500 Ballparks

by Eric Pastore

All ballparks are not created equal. Did you know that the Baker Bowl in North Philadelphia had a short right field, and playing to that quirk allowed Phillies batters to capture 13 home-run titles in 21 years? Each stadium—from Boston's legendary Fenway Park to New York's Yankee Stadium to lesser-known fields all across the country—has its own dimensions and layout that have a major effect on players and the game itself. Teams play 81 games a year, and no two are exactly alike.500 Ballparks celebrates the uniqueness of our national pastime's parks, stadiums, and fields. There's Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York, where Hall of Fame games are played, and Howard J. Lamade stadium in Pennsylvania that hosts the Little League World Series. There are places long gone like Ebbets Field, former home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and newly-built marvels like Nationals Park in Washington, DC. From the major to the minor leagues, each park is identified, discussed

Genres: Baseball

400 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2011

Reviews

[Zach Koenig · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a big fan of baseball history, old stadiums (and even existing ones!) are always fascinating to me. I love seeing how the evolution of baseball transpired through its many ballparks. However, what I found with "500 Ballparks" is that it is more "reference work" than "history lesson" by a good long margin.

As such, I did a lot of paging through and looking at the pictures, as the text is very generic and so many stadiums were completely unknown to me (minor leagues, independent leagues, etc.). This would be a great book to set on your coffee table to let guests page through, but not so much for just sitting down to read straight through.

Perhaps my three-star rating is bit harsh, as it represents my personal bias, but even in that sense I think it could have been better organized. Maybe group by teams or regions instead of straight alphabetical order. In my opinion, it just didn't seem like quite enough creative thought went into the book's organization.

Thus, though this is a unique reference work, I found it pretty severely lacking if you are looking for a well-thought-out history lesson. As such, your enjoyment of "500 Ballparks" will depend on what you want to get from it.

[John Orman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lot of ballparks covered here, but there was at least one omitted that I was in many times long ago--Potter County Stadium in Amarillo, TX. Amarillo has no ball fields under any name. Bummer.

I did enjoy reading about Tingley Field, the Sports Stadium, and Isotopes Park in Albuquerque, as well as PGE Park in Portland, OR, since I have seen ball games in all of them.

A great treasure for the fan of baseball--and its ballparks!

[Cam Phinney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a non-fiction book about all ballparks. This bookalmost took me a whole year to read. It covers all ballparks from triple A to the major leagues. From Doubleday Field to the new Yankee Stadium. To Spring Training fields to blue prints to build fields bigger than ever before. If you are very big baseball fan you should read this. It was a really good non-fiction book.