A light-hearted journey to revisit some old friends

books:


	• Lost Ballparks: A Celebration of Baseball's Legendary Fields Lawrence Ritter Studio, 1994 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Rough Overview

This is a decent book, but it could have been much better. This book was written in 1992, so it misses out on the golden age of retired baseball parks. For the older reader, it details some of the parks that have been gone for 50-60 years, but the younger reader may be left wondering why all the ballparks they grew up with and remember like County Stadium in Milwaukee, the Kingdome, Three Rivers, and Candlestick aren't detailed in this book. If you're over 60, or a big baseball fan you may enjoy this book. Under 30 though, you may wind up reading about a few of Satdiums you never heard of.

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A light-hearted journey to revisit some old friends

A fun, nostalgic view of many famous (and some not-so famous) ballparks that now belong to the ages.

The book covers 22 ballparks that sadly are no more. The famous parks that one would expect are all here (the 16 classic teams' lost parks are all covered), but Ritter tosses in some surprises. Some recent parks have chapters - Baltimore Municipal, Kansas City Municipal, Metropolitan, and Jarry Park - along with some nearly forgotten older parks - League Park, Hilltop Park, and Baker Bowl.

The big surprise is that Ritter includes some notable minor league parks, such as Hollywood's Gilmore Field, Montreal Stadium (Jackie Robinson's 1946 home), Minneapolis' Nicollet Park, Buffalo's Offerman Stadium, San Francisco's Seals Stadium, and the OTHER Wrigley Field (the one in Los Angeles where Home Run Derby was filmed). How many ballpark books include these with the well-chronicled Ebbets Field? Bravo!

Each park gets about a ten-page chapter, which includes a light-hearted but substantial historical narrative, a list of top ten highlights, and plenty of nostalgic pictures. Much of the narratives cover familiar ground, but most fans will learn something new, particularly about the minor league parks.

My only reservation about the book is that, while the narratives touch the important points about the parks, it left me wanting more.

It's interesting reading this together with Green Cathedrals, which is a much better reference book but has long collections of facts rather than narratives and many fewer pictures.

The book was written in 1992. A lot of notable parks have been retired since then (Tiger, Candlestick, Astrodome, County, Cleveland Municipal), so hopefully Ritter will revise the book.

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a must book for any baseball fan.

For those who remember the old ballparks and for for those who don't this is a must have book. Gives the reader a feeling of what it was like to watch those historical moments.

cozy parks from yesteryear

I found myself scanning pictures from this book to e-mail friends so often that they thought i stumbled onto a baseball archival treasure chest. Not only does this book talk about park dimensions but about plays and players also. There are so many anecdotes in this book it becomes a historical account of the game too. Besides the great pictures it is also well written. I never thought the book was dry, it is niether too long or too short.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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