yeah, I always wanted to see a game in Candlestick Park. I pictured myself sitting in the bleachers with my baseball cap, a scorecard, and a cup of Olympia beer behind my right heel!
Candlestick wasn't a bad stadium, but the wind and cold weather was a major issue. It also lost some character when they closed in the right field area. Before that, it was open except for 3 sets of bleachers, you could see right into the parking lot and the bay. San Francisco and the peninsula is generally quite windy in the summer.
@@ATalkingBadger Candlestick replaced Seals stadium which was a minor league stadium that the Giants used in 1958 and 1959. It was located much further from the water inside the city.
Wrigley Field in LA was also the park used for MLB Home Run Derby in the late 1950's and early 1960. I really enjoyed that show as a kid, watching the best home run hitters in the game competing against each other.
Another factoid about the Los Angeles Wrigley Field was that it was the filming location of the 1960 TV show "Home Run Derby", where major league stars of the time competed in a home run hitting contest (including Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Harmon Killebrew, and Ernie Banks).
YEAH!!! I SAW THAT SHOW!!! between at bats, the announcer would chat with the stars competing! I heard Mickey Mantle talking about Rocky Colovito, "HE HIT 49 HOME RUNS!"
Another one that should be mentioned is Braves Field in Boston, whose dimensions changed over the years. Braves' owner James Gaffney wanted a lot of inside-the-park home runs, so when it opened in 1915, it was more than 400 feet down the lines and almost 500 feet to center field. Ty Cobb said that no one would hit a ball out of the park, and a home run wasn't hit over the fence until 1922.
I would ~~~LOVE~~~ to see half the baseball parks do that. Get rid of the juicers and bring back contact hitters and base stealers. When pitchers don't have to throw fire and only need to keep it down on the infield, they can last nine innings instead of six. It's pitching changes that make baseball games so long and boring, not batters wasting time at the plate. A "pitch clock" solves nothing and doesn't address the problem. Failing that, start calling the strike zone properly, the size of a window (36" by 17") instead of the size of a shoebox like it is now (24" by 15").
The street behind Fenway's Green Monster is Lansdowne Street. The city refused to allow the Red Sox to block it with a normal design for the field, so they built the wall instead.
@@dravya1 Of course not. If it didn’t go up, balls in the power alley would fly out of the park all game long. People focus on the distance down the line (315, but likely 310), but the real problem is in left-center. They list it as 379, but that’s at the end of the wall. The middle of the wall is less than 350, which is absurdly short. The wall is vital to allow play, not to block visibility.
As a young boy, our family went to Jarry Park to watch the Expos. At the time, Rusty Staub was their big star. It was my first time seeing pro baseball. Great memory!
"Jarry Park: The capacity was 28,000 and the smallest in major league baseball". Uh, no. That dubious honor goes to Sick's Stadium in Seattle, home to the 1969 Seattle Pilots before they moved to Milwaukee. On opening day the stadium have about 17,000 seats, but they literally were still building some while the game went on. By June they had managed to top out at about 25,000 seats... but the facility was so poorly constructed that if there was anything more than 10,000 fans, the toilets and sinks stopped working from lack of water pressure. Oh, and they also built it on the cheap out of wood; and given the moist conditions in Seattle the stands began rotting almost immediately. It's an absolute worthy candidate if you decide to do another video about strange stadiums. There's a Lowe's built on the old location now. You can see a small memorial near the entrance where home plate used to be.
I remember watching the Reds v Expos on TV in the early 70's (72-73?) at Jarry Park.I recall seeing Joe Morgan hit a home run into the swimming pool behind the right field wall. As a young kid I thought it was awesome to see a swimming pool at a baseball stadium. Never knew the name of this odd little stadium until today.
Back in 1984, I saw Kirk Gibson hit what I seem to remember was a walk off home run for The Tigers in Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. He hit it “ a country mile” as the old saying goes. It way cleared the right field fence and even cleared the exposed part of the football playing field landing in the end zone. Of course I do not know how long this homer was, but it had to be one of the longest in that now long defunct ballpark.
Joe Morgan said that Crosley Field in Cincinnati had the strangest dimensions of any park he played in; the covered stands were v-shaped, and the park included a 15-degree incline in left field known as "the terrace."
yeah, I saw Jackie Brant (one of the best centerfielders in the game) run up the 15-degree incline, trip, fall down and STRETCH with all his might and have the ball land in his glove....and fall out! the official scorer, even though a redleg hit the ball, called it an 'error'.
@@samuelmoulds1016 I remember that there was a home run line in left field at Crosley, where the fence was made of two different materials, metal and wood. I believe if the ball hit the metal, it was a homer. The umps were supposed to be able to tell by the noise made when the ball hit. I would have definitely put Crosley on this list ahead of LA's Wrigley and the one in Milwaukee, which were not really MLB stadiums, at least not for long. I'd probably put it ahead of the original Wrigley as well, since the main point of "oddness" for the poster seems to be they played only day games for so long. Point of fact, the Cubs were going to install lights during the '40s, but then donated the metal to the war effort. After WW II, Phil Wrigley apparently didn't want to spend the money. Oh, and while we're on the subject of lights, Crosley Field was the first to get them back in, I believe 1938.
Borchert Field in Milwaukee was never home to a Major League Baseball team. There was an MLB team called the Brewers that played in Milwaukee in 1901, but according to Wikipedia, Borchert Field was not there home. That incarnation of the Brewers left for St Louis after the 1901 season, and become known as the Browns. The Brewers team that played there from 1902 - 1952 was a minor league team, they moved in preparation of the Braves moving to Milwaukee in 1953
I live just NE of Boston and have been to many Red Sox games. Yes you are very close to the action. So pay attention. This IS NOT a park for people who stare at their cellphones all game along the 1st and 3rd baselines! Also… they have THE LEAGUES SMALLEST SEATS. If you are over 5’8 or 160 pounds, you’re going to have an EXTREMELY uncomfortable 2.5-3 hours. It’s ridiculous how small they are.
I worked at Exhibition Studium when the Jays were playing there. The grand stand general admission seat in the outfield was $2.00. When the Yankee came to play, the whole stadium would be full.
Although the photo at 3:47 shows it, you neglected to mention the swimming pool beyond the right field fence at Jarry Park. When the Pirates were visiting and Willie Stargell was at bat, they'd clear the pool, because he was likely to hit a home run there.
It was called Willie's Pool in French because he hit a home run in the pool in 1969. When he retired in 1982 the Expos presented him with a life preserver. If you want to get an idea of his power watch him hit shirtless BP in his prime. Sounds like someone wacking a metal shed with a 2×4.
Great video! One stadium that I was hoping would be included was Colt Stadium. This was the home of the Houston Colt 45s prior to moving into the Astrodome and thus changing their name to the Astros.
I attended a Dodger game at the Coliseum in 1961 as a ten-year-old. Our seats were lousy, deep in left field. Bill White of the Cardinals hit 3 HRs in a 10-1 win.
What a memory! I so remember Exhibition Stadium and getting tickets to the Blue Jays and the seats were in that right field section. Beyond the right field fence. Would have been great seats for the Argos.
3:00 Exhibition Stadium was torn down in1999 and the BMO Field got built on the site and opened up in 2007 where the Toronto FC and the Toronto Argonauts play
This was an interesting video and I enjoyed it. To the best of my knowledge major league baseball was not played in that stadium in Milwaukee except possibly for the very first few seasons of the American League starting in 1901. By approximately 1905 some of the AL teams had moved to their permanent locations and there was not another franchise shift in MLB until the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee and became the Milwaukee Braves in 1953. In 1953 the Braves moved into County Stadium where they played for their tenure in Milwaukee until they moved to Atlanta in 1966 and then the Brewers starting in 1970 played at County Stadium until their current stadium was constructed. The Los Angeles Dodgers only played at the LA Coliseum from 1958 until 1961 while Dodger Stadium at Chavez Ravine was being constructed. The LA Coliseum was never intended as their permanent home.
Tiger Stadium doesn't exist any longer. It was torn down and the field was finally converted into a diamond called the Corner Ballpark. Minor league, high school and some football played there. There is housing surrounding the field as well. Nothing old fashion about it.
Actual name is Jarry Park Stadium as it was inside Parc Jarry. It originally had only 3000 seats but they hastily added seats to bring it up to the 28K+ it had when the Expos played there. Don't forget the ladder that is IN PLAY on the Green Monster.
Exhibition Stadium was my stomping grounds as a kid. The first few seasons of the club, you could get those outfield seats (the Grandstand) ridiculously cheap so my family would go a lot. Got a lot of balls there.
The Grandstand seats were $4 at Dominion, and $2 if you had a receipt from grocery shopping at Dominion. We would look through the garbage for receipts to get the half price tickets.
@@goldenretriever6261 You needed to spend $20 in groceries and you could get $1 tickets. And since they were undated and we lived close to the stadium, my dad would game the system and bring used tickets on rainouts to get more tickets.
I would have included Mile High Stadium in Denver. The Rockies played there the first couple of years before Coors Field was ready. It had that strange tiny left field thing going on like the LA coliseum did too.
This was an interesting video, but I was puzzled by the inclusion of Chicago's Wrigley Field when the old Yankee Stadium in New York was much more eccentric.
I'm surprised Denver's Mile High Stadium and its movable left field stands isn't on this list. Like several stadiums mentioned, it hosted both MLB and NFL teams. But what makes it stand out is that the entire east side of the stadium moved out to accommodate left field for baseball games. The 9 million-pound triple-deck stucture, which seated about 20,000 fans, "floated" on a thin sheet of water while hydrolic jacks pushed it 145 feet out for baseball and in for football. From what I understand it was the largest movable structure in the world.
Griffith Stadium, in Washington DC, had an unusual configuration, too, for both incarnations of the Senators. In addition to the seemingly endless left field foul line, there was the indented "notch" in center field, made necessary because the owner of the adjacent land refused to sell.
Wrigley Field (CHI) is also the only (current?) MLB stadium where part of the outfield fence is closer than the distance to the poles. I believe it also has the deepest current distance to both poles.
I remember Connie Mack stadium in Philly. A right field home run went out into the parking lot. I don’t remember the stadium’s dimensions or what it looked like.
Tiger Stadium wasn't especially weird, apart from the flagpole inside the park in deep left-center. The bleachers were tough seats to watch from on a hot day, though.
@@watson956 well... it was 440 to dead center ... had an overhang in RF where seats were over the field & a flagpole on the field.... won't be another like that anytime soon....
Also, while there were stadiums called the Polo Grounds going back to 1890, the famous one pictured here was built around 1911 after the previous version burned down.
3:37 Those seats past the wall were typically not sold during the regular season cause they were just too far away from the action, only during the playoffs and late season games when the demand was there. Exhibition stadium's location caused problems because it was so close to Lake Ontario there was often fog and seagulls on the field. And issues with wind and cold. It snowed during the blue jays first ever game, It's days were numbered after a nationally television Grey Cup game was played there in a torrential rain storm which exposed just how ill-equipped it was and a rally was held the next day with thousands of fans outside city hall chanting "we want a dome." Demolished in 1999. The site is now home to BMO field which is home to the CFL's Toronto Argonauts and Major League Soccer's Toronto FC.
The original building of the Hocky Hall of Fame was across the street from Exhibition Stadium. I've been to Toronto once in my life and that was in 1976. We went to visit the Hockey Hall of Fame, but got to see them doing the renovation work on Exhibition Stadium for the Blue Jays, who would start playing the next year.
You should mention the Astros field with that hill they once had in centerfield. Nothing has defied logic greater in sports history than that silly mound
Borchart field was not a MLB field as far as i know….. it held at least one of the previous incarnations of the Milwaukee Brewers (either the Orieals or the Royals) but they were a MINOR league team at the time
If we're gonna include the dump that is the collesum in Oakland lets toss in the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Beige inflatable roof making fly balls impossible to see. Plexiglass left field wall for "safety." A garbage baggie for a right field wall. Dome inflating fans facing the outfield, behind the batter that were conveniently turned on when the Twins needed a rally... Collapsed in a snow storm. I mean come on hows that not odd!!! Plus, It hosted the greatest baseball game ever played in the 1991 Braves vs.Twins game 7.
When O'Malley moved the Dodgers to LA, he considered Wrigley, but greed made him take the Coliseum instead. He just couldn't resist the seating capacity. But it was a horrible layout for a baseball field.
According to a documentary I saw a few years ago on HBO entitled, The History of the Dodgers in Brooklyn, O'Malley actually had a spot in Brooklyn picked out for a new stadium. (He may have even owned the land.) It was at the end of the rail lines coming from Long Island, which he thought would make transportation to the stadium easier without reliance on a car, but Robert Moses, who laid out the highway system in New York, wanted him to build at what eventually became the Shea Stadium/Citi Field site. That wasn't good enough for O'Malley, so he left. Ironically, LA ended up being more car-centric than NY
For me, Polo Grounds win the prize. Those short foul lines, then walls running straight down left and right fields to 450+ feet. Crazy. Imagine a check swing hits one over the right field wall but nothing short of a herculean blast will go out in center. Then those bullpens with the little seating roofs that come into play. If you had a nightmare about baseball, this would be the field to host your dream.
The fact that the bull pens in the Polo Grounds or the monuments at Old Yankee Stadium were in fair territory is not surprising. Both stadiums were built in the dead ball era of baseball. Since most batted balls did not carry to the wall anyway there was no need for uniform distances down the lines, center field, etc. I bet if baseball were invented today the outfield distances would be standardized just like the the infield.
Baseball is the only one of the major sports...baseball, basketball, football, Hockey, & soccer, where the dimensions of the playing surface vary from one place to the next!?
Actually, unless things have changed (and I admit they might have) hockey rink size is not standardized. I know it was this way when I was younger as a team with a lot of speed would want a larger ice surface, while slower, more defensive minded teams wanted smaller rinks.
@@goldenretriever6261 Yeah, you're probably, almost certainly, right. I believe (again I might be mistaken) that MSG is now the oldest arena in the NHL, so if they made all the rinks the size of the Rangers, it would make sense. Perhaps MSG had to increase the rink size as well.
Polo Grounds was not only beautiful, but it have poor in New York a place to escape For a few hours. Giants were loved in New York just as much as the Yankees
I miss those wacky old multi-purpose stadiums, even some of the more "normal" ones like Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Saw a Blue Jays game at Exhibition Stadium in the early '80s. Very odd-looking place.
I’m Surprised Sahlen Field In Buffalo was Not Mentioned as it was the Relocation Home of the Toronto Blue Jays During Covid. Its a 19,000 seat Minor League Park for AAA Baseball but was Originally built to be Expanded with Hope of Getting a Major League team which did Not happen other that the Blue Jays Deal. During the Blue Jays Relocation to Buffalo, The Stadium received Many Upgrades to Major League Standards which Made Buffalo having one of the Top Minor League Stadiums in the Country!
I don't know what it was like before it was reconfigured for baseball, but I went to five Argonaut games there in 1987, and I had to go about 40 rows up on the covered side to get a good view because the field didn't run parallel to the grandstand. As for the uncovered side, I sat thee for my first game; as a visitor, I accepted the ticket clerk's word that I was getting a good seat. Indeed, it would have been a good seat down the first base line for baseball, but was on the 5-yard line for football. At least I had a good view of a couple of touchdowns.
Yeah thanks for screwing all of us on PC MLB The Show. I got it on Xbox and was pumped it was finally on Xbox when the console overpriced garbage consoled on me and quit working with no recourse. I got a PC and was going to get The Show only to see it's never coming to PC..smh.
