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ALL-STAR GAME: 1960 LIGHTS: 1940s
BEEN THERE: I stopped at the site of Municipal Stadium in August 2002; see photo below.
Municipal Stadium was an old minor league ballpark, originally called Muehlebach Stadium, later Ruppert Stadium (after the owner of the Yankees who bought the Kansas City Blues franchise in 1937), and then (after 1939) Blues Stadium. In 1955 it was expanded, with the help of public money, to accommodate the former Philadelphia Athletics when they moved west. They simply built a big new second deck on top of the original grandstand, raising the seating capacity from about 17,000 to about 30,000. For some reason, they did not extend the grandstand along the third base side. As part of the upgrading to major-league standards, home plate was moved forward about 15 feet or so. In terms of its rounded rectangular shape, it bore some resemblance to Roosevelt Stadium, in New Jersey. (Note that during part of its lifetime as a minor-league ballpark, they took out the outfield fence, so that fair territory extended all the all to the exterior walls along the streets, including the steep slope in right field.)
Municipal Stadium was built in a hilly neighborhood, and the playing field was carved into a large slope which was most pronounced on the southeast side, near the right field foul pole. The rear of the lower deck in that corner was at ground (street) level, whereas on the third base side, it was 10-20 feet above the street. The biggest peculiarity was that the left side of the grandstand only reached a short distance beyond third base, after which a grass slope continued. Permanent seats were installed along that side in 1961. There were no seats beyond the outfield fence while the A's played there, though in some games overflow crowds sat along the steep grass slope on the right field side leading up to the street level. Bleachers were built there in 1969 and/or 1971.
Much like Braves Field (from whence the scoreboard came, in fact), the outfield fence was shifted back and forth several times, and dimensions are notoriously uncertain. Based on the available data, it appears that the inner fence in left field was removed in 1961, put back in again in 1962, and removed permanently in 1965. In right field, the fence evidently stayed put except near the corner, where minor adjustments were made in 1963, and in 1965, when Charlie Finley had a 296-foot "KC Pennant Porch" built in right field to mock Yankee Stadium's short right field. The Commissioner of Baseball ordered him to move the fence back to 325 feet, the regulation minimum. The dimensions more or less settled down by the time the Royals moved in in 1969. It appears that three rows of seats between the dugouts were removed in 1963, reducing the backstop distance by about ten feet. Likewise, the height of the fences was changed often: the left field fence ranged between 10 feet and 38.5 feet (1959-1960 only), and in 1967 the right field fence was raised to a bizarre 40 feet. It was restored to a normal 13 foot height in 1969, when the Royals began playing.
The Athletics, who increasingly came to be known as the A's, did not fare much better in K.C. than they had in Philadelphia. Nevertheless, there were few noteworthy players from that era, such as Rusty Staub, Bert Campaneris, and Catfish Hunter. In 1965 the famed Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige was brought back to the majors to pitch briefly at age 59, thereby allowing Paige to qualify for a major league pension, which he clearly deserved. A's owner Charley Finley made this ballpark into something of a carnival, often riding the team mascot donkey around the field, creating a children's petting zoo along the left field line, and letting sheep graze beyond the right field fence. After a dispute with Kansas City over lease terms, in 1968 Finley suddenly decided to move his team to Oakland, where the new Coliseum was awaiting.
Kansas City was in an uproar after the A's left town, so Major League Baseball responded by giving the city one of the American League expansion franchises in 1969, along with Seattle (home of the short-lived Pilots). The name of the new team, the Royals, was chosen to pay homage to the old Negro League franchise that used to play in Municipal Stadium, the Monarchs, famed pitcher Satchel Paige's team. When the Royals began playing in 1969, more temporary bleachers were added in right field, raising Municipal Stadium's capacity to about 35,000. The old stadium suffered all the standard problems of inner-city stadiums (crumbling facilities, lack of parking), so the city agreed to help fund construction of a new stadium, and the Royals moved into their sparkling new home in 1973.
After moving from Dallas and changing their name from "the Texans", the Kansas City Chiefs played football at Municipal Stadium from 1963 until 1971. With temporary bleachers installed in left field, the capacity was raised to 47,000.
From the historical marker at the site, I learned that the Beatles played here on September 17, 1964, opening with the song "Kansas City," as fans stormed onto the field. For several years this land was used as a community garden in a project sponsored by the United Way, but when I saw it was just a weedy vacant lot next to an old school. The neighborhood is full of old single-family homes.
SOURCES: Lowry (2006), Pastier (2007), Ritter (1992), Gershman (1993), Ward and Burns (1994), Rosen (2001), www.ballparksofbaseball.com, www.stadiumpage.com/stadiumgraveyard/kc.html, baseball-fever.com
FAN TIPS: Greg ?, Bruce Orser
