What do you think?
Rate this book
Ballpark: Baseball in the American City
An exhilarating, splendidly illustrated, entirely new look at the history of baseball: told through the stories of the vibrant and ever-changing ballparks where the game was and is staged, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic.
From the earliest corrals of the mid-1800s (Union Grounds in Brooklyn was a "saloon in the open air"), to the much mourned parks of the early 1900s (Detroit's Tiger Stadium, Cincinnati's Palace of the Fans), to the stadiums we fill today, Paul Goldberger makes clear the inextricable bond between the American city and America's favorite pastime. In the changing locations and architecture of our ballparks, Goldberger reveals the manifestations of a changing society: the earliest ballparks evoked the Victorian age in their accommodations--bleachers for the riffraff, grandstands for the middle-class; the "concrete donuts" of the 1950s and 60s made plain television's grip on the public's attention; and more recent ballparks, like Baltimore's Camden Yards, signal a new way forward for stadium design and for baseball's role in urban development. Throughout, Goldberger shows us the way in which baseball's history is concurrent with our cultural history: the rise of urban parks and public transportation; the development of new building materials and engineering and design skills. And how the site details and the requirements of the game--the diamond, the outfields, the walls, the grandstands--shaped our most beloved ballparks.
A fascinating, exuberant ode to the Edens at the heart of our cities--where dreams are as limitless as the outfields.
From the earliest corrals of the mid-1800s (Union Grounds in Brooklyn was a "saloon in the open air"), to the much mourned parks of the early 1900s (Detroit's Tiger Stadium, Cincinnati's Palace of the Fans), to the stadiums we fill today, Paul Goldberger makes clear the inextricable bond between the American city and America's favorite pastime. In the changing locations and architecture of our ballparks, Goldberger reveals the manifestations of a changing society: the earliest ballparks evoked the Victorian age in their accommodations--bleachers for the riffraff, grandstands for the middle-class; the "concrete donuts" of the 1950s and 60s made plain television's grip on the public's attention; and more recent ballparks, like Baltimore's Camden Yards, signal a new way forward for stadium design and for baseball's role in urban development. Throughout, Goldberger shows us the way in which baseball's history is concurrent with our cultural history: the rise of urban parks and public transportation; the development of new building materials and engineering and design skills. And how the site details and the requirements of the game--the diamond, the outfields, the walls, the grandstands--shaped our most beloved ballparks.
A fascinating, exuberant ode to the Edens at the heart of our cities--where dreams are as limitless as the outfields.
511 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 14, 2019
128 people are currently reading
2155 people want to read
About the author
Paul Goldberger
130 books44 followersPaul Goldberger, who the Huffington Post has called “the leading figure in architecture criticism,” is now a Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair. From 1997 through 2011 he served as the Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, where he wrote the magazine’s celebrated “Sky Line” column. He also holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in New York City. He was formerly Dean of the Parsons school of design, a division of The New School. He began his career at The New York Times, where in 1984 his architecture criticism was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, the highest award in journalism.
He is the author of several books, most recently Why Architecture Matters, published in 2009 by Yale University Press; Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture, a collection of his architecture essays published in 2009 by Monacelli Press, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude, published in 2010 by Taschen. He is now at work on a full-length biography of the architect Frank Gehry, to be published by Alfred A. Knopf. In 2008 Monacelli published Beyond the Dunes: A Portrait of the Hamptons, which he produced in association with the photographer Jake Rajs. Paul Goldberger’s chronicle of the process of rebuilding Ground Zero, entitled UP FROM ZERO: Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York, which was published by Random House in the fall of 2004, and brought out in a new, updated paperback edition in 2005, was named one of The New York Times Notable Books for 2004. Paul Goldberger has also written The City Observed: New York, The Skyscraper, On the Rise: Architecture and Design in a Post-Modern Age, Above New York, and The World Trade Center Remembered.
He lectures widely around the country on the subject of architecture, design, historic preservation and cities, and he has taught at both the Yale School of Architecture and the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley in addition to The New School. His writing has received numerous awards in addition to the Pulitzer, including the President’s Medal of the Municipal Art Society of New York, the medal of the American Institute of Architects and the Medal of Honor of the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation, awarded in recognition of what the Foundation called “the nation’s most balanced, penetrating and poetic analyses of architecture and design.” In May 1996, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani presented him with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission’s Preservation Achievement Award in recognition of the impact of his writing on historic preservation in New York. In 1993, he was named a Literary Lion, the New York Public Library’s tribute to distinguished writers. In 2007, he was presented with the Ed Bacon Foundation’s Award for Professional Excellence, named in honor of Philadelphia’s legendary planner, and in 2009 he received the Gene Burd Urban Journalism Award from the Urban Communication Foundation.
He has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees by Pratt Institute, the University of Miami, Kenyon College, the College of Creative Studies and the New York School of Interior Design for his work as a critic and cultural commentator on design. He appears frequently on film and television to discuss art, architecture, and cities, and recently served as host of a PBS program on the architect Benjamin Latrobe. He has also served as a special consultant and advisor on architecture and planning matters to several major cultural and educational institutions, including the Morgan Library in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, the New York Public Library, the Glenstone Foundation and Cornell and Harvard universities. He serves as special advisor to the jury for the Richard A. Driehaus Prize, a $200,000 prize awarded annually for traditional architecture and urbanism. He is a graduate of Yale Universi
He is the author of several books, most recently Why Architecture Matters, published in 2009 by Yale University Press; Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture, a collection of his architecture essays published in 2009 by Monacelli Press, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude, published in 2010 by Taschen. He is now at work on a full-length biography of the architect Frank Gehry, to be published by Alfred A. Knopf. In 2008 Monacelli published Beyond the Dunes: A Portrait of the Hamptons, which he produced in association with the photographer Jake Rajs. Paul Goldberger’s chronicle of the process of rebuilding Ground Zero, entitled UP FROM ZERO: Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York, which was published by Random House in the fall of 2004, and brought out in a new, updated paperback edition in 2005, was named one of The New York Times Notable Books for 2004. Paul Goldberger has also written The City Observed: New York, The Skyscraper, On the Rise: Architecture and Design in a Post-Modern Age, Above New York, and The World Trade Center Remembered.
He lectures widely around the country on the subject of architecture, design, historic preservation and cities, and he has taught at both the Yale School of Architecture and the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley in addition to The New School. His writing has received numerous awards in addition to the Pulitzer, including the President’s Medal of the Municipal Art Society of New York, the medal of the American Institute of Architects and the Medal of Honor of the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation, awarded in recognition of what the Foundation called “the nation’s most balanced, penetrating and poetic analyses of architecture and design.” In May 1996, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani presented him with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission’s Preservation Achievement Award in recognition of the impact of his writing on historic preservation in New York. In 1993, he was named a Literary Lion, the New York Public Library’s tribute to distinguished writers. In 2007, he was presented with the Ed Bacon Foundation’s Award for Professional Excellence, named in honor of Philadelphia’s legendary planner, and in 2009 he received the Gene Burd Urban Journalism Award from the Urban Communication Foundation.
He has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees by Pratt Institute, the University of Miami, Kenyon College, the College of Creative Studies and the New York School of Interior Design for his work as a critic and cultural commentator on design. He appears frequently on film and television to discuss art, architecture, and cities, and recently served as host of a PBS program on the architect Benjamin Latrobe. He has also served as a special consultant and advisor on architecture and planning matters to several major cultural and educational institutions, including the Morgan Library in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, the New York Public Library, the Glenstone Foundation and Cornell and Harvard universities. He serves as special advisor to the jury for the Richard A. Driehaus Prize, a $200,000 prize awarded annually for traditional architecture and urbanism. He is a graduate of Yale Universi
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews
June 9, 2019
This is the first book I ever read that started as a five star book and ended as a two star book. The last five chapters should be reduced to one chapter because the author repeats himself until the end of the book.
May 17, 2021
I've been to all 30 of the current MLB ballparks (as of Fall 2018, including the newest SunTrust Park in Atlanta). I've read a little bit about some ballparks and even wrote a landscape architecture paper during my undergraduate years on Dodger Stadium: "The Taj Mahal of Baseball." I have read a fair amount about the classic turn-of-the-century urban ballparks, the "concrete doughnuts" built for football and baseball stadiums of the postwar era, and the renaissance of retro ballparks following the success of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. But Goldberger references these well-known trends and expands upon them, nuances them, and connects them with a clear, sustainable thesis about how the ballpark has been a manifestation of bringing a vestige of the rural countryside into an urban setting. The magic of ballparks maintains and even celebrates this tension without giving into accentuating one over the other: hence why domed stadiums never feel quite right nor suburban lots surrounded by parking lots nor an all-at-once urban development adjacent to an old/new ballpark that feels sterile. This was a fantastic, organized and well-argued book with enjoyable illustrations. I learned a lot about not only baseball and ballparks but also architecture in the American City. It blew my mind just how dominant HOK Sport has been in the baseball stadium game in the past half century. This book is not just for baseball fans nor just for people who love American cities, but if you identify as one or both, I have high confidence that you will love reading this.
P.S. My dear friend and BU AMNESP colleague PJ Carlino gifted this book to me for no other reason than he thought I’d enjoy it. He was correct, and I am touched by his continued thoughtfulness and kindness since our meeting in the fall of 2013.
P.S. My dear friend and BU AMNESP colleague PJ Carlino gifted this book to me for no other reason than he thought I’d enjoy it. He was correct, and I am touched by his continued thoughtfulness and kindness since our meeting in the fall of 2013.
July 8, 2019
This book was custom-designed to catch my fancy--and it did. It is a straightforward account of developments in American baseball parks, occurring mostly in four major eras:
that of classic ballparks like Forbes, Wrigley, Navin (Tiger Stadium), Crosley, and Fenway;
tragic replacement of many of those with cookie-cutters such as in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, etc. (or domes in Houston, Minneapolis, Toronto);
the rebirth of classic ballpark design beginning in Baltimore and spreading to most of the league, being accomplished especially well in such towns as Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Minneapolis, etc.
and now the era of "ballpark villages," which are basically self-contained towns, often controlled by the team, surrounding the park in places such as Atlanta and St. Louis and, soon, Arlington and perhaps Oakland.
Goldberger's ascetic sense matches that of most long-time fans of baseball. I found very very little to dispute as he highlighted this past 110 years of history. Other comments, such as those with a negative cast toward suburbs, merely distracted from the thread of the argument.
If you love baseball, if you love going to watch baseball, you must read this book. Nearly every ballpark of every era gets at least a paragraph, with many getting much much more. And there are tons of photos throughout. An excellent, definitive work.
that of classic ballparks like Forbes, Wrigley, Navin (Tiger Stadium), Crosley, and Fenway;
tragic replacement of many of those with cookie-cutters such as in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, etc. (or domes in Houston, Minneapolis, Toronto);
the rebirth of classic ballpark design beginning in Baltimore and spreading to most of the league, being accomplished especially well in such towns as Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Minneapolis, etc.
and now the era of "ballpark villages," which are basically self-contained towns, often controlled by the team, surrounding the park in places such as Atlanta and St. Louis and, soon, Arlington and perhaps Oakland.
Goldberger's ascetic sense matches that of most long-time fans of baseball. I found very very little to dispute as he highlighted this past 110 years of history. Other comments, such as those with a negative cast toward suburbs, merely distracted from the thread of the argument.
If you love baseball, if you love going to watch baseball, you must read this book. Nearly every ballpark of every era gets at least a paragraph, with many getting much much more. And there are tons of photos throughout. An excellent, definitive work.
July 21, 2019
Fascinating trip through time on the evolution of baseball park architecture, and its changing relationship to the surrounding urban environment. My appreciation colored somewhat by the fact that Goldberger seems to love Camden Yards as much as I do. Also influencing my opinion is the random factoid that the story of the "modern" ballpark has origins heavily rooted in the development of Sportsman's Park in St. Louis where I attended my first major league game back in 1965 (for the record the result was LA Dodgers over the Cardinals 1-0 on a complete game by Sandy Koufax--https://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-...). I also learned a bit more about the role that Eli Jacobs played in making Camden Yards the gem that it is. I'll have to go read more about that. Almost makes me want to overlook a bit the fact that Jacobs pretty much destroyed the O's farm system during his brief tenure as owner.
March 21, 2020
"the ballpark has always been a privately owned form of public space, and it has worked, in part, because it sits within the larger sphere of the real city."
Public vs. private, rural vs. urban, real city vs. imitated city-- these are the major tensions that inform Goldberger's history of American ballparks. It's also a history of cities and architecture and sports writ large. There are four distinct periods of the American ballpark, and are written clearly and persuasively. There can be a lot of detail about the architecture, but other than that it was a breeze reading.
There are also some wonderful images to aid the history, of current, past, and imagined ballparks. These images and the images created by Goldberger's language are a real treat for the reader.
Public vs. private, rural vs. urban, real city vs. imitated city-- these are the major tensions that inform Goldberger's history of American ballparks. It's also a history of cities and architecture and sports writ large. There are four distinct periods of the American ballpark, and are written clearly and persuasively. There can be a lot of detail about the architecture, but other than that it was a breeze reading.
There are also some wonderful images to aid the history, of current, past, and imagined ballparks. These images and the images created by Goldberger's language are a real treat for the reader.
August 12, 2019
Review title: Jeffersonian Sport in Hamiltonian Spaces
Baseball has been romanticized through its history as not only America's sport but as reflecting the rural roots of the country. Yet it grew up in the biggest 19th century cities and from its roots in the game of "town ball" and came to be played in ever larger and more elaborate stadiums. Paul Goldberger is an architecture writer and critic who brings that view to the stadiums we celebrate as ballparks, literally "ball parks", parks where the game of [base]ball is played. While the Jeffersonian ideal of rusticism is honored in the outfield--with its expanses of grass and varying landscapes of distance, height, and ground rules--the Hamiltonian reality of finance and governance rule the infield--with its tightly prescribed dimensions--and especially in the stands which require major infrastructure investments, often government-funded just as Hamilton proposed.
This is not a book about the sporting aspects of ballparks, but about ballparks as architecture in the civic and geographic context of the cities where they are sited. It traces the history of the ballpark from open fields to wooden fences (to keep out non-paying eyeballs) and stands (to seat the paying fan) to larger brick and steel grandstands to seat the middle-class fans willing to pay a bit more and separate them from the bleachers, where the riff raff who couldn't afford grandstand seats, could "bleach" on benches in the bright sun for a quarter; meanwhile, the true high society could sit in "boxes" with upholstered seats and dedicated service, a level of service that would dominate the revenue streams and drive the design of the newest generation of ballparks.
Goldberger also pays attention to the place of the ballpark within the "urban context" during the transitions from the brick and steel parks open to and bounded by the industrial/railroad sites near downtown in the early 20th century to the post-war suburban concrete circles completely enclosed from the sprawling parking lots to the retro ballparks at the end of the 20th century that mostly moved back toward the city center and opened up to unique urban vistas where ballpark patrons could identify the city by the urban context visible beyond the outfield fence. Beginning in Baltimore's Camden Yard and followed closely by Cleveland and San Francisco, the 1990s saw architecture that incorporated site cues like the existing warehouse build in Baltimore to the San Francisco Bay to the Pittsburgh riverfront (at PNC Park, my home ballpark, which has been acknowledged as the best of the best of the new; the setting sun glancing off the downtown skyline and the yellow-painted bridges that link the ballpark to it is brilliant, beautiful, and visible from nearly every seat in the park), all while including the luxury suites, event and entertainment spaces, and comfort and convenience features like wide concourses and plentiful toilets that fans had come to expect as part of the ballpark experience.
Goldberger also documents the domed stadiums starting with the Astrodome of the 1960s that attempted to deal with the expansion of baseball north to colder (like Montréal and Toronto) and south to hotter (Phoenix and Miami) climates that are not conducive to playing an outdoor game like baseball over a six month long 162-game schedule. While some have been moderately successful at fitting into an urban context (or a suburban setting near the freeway in search of an urban context) Goldberger points out the impossibility of sustaining the "rustic in the urban" ideal which has been the guiding principle of baseball fields and indeed baseball history for nearly 200 years when the game is played under a roof obscuring the blue sky and sun shining on the green expanse of grass that baseball fans can imagine extending infinitely as befits a game played with no clock that can extend infinitely; neither ideal of infinite space and time is realizable, but the illusion is an important element of the game and our love and enjoyment of it.
Finally, he as he looks to the future, Goldberger identifies the next era of ballpark architecture as extension of the privately owned space within the ballpark to a tightly planned and intentionally designed urban context outside the ballpark controlled by the team. He cites the St Louis Ballpark Village of condominiums and restaurants around Busch Stadium, the new Atlanta ballpark surrounded by the similar Battery at Atlanta, the Texas Live entertainment complex growing up around the Ballpark at Arlington, and the renovation and extension of club-designed and owned spaces around Wrigley Field as examples. As a critic of architecture and city planning, he sees this as a negative trend: "it might better be called urbanoid than urban.":
In the end, this desire to control the context may remove the ballpark from the true context of the city and the team from its relationship to the community in a way that damages both baseball and the cities it has always depended upon for its players, fans and history.
This is not your traditional book listing great ballparks with tons of pictures and great moments from the games played there. This is a book about ballpark design and setting, not about the games played within them. There are pictures of many iconic ballparks focusing on their architectural features or relationship to the urban context, and references to the way both of those influenced the shape of the field and how it influenced the style of play. There are footnotes and a bibliography to direct further reading in the topic. Fans who notice and care about the cathedrals of brick and grass where we watch the game will love this book.
Baseball has been romanticized through its history as not only America's sport but as reflecting the rural roots of the country. Yet it grew up in the biggest 19th century cities and from its roots in the game of "town ball" and came to be played in ever larger and more elaborate stadiums. Paul Goldberger is an architecture writer and critic who brings that view to the stadiums we celebrate as ballparks, literally "ball parks", parks where the game of [base]ball is played. While the Jeffersonian ideal of rusticism is honored in the outfield--with its expanses of grass and varying landscapes of distance, height, and ground rules--the Hamiltonian reality of finance and governance rule the infield--with its tightly prescribed dimensions--and especially in the stands which require major infrastructure investments, often government-funded just as Hamilton proposed.
This is not a book about the sporting aspects of ballparks, but about ballparks as architecture in the civic and geographic context of the cities where they are sited. It traces the history of the ballpark from open fields to wooden fences (to keep out non-paying eyeballs) and stands (to seat the paying fan) to larger brick and steel grandstands to seat the middle-class fans willing to pay a bit more and separate them from the bleachers, where the riff raff who couldn't afford grandstand seats, could "bleach" on benches in the bright sun for a quarter; meanwhile, the true high society could sit in "boxes" with upholstered seats and dedicated service, a level of service that would dominate the revenue streams and drive the design of the newest generation of ballparks.
Goldberger also pays attention to the place of the ballpark within the "urban context" during the transitions from the brick and steel parks open to and bounded by the industrial/railroad sites near downtown in the early 20th century to the post-war suburban concrete circles completely enclosed from the sprawling parking lots to the retro ballparks at the end of the 20th century that mostly moved back toward the city center and opened up to unique urban vistas where ballpark patrons could identify the city by the urban context visible beyond the outfield fence. Beginning in Baltimore's Camden Yard and followed closely by Cleveland and San Francisco, the 1990s saw architecture that incorporated site cues like the existing warehouse build in Baltimore to the San Francisco Bay to the Pittsburgh riverfront (at PNC Park, my home ballpark, which has been acknowledged as the best of the best of the new; the setting sun glancing off the downtown skyline and the yellow-painted bridges that link the ballpark to it is brilliant, beautiful, and visible from nearly every seat in the park), all while including the luxury suites, event and entertainment spaces, and comfort and convenience features like wide concourses and plentiful toilets that fans had come to expect as part of the ballpark experience.
Goldberger also documents the domed stadiums starting with the Astrodome of the 1960s that attempted to deal with the expansion of baseball north to colder (like Montréal and Toronto) and south to hotter (Phoenix and Miami) climates that are not conducive to playing an outdoor game like baseball over a six month long 162-game schedule. While some have been moderately successful at fitting into an urban context (or a suburban setting near the freeway in search of an urban context) Goldberger points out the impossibility of sustaining the "rustic in the urban" ideal which has been the guiding principle of baseball fields and indeed baseball history for nearly 200 years when the game is played under a roof obscuring the blue sky and sun shining on the green expanse of grass that baseball fans can imagine extending infinitely as befits a game played with no clock that can extend infinitely; neither ideal of infinite space and time is realizable, but the illusion is an important element of the game and our love and enjoyment of it.
Finally, he as he looks to the future, Goldberger identifies the next era of ballpark architecture as extension of the privately owned space within the ballpark to a tightly planned and intentionally designed urban context outside the ballpark controlled by the team. He cites the St Louis Ballpark Village of condominiums and restaurants around Busch Stadium, the new Atlanta ballpark surrounded by the similar Battery at Atlanta, the Texas Live entertainment complex growing up around the Ballpark at Arlington, and the renovation and extension of club-designed and owned spaces around Wrigley Field as examples. As a critic of architecture and city planning, he sees this as a negative trend: "it might better be called urbanoid than urban.":
Indeed, the Battery, like other such places, is an "entertainment experience" more than a true urban neighborhood, a generic place built out of the same standardized, corporate taste that critics have feared has begun to erase the authenticity of Wrigleyville. It is clean and well-kept, a kind of theme park masquerading as a city. . . . It is a bubble, and like all such bubbles, it has a superficial appeal, but it is disingenuous to laim that it represents something truly urban: it is just too clean and neat for that. (p. 312)
In the end, this desire to control the context may remove the ballpark from the true context of the city and the team from its relationship to the community in a way that damages both baseball and the cities it has always depended upon for its players, fans and history.
This is not your traditional book listing great ballparks with tons of pictures and great moments from the games played there. This is a book about ballpark design and setting, not about the games played within them. There are pictures of many iconic ballparks focusing on their architectural features or relationship to the urban context, and references to the way both of those influenced the shape of the field and how it influenced the style of play. There are footnotes and a bibliography to direct further reading in the topic. Fans who notice and care about the cathedrals of brick and grass where we watch the game will love this book.
December 31, 2019
This looks like a coffee table book, and in a way, it is - there are tons of great pictures and drawings. But don’t be fooled - there is a lot of great baseball history writing in here.
Really enjoyed it.
Really enjoyed it.
June 25, 2019
Paul Goldenberger, a teacher and writer about architecture has written a very readable book on the evolution of baseball parks throughout the history of the game. He favors a natural urban environment for locating stadiums.
He traces a number of earlier parks such as, Ebbets, Wrigley and Fenway as classics then and now. Well Ebbets is gone and the area around Wrigley is becoming less urban and more like an amusement park. He bemoans parks built in the 70’s in Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh as cookie cutters and of course he sees domes as artificial.
His whole premise is that the ballpark should be the country in the city and be unique. He calls Target Field a stadium with neither frills nor pretension. It does fit his ideal definition as being in a natural urban environment. I am wondering if he did not visit it and therefore was lukewarm in his praise.
The book really gives one an appreciation for many of the newer parks that fans are still getting familiar with. The book has many excellent pictures of stadiums which bring life and context to his descriptions of the parks and surrounding neighborhoods. If you are a fan of the game of baseball this is a book you will not want to miss.
He traces a number of earlier parks such as, Ebbets, Wrigley and Fenway as classics then and now. Well Ebbets is gone and the area around Wrigley is becoming less urban and more like an amusement park. He bemoans parks built in the 70’s in Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh as cookie cutters and of course he sees domes as artificial.
His whole premise is that the ballpark should be the country in the city and be unique. He calls Target Field a stadium with neither frills nor pretension. It does fit his ideal definition as being in a natural urban environment. I am wondering if he did not visit it and therefore was lukewarm in his praise.
The book really gives one an appreciation for many of the newer parks that fans are still getting familiar with. The book has many excellent pictures of stadiums which bring life and context to his descriptions of the parks and surrounding neighborhoods. If you are a fan of the game of baseball this is a book you will not want to miss.
December 25, 2019
An essential work on the history of baseball. I never gave much thought to the integration of baseball stadia (or stadia devoted to other sports, for that matter) into their settings. This book really added a whole new dimension to my appreciation of baseball and what makes the sport part of the American fabric. I love all the photographs. I wish I could go back in time and visit Shibe Park in Philadelphia, Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, and the Palace of the Fans in Cincinnati.
Two quick minor negative points. First, I'm old school, so I still believe the plural of stadium is stadia, not "stadiums". The author, and probably most other English speakers, believe otherwise. Bah!
Second, the author seems to think the St Louis Cardinals' Ballpark Village was an afterthought, something not part of the original Busch Stadium III plan. Living in St Louis, I'm aware that Ballpark Village was part of the discussion from the beginning. That's one of the reasons they took out the Bowling Hall of Fame which was adjacent to Busch Stadium II to the northwest. It just took awhile for Ballpark Village to come to fruition.
Two quick minor negative points. First, I'm old school, so I still believe the plural of stadium is stadia, not "stadiums". The author, and probably most other English speakers, believe otherwise. Bah!
Second, the author seems to think the St Louis Cardinals' Ballpark Village was an afterthought, something not part of the original Busch Stadium III plan. Living in St Louis, I'm aware that Ballpark Village was part of the discussion from the beginning. That's one of the reasons they took out the Bowling Hall of Fame which was adjacent to Busch Stadium II to the northwest. It just took awhile for Ballpark Village to come to fruition.
March 28, 2024
Quintissential reading for any baseball fan
August 7, 2024
This book was surprisingly fun. I remember the thrill I felt when, gathered with my family around our radio in 2001 (yes, I know that sounds like we lived in the 1940's, but we only had 6 channels on our TV), D-backs slugger Luis Gonzales hit a chopper that drove in the winning run in Game 7 of the World Series. The Diamondbacks, previously uncrowned as World Series Champions, had fought an uphill battle to steal the crown from the reigning champs, the New York Yankees. It was the classic underdog, David versus Goliath story, and to experience it in real time through the incredible voice of Greg Schulte as a kid was the experience of a lifetime. I will never forget that moment!
This book, while dedicating only about four pages to the Diamondbacks and, according to the author, their not-so-great Chase Field, still reminded me of how wholesome and fun baseball can be. Goldberger took me on a fascinating walkthrough of baseball history, weaving the stories of the rise and fall of ballparks in American history with the ebb and flow of urban culture and development. I loved learning about the classic old stadiums like Wrigley Field and Fenway, the mid-century concrete donuts like the Astrodome, and rise of retrospective fields like Camden Yards that nod their hats to the great parks of the past. This book also was special to me because it had two particular themes that reminded me of my talented sisters-in-law and the work they do so well, with the author talking at length about the architectural design and influences of the ballparks, as well as baseball's aspiration to achieve "rus in urbe" (i.e. bringing the countryside to the city).
I was expecting a boring book about baseball, a game that often seems slow and outdated, and was instead pleasantly surprised by a well-written chronicle of the illustrious history of one of America's oldest pastimes and the ballparks that have made enjoying it a reality.
This book, while dedicating only about four pages to the Diamondbacks and, according to the author, their not-so-great Chase Field, still reminded me of how wholesome and fun baseball can be. Goldberger took me on a fascinating walkthrough of baseball history, weaving the stories of the rise and fall of ballparks in American history with the ebb and flow of urban culture and development. I loved learning about the classic old stadiums like Wrigley Field and Fenway, the mid-century concrete donuts like the Astrodome, and rise of retrospective fields like Camden Yards that nod their hats to the great parks of the past. This book also was special to me because it had two particular themes that reminded me of my talented sisters-in-law and the work they do so well, with the author talking at length about the architectural design and influences of the ballparks, as well as baseball's aspiration to achieve "rus in urbe" (i.e. bringing the countryside to the city).
I was expecting a boring book about baseball, a game that often seems slow and outdated, and was instead pleasantly surprised by a well-written chronicle of the illustrious history of one of America's oldest pastimes and the ballparks that have made enjoying it a reality.
March 3, 2020
I really loved this one. I like history, I like architecture, and I like baseball. This book was an easy pick and it didn't disappoint. My only real complaint is that I would've liked more pictures (and there was already a decent amount). I have little familiarity with early ballparks that were bulldozed before I was even alive so a lot of the first half of the book didn't really stick with me. There were beautiful descriptions, but some drawings or any sort of graphic would've made a world of difference for me being able to picture these places that ceased to exist before my time.
August 19, 2025
The perfect coffee table book. Nothing in sports defines an area from an architectural standpoint more than a ballpark, since no other sports facilities are as integral to the fabric of the neighborhood they are built that baseball stadiums. A flurry of activity for at least 80+ days out of the year, the sheer volume of use for its designed purpose tops any other sport. Would love to see an addendum one day discussing the proliferation of new parks and the “communities” intentionally being built around them as sort of “manmade” neighborhoods, harkening back to the early days and the true urban ballpark feel.
May 5, 2025
An amazing book describing the history and connections between ballparks, public spaces, architecture, and the American city. The book’s theme involving the balance of the urban and rural in order to perfect a park was fun to read about. Just the right balance of describing the stadium and the politics behind each one to make for an interesting read. Overall, a masterful book in weaving together several topics together to tell a compelling story about ballparks as a public space.
August 15, 2021
The history of the different baseball parks (many long gone) and their relationship to the city was fascinating. I did think the chapters about recently built ballparks did start to get a little repetitive. Overall, a long read, but worth checking out—although I might suggest skimming the later chapters and only reading the ones focused on stadiums that you like or know. ⚾️
June 24, 2019
A wonderful book. Goldberger’s writing is excellent, and charts the development of ballparks over the past 150 years in parallel to how we view cities. Many enjoyable stories and anecdotes, and excellent archival photography throughout.
January 6, 2020
A great survey of MLB ballparks from the beginning of the game to the present ballparks. He puts in context how the ballpark has evolved as changes in urban life, transportation, architecture, and the game itself have evolved over time. A fun read.
August 27, 2022
“Ballpark” is fascinating if you are interested in cities, sports, and the relationship between the two. The book also makes you able to think more critically about ballpark design (and made me rethink my nostalgia for Shea Stadium). Reading about the wild history of early baseball is always fun too.
April 14, 2024
I’ve been reading this for like 2 years and finally had to give it back so finished it. Interesting stuff, but too critical of the Philly Sports Complex. Some ppl don’t recognize perfection.
In all seriousness, it was rly good and interesting, just not how I look at the world
In all seriousness, it was rly good and interesting, just not how I look at the world
June 14, 2024
I highly recommend this book to people who are interested in baseball, history or architecture. It was very interesting to learn about the turn of the century ballparks that I had never heard of from the early 1900’s to the suburban stadiums of the 50’s to the modern parks at present.
August 4, 2019
Crazy fantastic book combining insights into my loves of baseball, urban development and architecture into one book. Just the book I needed.
October 24, 2019
Excellent overview of the history of Major League ballparks throughout the US.
June 24, 2020
I'm not sure if I've ever had so much fun reading a book in the summertime. If you love baseball, cities, or both you must read this brilliantly composed book
July 16, 2025
A pleasant stroll through the history of ballparks in US cities, this book explores their architecture and evolving role in the urban landscape. The author successfully traces common threads throughout the evolution of ballparks, such as the dichotomy between the urban fabric and green space, patterns in ballpark locations, and shifting design trends over the decades. I gained a greater appreciation for ballparks, their quirks, and the game.
June 16, 2019
I loved this book. If you are interested in baseball, urbanism, and/or architecture, you will find something to enjoy here. Lots of well-chosen photos to look at, and an extensive Notes section and index. I was going to pass this book along to my younger son when I was finished, but I found that I could not let it go, so I bought another copy to give to him.
June 14, 2020
An excellent review of baseball history through the lens of the evolution of ballpark architecture. Goldberger shows how, despite its rural mythology, baseball is inextricably an urban game.
December 1, 2019
Ballpark looks at the historical and social development of baseball's ballparks over history. I liked the sole approach at the ballpark itself, something that I haven't come across before, and it was fascinating to see factors like sport/environment/economics/politics all interacted to produce ballparks. For that, I very very much appreciated what this book offered, primarily why I'm ranking it so high.
Goldberger clearly has his idea of what constitutes a good ballpark, and any features that fall outside his checklist lower the esteem of the ballpark in question. Some aspects are subjective; eg, Goldberger favors ballparks with impressive skylines in the backdrop whereas I can appreciate a good skyline view but not have that factor into my decision whether a ballpark works for me or not. Some judgments appear unfair, particularly Goldberger's admiration for outdoor ballparks. I too prefer outdoor baseball, but I honestly don't think it's fair to fault a ballpark for having a roof if the ballpark is located in a city with notable weather problems. Obviously, if the roof has an obvious flaw, that's a legitimate critique, but "having a roof" does not constitute a problem for me; tell me how baseball flourishing in cities where it might not otherwise before roofs can possibly me a bad thing! I also understand why Goldberger rails so much against the current White Sox ballpark - yes, the fact that the Sox chose wrong on all architecture/design features is truly grating, especially when juxtaposed with Camden Yards - but holding it up as the failure example for ballparks after it feels...a little much. It's not without its charms.
And I guess that returns again to a reason why I do appreciate this book - I've unearthed new consideration for what I deem a good ballpark or not. Like I have a new appreciation for Wrigley's immersive neighborhood experience (something that I take for granted, having lived here forever). Ballpark is invigorating, at the very least.
Goldberger clearly has his idea of what constitutes a good ballpark, and any features that fall outside his checklist lower the esteem of the ballpark in question. Some aspects are subjective; eg, Goldberger favors ballparks with impressive skylines in the backdrop whereas I can appreciate a good skyline view but not have that factor into my decision whether a ballpark works for me or not. Some judgments appear unfair, particularly Goldberger's admiration for outdoor ballparks. I too prefer outdoor baseball, but I honestly don't think it's fair to fault a ballpark for having a roof if the ballpark is located in a city with notable weather problems. Obviously, if the roof has an obvious flaw, that's a legitimate critique, but "having a roof" does not constitute a problem for me; tell me how baseball flourishing in cities where it might not otherwise before roofs can possibly me a bad thing! I also understand why Goldberger rails so much against the current White Sox ballpark - yes, the fact that the Sox chose wrong on all architecture/design features is truly grating, especially when juxtaposed with Camden Yards - but holding it up as the failure example for ballparks after it feels...a little much. It's not without its charms.
And I guess that returns again to a reason why I do appreciate this book - I've unearthed new consideration for what I deem a good ballpark or not. Like I have a new appreciation for Wrigley's immersive neighborhood experience (something that I take for granted, having lived here forever). Ballpark is invigorating, at the very least.
March 23, 2020
I enjoyed this book, though more of the early chapters than the later chapters. Recommended for fans of baseball, architecture or both.
January 19, 2021
In Ballpark: Baseball in the American City, Paul Goldberger, a leading architectural critic, writes a history of ballparks from the 1860s to present day. While there have been a lot of books about baseball and baseball parks, Goldberger believes little has been written about the ballpark being both a civic space and a work of architecture and wrote a book address this omission.
Goldberger’s history breaks down the history of the ballpark into four phases. The first phase extends from the 1860s to 1920s in which nearly all major league parks were situated in urban areas, often residential neighborhoods. But while located in urban areas, baseball parks with their expansive green space and the game itself with its more relaxed pace, sought to provide a respite from the density and grittiness of urban life—a countryside in the city or rus in urbe and this theme of rus in urbe is discussed throughout the book.
During this period, there was no alternative to placing ballparks in urban areas because only cities (and fairly large cities) had the population density needed to support a team and the transportation infrastructure, namely streetcars, to transport spectators to games. These locational factors exerted a major influence on their design. Ballparks needed to be in neighborhoods with good public transportation, which already had some development in them, but these neighborhoods also had to have a few acres of affordable open space. These open areas were not particularly large and architects had to adjust the dimensions of the outfield to fit in them. This work against standardized and symmetrical playing fields used in other sports and added an idiosyncratic element to each ballpark.
In addition to the notion of rus in urbe, Goldberger compares how ballparks are integrated into the fabric of the neighborhood. Most of the ballparks of this era were well integrated into their neighborhoods. In many cases, the neighborhood grew up around the ballpark and gave it a certain character. However, this sense of integration started to dissipate the second phase of ballpark development as the automobile became a factor in ballpark location and design. This phase was evident in ballparks built in the 1930s but reached its pinnacle in the ballparks of the 1960s and 1970s as the earlier generation of ballparks were replaced.
Goldberger has nothing positive to say about the design and locational aspects of this second phase. In order to accommodate the growing number of spectators who preferred to travel by car (or who lived in areas without good access to public transit) the new ballparks needed parking facilities. So instead of ballparks being tucked into a neighborhood, they were surrounded by concrete and often isolated from other development, regardless of whether they were located in a city or suburb. One of the first examples of a more auto-centric ballpark was Memorial Stadium in Cleveland, OH built in the 1930s. Although located near the downtown, it was built on a landfill that was isolated from commercial and residential neighborhoods and public transit. In the words of one commentator cited by Goldberger, this type of ballpark led to the “suburbanization of baseball” in the decades that followed.
Its accommodation to the automobile was not the only change from the early ballparks, but so were its financing arrangements and its multi-purpose design. Memorial Stadium was publicly financed and built to host other sporting events, especially football. Given the different shapes of the two playing fields, the architecture of a multi-purpose facilities led to design compromises that were to the detriment of both sports, but especially baseball.
Goldberger draws a connection between public financing and multi-purpose facility. Since taxpayers’ funds are involved, it was less expensive to build one facility instead of two. However, I wish that he would have spent more time on this relationship and if only to see if there was any push back from the owners on multi-purpose facilities. I do not think the baseball and football owners wanted to share the same facilities but were willing to do so if it meant that they would not have to pay for their new ballparks and stadiums.
The end product of these three forces, automobile, public financing and the multi-purpose facility was what Goldberger calls the “Era of the Concrete Doughnut.” As the ballparks that were built during the first two decades of the 20th century were being abandoned in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Cincinnati, their replacements all seem to have been stamped with the same template. With some minor differences, they were all fully enclosed, circular, with symmetrical outfields and artificial turf surfaces . And since they were surrounded by parking lots, they had little connection with the closest neighborhoods.
In the early 1990s, a third phase of ballpark design emerged in Baltimore with Camden Yard. Unlike most phase 2 ballparks, it was a baseball-only facility with natural grass and an asymmetrical outfield. Not only was it located in an urban neighborhood but was designed to fit into that neighborhood. While there is parking within walking distance of the ballpark, it is located near several transit lines, including a light rail line with several suburban stations. Moreover, it had a strong sense of place with views of the Baltimore skyline and the historic Baltimore & Ohio warehouse just beyond the right field fence. Visually, Camden Yards had retro look with a brick façade but it still had the amenities that were required of a new facility, luxury boxes, more upscale dining and plenty of public circulation space.
Why did the design of ballparks change dramatically in the 1990s? The causal forces do not seem to be as visible as the shift from public to private transit or growing use of public finance that were so important to phase 2 ballparks. Instead, the impetus for a different model came from the senior management of the Baltimore Orioles who wanted a baseball-only facility and who were old enough to remember the first phase ballparks, such as Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and Fenway Park . One other important factor is that with the departure of the Baltimore Colts, there was no NFL team in Baltimore when Camden Yards was being designed to lobby for either a multi-purpose stadium.
That this new facility would turn out to be Camden Yards was not a certainty when the planning for a new sports facility was started. The State of Maryland created an entity called the Maryland Stadium Authority who purpose was to oversee and finance a multi-purpose stadium, one that would not necessarily be in Baltimore. In addition, the Authority hired HOK Sports, the same firm that did several phase 2 stadiums, to design the new facility.
According to Goldberger, HOK’s first draft too much resembled the other facilities it designed over the past 20 years and the owner of the Orioles rejected the draft. However, since the Authority was financing the facility, how much input did it have to accept from the Orioles? Although the Authority was in charge of the project, the contract with the team had a provision that gave the Orioles “design concurrence” which effectively gave the team a veto power over any elements it disapproved of. This provision plus effective negotiating by the Orioles senior management resulted in a series of changes that resulted in Camden Yards.
The positive response to Camden Yards made it a template for the ballparks that were built over the next 15 years or so. While some not all ballparks incorporated Camden Yards retro look, they all were designed only for baseball and located within and integrated with city neighborhoods. Moreover, one of the objectives of placing them in city neighborhoods was to generate or regenerate economic activities in those neighborhoods in the form of restaurants, bars and hotels. If the phase 2 stadiums led to the suburbanization of baseball, the phase 3 parks represented the gentrification of baseball, or at least baseball ballparks.
Camden Yards opened almost 20 years ago, is there a 4th phase in the works and what does it look like. Goldberger thinks that Atlanta’s Sun Trust Park may be the start of a new trend and its not one that he likes. It is not the design of the ballpark or its non-baseball related entertainment and amusement features that concern him but its suburban location, lack of public transit access and the scale of the project, which includes residences, offices as well as the restaurants, bars and hotels that surround other ballparks. In effect the Braves are building their own neighborhood or village that is isolated from the rest of the region rather than integrated with it.
In this phase, the ballpark is used to re-envision the neighborhood as a series of privately controlled spaces but one that can only mimic public spaces, similar to the way the Disney creates artificial communities. In this sense, the phase 4 ballpark could be the Disneyfication of ballparks. Such communities may be clean and well-managed but lack the color and at times the grittiness that make actual neighborhoods interesting. Thus the phase 4 ballparks may be more attractive than the concrete doughnuts of phase 2, they will lack the charm and sense of place that mark the most successful ballparks.
Goldberger’s history breaks down the history of the ballpark into four phases. The first phase extends from the 1860s to 1920s in which nearly all major league parks were situated in urban areas, often residential neighborhoods. But while located in urban areas, baseball parks with their expansive green space and the game itself with its more relaxed pace, sought to provide a respite from the density and grittiness of urban life—a countryside in the city or rus in urbe and this theme of rus in urbe is discussed throughout the book.
During this period, there was no alternative to placing ballparks in urban areas because only cities (and fairly large cities) had the population density needed to support a team and the transportation infrastructure, namely streetcars, to transport spectators to games. These locational factors exerted a major influence on their design. Ballparks needed to be in neighborhoods with good public transportation, which already had some development in them, but these neighborhoods also had to have a few acres of affordable open space. These open areas were not particularly large and architects had to adjust the dimensions of the outfield to fit in them. This work against standardized and symmetrical playing fields used in other sports and added an idiosyncratic element to each ballpark.
In addition to the notion of rus in urbe, Goldberger compares how ballparks are integrated into the fabric of the neighborhood. Most of the ballparks of this era were well integrated into their neighborhoods. In many cases, the neighborhood grew up around the ballpark and gave it a certain character. However, this sense of integration started to dissipate the second phase of ballpark development as the automobile became a factor in ballpark location and design. This phase was evident in ballparks built in the 1930s but reached its pinnacle in the ballparks of the 1960s and 1970s as the earlier generation of ballparks were replaced.
Goldberger has nothing positive to say about the design and locational aspects of this second phase. In order to accommodate the growing number of spectators who preferred to travel by car (or who lived in areas without good access to public transit) the new ballparks needed parking facilities. So instead of ballparks being tucked into a neighborhood, they were surrounded by concrete and often isolated from other development, regardless of whether they were located in a city or suburb. One of the first examples of a more auto-centric ballpark was Memorial Stadium in Cleveland, OH built in the 1930s. Although located near the downtown, it was built on a landfill that was isolated from commercial and residential neighborhoods and public transit. In the words of one commentator cited by Goldberger, this type of ballpark led to the “suburbanization of baseball” in the decades that followed.
Its accommodation to the automobile was not the only change from the early ballparks, but so were its financing arrangements and its multi-purpose design. Memorial Stadium was publicly financed and built to host other sporting events, especially football. Given the different shapes of the two playing fields, the architecture of a multi-purpose facilities led to design compromises that were to the detriment of both sports, but especially baseball.
Goldberger draws a connection between public financing and multi-purpose facility. Since taxpayers’ funds are involved, it was less expensive to build one facility instead of two. However, I wish that he would have spent more time on this relationship and if only to see if there was any push back from the owners on multi-purpose facilities. I do not think the baseball and football owners wanted to share the same facilities but were willing to do so if it meant that they would not have to pay for their new ballparks and stadiums.
The end product of these three forces, automobile, public financing and the multi-purpose facility was what Goldberger calls the “Era of the Concrete Doughnut.” As the ballparks that were built during the first two decades of the 20th century were being abandoned in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Cincinnati, their replacements all seem to have been stamped with the same template. With some minor differences, they were all fully enclosed, circular, with symmetrical outfields and artificial turf surfaces . And since they were surrounded by parking lots, they had little connection with the closest neighborhoods.
In the early 1990s, a third phase of ballpark design emerged in Baltimore with Camden Yard. Unlike most phase 2 ballparks, it was a baseball-only facility with natural grass and an asymmetrical outfield. Not only was it located in an urban neighborhood but was designed to fit into that neighborhood. While there is parking within walking distance of the ballpark, it is located near several transit lines, including a light rail line with several suburban stations. Moreover, it had a strong sense of place with views of the Baltimore skyline and the historic Baltimore & Ohio warehouse just beyond the right field fence. Visually, Camden Yards had retro look with a brick façade but it still had the amenities that were required of a new facility, luxury boxes, more upscale dining and plenty of public circulation space.
Why did the design of ballparks change dramatically in the 1990s? The causal forces do not seem to be as visible as the shift from public to private transit or growing use of public finance that were so important to phase 2 ballparks. Instead, the impetus for a different model came from the senior management of the Baltimore Orioles who wanted a baseball-only facility and who were old enough to remember the first phase ballparks, such as Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and Fenway Park . One other important factor is that with the departure of the Baltimore Colts, there was no NFL team in Baltimore when Camden Yards was being designed to lobby for either a multi-purpose stadium.
That this new facility would turn out to be Camden Yards was not a certainty when the planning for a new sports facility was started. The State of Maryland created an entity called the Maryland Stadium Authority who purpose was to oversee and finance a multi-purpose stadium, one that would not necessarily be in Baltimore. In addition, the Authority hired HOK Sports, the same firm that did several phase 2 stadiums, to design the new facility.
According to Goldberger, HOK’s first draft too much resembled the other facilities it designed over the past 20 years and the owner of the Orioles rejected the draft. However, since the Authority was financing the facility, how much input did it have to accept from the Orioles? Although the Authority was in charge of the project, the contract with the team had a provision that gave the Orioles “design concurrence” which effectively gave the team a veto power over any elements it disapproved of. This provision plus effective negotiating by the Orioles senior management resulted in a series of changes that resulted in Camden Yards.
The positive response to Camden Yards made it a template for the ballparks that were built over the next 15 years or so. While some not all ballparks incorporated Camden Yards retro look, they all were designed only for baseball and located within and integrated with city neighborhoods. Moreover, one of the objectives of placing them in city neighborhoods was to generate or regenerate economic activities in those neighborhoods in the form of restaurants, bars and hotels. If the phase 2 stadiums led to the suburbanization of baseball, the phase 3 parks represented the gentrification of baseball, or at least baseball ballparks.
Camden Yards opened almost 20 years ago, is there a 4th phase in the works and what does it look like. Goldberger thinks that Atlanta’s Sun Trust Park may be the start of a new trend and its not one that he likes. It is not the design of the ballpark or its non-baseball related entertainment and amusement features that concern him but its suburban location, lack of public transit access and the scale of the project, which includes residences, offices as well as the restaurants, bars and hotels that surround other ballparks. In effect the Braves are building their own neighborhood or village that is isolated from the rest of the region rather than integrated with it.
In this phase, the ballpark is used to re-envision the neighborhood as a series of privately controlled spaces but one that can only mimic public spaces, similar to the way the Disney creates artificial communities. In this sense, the phase 4 ballpark could be the Disneyfication of ballparks. Such communities may be clean and well-managed but lack the color and at times the grittiness that make actual neighborhoods interesting. Thus the phase 4 ballparks may be more attractive than the concrete doughnuts of phase 2, they will lack the charm and sense of place that mark the most successful ballparks.
November 19, 2019
There is nothing quite like going to a baseball game in person. The sights and sounds of the ball park cannot be duplicated. The sights and sounds of the ballpark make an impression on the person who attends the game. Every ballpark has it's own history and story. Every ballpark was a witness to memorable games and historic performances.
I have always enjoyed watching sports in person. The excitement of being present at a sporting event is difficult to match. Being in a professional baseball stadium is probably my favorite place to be. Every stadium has a unique history and personality. Being with other spectators adds to the experience.
Paul Goldberger's book "Ballpark: Baseball in the American City" is a book that attempts to tell the story of various ballparks throughout the history of baseball. The book attempts to capture the essence and nature of various ballparks. Goldberger starts off by saying that he wants to tell a "narrative", not simply a "history" of ball parks. He points out that he did not intend to write an encyclopedia, but rather a story of different ballparks.
The book shows how the modern day stadium evolved from the ball park of the 1840's. At times, the changes were incremental, while at other times the changes were more dramatic and far reaching. Ballparks had humble beginnings, but now sports stadiums frequently have restaurants and other amenities that never would have been considered decades ago. Just like professional sports have become more lucrative, stadiums have become more ornate. Sports, which has been mostly about competition, has become an expensive form of entertainment as well. Modern day sports seems to be about entertainment almost as much as it is about competition. This evolution has lead to stadiums that are very different than the first ballparks in the 1840's.
The first baseball stadium constructed in the United States was built in Brooklyn. The construction was sponsored by William Canmeyer, and the stadium was called "Union Field." Goldberger discusses "Union Field,", "Ebbets Field" and other stadiums in Brooklyn during this time. The chapter also includes some good pictures which supplement the story that Goldberger is telling about the earliest baseball fields.
In the 1850's Goldberger points out that baseball in New York had fans, teams and definitive rules. Around this time, it was decided that games would go nine innings and that there would be three outs per inning. There were not a lot of open spaces for games, and many games were played in Madison Square, which is a section of New York city.
Canmeyer built a fence in the outfield to keep non paying customers out of the field. Fences were not originally built to keep the baseball in play or to designate a home run. In the original fields of New York city, an opening day game was free, while every game for the rest of the season cost 10 cents.
In the second chapter, Goldberger discusses how the game gradually became more of a spectator sport. He also addresses how baseball became more popular in the 1860's and 1870's. He also points out that railroads and baseball grew up together. Goldberger emphasizes that baseball could not have become a national sport without the railroad system. The railroads transported players and fans to different cities and towns for the games.
Goldberger, in the third chapter, points out that stadiums were made with wood at first, but then were made with steel and stone. Obviously, the stadiums that were made with steel and stone were sturdier and stronger. The movement from wood based stadiums to stone and steel based stadiums was a sign of progress. It ensured that the stadiums would endure and hold up longer.
The fourth chapter is entitled "The Glory years" and focuses on the period in the late 1890's and early 1900's when some of the best stadiums were built. Goldenberger discusses famous stadiums like Crossley Field, Tiger Stadium, Fenway Park, Ebbets Field and Wrigley Field.
"Aspiring to Monumentality", the fifth chapter, details the difference that Babe Ruth made for the Yankees. Before the Yankees acquired Ruth, they shared Polo Grounds with the New York Giants, a team that was more successful on and off the field. The Giants were a better and a more lucrative team than the Yankees. However, in 1921, the Yankees made it to the World Series for the first time.
The Cleveland Indians built a new stadium in the early 1920's as well. The ballpark costs the people of Cleveland over 2 million dollars. According to Goldberger, the people of Cleveland had mixed emotions about the ballpark, as only 8,000 people attended the opening concert for the ball park. The ball park was built to accommodate many more people. So, most of the stands were empty.
The sixth chapter addresses the movement from the cities to the suburbs. For instance, the city of Milwaukee built "County Stadium", which was located in the suburbs. The parking space outside of County Stadium had 14,000 parking spaces, which accommodated a lot of people. If the stadium was built in a larger city, it would be difficult to create 14,000 parking spaces. Additionally, a stadium was built in Bloomington Minnesota, which was located in between the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Eventually, the Washington Senators would relocate to Bloomington and become the Minnesota Twins. Also, the invention of the automobile made travel from the cities to the suburbs more possible and convenient.
In chapter 7, Goldberger mentions that in the late 1950's stadiums were built for football teams. Goldberger emphasizes that television and football became more popular at the same time. Football translates well to television. Many started to enjoy watching football on television, and this helped make football more popular. Goldberger mentions that "circular stadiums" became the norm during this time period. Goldberger discusses different stadiums in this chapter. Among others, he talks about RFK Stadium, Shea Stadium, Busch Stadium, Atlanta Fulton County Stadium; Three Rivers Stadium; Astrodome; the Metrodome and Tropicana Field.
Goldberger talks about Camden Yards in chapter 8. Plans for a new stadium in Baltimore started in the 1980's. Plans for a baseball only stadium accelerated when the Colts' football team left Baltimore to go to Indianapolis. The Maryland Stadium Authority wanted to build a baseball only stadium. Larry Luchino, Eli Jacobs and Janet Marie Smith, an architect, joined forces to build a baseball only stadium. Camden Yards became a unique stadium because it combined the traditional elements of a baseball stadium with new and novel features of the modern day stadiums. In a way, Camden Yards became the example for future stadiums.
For the rest of the book, Goldberger discusses modern stadiums and the ones that have been built most recently.
I would recommend this book for those who are interested in the history of ballparks and stadiums. I would also recommend this book for people who are interested in American history and how change happens in a society. The book features a lot of interesting historical information and sound research. Goldberger wrote a book that can serve as a good reference for those who like to learn about the history of baseball.
I have always enjoyed watching sports in person. The excitement of being present at a sporting event is difficult to match. Being in a professional baseball stadium is probably my favorite place to be. Every stadium has a unique history and personality. Being with other spectators adds to the experience.
Paul Goldberger's book "Ballpark: Baseball in the American City" is a book that attempts to tell the story of various ballparks throughout the history of baseball. The book attempts to capture the essence and nature of various ballparks. Goldberger starts off by saying that he wants to tell a "narrative", not simply a "history" of ball parks. He points out that he did not intend to write an encyclopedia, but rather a story of different ballparks.
The book shows how the modern day stadium evolved from the ball park of the 1840's. At times, the changes were incremental, while at other times the changes were more dramatic and far reaching. Ballparks had humble beginnings, but now sports stadiums frequently have restaurants and other amenities that never would have been considered decades ago. Just like professional sports have become more lucrative, stadiums have become more ornate. Sports, which has been mostly about competition, has become an expensive form of entertainment as well. Modern day sports seems to be about entertainment almost as much as it is about competition. This evolution has lead to stadiums that are very different than the first ballparks in the 1840's.
The first baseball stadium constructed in the United States was built in Brooklyn. The construction was sponsored by William Canmeyer, and the stadium was called "Union Field." Goldberger discusses "Union Field,", "Ebbets Field" and other stadiums in Brooklyn during this time. The chapter also includes some good pictures which supplement the story that Goldberger is telling about the earliest baseball fields.
In the 1850's Goldberger points out that baseball in New York had fans, teams and definitive rules. Around this time, it was decided that games would go nine innings and that there would be three outs per inning. There were not a lot of open spaces for games, and many games were played in Madison Square, which is a section of New York city.
Canmeyer built a fence in the outfield to keep non paying customers out of the field. Fences were not originally built to keep the baseball in play or to designate a home run. In the original fields of New York city, an opening day game was free, while every game for the rest of the season cost 10 cents.
In the second chapter, Goldberger discusses how the game gradually became more of a spectator sport. He also addresses how baseball became more popular in the 1860's and 1870's. He also points out that railroads and baseball grew up together. Goldberger emphasizes that baseball could not have become a national sport without the railroad system. The railroads transported players and fans to different cities and towns for the games.
Goldberger, in the third chapter, points out that stadiums were made with wood at first, but then were made with steel and stone. Obviously, the stadiums that were made with steel and stone were sturdier and stronger. The movement from wood based stadiums to stone and steel based stadiums was a sign of progress. It ensured that the stadiums would endure and hold up longer.
The fourth chapter is entitled "The Glory years" and focuses on the period in the late 1890's and early 1900's when some of the best stadiums were built. Goldenberger discusses famous stadiums like Crossley Field, Tiger Stadium, Fenway Park, Ebbets Field and Wrigley Field.
"Aspiring to Monumentality", the fifth chapter, details the difference that Babe Ruth made for the Yankees. Before the Yankees acquired Ruth, they shared Polo Grounds with the New York Giants, a team that was more successful on and off the field. The Giants were a better and a more lucrative team than the Yankees. However, in 1921, the Yankees made it to the World Series for the first time.
The Cleveland Indians built a new stadium in the early 1920's as well. The ballpark costs the people of Cleveland over 2 million dollars. According to Goldberger, the people of Cleveland had mixed emotions about the ballpark, as only 8,000 people attended the opening concert for the ball park. The ball park was built to accommodate many more people. So, most of the stands were empty.
The sixth chapter addresses the movement from the cities to the suburbs. For instance, the city of Milwaukee built "County Stadium", which was located in the suburbs. The parking space outside of County Stadium had 14,000 parking spaces, which accommodated a lot of people. If the stadium was built in a larger city, it would be difficult to create 14,000 parking spaces. Additionally, a stadium was built in Bloomington Minnesota, which was located in between the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Eventually, the Washington Senators would relocate to Bloomington and become the Minnesota Twins. Also, the invention of the automobile made travel from the cities to the suburbs more possible and convenient.
In chapter 7, Goldberger mentions that in the late 1950's stadiums were built for football teams. Goldberger emphasizes that television and football became more popular at the same time. Football translates well to television. Many started to enjoy watching football on television, and this helped make football more popular. Goldberger mentions that "circular stadiums" became the norm during this time period. Goldberger discusses different stadiums in this chapter. Among others, he talks about RFK Stadium, Shea Stadium, Busch Stadium, Atlanta Fulton County Stadium; Three Rivers Stadium; Astrodome; the Metrodome and Tropicana Field.
Goldberger talks about Camden Yards in chapter 8. Plans for a new stadium in Baltimore started in the 1980's. Plans for a baseball only stadium accelerated when the Colts' football team left Baltimore to go to Indianapolis. The Maryland Stadium Authority wanted to build a baseball only stadium. Larry Luchino, Eli Jacobs and Janet Marie Smith, an architect, joined forces to build a baseball only stadium. Camden Yards became a unique stadium because it combined the traditional elements of a baseball stadium with new and novel features of the modern day stadiums. In a way, Camden Yards became the example for future stadiums.
For the rest of the book, Goldberger discusses modern stadiums and the ones that have been built most recently.
I would recommend this book for those who are interested in the history of ballparks and stadiums. I would also recommend this book for people who are interested in American history and how change happens in a society. The book features a lot of interesting historical information and sound research. Goldberger wrote a book that can serve as a good reference for those who like to learn about the history of baseball.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews