As for the Polo Grounds, "The Catch" by Willy Mays in game one of the '54 world series could not have been done in any other park. He just wouldn't have the room to run it down. If Vic Wertz had managed to pull the ball at all, it would have been a home run, and perhaps, changed the outcome of the series.
Even as a Yankee fan as a kid, I found the games at the Polo Grounds even more exciting than at Yankee Stadium. It seemed like the seats were closer to the field and the fans were more involved, but most of all Met management opened the front gates a few hours before game time, instead of the way it is nowadays, and the kids could run around and have a good time, watch the entire batting practice and closely follow their favorite players! Yes, and we could even bring bags of sandwiches and snack foods with us!!
@Lawrence Marocco It is a good thing he didn't run into a pitcher warming up... I don't get how the bullpens can be on the field of play... That is crazy...
In my opinion, the strangest thing about the Polo Grounds is that the 2nd deck grandstands along the left field line hung out over the field of play, so a player could be in position to catch a fly ball and it would land in the seats directly above him.
In August of 1963 I saw Frank Howard hit one over the left field roof, but that ball was still rising as it exited the Polo Grounds. I don't think the Mets left fielder even budged an inch after it was hit!
Around 1959 Don Drysdale was talking to reporters pregame at the Coliseum. A celebrity home run derby was being played on the field and they watched a skinny sportswriter hit one out over the short left field fence. Drysdale turned to the reporters with considerable frustration, saying "You see how easy it is? And in an hour I have to pitch to Ernie Banks!".
The problem with the original stadium in Toronto was that the infield seats were exposed to the elements while the outfield seats were at least partially covered. I also believe the scoreboards couldn't be seen from the visitors' dugout. Orioles' manager Earl Weaver once said he would ask his players on the bench what the count was. If they had to step outside to check the scoreboard, that told him they hadn't been paying attention to the game.
Prior to its conversion to baseball, Exhibition Stadium had basic rectangular seating that ran parallel to the covered, curved Grandstand (eventual left field) on the opposite side. It's in this form which was featured in the cold open to "A Long Way from St. Louie," a 1963 Route 66 episode from Season 4.
You could buy tickets to seats down the right field line that were well beyond the outfield fence, but still facing out onto the football field. They were cheap, I saw several games this way as a kid. 😅
@Gyp Rosetti Babe Ruth didn't play at Exhibition Stadium, but did play at Hanlan's Point Stadium on Toronto Islands. The stadium is notable for being the location of Babe Ruth's first professional home run on September 5, 1914. Ruth was playing for the visiting Providence Grays and pitched a one-hitter against the Leafs to go along with his three-run home run over the right-field wall in a 9-0 win for Providence. A historic plaque commemorates the occasion near the Hanlan's Point dock.
Idk why they couldn't just play at Wrigley like the Angels did. I mean, the AAA Angels ceased to exist once the Dodgers moved in so it was available. The Angels used it until Anaheim Stadium was finished.
@@stpaulimdog Wrigley Field, LA had a capacity of only 20,457 which was far too small for The Dodgers. The short left field caused Wally moon to alter his swing and created the Moonshots. He was a left handed batter and he inside-outed the ball over or into the net increasing his extra base hits.
What killed baseball in Montreal wasn’t the stadium, but the 1994 baseball players strike, which caused the cancellation of the end of that season, and which continued into the 1995 season. That strike also caused the cancellation of the postseason, the first time since 1904 that a World Series wasn’t played. Montreal had a very good team that year, and were widely considered to be contenders for the World Series. They had one of the best records in baseball, when the work stoppage began in early August. The Montreal fans felt that a chance to win a World Series was robbed from them by the greed of the owners and players, and I agree with them. The team never recovered from that strike, and that is when attendance began its precipitous drop off. The team’s performance also never recovered either, which didn’t help matters.
@@redwingsfan3621 Yes, it was a shame, and in that same year, 1994, Montreal’s then GM Dan Duquette, who had built that team, came to Boston, as the Red Sox GM. He had a much larger budget to use, and he brought Pedro Martinez, to the Sox, and began building the foundation for the Sox championship a decade later. Duquette is a native of Massachusetts, and the main reason he got what must have been his dream job, was because of what he did in Montreal. What the NFL got right, and MLB still doesn’t understand, was the revenue sharing, which allows a team like Green Bay to not just survive, but thrive in the NFL. In MLB, it’s extremely difficult for small media market teams to survive, let alone be competitive, and have a decent shot at winning a championship. The NFL has revenue sharing, a hard salary cap, but also a salary minimum, which means teams MUST spend a certain amount on player salaries, thus deterring cheap owners from building a competitive team. They can’t just pocket most of the revenue; they MUST spend a certain amount on players. MLB has gotten a little better, with the luxury tax, but too often the small market teams just can’t attract free agent talent, and fans must endure seeing their best players leaving just as they reach their prime. That’s depressing in any market, but it’s routine with small market teams, and it eventually will turn off all but the most die-hard fans. That’s what happened in Montreal, and when the strike happened in 1994, fans discovered that there are plenty of other activities to spend their time (and money) on, and the greed of the owners and players really turned off Montreal fans, most of whom just stayed away. The strike hit Toronto hard as well, and they struggled to rebuild their fan base after the strike. And the Blue Jays WON two championships in the early 90s, before the strike. The owners and players need to come to the realization that they are literally worthless without fans, who generate ALL the revenue, and fans really get turned off by the greed of billionaire owners and millionaire players. On top of that, many of these teams extort cities and states (or provinces) to shell out massive amounts of public money to build lavish stadiums that are not necessary, when public funds should be directed to public necessities, such as schools, education, health care, etc. Just ask older residents of Brooklyn, who lost their beloved team to Los Angeles, or New York Giant fans, who lost their beloved team to San Francisco.
@@postreading6889 They certainly played a role, as have previous owners who relocated to other cities, but the duration of that strike was fatal, and many Montreal fans felt they were robbed of a genuine chance for a championship. In 1994, the Expos were the best team in baseball, and in 1994, only four teams (the four division winners) went to the LCS. There WERE no wild cards, which meant that there was less of a chance of an upset in a short series, which was advantageous to the best teams. MLB had a major realignment when play finally resumed well into 1995. Toronto was hit hard by the strike also, and it doesn’t help that Canadian dollars aren’t worth the same as US dollars, depending on the exchange rates. It made it difficult for those two teams to attract free agents. Toronto survived because they had won a couple of titles in the early 1990s, just before the strike years (1994-1995). Unfortunately for Montreal, they hadn’t come close, but looked very strong in 1994, only to have it snatched away.
I was at the coliseum in 1958. believe me, we didn't care that the field was weird. We had our own major league team! and in a few years, the best ball park that money (and politics) could buy.
When the Blue Jays moved out of Exhibition Stadium in 1989, they moved into Skydome, not Rogers Centre. The stadium wouldn't change to that name until 2005.
The Ex made the list like any stadium not built specifically for baseball but it really wasn't all that bad... the fence dimensions were perfect which is most important and it had no white roof to lose baseballs in. I preferred it being a more open air facility compared to the bowl that is the Rogers Center
Griffith Stadium was so weird it was charming in its way, and it remains my sentimental favorite. The bizarre shape was merely a consequence of squeezing it into available land. As a child I saw Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew hit two titanic shots deep into the left field bleachers, and I saw light hitting Reno Bertoia take full advantage of that weird corner in right center to leg out an inside the park home run.
When I was 12 I attended my first ever Major League Baseball game. It was the Washington Senators at the Baltimore Orioles. Reno Bertoia hit a double leading off the first and that was the first major league hit I ever saw.
A couple of other odd things the video didn't mention: 1.) When you think of the classic old ballparks, you generally think of them as filling out the entire block, or at least almost all of it, and all four sides more or less coming right up to the streets. At Griffith, on the other hand, only one side of the stadium came up to the street (left field, and even that got cut short by the jog to avoid the houses in deep center). Home plate was in the middle of the block, rather than one corner as in most other old fields, so basically the Senators bought out the owners of a few houses, tore them down, and created strips of land connecting to the street running along the third base line. You bought your tickets at booths near the street, then walked along the strips until you reached large ramps that provided access to most of the ballpark. There were a lot of buildings between the park and the street on the first base side. As for right field, there was the very tall outfield wall, with another shorter brick wall behind it that marked the edge of the property. Behind that were an alleyway and a row of houses before you reached the actual street. 2.) When the park was first built in 1911, the second deck only went down to first and third bases. When the stadium was expanded in the '20's, the left and right field lines were also double-decked; however, the seats rose at much steeper angles in the new sections; the roofs of the new sections were noticeably taller, and there were significant gaps between the old and new construction, particularly down the first base/right field line.
Arguably the best thing about Tropicana Field was that it was built to lure the White Sox out of Chicago but it didn’t work, so the stadium ended up becoming a makeshift home for the Tampa Bay Lightning for most of the ‘90s, during which time it was called the Thunderdome. Also I think I said this on the NFL one but the Polo Grounds was just named after the Giants’ prior home which was an actual polo field. This version was actually built specifically for baseball, which might be the weirdest thing of all. It’s a relic of the dead ball era where they would just make the stadium fit on the land and the field fit in the stadium without giving much thought to how the outfield shape would affect gameplay.
One thing you failed to mention about the Oakland Coliseum. The outfield open and had bleacher seats up until the time the Raiders moved back in the mid 90's. Before that it was a great baseball park. Aside from the fact that foul territory was much larger than a typical baseball park. It was a fly ball pitcher's paradise
Came here to say this. Had they not built Mt Davis it not only would have been a better baseball experience, but the stadium authority probably would have had more money to maintain the park well enough that it could have had an Anaheim style modernization in the 2000s
Fine video but one big error: The "original" Polo Grounds was a polo field but the stadium we all know and love (and pictured in your video) was built at a completely different location, and while it retained the name, it was built for baseball. It was "Polo Ground # 3", built in 1911 after a fire destroyed the all-wooden Polo Grounds # 2 at the same site, and enlarged in 1923 to its final horseshoe shape. The very short left field line was necessary because of the large subway repair yard on the northern side of the property. Can't build on what you don't won. All your other facts about the Polo Grounds are correct.
I grew up in Minnesota going to the Metrodome for Twins games. It had its quirky charm. The weather issue was not so much for the Twins -- our April to October is not all that different from what you'd get in Boston or New York. It was for the Vikings. Minnesota winters are brutal and worse than Green Bay. In any case, Target Field is a gem and should be experienced by any baseball fan. Ideally on a June evening, when our weather is at its best.
I lived in Oakland From 1985 until 2005 and often attended A's games in those early years. The stadium was a great place at that time. It was easy to get there by rapid transit, and the view over the outfield fence was the green Oakland hills. It was when the Raiders came and built that monstrosity in center field that the experience changed and I stopped going.
Man the slowest guy in the league could steal two bases on a wild pitch I've see some backstops that looked a Mile away but damn that backstop. It's faster to go from Portland, Maine to Boston than to get a wild pitch 😂
Unfortunately, even if mt Davis was gone, the city has become so dangerous and dirty. I don’t even know it’s repairable. The fans that are gonna spend MLB money are gonna be traveling from outside the city. It’s just a sad situation because the a’s have such an amazing history going back to golden era of baseball
Braves Field in Boston opened in 1915 with these dimensions: 410 down the lines and 550 ( yes that's 550 ft ) to center. Now this was in the dead ball era and when Ty Cobb stepped into the batters box he exclaimed " No one will ever hit a ball out of this park". He was correct for about 10 years and during the 30s and 40s the dimensions slowly conformed to more normal numbers
Talk about defending a tough environment…410 550 410… hit over the outfielders head it a triple..hit in front of them it’s a double..no wonder those guys hit for high averages.. WOW!!
Damn, I thought the Polo Grounds was the biggest. I guess it just one of the weirdest and biggest shapes but not the biggest thats HUGE! This is what makes me want Time Machines. Not because of regret but to allow us to see the past and enjoy things that arent around anymore.
The Red Sox in 1915 and 1916 played their "home" world series games at Braves Field. What they intended with the dimensions was to encourage lots of inside the park home runs. It was designed for the dead ball era and didn't do so well after it ended.
The Kingdome was a souless "tomb", but at least it was functional. The roof was high enough that it never came into play, and the speakers attached to it rarely did. Dimensions were rather bandboxy; right field was 312 feet with a tall-ish wall (the attached out-of-town scoreboard yielded some weird caroms); Junior Griffey benefited immensely.
When the Haas family took over the Oakland A's in 1980, one of their priorities was to make the experience of going to the ballpark a positive one, not dependent entirely upon the quality of the team. They were hoping to create the kind of vibe that Cubs and Red Sox fans enjoyed in their home parks. This was something Charlie Finley had never understood. They were successful, and good feelings about the Coliseum as a place to watch a game developed and lasted through the good seasons the team put up in the late '80's and early '90's. But when the Raiders returned to Oakland from L.A., one of Al Davis' conditions was building that gigantic seating structure behind the centerfield fence, dubbed "Mt. Davis" by the press. That destroyed whatever positive atmosphere the Coliseum had developed, and is the biggest reason the ballpark is so poorly regarded today. It also doesn't help that it's the 4th oldest ballpark in the majors, after Fenway, Wrigley, and Dodger Stadium.
Fifth oldest. Angel Stadium predates it by two years. But unlike those four stadiums, the Oakland Coliseum has never been maintained properly and is literally crumbling into pieces.
@@theknightswhosay Still considered the same park, even with the renovations over the years. It's not like Fenway, Wrigley, and Dodger Stadium haven't been renovated multiple times.
@@theknightswhosay Not as much as you think. Look at the history of Wrigley renovations. Even the most recent round moved the dugouts and redid the lower bowl.
The Expos actually played at a third stadium. they played 22 games in 2003 and 2004 as well at Hiram bithorn stadium in San Juan Puerto Rico. This was due to the poor attendance at Olympic stadium like you mentioned, and San Juan trying to lure the expos to stay permanently
If Mays played in any other stadium aside from the Polo Grounds or San Francisco, he would have had the highest lifetime. When in NY he would get 20 plus triples a year, many of those would have been homers somewhere else. The wind off the bay in SF back in his day also played a factor.
I think perfectly symmetrical stadiums are boring. I watched baseball on the weekly TV games at the LA Coliseum, Forbes Field, and the Polo Grounds in the 50's and possibly early 60's. I thought the Polo Grounds were the best. The weird dimensions add spice to the game. Inside-the-park homers are way more interesting than regular home runs. All players do today is watch and strut. If you did that in those times, the opposing pitcher would knock you down in your next at bat. I don't mind some celebrations, but it's way over the top now. You don't get as many triples now because they stand and watch what they think is a home run and have trouble making it to 2nd base if it falls short.
@@EdKelly-yu6gp - He established his defensive abilities there. 440 to left center. NO ONE could track down a baseball like Mays. I saw him play, personally, dozens of times.
@@dennissvitak6453 Andruw Jones, purely with the glove, was as good, perhaps better. Not the overall player Mays was, but just glove. Mays is up there, but not alone.
@@EdKelly-yu6gp - Jones was as good, or better with the glove. So was Richie Ashburn, and Jimmy Edmonds. None of these others led the league in SB, SLG, HR's, and OPS at least four times.
@@dennissvitak6453 I said purely with the glove. I said he was not the overall player Mays was. Mays is, at worst, in the top-5 overall. (I'd have him 2). Jim Edmunds, who made a lot of spectacular catches, was not Jones' or Mays equal. Jones and Mays had better speed. A ball Edmunds dove for at his extreme range a Mays caught on the run, but on his feet. Ashburn I did not see, but I have seen his arm questioned, and the metrics are good, but not as good as Mays or Jones.
I saw my first professional game at the Coliseum in 1959. I was seated way out beyond centre field almost to the top. I remember the details of the game and who played for each team. I attended many games at Olympic Stadium and, although it wasn't the best of baseball venues, it was adequate. The games were always enjoyable there. Also, attended several in Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. I was happy when the Blue Jays moved to their new stadium!
Jack Morris winning a game 7 of a WS in 1991 and pitching all 10 innings and shutting out Atlanta 1-0 at the Metrodome is one of baseball's greatest feats ever
@@Compucles That ultra lame conspiracy has no life when you consider The Twins had no home runs in game 7 . When a pitcher shuts out a team for 10 innings it's strictly only pitcher relevant and has absolutely nothing to do with his performance in relation to what his team did on the offensive side of the ball > nice try pal but you're debunked
The Wonderful Baker Bowl ("The Hump") featured many interesting qualities (sic). I do not believe it ever got lights., There was originally a complete bank between the foul poles across CF so bicycle races could be held. Part of the bank in right center was, I believe, still there in 1938. Left-handed pull hitters loved the huge wall in right. Chuck Klein among others was a big home run hitter there. His tallies fell off notably when the Phillies sent him to the Cubs. ERAs were incredibly high. Attendance was poor and owner Gerry Nugent had to sell players to get working cash. From 1916-1938 the Phillies were never remotely contenders. I could go on. I will. For some time goats grazed in the outfield grass. Part of the wooden stands collapsed once and part of the stands burned down once. Trains ran 24/7 around the stadium.
One stadium not mentioned is Candlestick in San Francisco. The field itself is not that odd although there were no dug-outs. The player benches were at field level. Also, the bull pens were on the field although that was not unusual. There two bad parts. One was the wind. In an All Star game the NL pitcher, a Giant, was blown off the mound and charged with a balk. The winds were bad and were even worse when the stadium was modified to make it a home for the football 49'ers. The second problem was fog. I watched an evening game with the Dodgers visiting the Giants. At one point the game was halted because the fog made it impossible for outfielders to see home plate, and the umpires could not see the outfield. For the fans, wind and cold summer weather were also a problem. Mark Twain is said to have called a summer in San Francisco the coldest winter he had ever experienced.
I heard the NY Giants owner was duped into choosing that location to move from New York bcz they arranged for him to inspect the grounds at around 12 noon when the winds are calmest and the temps warming up. The Giants owner made his decision based on that skewed impression.
Stu Miller was not blown off the mound. WIth men on first and second, he was int the set position when a gust of wind caused him to sway. Mark Twain never said that. A local comedian did once say that you knew it was August at Candlestick when the centerfielder would cut open a caribou for warmth. Ironically, the last series at the Stick was so warm that I wore shorts to the last two games, because wearing jeans to the first game of the series had been uncomfortable. I had seen between 100-200 games there, and had never contemplated wearing shorts before that. The Beatles played their last concert there, and Paul McCartney asked if he could play there to close it down. That night featured typical Candlestick weather. In the 80's, a study was commissioned to ascertain the stadium's ability to withstand an earthquake. Candlestick Park was given a seismic retrofit, and unlike other areas built on landfill, it held, losing only a few chunks of concrete in the Loma Prieta quake.
Keep in mind that when the Metrodome was first opened in '82, no air conditioning was installed, so it was often unbearable during the summer months until finally the AC was installed the next season. And because the roof was air supported, warning signs had to be posted when fans entered and exited the building due to high wind gusts.
@@jamesfields2916 I always found that funny. The fact they even bought naming rights to a place without AC despite being an AC company named after the dude who invented practical air conditioning.
0:38...."left field was just 250 feet from home plate, center field was 425, and left field was 301." Sing it with me......all I want for Christmas is my two left fields.......
Hearing someone explain what the Montreal Expos were makes me feel old. But come to think of it, some younger fans may have never heard of them. After all, 2004 was nearly 20 years ago.
Montreal's Olympic Stadium was not that bad; people just like to complain. I had plenty of fun there over the years and it's part of why I caught 'Expos Fever' in 1981 and have never stopped following the team, even to their 2019 World Series win in DC. Thanks for remembering Jarry Park.
Correction…. The Polo Grounds were not built for the sport of Polo. In fact, Polo was never played there. It got it’s name from a previous stadium that was on 110th St and 5th Ave where Polo was played.
When the Pirates played at Forbes Field, after battling practice, they would wheel the batting cage across the field and put it against the left center field wall. It would stay there, fully assembled, not folded up during the games.
I saw several games at Forbes Field from 1960- 1970 and I only saw one ball hit to the batting cage. Lou Brock in '63 hit one that bounced off the cage and easily circled the bases for an inside the park homer.
When the Jays were in Exhibition stadium, it was actually sort of nice. If you bought a ticket near the end of summer when the Ex (CNE to you young ones) was happening it would get you into the Ex for free and if you went when the airshow was happening then you got to see some bad ass military hardware fly over the stadium. It was always a great day to go to the Ex for rides and food. See a Jays game and the airshow. The Skydome (Rogers Centre to you young ones) seems a bit cold and lifeless.
Pick up your cross and follow Jesus! The world is quickly headed for destruction, and sooner or later you will have to sit at the judgement seat and give an account for your actions. Belief in messiah alone is not enough to grant you salvation - Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:3, John 3:36 (ESV is the best translation for John 3:36). Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life! - Revelation 3:20. Contemplate how the Roman Empire fulfilled the role of the beast from the sea in Revelation 13. Revelation 17 confirms that it is in fact Rome. From this we can conclude that A) Jesus is the Son of God and can predict the future or make it happen, B) The world leaders/nations/governments etc have been conspiring together for the last 3000+ years going back to Babylon and before, C) History as we know it is fake. You don't really need to speculate once you start a relationship with God tho. Can't get a response from God? Fasting can help increase your perception and prayer can help initiate events. God will ignore you if your prayer does not align with His purpose (James 4:3) or if you are approaching Him when "unclean" (Isaiah 1:15, Isaiah 59:2, Micah 3:4). Stop eating food sacrificed to idols (McDonald's, Wendy's etc) stop glorifying yourself on social media or making other images of yourself (Second Commandment), stop gossiping about other people, stop watching obscene content etc and you should get a response. Have a blessed day!
I heard they torn down exhibition stadium and built a mall on it....I also heard the Blue Jays are talking about building yet another stadium and leave Skydome (Rogers Centre) Have you heard this?
@@wolfiethedog76 I don't think there's a mall where Exhibition stadium stood. It was in the CNE grounds. A new stadium? I don't listen to msn so maybe there's talk but I don't know.
@@KardiFan2000 it's where the Toronto FC play and was used as "Exibition Stadium" when the Leafs played their outdoor winter classic as the Leafs are affiliated with Scotia Bank and not Bank of Montreal (BMO).
As a kid in the late 60's in IL, I can remember watching the Cubs play the Pirates in Forbes field. It's field dimensions were insane by today's standards, over 450' in center which was so deep they would store the folded up batting cage along the wall on the warning track in center during the game. It was so far from home plate it hardly ever came into play.
It also had light standards inside the outfield wall. The ground rule was that is a ball hit the light standard above the level of the wall behind it, it was a home run. In the late 60s Forbes has the deepest leafy field and center field, but the shortest right field in the NL. There was a screen in front of the right field stands similar to the one in left field in LA, but I don’t think it was as high as the one in LA.
@@robertosborne8694 I know in the late '40s, they put fencing in front of the left field wall, towards the foul pole, so that Ralph Kiner could hit more homers. Thus, the term "Kiner's Korner".
@@daniellinehan63 Ah, Old Comiskey, what a grand old yard! The state said they would rebuild McCuddy's pub after they tore it down, but that ended up being just another broken promise.
One thing to note about Jarry Park is, it had a brutal sun glare during the summer in the late evening, meaning that if the weather was clear during a summer home game at night, they had to delay it early on.
I’m surprised Candlestick Park didn’t make the list. It was a lovable dump that was terrible for baseball in the summer but was a cathedral for football in the fall. Between the windy elements and the soggy fields because it was below sea level and it was a cockeyed masterpiece!
Saw a game in Aug.'89 and it was freezing.Watched a game early in '89 season and P Mike Lacosse kept getting blown off the mound. Mr.Mays said he lost about 260 homers on CF warming track.
I was at the 2008 LA Coliseum game. It was a wonderful party to kickoff to the Dodgers' 50th anniversary in LA. Got Ron Cey to wave at us from across the way. Strangely, my favorite memory was Kareem skyhooking a ceremonial pitch directly into the catcher's glove.
I was there as well. I just HAD TO see what a game looked like. We were so far up the bleachers, the players looked like insects. There was like 113,000 people there. It was super exciting for about the first two innings, then it quickly became one of the most boring games I’d ever seen. The pictures though, we’re awesome.
This was very good .For a long time I've owned the Baseball Hall of Shame books . Thanks to your great video .I was able to see what I've only read about.Thanks a lot.
I'm glad your newer videos have you reading with a little more emotion. Excitement and passion is palpable bro and the difference between your longest home-run video is night and day. Good job man.
The first iteration of the Polo Grounds (the one near Central Park), were the only ones used for polo. The name just migrated to the stadiums that sat in Coogan's Hollow. None of the modern Polo Grounds ever hosted polo.
Thank you. I came to say the same thing. The stadium that once hosted the baseball Giants, Football Giants, Yankees, Mets, and Jets at various times never hosted polo. A polo field is 300 yards by 160 yards (three times as long and three times as wide as an American football field without the end zones), far too large to ever fit in that ballpark.
The one and done Seattle Pilots struggled through a miserable 1969 season in minor league Sick's Stadium (really; it was named for longtime Seattle Rainers owner) that held just 18,000 fans had such poor utilities that drinking water ran out by around the 7th inning every game. Then Bud Selig put the Pilots out of their misery by buying them, paying off the bankrupt team's debts and moving them to Milwaukee as the Brewers. The Pilots owners' plan had been to build a new stadium in time for a 1970 first season, but MLB unexpectedly ordered the new franchise to start earlier to balance out the addition of the Padres. The Pilots' exit gave Seattle plenty of time to get the King Dome built for the Mariners.
The Pilots were an AL team and were forced to begin play before a suitable stadium was available because the league wanted to have an even number of teams to balance it out with the addition of the Kansas City Royals. The Missouri U S Senators wanted the Royals to start play in 1969. The NL Padres had nothing to do with it.
The '70 White Sox were drawing so bad that they were close to moving.Alynn signed Harry Caray for '71 and his enthusiasm lifted att.to 700,000.Then in '72 Alynn traded for Dick Allen and his MONSTROUS MVP season saved them until '75, when Danny Kaye/ Bowie Kuhn nearly moved them in '76. Bill Veeck & Mayor Daley saved the day.
@@daniellinehan63 Bud Selig was a 1/3 owner of the White Sox, then when he became majority owner, he promptly decided to move them to Milwaukee to end the draught in his hometown. But when 2/3 of the AL owners vetoed the move (they wanted a team in the giant Chicago market) Selig turned his attention to Seattle.
Left field 250 Center field 428 Left field 301.. come on.. They only played there because Dodger Stadium was being built and O’Mally wanted crowds so Wrigley was out of the question
That would be the Canadian National Exhibition (for which the stadium is named)...it's an end-of-summer festival that's been held on those grounds for well over 100 years.
Actually, only one person died in 1927, and that was more to do with the stampede afterwards than the actual collapse. However, there was another collapse in 1903 that killed 12 and injured over 230.
Pick up your cross and follow Jesus! The world is quickly headed for destruction, and sooner or later you will have to sit at the judgement seat and give an account for your actions. Belief in messiah alone is not enough to grant you salvation - Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:3, John 3:36 (ESV is the best translation for John 3:36). Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life! - Revelation 3:20. Contemplate how the Roman Empire fulfilled the role of the beast from the sea in Revelation 13. Revelation 17 confirms that it is in fact Rome. From this we can conclude that A) Jesus is the Son of God and can predict the future or make it happen, B) The world leaders/nations/governments etc have been conspiring together for the last 3000+ years going back to Babylon and before, C) History as we know it is fake. You don't really need to speculate once you start a relationship with God tho. Can't get a response from God? Fasting can help increase your perception and prayer can help initiate events. God will ignore you if your prayer does not align with His purpose (James 4:3) or if you are approaching Him when "unclean" (Isaiah 1:15, Isaiah 59:2, Micah 3:4). Stop eating food sacrificed to idols (McDonald's, Wendy's etc) stop glorifying yourself on social media or making other images of yourself (Second Commandment), stop gossiping about other people, stop watching obscene content etc and you should get a response. Have a blessed day!
The original Yankee Stadium had short distances down the left field line (301 feet) and right field line (under 300 feet as I recall.). I don't recall the distance to dead center, but it was well over 400 feet. However, left center field curved away from the infield and I think the furthest point was 465 feet from home plate. It was known to hitters as "Death Valley." As for the Polo Grounds, the upper deck in left field extended over the warning track, which was only a little over 300 feet from home plate to begin with. Many a routine fly ball hit the front of the overhang, known as "The Great Wall of China," for a cheap home run.
I believe it was 461 ft to center and 457 to left center. Right field was short--great for left-handed power hitters. I believe the monuments (statues) were in the playing field. The 1974 rehab changed all that.
LA Coliseum: Left field was just 250 ft from home plate. Center field was 425 and left field was 301. 2 left fields? That is the strangest/weirdest stadium EVER.
The Dodgers didn't want to play in minor league park Wrigley Field in Watts. The AL expansion Angels played there in 1961. It was all about the $ then, as it still is with Smell A, being owned since 2012 by Guggenheim Trust, a $300 billion multi-national corporation.
I'm from Michigan, and Tiger Stadium was very different from newer stadiums. It had an overhang from the upper deck along right field. It had bleachers in the upper deck at straight-away center field -- very different from how ballparks are built today. I'm also a Cubs fan, and Wrigley Field is unique in it own ways.
Ebbets Field had a 45-degree enclosure at right centerfield behind the centerfield wall deemed homerun territory, as well as a leftfield foul line that ran up a banister into the seats and ended at a foul pole which stood in the stands a few rows up from the field. PS: (6:28) Oakland Coliseum, not Collesium.
Good list I would replace Oakland with Sick Stadium in Seattle because it was a huge reason why the Pilot’s died and the Milwaukee Brewers and Mariners exist.
I remember there was a public swimming pool beyond the right center field fence. I'm pretty sure I watched "Le Grande Orange" (Rusty Staub) and maybe "Pops" Stargell hit splashdown shots in the pool, with kids swimming around. On TV, of course, never got to go there.
The Phillies when they played at the Baker Bowl had a large billboard on the right field wall that read “The Phillies use Lifebuoy soap.” However, the Phillies were terrible during their final years there, leading to the recurring joke: “The Phillies use Lifebuoy soap…and they STILL stink!” (A vandal even defaced the wall with that message one day in 1936.)
The expansion Washington Senators played at Griffith Stadium in 1961, and moved into what was then known as District of Columbia Stadium in 1962. Griffith Stadium was also the home of the Redskins. The Polo Grounds was also the home of the New York Titans/Jets from 1960-1963. Joe Morgan said that the ballpark with the strangest dimensions that he ever played in was Crosley Field in Cincinnati. I'm surprised the Kingdome in Seattle wasn't mentioned as one of the worst; it was another one with a white roof, which made it easy to lose sight of the ball.
Crosley did have some funky dimensions - 328 to left but the terrace leading to the wall made you hit it at least 345 to get it out. 366 to the right field line and 360 to right center. I had the privilege of growing up playing at a Crosley Field replica field in Blue Ash, Ohio. All the advertisements were accurate as was the display of the final display of the Reds and Giants game (minus the score, as it was integrated into the scoring system). I hit a home run over the wall between the 366 and 360 marks the final game I played there my senior year of high school. Lots of great memories of that place.
@@TehDrewsus I'm surprised he didn't mention Crosley. But I guess he was concentrating on worst, not weird, although some of these don't seem to me to be among the worst. The triplets, Riverfront, the Vet and Three Rivers, certainly could qualify as among the worst, IMO, on sheer ugliness alone. One thing I recall about Crosley was that it had a home run line, I think in left, where if the ball hit above it, home run, below in play. This a perpendicular wall, not with upper part recessed. And if I'm thinking right, the line was made of tin, so if "Blue" heard a clanging sound, he signalled home run. Perhaps you recall?
None of these fields are "the worst", they simply have oddities that probably changed the way the game would be played that day unlike today where it's mostly standard and the balls are juiced
I do wish you had more enthusiasm. Like seriously I can't help but feel like this channel is a lot bigger than it should be because you sound more like somebody who has a channel that has a few hundred subscribers and not somebody who has 10,000 subscribers and works really hard in his videos. I appreciate how informative the video is though so I still gave it a like, but yeah you got to work on that enthusiasm.
the metrodome I would disagree with just a little bit. Every game seemed to be home field advantage 3x over because the sound was so deafening. Yea the roof color wasn't ideal but at least the weather was always perfect inside 😉
I remember going to a Monday night football game when the vikings played the packers back in 2009 and it felt like my ear drums were going to implode when the mnf music started playing. I have never been in a stadium that loud before in my life. When the wild played the avalanche I'm 2008 the xcel center was a close 2nd but the dome was just a surreal place to be when it was packed and everyone was screaming.
@@sammycampbell1654 Not a chance. GB @ MN was the most anticipated game up to that point. Favre tore up his former team of 15 years & in primetime. Fake crowd noise would've been pointless. I doubt the volume could even get that high
@@one7decimal2eight That would have been amazing, watching any hockey game is a treat! The 90s especially, Domi vs Probert OMG 😱 TOO BAD, I wasn't one of them kids that had a father to take him to sporting events..
Anyone know what ballpark the giant's played in during the 60's that had chain link fence for an outfield wall? I just remember Willie Mays making a catch (near the end of his career) while jumping up against that wall and another fielder catching him as he fell.
That was Candlestick Park, where the 49ers also played during their glory years. If it's the catch I'm thinking about, I believe it was on NBCs Game of the Week on a Saturday. As I recall, Willie raced over into right center, lept as high as he could, extending his glove over the wall to make the catch. At the same time, his left rib cage collided with the metal cross piece atop the wall and the top of RF Bobby Bond's head. Willie and Bobby both fell to the ground, but as Willie lay on his back, he held his glove up to show he'd made the catch!
Crazy how long ago the LA Coliseum game was. I was able to go, having been to hundreds of USC home football games when I was younger it was interesting to see the field setup for baseball. What makes the stadium even worse was that the stadium was upgraded and the field surface was lowered to add additional seats. When they lowered it the area got smaller so the left field netting was even closer than before. Still fun for a game though.
I feel like that stadium sits in an odd place today, its horribly outdated as a sports venue but its at the same time an important historic structure in sports history.
@@filanfyretracker Yeah, its something similar to Wrigley Stadium in a way. Like you don't want to rebuild it, so the only option is to give it that facelift when needed. I think even going as far as The Coliseum did by adding the updated press box would be too much for Wrigley fans and the history of the stadium and I know that a lot of season ticketed USC fans were angry about being displaced during construction
@@timtebowsleftarm5368 There is a photo of Adcock's home run, tracing the ball's trajectory. It went into the centerfield bleachers to the left of the clubhouse.
Ya the “Big O” in Montreal was just not that great. The seats were uncomfortable. Not to mention you had to walk about 5 miles on gross sticky concrete walkways. And that roof. Just too big and outdated. Still looks very cool from outside and is a landmark.
@@warrenhoffman2006 Yes, because I think it was originally built for football, and the Cleveland Indians only initially used it for weekend and holiday games, when bigger crowds were expected. However, they gradually moved permanently to Municipal when League Park (the Indians initial home) fell into disrepair.
I grew up going to Exhibition stadium to watch the Jays. It was a blast! The outfield bleachers cost virtually nothing to buy, and it was a good vantage from nearly anywhere (except the right field side of the bleachers)..
Griffith Stadium is interesting in that it was used for 50 years (I already knew about the Polo Grounds). Most of the weird ones that aren’t just outdated were temporary.
Pick up your cross and follow Jesus! The world is quickly headed for destruction, and sooner or later you will have to sit at the judgement seat and give an account for your actions. Belief in messiah alone is not enough to grant you salvation - Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:3, John 3:36 (ESV is the best translation for John 3:36). Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life! - Revelation 3:20. Contemplate how the Roman Empire fulfilled the role of the beast from the sea in Revelation 13. Revelation 17 confirms that it is in fact Rome. From this we can conclude that A) Jesus is the Son of God and can predict the future or make it happen, B) The world leaders/nations/governments etc have been conspiring together for the last 3000+ years going back to Babylon and before, C) History as we know it is fake. You don't really need to speculate once you start a relationship with God tho. Can't get a response from God? Fasting can help increase your perception and prayer can help initiate events. God will ignore you if your prayer does not align with His purpose (James 4:3) or if you are approaching Him when "unclean" (Isaiah 1:15, Isaiah 59:2, Micah 3:4). Stop eating food sacrificed to idols (McDonald's, Wendy's etc) stop glorifying yourself on social media or making other images of yourself (Second Commandment), stop gossiping about other people, stop watching obscene content etc and you should get a response. Have a blessed day!
Both Metrodome and Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum were designed by Chicago's Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, one of the world's most famous architectural firms.
The Cubs got along just fine playing baseball the way it is supposed to be played. In daytime, outside. They probably would still be if MLB hadn't pressured the Chicago Tribune into installing lights.
This man is still talking like he's talking to a wall
But that horrible music really ices it
Lol
Bro, he's trying man. The difference between this and his older videos is massive.
lol I've heard much worse. This dudes cool
Bueller? Bueller?
As for the Polo Grounds, "The Catch" by Willy Mays in game one of the '54 world series could not have been done in any other park. He just wouldn't have the room to run it down. If Vic Wertz had managed to pull the ball at all, it would have been a home run, and perhaps, changed the outcome of the series.
Yes, the catch! That's what I was waiting for.
*Willie
If,if, they got swept
Even as a Yankee fan as a kid, I found the games at the Polo Grounds even more exciting than at Yankee Stadium.
It seemed like the seats were closer to the field and the fans were more involved, but most of all Met management opened the front gates a few hours before game time, instead of the way it is nowadays, and the kids could run around and have a good time, watch the entire batting practice and closely follow their favorite players!
Yes, and we could even bring bags of sandwiches and snack foods with us!!
@Lawrence Marocco It is a good thing he didn't run into a pitcher warming up... I don't get how the bullpens can be on the field of play... That is crazy...
In my opinion, the strangest thing about the Polo Grounds is that the 2nd deck grandstands along the left field line hung out over the field of play, so a player could be in position to catch a fly ball and it would land in the seats directly above him.
Like Tiger Stadium with the right field overhang.
In August of 1963 I saw Frank Howard hit one over the left field roof, but that ball was still rising as it exited the Polo Grounds. I don't think the Mets left fielder even budged an inch after it was hit!
Around 1959 Don Drysdale was talking to reporters pregame at the Coliseum. A celebrity home run derby was being played on the field and they watched a skinny sportswriter hit one out over the short left field fence. Drysdale turned to the reporters with considerable frustration, saying "You see how easy it is? And in an hour I have to pitch to Ernie Banks!".
In that case, the Dodgers should've signed that skinny writer.
@@oldiesgeek454 The Dodgers were fine that year. They did win the series.
@@DannimonDesigns I know, I was just being silly and sarcastic. 😊
The problem with the original stadium in Toronto was that the infield seats were exposed to the elements while the outfield seats were at least partially covered. I also believe the scoreboards couldn't be seen from the visitors' dugout. Orioles' manager Earl Weaver once said he would ask his players on the bench what the count was. If they had to step outside to check the scoreboard, that told him they hadn't been paying attention to the game.
Prior to its conversion to baseball, Exhibition Stadium had basic rectangular seating that ran parallel to the covered, curved Grandstand (eventual left field) on the opposite side. It's in this form which was featured in the cold open to "A Long Way from St. Louie," a 1963 Route 66 episode from Season 4.
@Gyp Rosetti BS
You could buy tickets to seats down the right field line that were well beyond the outfield fence, but still facing out onto the football field. They were cheap, I saw several games this way as a kid. 😅
@Gyp Rosetti Babe Ruth didn't play at Exhibition Stadium, but did play at Hanlan's Point Stadium on Toronto Islands. The stadium is notable for being the location of Babe Ruth's first professional home run on September 5, 1914. Ruth was playing for the visiting Providence Grays and pitched a one-hitter against the Leafs to go along with his three-run home run over the right-field wall in a 9-0 win for Providence. A historic plaque commemorates the occasion near the Hanlan's Point dock.
Popped up to short. And ...it's a homerun !!!
The Los Angeles Coliseum was only intended to be a temporary home for the Los Angeles Dodgers until Dodger Stadium was completed.
We still better get it in The Show
Idk why they couldn't just play at Wrigley like the Angels did. I mean, the AAA Angels ceased to exist once the Dodgers moved in so it was available. The Angels used it until Anaheim Stadium was finished.
@@stpaulimdog - The Coliseum could accommodate more fans = more money for the O'Malleys.
@@stpaulimdog The Angels played there only one season. They played in Dodger Stadium until Anaheim Stadium opened in 1966.
@@stpaulimdog Wrigley Field, LA had a capacity of only 20,457 which was far too small for The Dodgers. The short left field caused Wally moon to alter his swing and created the Moonshots. He was a left handed batter and he inside-outed the ball over or into the net increasing his extra base hits.
What killed baseball in Montreal wasn’t the stadium, but the 1994 baseball players strike, which caused the cancellation of the end of that season, and which continued into the 1995 season. That strike also caused the cancellation of the postseason, the first time since 1904 that a World Series wasn’t played.
Montreal had a very good team that year, and were widely considered to be contenders for the World Series. They had one of the best records in baseball, when the work stoppage began in early August. The Montreal fans felt that a chance to win a World Series was robbed from them by the greed of the owners and players, and I agree with them. The team never recovered from that strike, and that is when attendance began its precipitous drop off. The team’s performance also never recovered either, which didn’t help matters.
Yes, the Expos should be given the 1994 WS title.. even tho it was never played.
That team was so good that it had two future Hall-of-Famers . . . neither of whom made the All-Star Game when five of their teammates did.
Loria and Selig killed baseball in Montreal.
@@redwingsfan3621 Yes, it was a shame, and in that same year, 1994, Montreal’s then GM Dan Duquette, who had built that team, came to Boston, as the Red Sox GM. He had a much larger budget to use, and he brought Pedro Martinez, to the Sox, and began building the foundation for the Sox championship a decade later. Duquette is a native of Massachusetts, and the main reason he got what must have been his dream job, was because of what he did in Montreal.
What the NFL got right, and MLB still doesn’t understand, was the revenue sharing, which allows a team like Green Bay to not just survive, but thrive in the NFL. In MLB, it’s extremely difficult for small media market teams to survive, let alone be competitive, and have a decent shot at winning a championship.
The NFL has revenue sharing, a hard salary cap, but also a salary minimum, which means teams MUST spend a certain amount on player salaries, thus deterring cheap owners from building a competitive team. They can’t just pocket most of the revenue; they MUST spend a certain amount on players.
MLB has gotten a little better, with the luxury tax, but too often the small market teams just can’t attract free agent talent, and fans must endure seeing their best players leaving just as they reach their prime. That’s depressing in any market, but it’s routine with small market teams, and it eventually will turn off all but the most die-hard fans.
That’s what happened in Montreal, and when the strike happened in 1994, fans discovered that there are plenty of other activities to spend their time (and money) on, and the greed of the owners and players really turned off Montreal fans, most of whom just stayed away. The strike hit Toronto hard as well, and they struggled to rebuild their fan base after the strike. And the Blue Jays WON two championships in the early 90s, before the strike.
The owners and players need to come to the realization that they are literally worthless without fans, who generate ALL the revenue, and fans really get turned off by the greed of billionaire owners and millionaire players. On top of that, many of these teams extort cities and states (or provinces) to shell out massive amounts of public money to build lavish stadiums that are not necessary, when public funds should be directed to public necessities, such as schools, education, health care, etc. Just ask older residents of Brooklyn, who lost their beloved team to Los Angeles, or New York Giant fans, who lost their beloved team to San Francisco.
@@postreading6889 They certainly played a role, as have previous owners who relocated to other cities, but the duration of that strike was fatal, and many Montreal fans felt they were robbed of a genuine chance for a championship. In 1994, the Expos were the best team in baseball, and in 1994, only four teams (the four division winners) went to the LCS. There WERE no wild cards, which meant that there was less of a chance of an upset in a short series, which was advantageous to the best teams. MLB had a major realignment when play finally resumed well into 1995.
Toronto was hit hard by the strike also, and it doesn’t help that Canadian dollars aren’t worth the same as US dollars, depending on the exchange rates. It made it difficult for those two teams to attract free agents. Toronto survived because they had won a couple of titles in the early 1990s, just before the strike years (1994-1995). Unfortunately for Montreal, they hadn’t come close, but looked very strong in 1994, only to have it snatched away.
I was at the coliseum in 1958. believe me, we didn't care that the field was weird. We had our own major league team! and in a few years, the best ball park that money (and politics) could buy.
Too bad the Bay Area can’t sustain two major league teams
@@1who4me They could were it not for the stupid territorial rights thing. San Jose could easily support a team.
Fuq LA
When the Blue Jays moved out of Exhibition Stadium in 1989, they moved into Skydome, not Rogers Centre. The stadium wouldn't change to that name until 2005.
I still call it skydome
The Ex made the list like any stadium not built specifically for baseball but it really wasn't all that bad... the fence dimensions were perfect which is most important and it had no white roof to lose baseballs in. I preferred it being a more open air facility compared to the bowl that is the Rogers Center
It will always be the skydome to me
Griffith Stadium was so weird it was charming in its way, and it remains my sentimental favorite. The bizarre shape was merely a consequence of squeezing it into available land. As a child I saw Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew hit two titanic shots deep into the left field bleachers, and I saw light hitting Reno Bertoia take full advantage of that weird corner in right center to leg out an inside the park home run.
Harmon Killebrew played for the Washington Senators and when they moved to Minnesota?
@@wolfiethedog76 he did…he played seven seasons in Washington before the move
@@bostonrailfan2427 hmm....I always thought it was all Twins....thanks
When I was 12 I attended my first ever Major League Baseball game. It was the Washington Senators at the Baltimore Orioles. Reno Bertoia hit a double leading off the first and that was the first major league hit I ever saw.
A couple of other odd things the video didn't mention: 1.) When you think of the classic old ballparks, you generally think of them as filling out the entire block, or at least almost all of it, and all four sides more or less coming right up to the streets. At Griffith, on the other hand, only one side of the stadium came up to the street (left field, and even that got cut short by the jog to avoid the houses in deep center). Home plate was in the middle of the block, rather than one corner as in most other old fields, so basically the Senators bought out the owners of a few houses, tore them down, and created strips of land connecting to the street running along the third base line. You bought your tickets at booths near the street, then walked along the strips until you reached large ramps that provided access to most of the ballpark. There were a lot of buildings between the park and the street on the first base side. As for right field, there was the very tall outfield wall, with another shorter brick wall behind it that marked the edge of the property. Behind that were an alleyway and a row of houses before you reached the actual street. 2.) When the park was first built in 1911, the second deck only went down to first and third bases. When the stadium was expanded in the '20's, the left and right field lines were also double-decked; however, the seats rose at much steeper angles in the new sections; the roofs of the new sections were noticeably taller, and there were significant gaps between the old and new construction, particularly down the first base/right field line.
Arguably the best thing about Tropicana Field was that it was built to lure the White Sox out of Chicago but it didn’t work, so the stadium ended up becoming a makeshift home for the Tampa Bay Lightning for most of the ‘90s, during which time it was called the Thunderdome.
Also I think I said this on the NFL one but the Polo Grounds was just named after the Giants’ prior home which was an actual polo field. This version was actually built specifically for baseball, which might be the weirdest thing of all. It’s a relic of the dead ball era where they would just make the stadium fit on the land and the field fit in the stadium without giving much thought to how the outfield shape would affect gameplay.
Ironically he Polo Grounds here hosted every sport at one time or another except Polo.
One thing you failed to mention about the Oakland Coliseum. The outfield open and had bleacher seats up until the time the Raiders moved back in the mid 90's. Before that it was a great baseball park. Aside from the fact that foul territory was much larger than a typical baseball park. It was a fly ball pitcher's paradise
That's right. Mount Davis absolutely ruined that stadium as a baseball park
That's because they had to cater to that absolute nutjob owner of the Raiders.
Came here to say this. Had they not built Mt Davis it not only would have been a better baseball experience, but the stadium authority probably would have had more money to maintain the park well enough that it could have had an Anaheim style modernization in the 2000s
Fine video but one big error: The "original" Polo Grounds was a polo field but the stadium we all know and love (and pictured in your video) was built at a completely different location, and while it retained the name, it was built for baseball. It was "Polo Ground # 3", built in 1911 after a fire destroyed the all-wooden Polo Grounds # 2 at the same site, and enlarged in 1923 to its final horseshoe shape. The very short left field line was necessary because of the large subway repair yard on the northern side of the property. Can't build on what you don't won. All your other facts about the Polo Grounds are correct.
Not quite...he had the dimensions of the foul lines backwards: it was 279' to LF and 258' to RF
It was Polo Grounds IV
@@JJNJ49 You are correct.
I grew up in Minnesota going to the Metrodome for Twins games. It had its quirky charm. The weather issue was not so much for the Twins -- our April to October is not all that different from what you'd get in Boston or New York. It was for the Vikings. Minnesota winters are brutal and worse than Green Bay.
In any case, Target Field is a gem and should be experienced by any baseball fan. Ideally on a June evening, when our weather is at its best.
I lived in Oakland From 1985 until 2005 and often attended A's games in those early years. The stadium was a great place at that time. It was easy to get there by rapid transit, and the view over the outfield fence was the green Oakland hills. It was when the Raiders came and built that monstrosity in center field that the experience changed and I stopped going.
Well said, Bob. Mount Davis was like a middle finger to the baseball fans every game!
Man the slowest guy in the league could steal two bases on a wild pitch I've see some backstops that looked a Mile away but damn that backstop. It's faster to go from Portland, Maine to Boston than to get a wild pitch 😂
Unfortunately, even if mt Davis was gone, the city has become so dangerous and dirty. I don’t even know it’s repairable. The fans that are gonna spend MLB money are gonna be traveling from outside the city. It’s just a sad situation because the a’s have such an amazing history going back to golden era of baseball
Braves Field in Boston opened in 1915 with these dimensions: 410 down the lines and 550 ( yes that's 550 ft ) to center. Now this was in the dead ball era and when Ty Cobb stepped into the batters box he exclaimed " No one will ever hit a ball out of this park". He was correct for about 10 years and during the 30s and 40s the dimensions slowly conformed to more normal numbers
Talk about defending a tough environment…410 550 410… hit over the outfielders head it a triple..hit in front of them it’s a double..no wonder those guys hit for high averages.. WOW!!
Man that would have to be the mother of a meatballs to launch one that deep
A team stacked with fast baserunners could rack up a ton of inside-the-park home runs with dimensions like that.
Damn, I thought the Polo Grounds was the biggest. I guess it just one of the weirdest and biggest shapes but not the biggest thats HUGE!
This is what makes me want Time Machines. Not because of regret but to allow us to see the past and enjoy things that arent around anymore.
The Red Sox in 1915 and 1916 played their "home" world series games at Braves Field. What they intended with the dimensions was to encourage lots of inside the park home runs. It was designed for the dead ball era and didn't do so well after it ended.
The Kingdome was a souless "tomb", but at least it was functional. The roof was high enough that it never came into play, and the speakers attached to it rarely did. Dimensions were rather bandboxy; right field was 312 feet with a tall-ish wall (the attached out-of-town scoreboard yielded some weird caroms); Junior Griffey benefited immensely.
Cool story bro
At the same time Griffey developed injuries because the turf was so hard
The Kingdome was a great home field advantage. That place got freakin Loud. I saw numerous Mariners and Seahawks games their in the 90’s.
@@ilikepie19921 It crippled Jay Buhner.
Funny that when the Kingdome got torn down, it was replaced with the 2nd loudest stadium in the NFL. (Kansas City the loudest)
I once saw the Expos play in Olympic Stadium. I remember thinking that it like watching baseball inside a shopping mall. 🙂
When the Haas family took over the Oakland A's in 1980, one of their priorities was to make the experience of going to the ballpark a positive one, not dependent entirely upon the quality of the team. They were hoping to create the kind of vibe that Cubs and Red Sox fans enjoyed in their home parks. This was something Charlie Finley had never understood. They were successful, and good feelings about the Coliseum as a place to watch a game developed and lasted through the good seasons the team put up in the late '80's and early '90's. But when the Raiders returned to Oakland from L.A., one of Al Davis' conditions was building that gigantic seating structure behind the centerfield fence, dubbed "Mt. Davis" by the press. That destroyed whatever positive atmosphere the Coliseum had developed, and is the biggest reason the ballpark is so poorly regarded today. It also doesn't help that it's the 4th oldest ballpark in the majors, after Fenway, Wrigley, and Dodger Stadium.
Fifth oldest. Angel Stadium predates it by two years. But unlike those four stadiums, the Oakland Coliseum has never been maintained properly and is literally crumbling into pieces.
@@davezanko9051 Angel Stadium isn’t quite the same thing as the old Anaheim stadium though.
@@theknightswhosay Still considered the same park, even with the renovations over the years. It's not like Fenway, Wrigley, and Dodger Stadium haven't been renovated multiple times.
@@davezanko9051 Wrigley and Fenway have been the same basic shape forever
@@theknightswhosay Not as much as you think. Look at the history of Wrigley renovations. Even the most recent round moved the dugouts and redid the lower bowl.
The Expos actually played at a third stadium. they played 22 games in 2003 and 2004 as well at Hiram bithorn stadium in San Juan Puerto Rico. This was due to the poor attendance at Olympic stadium like you mentioned, and San Juan trying to lure the expos to stay permanently
The Polo Grounds was phenomenal...
I wish I had been able to watch a game there.
If Mays played in any other stadium aside from the Polo Grounds or San Francisco, he would have had the highest lifetime.
When in NY he would get 20 plus triples a year, many of those would have been homers somewhere else. The wind off the bay in SF back in his day also played a factor.
I heard there is talk if replacing Skydome (Rogers Centre) with a new stadium. Is that true???
@@wolfiethedog76 No, it's currently undergoing renovations, and the field dimensions will change this season for the first time in 34 years.
:38 left field was just 250 feet from home plate and center field was 425 and LEFT field was 301...how many left fields are there?
Yes
@@tacoclaus8168 Yeah Taco is right they had left field at the stadium
Hey! Two lefts don't make a right!
also, a few messed up cuts in that section too. This video could use some editing. It's like he didn't even watch it before uploading it
I think perfectly symmetrical stadiums are boring. I watched baseball on the weekly TV games at the LA Coliseum, Forbes Field, and the Polo Grounds in the 50's and possibly early 60's. I thought the Polo Grounds were the best. The weird dimensions add spice to the game. Inside-the-park homers are way more interesting than regular home runs. All players do today is watch and strut. If you did that in those times, the opposing pitcher would knock you down in your next at bat. I don't mind some celebrations, but it's way over the top now. You don't get as many triples now because they stand and watch what they think is a home run and have trouble making it to 2nd base if it falls short.
Comiskey Park was one of those perfectly symmetric parks.
Rogers was originally the Toronto Skydome
The Polo Grounds are why a young Willie Mays won seven straight Gold Gloves. Run like the wind, and chase down the ball.
Willie only won ONE gold glove in the Polo Grounds. He only played there 5 years, and they didn't start the Gloves until 1957
@@EdKelly-yu6gp - He established his defensive abilities there. 440 to left center. NO ONE could track down a baseball like Mays. I saw him play, personally, dozens of times.
@@dennissvitak6453 Andruw Jones, purely with the glove, was as good, perhaps better. Not the overall player Mays was, but just glove. Mays is up there, but not alone.
@@EdKelly-yu6gp - Jones was as good, or better with the glove. So was Richie Ashburn, and Jimmy Edmonds. None of these others led the league in SB, SLG, HR's, and OPS at least four times.
@@dennissvitak6453 I said purely with the glove. I said he was not the overall player Mays was. Mays is, at worst, in the top-5 overall. (I'd have him 2). Jim Edmunds, who made a lot of spectacular catches, was not Jones' or Mays equal. Jones and Mays had better speed. A ball Edmunds dove for at his extreme range a Mays caught on the run, but on his feet. Ashburn I did not see, but I have seen his arm questioned, and the metrics are good, but not as good as Mays or Jones.
I saw my first professional game at the Coliseum in 1959. I was seated way out beyond centre field almost to the top. I remember the details of the game and who played for each team. I attended many games at Olympic Stadium and, although it wasn't the best of baseball venues, it was adequate. The games were always enjoyable there. Also, attended several in Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. I was happy when the Blue Jays moved to their new stadium!
Thanks for sharing, Ron. The memories you must have!
Jack Morris winning a game 7 of a WS in 1991 and pitching all 10 innings and shutting out Atlanta 1-0 at the Metrodome is one of baseball's greatest feats ever
I have never seen another pitcher go ten innings. Immortal.
Not if it's true that the Twins were using the air conditioning to cheat.
@@Compucles
That ultra lame conspiracy has no life when you consider The Twins had no home runs in game 7 . When a pitcher shuts out a team for 10 innings it's strictly only pitcher relevant and has absolutely nothing to do with his performance in relation to what his team did on the offensive side of the ball > nice try pal but you're debunked
He also was incredible when the Tigers won the WS in 1984 > 2-0 and 2 complete games victories in the 84 WS
@@Compucles hey dude i think you got totaled on that b.s 😂 and i bet for a brief minute you thought you were smart hahahah
The Wonderful Baker Bowl ("The Hump") featured many interesting qualities (sic). I do not believe it ever got lights., There was originally a complete bank between the foul poles across CF so bicycle races could be held. Part of the bank in right center was, I believe, still there in 1938. Left-handed pull hitters loved the huge wall in right. Chuck Klein among others was a big home run hitter there. His tallies fell off notably when the Phillies sent him to the Cubs. ERAs were incredibly high.
Attendance was poor and owner Gerry Nugent had to sell players to get working cash. From 1916-1938 the Phillies were never remotely contenders.
I could go on. I will. For some time goats grazed in the outfield grass. Part of the wooden stands collapsed once and part of the stands burned down once. Trains ran 24/7 around the stadium.
Who’s old enough to remember Wally Moon who played for the Dodgers back then and every time you hit a homerun it was called a moonshot
One stadium not mentioned is Candlestick in San Francisco. The field itself is not that odd although there were no dug-outs. The player benches were at field level. Also, the bull pens were on the field although that was not unusual. There two bad parts. One was the wind. In an All Star game the NL pitcher, a Giant, was blown off the mound and charged with a balk. The winds were bad and were even worse when the stadium was modified to make it a home for the football 49'ers. The second problem was fog. I watched an evening game with the Dodgers visiting the Giants. At one point the game was halted because the fog made it impossible for outfielders to see home plate, and the umpires could not see the outfield. For the fans, wind and cold summer weather were also a problem. Mark Twain is said to have called a summer in San Francisco the coldest winter he had ever experienced.
Yes, who could forget the Giant's fans starting fights with the Dodgers and the fans wrapped in blankets.
I heard the NY Giants owner was duped into choosing that location to move from New York bcz they arranged for him to inspect the grounds at around 12 noon when the winds are calmest and the temps warming up. The Giants owner made his decision based on that skewed impression.
Stu Miller was not blown off the mound. WIth men on first and second, he was int the set position when a gust of wind caused him to sway.
Mark Twain never said that. A local comedian did once say that you knew it was August at Candlestick when the centerfielder would cut open a caribou for warmth. Ironically, the last series at the Stick was so warm that I wore shorts to the last two games, because wearing jeans to the first game of the series had been uncomfortable. I had seen between 100-200 games there, and had never contemplated wearing shorts before that.
The Beatles played their last concert there, and Paul McCartney asked if he could play there to close it down. That night featured typical Candlestick weather.
In the 80's, a study was commissioned to ascertain the stadium's ability to withstand an earthquake. Candlestick Park was given a seismic retrofit, and unlike other areas built on landfill, it held, losing only a few chunks of concrete in the Loma Prieta quake.
I love the stick. I went to one of the last game giants had at the stick. I love pac bell also.
I moved to Northern California years ago. Went to some baseball games at "The Stick".
IMHO, it was a total dump !
Keep in mind that when the Metrodome was first opened in '82, no air conditioning was installed, so it was often unbearable during the summer months until finally the AC was installed the next season. And because the roof was air supported, warning signs had to be posted when fans entered and exited the building due to high wind gusts.
Funny the Carrier Dome in Syracuse was named after Carrier Air Conditioning...No air conditioning!
Yes, I remember being blown out the doors onto the sidewalk when exiting the stadium.
@@jamesfields2916 I always found that funny. The fact they even bought naming rights to a place without AC despite being an AC company named after the dude who invented practical air conditioning.
And then the team allegedly used that air conditioning system to cheat.
I loved having the wind push me out the door at the Metrodome
The early century stadiums and parks where odd because they where built in cities and had to be made to fit in.
When I played baseball in middle school we had no fence for home games. I'd take one of these weird layouts over that nightmare.
Winner of the worst spelling of Coliseum? This site.
0:38...."left field was just 250 feet from home plate, center field was 425, and left field was 301."
Sing it with me......all I want for Christmas is my two left fields.......
Hearing someone explain what the Montreal Expos were makes me feel old. But come to think of it, some younger fans may have never heard of them. After all, 2004 was nearly 20 years ago.
Montreal's Olympic Stadium was not that bad; people just like to complain. I had plenty of fun there over the years and it's part of why I caught 'Expos Fever' in 1981 and have never stopped following the team, even to their 2019 World Series win in DC. Thanks for remembering Jarry Park.
You cant pick on the old parks, they had character . I can see Oakland, Toronto and Montreal but the old style parks were cool
Seattle Kingdome deserves *at least* a dishonorable mention.
@@paulpinball9952 So does the Vet in Philly and old Busch in st Louis .
@@monexpo86 And Riverfront in Cincy and Three Rivers in Pittsburgh. Because all four of those were near-identical lousy multipurpose clones.
@@monexpo86 Fulton County in Atlanta as well....
Metrodome was awful. All domes are.
Correction…. The Polo Grounds were not built for the sport of Polo. In fact, Polo was never played there. It got it’s name from a previous stadium that was on 110th St and 5th Ave where Polo was played.
When the Pirates played at Forbes Field, after battling practice, they would wheel the batting cage across the field and put it against the left center field wall. It would stay there, fully assembled, not folded up during the games.
I saw several games at Forbes Field from 1960- 1970 and I only saw one ball hit to the batting cage. Lou Brock in '63 hit one that bounced off the cage and easily circled the bases for an inside the park homer.
When the Jays were in Exhibition stadium, it was actually sort of nice. If you bought a ticket near the end of summer when the Ex (CNE to you young ones) was happening it would get you into the Ex for free and if you went when the airshow was happening then you got to see some bad ass military hardware fly over the stadium. It was always a great day to go to the Ex for rides and food. See a Jays game and the airshow. The Skydome (Rogers Centre to you young ones) seems a bit cold and lifeless.
Pick up your cross and follow Jesus! The world is quickly headed for destruction, and sooner or later you will have to sit at the judgement seat and give an account for your actions. Belief in messiah alone is not enough to grant you salvation - Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:3, John 3:36 (ESV is the best translation for John 3:36). Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life! - Revelation 3:20.
Contemplate how the Roman Empire fulfilled the role of the beast from the sea in Revelation 13. Revelation 17 confirms that it is in fact Rome. From this we can conclude that A) Jesus is the Son of God and can predict the future or make it happen, B) The world leaders/nations/governments etc have been conspiring together for the last 3000+ years going back to Babylon and before, C) History as we know it is fake. You don't really need to speculate once you start a relationship with God tho.
Can't get a response from God? Fasting can help increase your perception and prayer can help initiate events. God will ignore you if your prayer does not align with His purpose (James 4:3) or if you are approaching Him when "unclean" (Isaiah 1:15, Isaiah 59:2, Micah 3:4). Stop eating food sacrificed to idols (McDonald's, Wendy's etc) stop glorifying yourself on social media or making other images of yourself (Second Commandment), stop gossiping about other people, stop watching obscene content etc and you should get a response. Have a blessed day!
I heard they torn down exhibition stadium and built a mall on it....I also heard the Blue Jays are talking about building yet another stadium and leave Skydome (Rogers Centre) Have you heard this?
@@wolfiethedog76 I don't think there's a mall where Exhibition stadium stood. It was in the CNE grounds.
A new stadium? I don't listen to msn so maybe there's talk but I don't know.
@@wolfiethedog76 They built another stadium in Exhibition Stadium's place...it's called BMO Field.
@@KardiFan2000 it's where the Toronto FC play and was used as "Exibition Stadium" when the Leafs played their outdoor winter classic as the Leafs are affiliated with Scotia Bank and not Bank of Montreal (BMO).
The Polo Grounds were used for many sports: baseball, football, prize fights, you name it. But the stadium was never used for polo.
I came here looking for this comment. Although the Polo Grounds were the correct shape a Polo field is much much larger.
I was at the Metrodome for the game Prince Fielder of Milwaukee hit an inside-the-park home run. Ever seen a weeble run around the bases? Hilarious.
Praying there is a video on CZcams.... brb
that was the 10th wonders of the world!!!!!!!!!!!
his parents are asleep, that’s why he talks like that
Oakland Coliseum is awesome.
As a kid in the late 60's in IL, I can remember watching the Cubs play the Pirates in Forbes field. It's field dimensions were insane by today's standards, over 450' in center which was so deep they would store the folded up batting cage along the wall on the warning track in center during the game. It was so far from home plate it hardly ever came into play.
It also had light standards inside the outfield wall. The ground rule was that is a ball hit the light standard above the level of the wall behind it, it was a home run. In the late 60s Forbes has the deepest leafy field and center field, but the shortest right field in the NL. There was a screen in front of the right field stands similar to the one in left field in LA, but I don’t think it was as high as the one in LA.
@@robertosborne8694 I know in the late '40s, they put fencing in front of the left field wall, towards the foul pole, so that Ralph Kiner could hit more homers. Thus, the term "Kiner's Korner".
@@robbarbieri8676 they also had it there when Hank Greenberg played for one season in the 40s and they called it “Greenberg’s garden”
I loved they kept the Mazaroski Wall.Reinsdorf nixxed the idea of keeping a section of The Arched Windows in Chicago.
@@daniellinehan63 Ah, Old Comiskey, what a grand old yard! The state said they would rebuild McCuddy's pub after they tore it down, but that ended up being just another broken promise.
You can also see this video on my youtube channel called top ten worst background music choices for a youtube video
Dude sounds like Derek Jeter giving virtual tours of stadiums on All-Star Baseball 2004 lol
Loved that game!!!
Polo grounds should have stayed forever. The field was just too cool
One thing to note about Jarry Park is, it had a brutal sun glare during the summer in the late evening, meaning that if the weather was clear during a summer home game at night, they had to delay it early on.
Night games there were frequently interrupted for delays while the sun was setting, because it shone in the eyes of the first baseman.
Jarry Park wasn't too bad; certainly better than Sick's Stadium.
Candlestick Park was also a terrible park more because the weather. It could be the middle of July and be cold and windy during night games.
I’m surprised Candlestick Park didn’t make the list. It was a lovable dump that was terrible for baseball in the summer but was a cathedral for football in the fall. Between the windy elements and the soggy fields because it was below sea level and it was a cockeyed masterpiece!
you bring up a good point
Saw a game in Aug.'89 and it was freezing.Watched a game early in '89 season and P Mike Lacosse kept getting blown off the mound.
Mr.Mays said he lost about 260 homers on CF warming track.
I thought I once saw Kevin Mitchell score from first base on a bloop single that got caught in the wind at that stadium.
I was at the 2008 LA Coliseum game. It was a wonderful party to kickoff to the Dodgers' 50th anniversary in LA. Got Ron Cey to wave at us from across the way. Strangely, my favorite memory was Kareem skyhooking a ceremonial pitch directly into the catcher's glove.
I was there as well. I just HAD TO see what a game looked like. We were so far up the bleachers, the players looked like insects. There was like 113,000 people there. It was super exciting for about the first two innings, then it quickly became one of the most boring games I’d ever seen. The pictures though, we’re awesome.
Weird dimensions don't necessarily mean a terrible stadium.
I agree, but it does usually equal an extra injury or two over a season.
This was very good .For a long time I've owned the Baseball Hall of Shame books .
Thanks to your great video .I was able to see what I've only read about.Thanks a lot.
I'm glad your newer videos have you reading with a little more emotion. Excitement and passion is palpable bro and the difference between your longest home-run video is night and day.
Good job man.
The first iteration of the Polo Grounds (the one near Central Park), were the only ones used for polo. The name just migrated to the stadiums that sat in Coogan's Hollow. None of the modern Polo Grounds ever hosted polo.
Thank you. I came to say the same thing. The stadium that once hosted the baseball Giants, Football Giants, Yankees, Mets, and Jets at various times never hosted polo. A polo field is 300 yards by 160 yards (three times as long and three times as wide as an American football field without the end zones), far too large to ever fit in that ballpark.
Did host the Famous Merkle Playoff Game of 1908
The one and done Seattle Pilots struggled through a miserable 1969 season in minor league Sick's Stadium (really; it was named for longtime Seattle Rainers owner) that held just 18,000 fans had such poor utilities that drinking water ran out by around the 7th inning every game. Then Bud Selig put the Pilots out of their misery by buying them, paying off the bankrupt team's debts and moving them to Milwaukee as the Brewers. The Pilots owners' plan had been to build a new stadium in time for a 1970 first season, but MLB unexpectedly ordered the new franchise to start earlier to balance out the addition of the Padres.
The Pilots' exit gave Seattle plenty of time to get the King Dome built for the Mariners.
The Pilots were an AL team and were forced to begin play before a suitable stadium was available because the league wanted to have an even number of teams to balance it out with the addition of the Kansas City Royals. The Missouri U S Senators wanted the Royals to start play in 1969. The NL Padres had nothing to do with it.
The '70 White Sox were drawing so bad that they were close to moving.Alynn signed Harry Caray for '71 and his enthusiasm lifted att.to 700,000.Then in '72 Alynn traded for Dick Allen and his MONSTROUS MVP season saved them until '75, when Danny Kaye/ Bowie Kuhn nearly moved them in '76. Bill Veeck & Mayor Daley saved the day.
@@daniellinehan63 Bud Selig was a 1/3 owner of the White Sox, then when he became majority owner, he promptly decided to move them to Milwaukee to end the draught in his hometown. But when 2/3 of the AL owners vetoed the move (they wanted a team in the giant Chicago market) Selig turned his attention to Seattle.
Never knew Selig owned .33% of the White Sox
I wish the LF wall in the Coliseum was a trampoline, so that balls hitting it would rocket back to the infield.
Left field 250 Center field 428 Left field 301.. come on.. They only played there because Dodger Stadium was being built and O’Mally wanted crowds so Wrigley was out of the question
Exhibition Stadium gets the "W", I legit saw a rollercoaster in the parking lot 🔥🔥🔥
That would be the Canadian National Exhibition (for which the stadium is named)...it's an end-of-summer festival that's been held on those grounds for well over 100 years.
Los Angeles and Oakland "Collesium"? That's some imaginative misspelling. The Oakland Coliseum has long had the nickname, "Mausoleum."
If you're going to talk about the Baker Bowl, you should mention the great bleacher collapse of 27. Many people died.
There was an incline in CF because a Reading RR train tunnel ran underneath it.
Actually, only one person died in 1927, and that was more to do with the stampede afterwards than the actual collapse. However, there was another collapse in 1903 that killed 12 and injured over 230.
That music sounds a little spooky. Like something you’d hear in a abandoned building at night playing over and over in a haunted room
Mays made "THE CATCH' about 400+' from home plate in the Polo Grounds
Pick up your cross and follow Jesus! The world is quickly headed for destruction, and sooner or later you will have to sit at the judgement seat and give an account for your actions. Belief in messiah alone is not enough to grant you salvation - Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:3, John 3:36 (ESV is the best translation for John 3:36). Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life! - Revelation 3:20.
Contemplate how the Roman Empire fulfilled the role of the beast from the sea in Revelation 13. Revelation 17 confirms that it is in fact Rome. From this we can conclude that A) Jesus is the Son of God and can predict the future or make it happen, B) The world leaders/nations/governments etc have been conspiring together for the last 3000+ years going back to Babylon and before, C) History as we know it is fake. You don't really need to speculate once you start a relationship with God tho.
Can't get a response from God? Fasting can help increase your perception and prayer can help initiate events. God will ignore you if your prayer does not align with His purpose (James 4:3) or if you are approaching Him when "unclean" (Isaiah 1:15, Isaiah 59:2, Micah 3:4). Stop eating food sacrificed to idols (McDonald's, Wendy's etc) stop glorifying yourself on social media or making other images of yourself (Second Commandment), stop gossiping about other people, stop watching obscene content etc and you should get a response. Have a blessed day!
@@FreightmareFTW Jesus never could have made that catch, only Willie Mays
Add New Yankee Stadium to the list
The LA Colosseum and Exhibition Stadium do not look anything like baseball ballparks,
I was really expecting the juice box in Houston....Whose bright idea was it to put a hill AND a damn flagpole IN PLAY! haha
The original Yankee Stadium had short distances down the left field line (301 feet) and right field line (under 300 feet as I recall.). I don't recall the distance to dead center, but it was well over 400 feet. However, left center field curved away from the infield and I think the furthest point was 465 feet from home plate. It was known to hitters as "Death Valley." As for the Polo Grounds, the upper deck in left field extended over the warning track, which was only a little over 300 feet from home plate to begin with. Many a routine fly ball hit the front of the overhang, known as "The Great Wall of China," for a cheap home run.
I believe it was 461 ft to center and 457 to left center. Right field was short--great for left-handed power hitters. I believe the monuments (statues) were in the playing field. The 1974 rehab changed all that.
Right field was 296 down the line, and 301 in left, and 469 in dead center.
LA Coliseum: Left field was just 250 ft from home plate. Center field was 425 and left field was 301.
2 left fields? That is the strangest/weirdest stadium EVER.
Your editing is pretty wild, bruv.
That's a nice way of putting it! Lol
The Dodgers didn't want to play in minor league park Wrigley Field in Watts. The AL expansion Angels played there in 1961. It was all about the $ then, as it still is with Smell A, being owned since 2012 by Guggenheim Trust, a $300 billion multi-national corporation.
I'm from Michigan, and Tiger Stadium was very different from newer stadiums. It had an overhang from the upper deck along right field. It had bleachers in the upper deck at straight-away center field -- very different from how ballparks are built today. I'm also a Cubs fan, and Wrigley Field is unique in it own ways.
Ebbets Field had a 45-degree enclosure at right centerfield behind the centerfield wall deemed homerun territory, as well as a leftfield foul line that ran up a banister into the seats and ended at a foul pole which stood in the stands a few rows up from the field. PS: (6:28) Oakland Coliseum, not Collesium.
He misspelled L.A. Coliseum, too-even though its name appears on the picture of the stadium itself.
@@donaldthomas7070 He also said the LA Coliseum had two left fields!
Actually, Blue Jays moved to SkyDome. Now it's called Rogers Center.
Good list I would replace Oakland with Sick Stadium in Seattle because it was a huge reason why the Pilot’s died and the Milwaukee Brewers and Mariners exist.
Awesome trip down memory lane! Thanks brother 🙏
The Expos actually played at Jarry Park Stadium. The "park" referred to the park (like Central Park) around the stadium, not the stadium itself.
I remember there was a public swimming pool beyond the right center field fence. I'm pretty sure I watched "Le Grande Orange" (Rusty Staub) and maybe "Pops" Stargell hit splashdown shots in the pool, with kids swimming around. On TV, of course, never got to go there.
As a kid I loved watching babe ruth play at the polo grounds. Still one of my fondest memories growing up in the Bronx.
I wonder how many home runs those crazy dimensions cost him...
@@Compucles the answer is none. Right field was only 258 feet and Ruth was a pure pull hitter. Center field was 483 feet.
Funny asf....
Nobody alive today saw Babe Ruth play. If you were BORN in the year he RETIRED, you'd be 85 today. 🙄
The Phillies when they played at the Baker Bowl had a large billboard on the right field wall that read “The Phillies use Lifebuoy soap.” However, the Phillies were terrible during their final years there, leading to the recurring joke: “The Phillies use Lifebuoy soap…and they STILL stink!” (A vandal even defaced the wall with that message one day in 1936.)
The expansion Washington Senators played at Griffith Stadium in 1961, and moved into what was then known as District of Columbia Stadium in 1962. Griffith Stadium was also the home of the Redskins.
The Polo Grounds was also the home of the New York Titans/Jets from 1960-1963.
Joe Morgan said that the ballpark with the strangest dimensions that he ever played in was Crosley Field in Cincinnati.
I'm surprised the Kingdome in Seattle wasn't mentioned as one of the worst; it was another one with a white roof, which made it easy to lose sight of the ball.
Crosley did have some funky dimensions - 328 to left but the terrace leading to the wall made you hit it at least 345 to get it out. 366 to the right field line and 360 to right center.
I had the privilege of growing up playing at a Crosley Field replica field in Blue Ash, Ohio. All the advertisements were accurate as was the display of the final display of the Reds and Giants game (minus the score, as it was integrated into the scoring system). I hit a home run over the wall between the 366 and 360 marks the final game I played there my senior year of high school. Lots of great memories of that place.
I don’t know first hand, but the lighting in the Kingdome always seemed off.
@@TehDrewsus I'm surprised he didn't mention Crosley. But I guess he was concentrating on worst, not weird, although some of these don't seem to me to be among the worst. The triplets, Riverfront, the Vet and Three Rivers, certainly could qualify as among the worst, IMO, on sheer ugliness alone. One thing I recall about Crosley was that it had a home run line, I think in left, where if the ball hit above it, home run, below in play. This a perpendicular wall, not with upper part recessed. And if I'm thinking right, the line was made of tin, so if "Blue" heard a clanging sound, he signalled home run. Perhaps you recall?
@@theknightswhosay looked dark asf during baseball games.
@@robbarbieri8676 Don't forget Busch stadium and Fulton county stadium....#5sisters
Should've put down every last cookie cutter multi-purpose stadium, the were all tombs
None of these fields are "the worst", they simply have oddities that probably changed the way the game would be played that day unlike today where it's mostly standard and the balls are juiced
I do wish you had more enthusiasm. Like seriously I can't help but feel like this channel is a lot bigger than it should be because you sound more like somebody who has a channel that has a few hundred subscribers and not somebody who has 10,000 subscribers and works really hard in his videos. I appreciate how informative the video is though so I still gave it a like, but yeah you got to work on that enthusiasm.
4:12 Heard Henry Aaron hit one into the pool at Jarry park in the early 70's on the AM radio.
I think Billy Williams hit a swimmer in '70 with a homerun
@@daniellinehan63 No shit, really? That's great.
the metrodome I would disagree with just a little bit. Every game seemed to be home field advantage 3x over because the sound was so deafening. Yea the roof color wasn't ideal but at least the weather was always perfect inside 😉
I remember going to a Monday night football game when the vikings played the packers back in 2009 and it felt like my ear drums were going to implode when the mnf music started playing. I have never been in a stadium that loud before in my life. When the wild played the avalanche I'm 2008 the xcel center was a close 2nd but the dome was just a surreal place to be when it was packed and everyone was screaming.
they were pumping in artificial noise....
Ya, the weather inside was fantastic...Except for that one time 🤪
@@sammycampbell1654 Not a chance. GB @ MN was the most anticipated game up to that point. Favre tore up his former team of 15 years & in primetime. Fake crowd noise would've been pointless. I doubt the volume could even get that high
@@one7decimal2eight That would have been amazing, watching any hockey game is a treat! The 90s especially, Domi vs Probert OMG 😱 TOO BAD, I wasn't one of them kids that had a father to take him to sporting events..
Anyone know what ballpark the giant's played in during the 60's that had chain link fence for an outfield wall? I just remember Willie Mays making a catch (near the end of his career) while jumping up against that wall and another fielder catching him as he fell.
That was Candlestick Park, where the 49ers also played during their glory years. If it's the catch I'm thinking about, I believe it was on NBCs Game of the Week on a Saturday. As I recall, Willie raced over into right center, lept as high as he could, extending his glove over the wall to make the catch. At the same time, his left rib cage collided with the metal cross piece atop the wall and the top of RF Bobby Bond's head. Willie and Bobby both fell to the ground, but as Willie lay on his back, he held his glove up to show he'd made the catch!
@@robbarbieri8676
I remember that!
Now I need another youtube video of "top 10 WORST/Weirdest" youtube video editing of all time.
Crazy how long ago the LA Coliseum game was. I was able to go, having been to hundreds of USC home football games when I was younger it was interesting to see the field setup for baseball. What makes the stadium even worse was that the stadium was upgraded and the field surface was lowered to add additional seats. When they lowered it the area got smaller so the left field netting was even closer than before. Still fun for a game though.
I feel like that stadium sits in an odd place today, its horribly outdated as a sports venue but its at the same time an important historic structure in sports history.
@@filanfyretracker Yeah, its something similar to Wrigley Stadium in a way. Like you don't want to rebuild it, so the only option is to give it that facelift when needed. I think even going as far as The Coliseum did by adding the updated press box would be too much for Wrigley fans and the history of the stadium and I know that a lot of season ticketed USC fans were angry about being displaced during construction
Scene of '59 WS between Go Go Sox and Dodgers
Only 1 guy ever hit a home run out of dead center of the Polo Grounds: Milwaukee’s Joe Adcock.
So did Lou Brock and Hank Aaron, on consecutive days in 1962.
@@8avexp Brock’s bomb was deep. 460 to the right field bleachers.
Adcock went deep there, but he also did it to dead center, 475 feet.
@@timtebowsleftarm5368 There is a photo of Adcock's home run, tracing the ball's trajectory. It went into the centerfield bleachers to the left of the clubhouse.
@@8avexp link?
I read that as Massive Joe Adcock.
Ya the “Big O” in Montreal was just not that great. The seats were uncomfortable. Not to mention you had to walk about 5 miles on gross sticky concrete walkways. And that roof. Just too big and outdated. Still looks very cool from outside and is a landmark.
Could be welcoming back a team there soon (Tampa)
Great video. Thanks for making it.
"Collesium"? Really?
LOL. Exactly. How hard is it to do a spell check?
Hey. It's the best thing we had at that time. Place your head in your butt and sneeze. FJB. Go Dodgers
@@Gene601, especially since the correct spelling appears in the video on the stadium itself.
Koliseeum
What about Candlestick Park and Cleveland Municipal Stadium?
Didn't Municipal have more than 80,000 seats?
@@warrenhoffman2006 Yes, because I think it was originally built for football, and the Cleveland Indians only initially used it for weekend and holiday games, when bigger crowds were expected. However, they gradually moved permanently to Municipal when League Park (the Indians initial home) fell into disrepair.
I would have mentioned Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. I hated that place. It was a dual purpose stadium for both the Orioles and Baltimore Colts.
With the groundskeepers house in the woods in CF !
I grew up going to Exhibition stadium to watch the Jays. It was a blast! The outfield bleachers cost virtually nothing to buy, and it was a good vantage from nearly anywhere (except the right field side of the bleachers)..
The worst thing about the Metrodome were the troughs. If you're male, you know what I'm talking about.
I still miss the trough.
Geeze, we had those in Cleveland, but the Metrodome was built in 1980, WTF?
Griffith Stadium is interesting in that it was used for 50 years (I already knew about the Polo Grounds). Most of the weird ones that aren’t just outdated were temporary.
Pick up your cross and follow Jesus! The world is quickly headed for destruction, and sooner or later you will have to sit at the judgement seat and give an account for your actions. Belief in messiah alone is not enough to grant you salvation - Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:3, John 3:36 (ESV is the best translation for John 3:36). Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life! - Revelation 3:20.
Contemplate how the Roman Empire fulfilled the role of the beast from the sea in Revelation 13. Revelation 17 confirms that it is in fact Rome. From this we can conclude that A) Jesus is the Son of God and can predict the future or make it happen, B) The world leaders/nations/governments etc have been conspiring together for the last 3000+ years going back to Babylon and before, C) History as we know it is fake. You don't really need to speculate once you start a relationship with God tho.
Can't get a response from God? Fasting can help increase your perception and prayer can help initiate events. God will ignore you if your prayer does not align with His purpose (James 4:3) or if you are approaching Him when "unclean" (Isaiah 1:15, Isaiah 59:2, Micah 3:4). Stop eating food sacrificed to idols (McDonald's, Wendy's etc) stop glorifying yourself on social media or making other images of yourself (Second Commandment), stop gossiping about other people, stop watching obscene content etc and you should get a response. Have a blessed day!
Both Metrodome and Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum were designed by Chicago's Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, one of the world's most famous architectural firms.
I don't think they want you to promote that tod bit.
@@tomb4575 They deserve to be humbled every once in a while.
Houston thought a flag pole and a hill in center field was a good idea. Also Wrigley not getting lights until the late 80's is weird
The Cubs got along just fine playing baseball the way it is supposed to be played. In daytime, outside. They probably would still be if MLB hadn't pressured the Chicago Tribune into installing lights.