Every sport has its past, sometimes long forgotten. People who remain try to keep that history preserved so that we don’t forget as much as we do. The history of a sport is important, as it shows us how things used to be, which either reminds us to do better, or reminds us that we have improved greatly.
Baseball, like most sports, has a rich history. What makes every sport interesting are iconic venues. For baseball, these venues are called ballparks. Every closed ballpark that was once used to host iconic games is a piece of history that is almost lost.
Here are some amazing ballparks that are now closed, to keep up with the history of baseball.
Ebbets Field – Brooklyn Dodgers
The Ebbets Field stadium was named after Charlie Ebbets, the man who purchased the land on which the stadium was built. The land included a dump which was known as Pigtown. The land was bought in 1908 and that same year, construction was started. The stadium was finished and opened in 1913. It was iconic and its walls were instantly recognizable. It was a rather small stadium, accepting only 25,000 viewers. It was home to some iconic matches, but was eventually demolished in 1960. That was due to the Dodgers leaving for Los Angeles in 1957, leaving the stadium and city of New York without one of their baseball teams.
Polo Grounds – New York Giants
This stadium had an interesting history. It was built in 1890, or rather opened in 1890, and it was a polo stadium. This is why its dimensions are so much larger than a regular baseball ballpark. There is more green than you would find in any baseball venue. It is also the reason why no player ever hit a home run on the grounds and ran to center field.
Its name is interesting, or rather, the way it was adopted as the official name. Being originally built to house polo games, the media started calling it Polo Grounds and it eventually became the official name.
Yankee Stadium – New York Yankees
The Yankees used to share the stadium with the Giants, but eventually outbid the Giants for the new stadium. The stadium was opened in 1923. It was always known as the Yankee Stadium, to its fans and everybody else. It was an iconic stadium which had a Monument park and plenty of other features like one of its outside walls. It was demolished in 2010.
This is not that sad of a story because a new stadium was built, better than the previous one. There is a replica of its iconic wall. Some things don’t change.
Tiger Stadium – Detroit Tigers
The stadium was opened in 1912, and had multiple expansions over the years, mostly vertically, to accommodate more fans. It was demolished in 2009. It was the stadium where Reggie Jackson had a fantastic home run, in 1971.
