Blog post

April 10, 2011 [LINK / comment]

U.Va. #1 in college baseball

Congratulations to the University of Virginia Cavaliers baseball team for climbing to the number one spot in college baseball. The highlight of their spectacular season thus far (31-3 overall record) has been the perfect game thrown by Will Roberts on March 29, as the Cavs beat George Washington University 2-0. It was "the eighth nine-inning perfect game in Division I baseball since 1957 and the first since 2002." (Washington Post) Unfortunately, the Cavs' 12-game winning streak ended today when Georgia Tech beat them 10-8, in Atlanta. Virginia is in a neck-and-neck race with Vanderbilt (30-3) for the nation's #1 spot. (ESPN)

Ten days before that perfect game, on March 19, I drove over to Charlottesville to see the Cavaliers in action against Florida State, which was then ranked #4 in the nation. U.Va. had won the night before in an 11-inning game, and wouldn't you know it, they did the exact same thing when my wife and I were there. The hero of the Saturday afternoon game was Jared King, who hit a walk-off home run to left-center field the bottom of the 11th inning, not far from where we were sitting. Talk about a thrilling way to end a game! Final score: U.Va. 5, Florida State 4; that was Virginia's 13th consecutive victory at the time. (virginiasports.com)

Weather conditions were perfect for taking pictures that day, so I added some photos to the Davenport Field page.

Davenport Field, on March 19. On the left is Klöckner Stadium (soccer and lacrosse) and on the right is University Hall, the old basketball arena.

Foro Sol update

Consider this a belated April Fool's stadium update joke: Foro Sol, home of the Mexico City Diablos Rojos (Red Devils). It is the only major-league-size baseball stadium that is situated within the confines of a auto racetrack, which is now shown in the diagram. This minor revision was prompted by a photo posted on Facebook by Callum Hughson, showing a couple minor details I had not noticed before.

The mail bag: stadiums

Among the many, many e-mail inquiries and tips I've received lately, [a fan named John] pointed me to a thread at baseball-fever.com on parks in football configuration. In particular, there are some good images (still and video) of Cleveland Stadium and Shea Stadium which I had never seen before.

Second, there are some great old photos of Yankee Stadium, including many in color, at wirednewyork.com. Thanks to (new) Facebook friend Jeff Giuliani.

Also, I got a tip from somebody (I lost track, unfortunately) about an article at slate.com by Eric Nusbaum on some of the greatest stadiums that were never built. Examples would be Edmonton's Omniplex, the proposed football stadium in lower Manhattan. Rather intriguing to contemplate...