“The first major-league parks, back in the
nineteenth century, were little more than sandlots with rows of precarious
wooden bleachers—one step up from those vacant, rock-strewn lots in Chelsea.
Eventually they were ringed, frontier-style, with a stockade fence so the
owners could monopolize what was going on inside—charge for admission and food
sales; shake down or expel gamblers who dogged the game; expand the fan base to
the growing middle class, to children, and even women. These changes were akin
to Vegas going family—or to the incandescent cities of fire that rose along the
sands of Coney Island during the same period, replacing the site of louche
entertainments with the very first official amusement parks.”— Novelist,
historian, and diehard baseball fan Kevin Baker, “At the
Park,” Creative Nonfiction 34
(Anatomy of Baseball), 2008
It’s opening day. Play ball!
(The source of the image accompanying this post, by
the way, is The Boston Public Library. The photo, dating from 1893, shows South
End Grounds in Boston, where the Boston Red Stockings, Beaneaters, and Braves
played from 1871 to 1914. Today, the site—at the intersection of Walpole
Street, railroad tracks, and Columbus Avenue—is a parking lot between Northeastern
University's Columbus Parking Garage and Ruggles Station of the Orange Line of
the MBTA.)
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