11/05/24
March 26, 2008
A Short History of the Baseball Played in a (Small) Coliseum: With the Red Sox and Dodgers set to play three in LA, a little back-story to the field.
Old enough to remember this---all the sports casters said a record would be broken--even the 'magic' #60 (at that time) would fall---happened the hear the Cubs game when Walls hit 3---everyone in the radio booth was making light of his 'pop-ups'--what bothered most was Banks hitting line-drives that went for singles.
posted by jim222 at 04:52 PM on March 26, 2008
One of the aspects of baseball I dearly love is how ballparks shape teams and the game. I love that they're gonna play some games in the Coliseum. I was a kid when Charlie O. Finley tried to build his "Pennant Porch" in Kansas City's old Municipal Stadium; to match the right field porch in old Yankee Stadium. I don't remember where Bobby Thompson's home run landed, but it was in the Polo Grounds and might have been a long fly ball in, say, Cleveland. I love how people can still debate how the numbers might have changed if Ted Williams had played his home games in Yankee Stadium and DiMagio had hit in Fenway. The new pseudo-old parks appeal to me by creating flukes in the outfield walls, but nothing's quite as charming as the old coot in Washington who refused to sell his house so Griffith Stadium had that notch in center field. Houston's pseudo-old ballpark has that rise in center field that echoes Crosley Field's earth ramp caused by a sewer pipe or something. Willy Mays' *catch* wouldn't be the same if it hadn't been at the Polo Grounds with its 500-foot dead-center fence. Bucky (F*ckin') Dent would have hit a pop fly in any other ballpark. When I was in high school, we played football against a team that had a 95-yard field... and there were trees growing in one of the end zones. I sometimes wish the NFL had a tree or two on some team's field. A field with personality.
posted by Monkeyhawk at 05:09 PM on March 26, 2008
Great stuff, Monkeyhawk. In re: Houston's pseudo-old ballpark has that rise in center field that echoes Crosley Field's earth ramp caused by a sewer pipe or something. A number of parks had those. Fenway had one nicknamed "Duffy's Cliff" after the centerfielder (Hugh Duffy?) who patrolled it. They fell out of favor once a CF became an expensive thing to injure.
posted by yerfatma at 07:22 PM on March 26, 2008
Unusual dimensions but good pitching wins out. The Dodgers didn't win the World Series in 1959 by imitating the '27 Yankees. Two one-hitters were thrown at the Coliseum in those four years.
posted by Newbie Walker at 02:48 AM on March 27, 2008
It's great they're playing the games at the Coliseum. Amazing how far things have come with regards to stadiums and their technology. This was just go to a football stadium and set a baseball diamond on it. The endzone seats I had to the few football games I've gone to at the Coliseum would actually have been excellent baseball seats.
posted by dyams at 07:41 AM on March 27, 2008
I'll absolutely tune in for this! Here's the projected lineup cards: 1. RH 2. RH 3. RH 4. RH 5. RH 6. RH 7. RH 8. RH 9. RH