Introduction

Welcome to baseball stadium heaven!

This page is designed primarily for newcomers to this Web site, but also provides a distinct, useful interface for comparing stadium thumbnail diagrams and photographs. The following is a list of all the stadium pages on this Web site, including a few oddball cases and miscellaneous non-MLB stadiums I have seen. Miniature (thumbnail) previews of the stadium diagrams appear when you roll the mouse over the names.

Stadium diagrams: Introduction

The central feature of this Web site are the stadium diagrams, which are rendered from a naturalistic top-down "eagle-eye" view, not the kind of "exploded" view used in seating charts to reveal the sections covered by upper-tier decks. The profiles in each diagram usually represent a "typical" part of the grandstand, but bear in mind that in many stadiums (especially newer ones) the mezzanine level behind home plate contains the press box rather than fan seating. To avoid unnecessary clutter, the diagrams generally omit certain details such as batting circles or minor idiosyncrasies in the shape of the dirt infield and basepaths. Originally, the dirt (or cinder) warning tracks around the perimeter of stadiums were omitted, but they are gradually being added as older diagrams are revised. Note that there is some variation among the diagrams in terms of "refinement." That is, some diagrams (such as Braves Field) are two or three years old and lack some features such as warning tracks or directional compasses (pointing north). Others (such as SBC Park) include some of those features but are not oriented in a consistent way, and some (such as, most recently, Forbes Field) are fully "up-to-standard." I am carrying out a steady, long-term project of bringing nearly all of the diagrams up to the same standard, with home plate located at the same X-Y coordinate, facilitating easier comparison on the Side-by-side and Overlay comparison pages. Stadiums that have been sponsored by fans (see top of page) get assigned a higher priority on my "to-do" list.

"Dynamic" diagrams

(JAVASCRIPT REQUIRED!) Most older stadiums underwent major expansion or renovation one or more times, and the diagrams indicate this with small arrows and the year of expansion in parentheses. In cases where the change was especially drastic, the diagram has been made "dynamic," meaning that the original version originally appears when the page is first loaded in your browser program, and the subsequent version(s) appear(s) when you roll the mouse cursor over the diagram (and away from it), without clicking. For most of the stadiums where pro football was played, the football gridiron and temporary football-only seating sections are indicated.

Diagram accuracy & scale

Generally speaking, the diagrams are accurate to within a few feet, i.e., one or two pixels. As a scholar and as a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, I aspire to uncover historical facts and share my findings with others who have a like interest. There are certainly a few errors in the diagrams, and I appreciate fan feedback, which has proven invaluable in helping to making the diagrams more and more accurate over time. I acknowledge helpful tips from fans on the respective stadium pages. Estimates for the position of the fences and walls lining the playing field are more accurate than for the exterior walls. The scale is identical in all of the diagrams: 3 pixels = 5 feet. How that translates to feet per inch depends on your screen resolution (e.g., 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 pixels), monitor size, and whether you are using a Macintosh or a Windows PC. Whatever your computer's configuration, you can make easy direct comparisons between virtually ANY two major league stadiums built since the early 20th century.

How do I do this?

My techniques are too difficult to describe in a brief fashion, but is basically involves "reverse engineering," looking at photos from many different angles, and comparing data on dimensions from various sources. I count number of rows in photos to derive estimates of how deep the grandstands and bleachers are. The depth of seating areas is based on a rule of thumb that each row is about 2.7 feet deep. Rows tend to be narrower in bleacher areas, and in nearly all older ballparks compared to modern-day stadiums. I also use seating diagrams published in team programs, and shown on Web sites, but those diagrams are typically not very accurate. Even though they are representations of real-world objects, these renderings are original works of art protected under U.S. copyright laws, and full respect for intellectual property rights is a condition for use of these pages.

What's in a (stadium) name?

Please bear in mind the following standard practices I've adopted: I use the commonly accepted names of the stadiums, not necessarily the current (and often short-lived) name of the corporate sponsor, indicating with an asterisk those stadiums that were subsequently renamed. Quotation marks indicate new names, but in some cases (e.g., "Tiger Stadium") that is the name that gained currency, whereas many people kept calling Shibe Park by its original name rather than "Connie Mack Stadium." As explained in the notes below, in some cases the name changed subsequently, as indicated by quotation marks. See the Stadium names page.

General sources:

 

Books

Books are listed in alphabetical order, by author's last name. The number of baseballs () indicates how good the book is, mainly in terms of how useful it is for purposes of baseball stadium research. 1 = fair; 2 = good; 3 = very good; 4 = excellent

Dean V. Baim, The Sports Stadium as a Municipal Investment (Greenwood Press, 1994).

Michael Benson, Ballparks of North America: A Comprehensive Historical Reference to Baseball Grounds, Yards, and Stadiums, 1845 to Present (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., 1989)

Furman Bisher, Miracle in Atlanta: The Atlanta Braves Story (Cleveland and New York: World Pub. Co., 1966)

Philip Bess, City Baseball Magic: Plain Talk and Uncommon Sense About Cities and Baseball Parks, (Knothole Press, 1989). A polemic against New Comiskey Park, with a proposed alternative designed to better fit into (and thus revive) Chicago's south side. (Thanks, Connie!)

John Durant, The Story of Baseball in Words and Pictures, (New York: Hastings House Publishers, 1974)

Michael Gershman, Diamonds: The Evolution of the Ballpark (Houghton-Mifflin, 1993). A very good chronological development with many fantastic ancient photos, but somewhat plagued by uneven quality and scrambled sequencing.

Philip J. Lowry, Green Cathedrals 3rd ed. (Walker, 2006). An excellent, nostalgic book filled with statistics and fun facts about ALL past major league ballparks, including Negro League parks and those back in the 19th century. The previous (second) edition published in 1992 was the inspiration for my renewed interest in baseball stadiums. It is highly recommended for baseball scholars and regular fans alike.

John Pastier, Historic Ballparks, (Chartwell Books, 2006). A coffee-table-sized book full of old and new photographs, historical analysis, statistics, diagrams from the 1950s, and drawings of pre-concrete era ballparks by Rick Okonen.

Phil Pepe, The Yankees: An Authorized History of the New York Yankees, updated Centennial edition (Taylor Trade Publishing, 2003).

Lawrence Ritter, Lost Ballparks, (Viking Penguin, 1992). Great photos for many old stadiums, including some minor league parks, but excluding several major league parks of note.

Ray Robinson and Christopher Jennison, Yankee Stadium 2nd ed. (Viking Studio, 2004)

Ira Rosen, Blue Skies, Green Fields: A Celebration of 50 Major League Baseball Stadiums, (Clarkson Potter Publishers, 2001). Superb professional photos of nearly all the recent stadiums, with mixed-quality photos of many older major league parks. Includes 300 quotes from players, managers, and other baseball personalities.

Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, Baseball: An Illustrated History (Alfred A. Knopf, 1994). This is the "companion volume" to Ken Burns' famous series on PBS. See review at Civic religion

Donald Whitford, Playing Hardball: The High Stakes Battle for Baseball's New Franchises (New York: Doubleday, 1993). Chronicles the promotional campaigns and back-room intrigues that brought new baseball teams to Denver and (Miami) Florida in 1993.

Bob Wood, Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks: The Ultimate Guide to America's Top Baseball Parks (McGraw-Hill, 1988). The author made a pilgrimmage to all 26 major league stadiums in 1985, and thus (unlike me) has a first-hand basis for judging which stadiums are better than others. I just can't figure out some of his rankings, however.

Andrew Zimbalist, Baseball and Billions: A probing look inside the big business of our national pastime (New York: Basic Books, 1992). The author is the nation's foremost expert on baseball finances.

Annual publications

Roger Kahn (ed.), The Mutual Baseball Almanac (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1954) Included stadium diagrams, as well as player and team statistics.

Baseball Stadiums 2003 Panoramic Calendar, photographs by Jim Dow (San Francisco: Chronicle Books LLC, 2002). Exquisite detail.

J.G. Taylor Spink and others, Baseball Guide and Record Book (St. Louis: Charles C. Spink & Sons, 1947) Included cartoon drawings of each team's stadium, adorned with lots of fascinating historical tidbits, as well as player and team statistics.

Sports Staff of USA Today, The Complete Four Sport Stadium Guide (Fodor's Travel Publications, 1996).

Street & Smith's Baseball Yearbook

The Sporting News Baseball (Yearbook Series)

The ESPN Information Please Sports Almanac, Gerry Brown and Michael Morrison, eds.