A GAME OF INCHES

Baseball is a game of inches, and many years ago that was true more so than it is today.

Ebbets Field

In the old days, prior to 1960, ballparks were built to accommodate the local neighborhood they stood in. A ballpark was usually right in the streets of the city, and the way the streets ran determined the size and shape of the outfields. Ebbets Field, the home of the old Brooklyn Dodgers, the original Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds the home of the New York Giants, all had their personality shaped by the surrounding streets.

Yankee Stadium

This made for some interesting baseball. Throughout the two leagues all the parks were located in the heart of the cities. Each team built its personal around the dept of the outfield when it came to pitching and hitting. Until 1958, there were no restrictions as to how far from home plate a fence could be. After 1958, 325 feet was the minimum. So your best slugger would be primed for the shortest fence. For instance, in Brooklyn, the right field fence was 290 feet away form home plate, so Duke Snider a left handed batter shot for the right field wall.

Small ball yards made for some interesting games, since dimensions were so odd, balls would rattle around in the outfield, often inside the park home runs resulted. Just inches made a difference where the ball hit a wall whether it was a double or a triple, and single against the wall could result in a the batter being thrown out at first base.

Yankee stadium had a right field as short as Ebbets Field, and the left centerfield was miles away, called Death Valley It had Monuments and a flag pole in fair territory!

The Polo Grounds went on forever into center field, with a stairway leading up to the clubhouse in the deepest reaches of centerfield, all in fair territory, yet a flip of the wrist would result in easy homeruns in either the left or right field foul lines, the stands were so close.

Shea Stadium

Then after the Dodgers and Giants moved from New York to California, they started building symmetrically round ballparks all over the two leagues. Suddenly, the game took on a not too appealing look, as games became cookie cutter in all aspects. Shea, Veterans Memorial, Busch, Riverfront and Three Rivers to name a few became boring, structures with no personality. If it weren’t for places like Wrigley Field and Fenway Park, baseball may have completely died, during the 1970’s and 80’s.

Then one day they built Camden Yards, and the look of baseball came back to what it used to be, as fan interest in the Orioles became a must, as the ballpark reminded people of Ebbets Field, a place baseball fans were missing.