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Quirks you miss about ballparks/stadiums


johnnysama

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Former Dodgers scout Mike Brito worked behind home plate as the team's unofficial pitch meter statistician, until the 2005 stadium renovations which added baseline box seats and made Brito's job irrelevant with electronic pitch meters. I just thought it was a nice quirk for a professional ball club to still have an actual human tracking pitches, all in recognizable light suits and a Panama hat.

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"the gap" at the polo grounds where Willie Mays made "the catch" I wish i could have seen that ball park and watch a game with such a great quirk.

The Polo Grounds was probably the ultimate quirky stadium. I think it was 280 or so down the line in left, about 260 down the line in right, and about 4 miles to straightaway center. (it was actually 475 - I think)

 

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"the gap" at the polo grounds where Willie Mays made "the catch" I wish i could have seen that ball park and watch a game with such a great quirk.

The Polo Grounds was probably the ultimate quirky stadium. I think it was 280 or so down the line in left, about 260 down the line in right, and about 4 miles to straightaway center. (it was actually 475 - I think)

480
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Another strange thing about the Polo Grounds was that it wasn't a flat surface. IIRC, if you were at the batter's box, you could only see the top half of an outfielder.

That's just the curvature of the Earth. Center field was 10 miles away.
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I miss how Chicago Stadium, Boston Garden, the Aud in Buffalo, and Maple Leaf Gardens(?) all had smaller-than-regulation rinks, since they were built before 200' X 80' was made the standard. (I've heard conflicting stories about whether MLG was regulation or not.)
On that note, it's not a quirk I "miss" since it's not dead, but I really like how every baseball stadium has it's own unique quirks, sizes, and features. It really makes home field advantage mean a lot more when every park is totally different.

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I miss how Chicago Stadium, Boston Garden, the Aud in Buffalo, and Maple Leaf Gardens(?) all had smaller-than-regulation rinks, since they were built before 200' X 80' was made the standard. (I've heard conflicting stories about whether MLG was regulation or not.)

On that note, it's not a quirk I "miss" since it's not dead, but I really like how every baseball stadium has it's own unique quirks, sizes, and features. It really makes home field advantage mean a lot more when every park is totally different.

I hate it that so many of those quirks are contrived, especially with the faux retro parks. What makes those quirks great in the old parks was that they were that way out of necessity - to fit within a city block, to allow for a new section of grand stands, or to work around some other restriction. The green monster for example. Now you have parks like the Phillies that have little notches cut out in the outfield just so they can sell it as a unique quality when in reality it is just an injury waiting to happen.

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

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Okay, this is going real old school, but I miss minor league ballparks where a family can drive behind one of the outfield fences and watch for free. Could do that at East Field in Glens Falls NY for Eastern League games. I also miss eating popcorn cooked in highly fat saturated oil, the almost-burnt taste with ice cold soda, god....

tumblr_nulnnz7RCV1r5jqq2o1_250.jpg

Oh what could have been....

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Okay, this is going real old school, but I miss minor league ballparks where a family can drive behind one of the outfield fences and watch for free. Could do that at East Field in Glens Falls NY for Eastern League games. I also miss eating popcorn cooked in highly fat saturated oil, the almost-burnt taste with ice cold soda, god....

I can see why they got rid of that.

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I miss the old Busch Stadium out of town scoreboard. The electronic one at New Busch sometimes has other stuff put on it (like a text survey about the best type of corn!) and the scores go missing.

Old+Busch.JPG

"I did absolutely nothing and it was everything I thought it could be." -Peter Gibbons

RIP Demitra #38

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The Expos' PA announcer saying everything in both English and French.

i.e. "Le voltigeur de centre... the center fielder... Andre Dawson!"

I also missed that odd looking glass club section in the TV shot at the ol Stade Olympique.

"I did absolutely nothing and it was everything I thought it could be." -Peter Gibbons

RIP Demitra #38

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Former Dodgers scout Mike Brito worked behind home plate as the team's unofficial pitch meter statistician, until the 2005 stadium renovations which added baseline box seats and made Brito's job irrelevant with electronic pitch meters. I just thought it was a nice quirk for a professional ball club to still have an actual human tracking pitches, all in recognizable light suits and a Panama hat.

fernando_valenzuela_2008_04_16.jpg

5522748477_2dcb5d2820_o.jpg

I thought he was a permanent part of Dodger Stadium fo a while.

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I think the only thing I miss about 70s cookie cutters is the way that the retractable sections had those metal floors that would bounce when the crowd really started getting into it. This was at least true about Three Rivers, I assume all of them had this quirk.

i think RFK Stadium still has that.

It does and two D.C. United support groups, the Screaming Eagles and La Barra Brava, bounce bounce bounce

tumblr_nulnnz7RCV1r5jqq2o1_250.jpg

Oh what could have been....

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Okay, this is going real old school, but I miss minor league ballparks where a family can drive behind one of the outfield fences and watch for free. Could do that at East Field in Glens Falls NY for Eastern League games. I also miss eating popcorn cooked in highly fat saturated oil, the almost-burnt taste with ice cold soda, god....

AT&T Park has the "knothole gang" free viewing area in right field.

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The old scoreboards for sure! I don't mean the fireworks, I mean how the lights used to form images.

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Yea. I really miss those.

The Astrodome is what I really miss. Just move the Stros back in!

you can't just bringback old stadiums...

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

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