Ballparks

If you love baseball and the venerable stadiums its played in, you need this definitive history and guide to Major League ballparks of the past, present, and future. With a tear-out checklist to mark ballparks you’ve visited and those on your bucket list, Ballparks takes you inside the histories of every park in the Major Leagues, with hundreds of photos, stories, and stats about: Storied parks like Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, and Dodger Stadium Fan favorites AT&T Park, Camden Yards, PNC Park, Safeco Field, and so much more Forgotten treasures like Shibe Park in Philadelphia, Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, and all five parks of the Detroit Tigers New stadiums like the Atlanta Braves’ SunTrust Park, the Minneapolis Twins’ Target Field, and New York’s Yankee Stadium and Citifield More than 40 other major league parks that tell the story of the national pastime through the lens of the fields the players call home No baseball fan's collection is complete without this up-to-date tome.

An exhilarating, splendidly illustrated, entirely new look at the history of baseball: told through the stories of the vibrant and ever-changing ballparks where the game was and is staged, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic. From the earliest corrals of the mid-1800s (Union Grounds in Brooklyn was a "saloon in the open air"), to the much mourned parks of the early 1900s (Detroit's Tiger Stadium, Cincinnati's Palace of the Fans), to the stadiums we fill today, Paul Goldberger makes clear the inextricable bond between the American city and America's favorite pastime. In the changing locations and architecture of our ballparks, Goldberger reveals the manifestations of a changing society: the earliest ballparks evoked the Victorian age in their accommodations--bleachers for the riffraff, grandstands for the middle-class; the "concrete donuts" of the 1950s and '60s made plain television's grip on the public's attention; and more recent ballparks, like Baltimore's Camden Yards, signal a new way forward for stadium design and for baseball's role in urban development. Throughout, Goldberger shows us the way in which baseball's history is concurrent with our cultural history: the rise of urban parks and public transportation; the development of new building materials and engineering and design skills. And how the site details and the requirements of the game--the diamond, the outfields, the walls, the grandstands--shaped our most beloved ballparks. A fascinating, exuberant ode to the Edens at the heart of our cities--where dreams are as limitless as the outfields.

A panoramic view of MLB's current and most storied ballparks, from the oldest--1912's Fenway Park in Boston--to the newest, SunTrust Park, which opened a century later in 2017.

Enjoy this sequel to the best-selling ballparks, with this book taking a look at stadiums of the past.

The author provides a tour through baseball history with this tribute to America's favorite ballparks.

Baseball has a history like no other American sport. The Union Grounds in Brooklyn, New York, is considered to be the first ballpark ever built, when William Cammeyer decided to use the Union Skating Pond as a ground for baseball games in 1862. Professional teams followed in 1871 and enterprising owners began to invest in the creation of wooden palaces, such as the Grand Pavilion in Boston and Sportsman’s Park in St Louis.The first steel-and-concrete ballpark was Shibe Park in Philadelphia built in 1909 which housed a then-record 20,000 spectators and set the standard in ballpark design. The Brooklyn Dodgers matched that with Ebbet’s Field in 1913 and the New York Yankees trumped them with a 58,000 capacity Yankee stadium to house the legion of babe Ruth fans.Over the years the cathedrals of baseball have come, been copied and are now gone, with all but a few heavily-modernized exceptions. Lost Ballparks looks back at the most storied ballparks in baseball’s rich history.From the wooden bleachers of Boston’s Huntington Avenue Grounds to the ‘space age’ Houston Astrodome, to the tidal harbor ballpark at Ketchikan Alaska, there is a huge variety of ballparks that have fallenList of cities: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cincinnati, Clearwater, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, DesMoines, Detroit, Emeryville (Ca), Fort Mill (SC), Houston, Indianapolis, Johnson City (NY), Kansas City, Ketchikan (Al), Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Montreal, Newark, NewOrleans, New York, Omaha, Rochester, St Louis, St Paul, St Petersburg, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tokyo (Japan), Toledo, Toronto, Washington, D.C., Wilmington.

Extensive guide to all 30 big-league ballparks detailing the best and worst seats in the park, inside scoop on concessions, where to stay, and how to make the most out of your baseball experience.

A history of sports in Boston told through its parks and arenas.

Ballparks Then and Now is a fascinating exploration of ballparks across America. Packed with archival and modern photography, this book documents the development of America's national pastime by looking at the fields of dreams on which it is played. The ballpark experience has changed dramatically from baseball's early days on grassy lots with wooden grandstands and free admission. The Union Grounds in Brooklyn, New York, is considered by many to be the first ballpark ever built, when William Cammeyer converted the Union Skating Pond in 1862. Ballparks Then and Now traces the evolution of stadiums used by all the MLB teams today. Organized alphabetically they range from Anaheim and Atlanta to Toronto and Washington. Ballparks grew in size and grandeur from wooden bleachers and stands that often perished in ferocious fires (Boston, Cincinnati) to the concrete cookie-cutter ballparks of the 1960s and 1970s (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh). These multi-sport stadiums have now been replaced by modern retro designs (Yankees, Mets) that give each park its own unique feel. Batting far into the 9th are the carefully updated historic ballparks (Redsox, Cubs) nested in the heart of their communities.

The Polo Grounds -- Fenway Park -- Tiger Stadium -- Ebbets Field -- Wrigley Field -- Yankee Stadium.