Recent
Visits |
LaGrave Field, Fort Worth
Cats
It is one of the most unique facilities in pro
ball: LaGrave Field, the home of the Fort Worth
Cats (independent; American Association), sits
where the original LaGrave Field sat from 1926
through 1967. The dimensions are the same as in
the original facility, home plate sits in the same
place, and the dugouts of the old ballpark have
been converted to dugout suites. And, being Texas,
there's a hitching rail beyond the outfield for
folks riding to the games on horseback.
Doug Kingsmore Stadium,
Clemson Tigers
Before its thorough makeover and renaming in 2003,
“Beautiful Tiger Field” described the home of the
Clemson Tigers. Not surprising, and not an
overstated moniker. While the ballpark and other
athletic facilities are closely connected to the
western edge of campus, the grandstand view
features an appealing pastoral feel, and although
the ballpark is now named for Tigers alum and
contributor Doug Kingsmore, it's still a beautiful
field.
QuikTrip Park at Grand
Prairie, Grand Prairie AirHogs
The aviation theme is strong
at QuikTrip Park at Grand Prairie, the new home of
the Grand Prairie AirHogs (independent; American
Association), but it's not overwhelming and
gimmicky. We were there opening night: it's an
impressive facility that raises the bar for indy
facilities and should allow the team to be
competitive in the increasingly crowded
Dallas-Fort Worth market.
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Independent
Baseball News
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insight on the Independent leagues? The Independent Baseball
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players, signings and trends. Delivered every Thursday
April-September to your computer.
WirzandAssociates.com
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Features |
2008 Ballparks
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Lehigh Valley
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Southern Maryland
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2009 Ballparks
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Bowling
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Brownsville, Texas
Charlotte County, Fla.
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Gwinnett County
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Reno
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2010 Ballparks
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2011 Ballparks
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Ballparks of the Past
Colt
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Crosley Field
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Field
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(Kansas City)
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The
Fine Print |
Obligatory legal information:
This site is copyright 1998-2008 Kevin Reichard/August
Publications. All rights
reserved. My wife is a lawyer, so she will come and chop off
your hand in a legal fashion if you rip off this site
in any form. All logos are the property of their respective
owners. |
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Crosley Field /
Cincinnati Reds / 1912-1970
Cincinnati is often
called the "cradle of baseball." When baseball
fans think about Cincinnati, they think about
firsts. The first professional baseball team.
Charter members of the National League and the
American Association. The first night game. The
first pitch of the season. For six decades this
city of baseball firsts played its games at the
"old boomerang at Findlay and Western," Crosley
Field. The park was a green oasis amidst the
smokestacks and warehouses of Cincinnati’s west
end. Crosley was intimate and unpretentious, and
its many stories and unique characteristics gave
the average fan a lot of baseball to experience.
Dating back to
1884, the Reds played baseball at the intersection
of Findlay Street and Western Avenue. League Park
was the first to open there, and as happened with
most wooden ballparks of the day, it burned to the
ground. In 1893, League Park was rebuilt,
columned, expanded, and renamed The Palace of the
Fans. The Palace of the Fans resembled a Greek
temple, with an extravagant façade and opera-style
private boxes. Alas, it too burned, in 1911, and
gave way to Redland (later Crosley) Field.
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Crosley Field
opened as Redland Field on April 12, 1912, as the home of the Reds. Compare this
photo to the photo above and see how the park was expanded over the years. |
Redland Field, named
to honor the traditional color of Cincinnati
baseball teams, opened its gates on April 12,
1912. The hometown Reds rallied from a 5-0 deficit
to defeat the Cubs 10-6. Redland was built for
$225,000 and was another of the many classic steel
and concrete parks constructed during the first
ballpark boom era of 1909-1923. The red brick,
boomerang-like edifice was originally built
featuring a covered double-decked grandstand that
wrapped around home plate and extended about
thirty feet past both first and third base.
Single-decked pavilion seating continued into both
outfield corners. Total seating capacity was just
over 20,000. It was one of the smallest-capacity
parks when it was built and remained one of the
smallest in the league throughout its six-decade
history. The outfield bleachers only held 4,500
fans, all in right field. In fact, permanent
seating was never employed in left and center
field.
Despite the cozy confines for the fans, the park
played big. It was a pitcher-friendly 360 feet to
left, 420 feet to center, and 360 feet to right.
Throughout its early years, Redland was said to
have the hardest and fastest playing surface in
the league. (Coincidentally, and unfortunately,
years down the road at Riverfront Stadium, the
Reds would become the first outdoor team to play
its home games on the slick, billiards table-like
artificial turf.) Before the 1927 season,
responding to the popularity of Babe Ruth and the
Home Run era, the Reds turned their playing field
and moved home plate out 20 feet, creating better
dimensions for sluggers (339’, 395’, 366’).
By 1933 Reds owner
Sid Weil lost the team to bankruptcy. The bank
hired Leland Stanford “Larry” MacPhail to look
after the Reds. MacPhail, cankerous and
hot-tempered, would prove to be one of baseball’s
great innovators. His first move was to sell the
majority of the club to Powel Crosley Jr. Crosley
was one of the first millionaires whose fortunes
came from the new medium of direct mail, and he
turned that early fortune into a media empire that
included 50,000-watt radio station WLW ("the
Nation's Station") and the first NBC affiliate. In
a way, he was a predecessor of Ted Turner, buying
the Cincinnati Reds for $450,000 and using team
broadcasts as a way to prop up his radio and
television interests. In fact, a Reds TV broadcast
became the first sports program ever broadcast in
color.
It was said that
Powel Crosley was not a man of broad interests,
and his wife complained that they did little
together other than fish and watch baseball.
That's a little unfair: Crosley invented the first
compact car (which was sold through department
stores, not traditional dealerships), the first
car radio (the Roamio), the first refrigerator
with door shelving units (the Shelvador), and a
bed cooling system (the Koolrest). To
his credit, he gave the majority of ownership
responsibilities to his younger brother Lewis
(Lewis actually ran all the businesses for
Powell), changed the name of the park to Crosley
Field, and hired Larry MacPhail to be the general
manager.
Many of the major
structural renovations at the stadium happened
after the new administration took over. Between
the 1937-38 seasons, home plate was moved another
twenty feet out (328’, 387’, 366’) and in the
middle of their pennant winning season of 1939,
the Reds added roofed upper decks to the left and
right field pavilions. This gave Crosley Field
5,000 extra seats and the appearance it would
retain for the rest of its existence.
The park that was once rented out for dance and
film (in 1920 the Cincinnati Enquirer called it
“immoral dancing” with “vulgar conduct between
boys and girls in unlit parts of the grandstand”
had some of the most unique features and landmarks
in the game.
The Terrace in left field, similar to Duffy’s
Cliff at old Fenway and Tal’s Hill in present-day
Houston, was the scourge of National League
outfielders. Due to an underground stream, about
twenty feet out from the left field fence, the
ground sloped upward, gradually inclining until it
reached the four feet grade at the wall. Thus, the
left field fence measured 14’ high but was 18’
above home plate. In 1935, near the end of his
career, Babe Ruth playing with the Boston Braves
went back on a fly ball and tripped on the
incline, falling flat on his face. Ruth got up and
solemnly walked off the field in disgust. He would
not return to the game and retired a few days
later.
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The scoreboard was the center
of signage at Crosley Field. Note the scoreboard's listing of Redlegs (as
opposed to Reds); during the Communist hysteria of the 1950s the team used
Redlegs as a nickname in order to avoid any association with those nasty
Russians. (Photo courtesy of the Cincinnati Reds.) (Click on the image for a
larger version.) |
Beyond the left field fence sat the Superior Towel
and Linen Service building. It was prominently
visible to all in attendance and was the target of
many a right-handed slugger. Perched atop the
laundry was one of baseball’s most well-known
signs (HIT THIS SIGN AND GET A SIEBLER SUIT --
Siebler’s) gave out a total of 176 of their
finest. Reds outfielder Wally Post led all hitters
with 16. Willie Mays collected seven suits, tops
among visiting players. The most famous home run
at Crosley cleared the sign and landed in the back
of a truck. It was calculated that Reds catcher
Ernie Lombardi’s moon shot traveled 30 miles.
Center field at Crosley was the source of some
controversy over the years. The three-story brick
Crowe Engineering Company building in center was
where 1950’s Reds’ skipper Fred Hutchinson would
position his sign stealers. That is at least what
the Cubs alleged. Also, a fluke play in center
cost the Reds a potentially critical game in their
pennant winning season of 1940. Street lights
behind the center field fence caused such glare
that canvas shields were placed on the fence to
protect the batter’s eyes. The shields were then
taken down for day games. Following a night game
on June 5th, someone from the Reds forgot to take
the shields down. In the ninth inning of a day
game two days later, the Reds’ Harry Craft hit a
shot that struck a shield above the center field
fence. The ball fell to the ground and Craft wound
up at third with a triple. Reds manager Bill
McKechnie argued for thirty minutes that the call
should have been a game-winning home run.
Ultimately, the umpires ruled against the Reds
because it was their fault, and predictably, they
lost the game in extra innings by one run.
Right field was the only section of Crosley that
was completely exposed to the sun and the
bleachers were thusly nicknamed the Sun Deck. A
huge sun burst was painted on the rear wall. At
night, naturally, the area was called the Moon
Deck. For two periods during the 1940s and 1950’s,
seats were installed in front of the Sun/Moon
Deck, cutting the distance in right field from
366’ to 342’. This area was called the Goat Run or
the Chicken Run or the Giles’ Chicken Run. This
was expected to aid the popular, sleeveless
strongman Ted Kluszewski. The right0field fence
intersected at a point with the center field
concrete wall. This necessitated a home run line,
a white vertical stripe painted on the center
field wall that read "Batted ball hitting concrete
wall on fly to right of white line – home run."
Never before or since has a ground rule been
painted on an outfield wall.
|
In the old day a television
broadcast from any ballpark was a major undertaking, and TV stations made a huge
deal of their remote broadcasting capabilities. Here's a promotional photo from
WLW-TV describing their remote capabilities. |
The Reds were pioneers in accommodating their
opponents. In the 1930s they became the first team
to install a clubhouse for the visiting team. And
an added bonus for the fans: both teams’
clubhouses were located behind the left field
stands. Players and coaches had to walk amongst
the crowd to enter and leave the playing field.
Of these fans, the most celebrated was Harry Thobe.
Dancing a perpetual jig, flashing 12 gold teeth,
the superfan and crowd entertainer attended almost
every game in the 1940s and 1950s, wearing his
customary white suit with red stripes, one red and
one white shoe, a straw hat with a red band, and a
red and white parasol.
Major upgrades were undertaken at Crosley prior to
the 1957 season. The red brick façade was painted
white, new lights were installed and the largest
scoreboard of its day replaced the old one in left
center. The scoreboard stood 58 feet high and 65
feet wide. Atop the scoreboard was eight-foot-tall Longines clock. In addition to showing scores of
all the major league games in progress and
displaying full home and visiting team line-ups,
the new board was the first to feature up-to-date
players’ batting averages.
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Another view of he famous Crosley Field
scoreboard with the Longines clock at the top.
(Photo courtesy of the Cincinnati Reds.) (Click
on the image for a larger version.) |
Perhaps the greatest moment in Crosley Field
history came on May 24, 1935, when the Reds
defeated Philadelphia 2-1 in the first night game
in major league history. Twenty-six years earlier
in 1909, inventor George Cahill had shown off a
new portable lighting system. He built five steel
towers for The Palace of the Fans and strung
lights for an Elks Lodge game between Cincinnati
and Newport, Kentucky. In 1931, the Reds shared
portable lighting equipment with the touring House
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