Fenway Park, Boston, opened in 1912, the same week the Titanic sank. Guess which made front page news.
Two years later Wrigley Field opened on the corner of Addison and Clark on the north side of Chicago.
These two are the oldest ballparks in the MLB by quite some distance. I've been lucky enough to visit both. I've also been lucky enough to have guided tours around both. It was interesting to see how the two teams differed in their approach to us, the fans.
In both cases the tour ended after sitting in the dugout, and visiting the manual scoreboards in the outfield. In Boston we were shown the field, and it was described how Mr Yawkey (the owner) and his wife would sit on deck chairs on the grass listening to radion broadcasts of the games that the Red Sox played away from Boston. We were also told that it was forbidden to even touch the grass, if anyone did then entire tour party would be ejected.
In Chicago, we were asked not to touch the ivy that covers the outfield wall, as the longstanding groundskeeper responsible for the upkeep of the ivy had recently died, and they were worried about it's health. Beyond that, and avoiding the infield that had recently been returfed, the grass was ours. We could run, walk, play catch on it (if we'd remembered our balls and gloves) or simply lie down and breathe in the smell decades of tobacco juice lain down by generations of outfielders.
I also remember one stunningly hot June afternoon. Entering Wrigley Field with my 3 1/2 year old daughter in my arms, sleepy with jet lag. She slept through the first few innings, only to be woken by the roar of the crowd as Sammy Sosa hit another monster home run. How did he do it? Well I guess we know now.
I remember Fenway being a rather run down old place - this was 1996 - and the starchy approach of the tour left me cold. Wrigley was fun. The sun shone. We lay on the grass watching the flags of the NL Central teams flutter on the mast of the scoreboard.
What I did feel at both parks, was that these were real. They had that higgledy piggledy look that some older football stadiums had - Maine Road, Gigg Lane - and they felt like ballparks. The newer ballparks are nice in their own way, but they haven't yet started to feel like home. Perhaps few of them will last long enough to do so, before new 'old' parks replace them again.
There was an article on the Yahoo MLB site which suggested that as soon as the Cubs started playing badly, people moaned about the state of the park. A suggestion that places like Wrigley and Fenway were an anachronism. I hope it was said in jest. it would be a sin to let these wonderful, creaky, cranky old places disappear.
Ballparks I've visited:
(old) Yankee Stadium (NYY)
Fenway Park (BOS)
Shea Stadium (NYM)
Comiskey Park (CHW)
Wrigley Field (CHC)
The Vet (PHI)
Oriole Park at Camden Yards (BAL)
Nationals Park (WAS)
Miller Park (2002 All Star Game)
Tropicana Field (TAM?)
The Diamond (Richmond Braves)
Campbells Field (Camden Riversharks)
Peoria Sports Complex (Padres/Mariners Cactus League)
Joker Marchant Stadium (Lakeland, FL, Grapefruit League, Tigers)
Winter Haven (Grapefruit League, Indians)
Baseball City? (Grapefruit League, Royals)
Osceola County Stadium, Kissimmee (Grapefruit League, Astros)
Disney Wide World of Sports (Grapefruit League, Braves)
The first 'support device' I ever purchased was a Giottos Monopod. What appealed to me was that it doubled (tripled) as a tripod. This was achieved by screwing some metal rods into the rubber foot at the bottom. You could also take two of the rods and attach them up the headstock to make a "machine gun" style support.
The picture above was taken with my big lens on 'jake' in mono-mode, and I've used it quite extensively over the last 5 or 6 years that we've been together. Birds and bikes mostly.
As it happens the 'tripod' set up wasn't very good. If you extended 'jake' to his greatest height, he wasn't very stable. Wobbled about like a sailor onshore leave.
I've felt a bit disloyal to 'jake' over the last few weeks as I've been casting around for a carbon fibre monopod. I've felt that 'jake' is starting to weigh heavy. Perhaps it's all to do with me simply getting older. Anyway, whether I've been disloyal or not, it's all moot, as 'jake' suffered, as Jim Lovell said in Apollo XIII, 'a problem'.
When out after voles, I was using 'jake' as a monopod but with the three rods attached to provide a firmer base. Unfortunately, towards the end of the day, 'jakes' foot sheared off. Luckily for me this didn't happen on one of those occasions when I wasn't holding the camera/lens rig, else there'd be more bumps and scratches on the outside of the lens, and some scratches on my relatively pristine camera body.
I can no search for 'jakes' replacement without feeling guilty. I wonder if Manfrotto to a CF mono with the same quick release plate I use on my geared head......
My good friend P always reminded me to take a good look around when out and about taking pics. This stood me well on a few occasions, especially when taking a decent sunset - the clouds behind can be as spectacular as the sunset in front.
On this occasion I was out to see a) which direction the sun came up (don't laugh) over Cemlyn beach, and b) to see how close to the famous Sandwich Terns I could get. The lovely G and I set out well before the young 'uns were up, and we ventured out into a lovely sunny, if somewhat blowy, morning.
The terns were already up and about. Zipping hither and yon some with, some without, a beak full of sand eel. On the way back to the roost they held up in the wind, and I tried to get some shots, but was somewhat hampered by having picked up the wrong camera body on the way out of the house.
Having enjoyed the time on the beach, we sauntered back to the car park and thought we'd just see what's going on on the other side of the headland. As we rounded a corner, G startled a large mammal. It scooted off into the undergrowth, and we started to guess as to what it might be (we didn't get much of a view). Like her, my first instinct was that it was a small deer, but I'm pretty sure there aren't any on Anglesey, at least not that part. Eventually, we got the answer as we notice a group of hares scuttling around in a nearby field. One had broken away from the main group and was snorting around in a grassy field nearby. It seemed to me that he (or she) was doing a circuit, so we headed up to the top end of the field to wait. The site we picked was perfect. We were downwind, so no noise or smells to upset the poor thing, we were on a slightly high point, but below the skyline. We waited. And after a few minutes he (or she) started the route the headed straight towards us. He (or she) stopped every so often to grub around and take stock of the field. Eventually he (or she) came close enough to get the shot above. He (or she) then wandered past and out of sight beyond a hedge. What a wonderful experience. Hares aren't the rarest creature in the world, but having said that, they aren't an everyday sight either.
Of course, we had to come back again, and again, and again. In all we probably came back about 5 times - morning and evening - and although we saw Hares again, we never got close enough to improve on an already quite decent shot.
I'm already looking forward to our next visit to Anglesey, in the hope of once again having a close encounter with Lepus europaeus.
