Baseball has a history like no other American sport. The Union Grounds in Brooklyn, New York, is considered to be the first ballpark ever built, when William Cammeyer decided to use the Union Skating Pond as a ground for baseball games in 1862. Professional teams followed in 1871 and enterprising owners began to invest in the creation of wooden palaces, such as the Grand Pavilion in Boston and Sportsman’s Park in St Louis.The first steel-and-concrete ballpark was Shibe Park in Philadelphia built in 1909 which housed a then-record 20,000 spectators and set the standard in ballpark design. The Brooklyn Dodgers matched that with Ebbet’s Field in 1913 and the New York Yankees trumped them with a 58,000 capacity Yankee stadium to house the legion of babe Ruth fans.Over the years the cathedrals of baseball have come, been copied and are now gone, with all but a few heavily-modernized exceptions. Lost Ballparks looks back at the most storied ballparks in baseball’s rich history.From the wooden bleachers of Boston’s Huntington Avenue Grounds to the ‘space age’ Houston Astrodome, to the tidal harbor ballpark at Ketchikan Alaska, there is a huge variety of ballparks that have fallenList of cities: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cincinnati, Clearwater, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, DesMoines, Detroit, Emeryville (Ca), Fort Mill (SC), Houston, Indianapolis, Johnson City (NY), Kansas City, Ketchikan (Al), Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Montreal, Newark, NewOrleans, New York, Omaha, Rochester, St Louis, St Paul, St Petersburg, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tokyo (Japan), Toledo, Toronto, Washington, D.C., Wilmington.

The Polo Ground, Ebbets Field, Comiskey Park--the great temples of baseball are being razed to the ground. Now the author of The Glory of Their Times has brought 22 of these grand old open-air, wood-and-concrete stadiums back to life in a beautiful, big-hearted book filled with over 250 vintage photos of parks, players, games, and fans.

Finalist for the 2022 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the Regional Category New York's Great Lost Ballparks tells the story of New York playing grounds and ballparks of yesteryear. Organized by region and city, the book includes a complete list of New York's historic ballparks in an easy-to-read guidebook format. Each listing includes the name and location of the park, the years in operation, the names of the professional clubs that called it their home, the park's seating capacity, and a "Fun Fact" or two that distinguishes each locale. More famous ballparks include an extended history that examines the importance of the field in the annals of the game. The book is richly illustrated with historic photos of the parks and players and ten maps of key locations (including New York City's boroughs). Special attention is given to locales that hosted the Negro League and all-women teams.

This work seeks to address an often ignored factor in the study of early 20th century baseball, namely, what was the ballpark like? The author uses original research to answer this question.

Philadelphia's rich baseball heritage as seen through its baseball parks is vividly brought to life in this colorful and anecdotal book. Experienced sportswriter Rich Westcott once again dives into a labor of love, taking us back in time to an era when Philadelphia's ballparks were as famous and as much a part of the game as the teams that took the field. Philadelphia's baseball history goes beyond Shibe Park. Philadelphia's Old Ballparksis both a documentary and an oral history, providing detailed descriptions of all of the old professional parks and the many teams that played in them, including Baker Bowl, with its right field wall so close to home plate, it prompted sportswriter Red Smith to quip, "It might be exaggerating to say the outfield wall casts a shadow across the infield. But if the right fielder had eaten onions at lunch, the second baseman knew it." Shibe Park is also well-documented with its idiosyncracies, as are the others. The recollections of dozens of people--players, owners, vendors, ushers, grounds keepers, and fans combine to recreate the world that was held within those walls. Author note: Rich Westcotthas served as a writer and editor on the staffs of a variety of newspapers and magazines in the Philadelphia and Baltimore areas during his 35 years in publishing. He is the publisher and editor of Phillies Report.He is the author of six books, including The New Phillies Encyclopedia(Temple), with Frank Bilovsky; Phillies '93, An Incredible Season(Temple); Diamond Greats;and Masters of the Diamond.

Ballparks Then and Now is a fascinating exploration of ballparks across America. Packed with archival and modern photography, this book documents the development of America's national pastime by looking at the fields of dreams on which it is played. The ballpark experience has changed dramatically from baseball's early days on grassy lots with wooden grandstands and free admission. The Union Grounds in Brooklyn, New York, is considered by many to be the first ballpark ever built, when William Cammeyer converted the Union Skating Pond in 1862. Ballparks Then and Now traces the evolution of stadiums used by all the MLB teams today. Organized alphabetically they range from Anaheim and Atlanta to Toronto and Washington. Ballparks grew in size and grandeur from wooden bleachers and stands that often perished in ferocious fires (Boston, Cincinnati) to the concrete cookie-cutter ballparks of the 1960s and 1970s (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh). These multi-sport stadiums have now been replaced by modern retro designs (Yankees, Mets) that give each park its own unique feel. Batting far into the 9th are the carefully updated historic ballparks (Redsox, Cubs) nested in the heart of their communities.

"Former minor-league baseball player Byron Bennett has a deep and spiritual connection to the game of baseball and its history. He sees things in a way others cannot and believes in things others would not. He thinks the old men working the menial jobs in the dienrs, dives, and graveyards he frequents are not what they seem. They try to fit in, go unnoticed, but Byron suspects thay are not your typical second-career workign stiffs"--Page 4 of cover.