Dennis Evanosky and Eric J. Kos created a marvelous coffee table book titled Lost Ballparks: A Celebration of Baseball’s Legendary Fields. The book features stunning photographs of 58 no-longer-standing ballparks. The stories recounted here are from their book.
Ketchikan Harbor Ballpark, Alaska, dredged away, 1935
Photo courtesy Reddit
Toby (owned by Forrest J. and Harriet Hunt), shown with John Shoenbar (photo from June Allen @sitnews.us)
In the early 1900s, there wasn’t much else to spend leisurely time in small Alaskan towns other than the game of baseball. In Ketchikan, the ballpark doubled as a harbor depending on whether the tide was in or out. The return of the tide could end a ballgame early.
There were special rules. Balls hit into the adjoining sawmill yard were doubles. Any ball hit too far out to sea as the tide rolled in was a home run. Ketchikan resident Harriet Hunt’s dog Toby was one of the best outfielders, paddling out to retrieve any ball a human could not reach.
Ketchikan built a new dry-land ballpark in 1921. During the Depression, the city received federal funding to improve its harbor facilities. By 1935, the old ballpark had been dredged out of existence and is known today as Thomas Basin.
Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, razed in 1960
The Brooklyn Dodgers were active in the major leagues from 1884 until 1957, after which they moved to Los Angeles. The team’s name derived from the reputed skill of Brooklyn residents at evading the city’s trolley streetcar network. The Dodgers played in two stadiums in South Brooklyn, each named Washington Park, and at Eastern Park in the neighborhood of Brownsville before moving to Ebbets Field in the Flatbush neighborhood in 1913.
Ebbets Field, photo courtesy Ballparks by Munsey and Suppes
The name “Brooklyn Dodgers” did not appear on the team’s uniforms until 1932. In the 1890s and early 1900s, newspaper reporters bestowed many nicknames on the club, including Trolley Dodgers, the Bridegrooms (seven players got married in the same year), the Superbas, and the Robins.
Charles Ebbetts became the team’s first president in 1898, and when Ebbetts Field was completed, he achieved his goal of building a fireproof stadium of steel, glass, brick, and concrete. The stadium’s capacity was 18,000, rising to 31,902 in 1952.
Although the team finally won a World Series in 1955, Dodger President Walter O’Malley was concerned about its future in the old ballpark. Ebbetts Field was too hemmed in by urban development to meet the demand for more seats and bigger parking lots. O’Malley wanted to move to a larger site in downtown Brooklyn, but New York City only offered a spot in Queens.
Los Angeles provided over 300 acres in Chavez Ravine. The Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field in September 1957 and became the Los Angeles Dodgers the following year.
Polo Grounds, New York, razed 1964
The New York Giants originally played on polo grounds, and the name of their adopted ballpark stuck. They moved into a second version of the park in 1889 and a third in 1891, situated below Coogan’s Bluff in Harlem. This site served as the team’s home until 1957.
Photo courtesy Amazin’ Avenue
When the stadium was packed, those fans without tickets gathered atop Coogan’s Bluff to watch the game for free. Harry M. Stevens single-handedly revolutionized ballpark concessions at the Polo Grounds by popularizing scorecards and inventing the hot dog.
The third Polo Grounds, made entirely of wood, burned on April 14, 1911. Construction began immediately on a new, ornate one with a horseshoe-shaped, steel, concrete grandstand and 34,000 seats. The Polo Grounds had the deepest center field in baseball, but the right-field foul pole was just 257 feet from home plate.
From 1913 through 1922, the Giants shared the Polo Ground with the Yankees. Babe Ruth slugged .796 from 1920 to 1922. But in 1956, with the Giants’ attendance figures suffering badly, Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley talked to Giants owner Horace Stoneham about moving to San Francisco. The New York Mets, an expansion team intended to replace the Giants and Dodgers, played poorly in the Polo Grounds under manager Casey Stengel in 1962 and 1963.
The stadium fell to the wrecking ball in 1964. An enormous housing project now sits below Coogan’s Bluff, where the ballpark once stood.
Astrodome, Houston, partially demolished in 2013
Billed as the Eighth Wonder of the World, the Astrodome, which opened in April 1965, was the home of the Houston Astros (formerly the expansion Colt .45s). The city broke ground on the stadium by shooting Colt .45 pistols into the ground.
Photo courtesy Texas Historical Association
The Astrodome was the world’s largest enclosed space and the first fully enclosed and climate-controlled domed stadium. It held 66,000 people and had a $2 million programmable scoreboard. It became one of the nation’s most popular domestic tourist destinations, behind only the Golden Gate Bridge and Mount Rushmore.
Mickey Mantle, who played for the Yankees against Houston on opening night in an exhibition game, said of the stadium, “It reminds me of what I imagine my first ride would be like in a flying saucer.”
The field was originally grass, but the dome restricted proper lighting, so the Astros developed their trademark playing surface called AstroTurf, which is used worldwide today. The turf was initially kept clean by men in spacesuits known as “Earthmen.”
Muhammad Ali, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Evel Knievel, The Who, Pink Floyd and The Jacksons all appeared at the Dome.
Although the facility received a $100 million overhaul in 1987, the thrill was gone by the mid-1990s, and the Astros migrated to Enron Field (today Minute Maid Park) in 1999.
Parts of the Dome were demolished in 2013, and much of the interior was gutted—bench seats and other memorabilia were auctioned off to the public. Harris County commissioners are considering proposals to raise the floor level of the Dome and create parking space underneath.
…to be continued in Part 2.
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This article is condensed from articles that first appeared in The Vacaville Reporter on April 21 and 23, 2020. Cover graphic courtesy YouTube.
