Upon Further Review: Baseball can be played anywhere
All the fields at the Civic Center have been filled with crowds of people watching and cheering their sons and daughters playing ball. And if you’re over there during the afternoon the sound of kids playing ball and the smell of food in the air is a wonderful thing to experience.
It’s great to see so many out enjoying the nice complex of fields the city has to offer. But as I stood over there watching one of the games the other night, it was a little disappointing to know all this would soon be over in a couple of weeks.
Ballparks are a special place, but I started to realize baseball is one of the few sports you can play practically anywhere. All you have to have is a bat and a ball.
We all have played in pick-up games in the backyard or at an empty lot. It really doesn’t matter how old you are you can still play the game anywhere.
Bases can be improvised out of a pile of rocks, an old cardboard box or anything you can find laying around. That old oak tree serves as home plate and the three dogwoods out in the backyard are turned into first, second and third base.
Baseball has been played in school yards, dirt fields and cow pastures. In some cases it’s played in the middle of city streets. The old makeshift diamond offers more variations and excitement to the game itself.
It’s a place where kids pick their own teams and arguments are kept to a minimum. Kids stand over a invisible plate and dream of playing in the world series and driving in the game winning run.
Ballparks have changed little over the years, except for the college and professional parks. Nowadays it’s all about putting fans in the seats in order to make a dollar.
Professional ballparks were first built around the 1860s and seated anywhere from 26,000 at the Olympic Grounds, in Washington to 40,000 at Union Grounds in Brooklyn.
But early in 1900’s ballparks took on a new look as team owners were looking to build a profit. The ballparks started to take on character with grand architecture and design. Forbes field was one of the first stadiums to be built with concrete and steel as classic parks soon started popping up across the country. Comiskey Park, Tiger Stadium, Fenway Park, Ebbets Field and Wrigley Field were all built between 1910 and 1914.
Most parks built during this period were designed to be an integral part of the community. The average cost to build a ballpark during the early 1900’s was around $2 million.
My how times have changed. In 1966 Atlanta Fulton County Stadium was built at a cost of $18 million. In 1997 the Braves new home Turner Field cost $235 million.
The newer stadiums built within the last 10 years have gone back to the old style of architecture. Oriole Park at Camden Yards was built at a cost of $110 million. The Ballpark in Arlington where the Rangers play was built in 1994 for a little over $190 million and topping the list as most expensive is Safeco Field home of the Seattle Mariners at $550 million.
Now we wonder why it cost so much to go to a ball game. If you take a family of four to a Braves game it’s going to cost you $200 if you’re lucky. Yes, I know everything cost a little more these days, but does the game of baseball really have to be played in a multi-million dollar stadium? A field, a fence and a couple of lawn chairs work just fine.