Out with the old?

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)