Sports Venues of Days Past

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HILLTOP PARK

Opening in 1903, Hilltop Park became the New York Yankees first home. The team that moved into Hilltop Park was originally the Baltimore Orioles who played at Oriole Park. In 1902 the Orioles were sold to Joseph Gordon, Bill Devery, and Frank Farrell for $18,000. They decided to move the team to New York City to a site chosen near the Hudson River. Over $200,000 was spent excavating the site that the ballpark was built on because it was very rocky. Opening Day came on April 30, 1903 when the New York Highlanders played the Washington Senators. The ballpark was originally known as American League Park, but was renamed Hilltop Park soon after because the ballpark sat on high ground. However, the ballpark was not in good condition when it opened. There was a swamp in right field that had yet to be filled with rock, the outfield had no grass, the grandstand had not been completed, and players had to dress at their hotel rooms because the clubhouse was not completed. When Hilltop Park was finally completed, a single tier wooden covered grandstand extended from the third base dugout to homeplate and around to the first base dugout. Uncovered grandstands extended to both foul poles. From behind homeplate, fans could see scenic views of the Hudson River and New Jersey Palisades. After Polo Grounds burnt in 1911, the New York Giants moved into Hilltop Park. The next year, the Highlanders moved into a rebuilt Polo Grounds along with the Giants and were renamed the Yankees. The last game played at Hilltop Park was on October 5, 1912. Hilltop Park stood until 1914 when it was demolished. The site remained vacant until Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center opened in 1928.

Entire article: https://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/ballparks/hilltop-park/

 

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Ohio Field was a multipurpose stadium on the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, United States. It was built in 1898, dedicated in 1908, and served as the first on-campus home of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team as well as the track and field team through the 1921 season. Initial seating capacity was approximately 500 until 1907, when a grandstand and bleachers were added. Another renovation in 1910 saw a second grandstand added, with amenities such as brick ticket booths and iron fences, boosting capacity to 14,000.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_Field



You might not have known it, but if you’ve walked along High Street, between Woodruff Ave and the Wexner Center for the Arts, you’ve walked over the old Ohio Field, the former home of Ohio State football before Ohio Stadium opened in 1922. These days, several buildings and roadways cover the land. University Architect Bernie Costantino helped with a university project to commemorate the field and the legends who competed on it with signs and yard markers that were installed in spring 2017.

 

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Wreck of the day: Bill Veeck and Comiskey Park’s exploding scoreboard

It had seemed to me for a long time that the home run, which had once been the single most exciting and spectacular event in a ball game, had become so commonplace that it was being greeted not with cheers but with yawns…I could not see why it should not be possible to put the kick back into the home run by having it trigger something else.

…We built a scoreboard at Comiskey Park with 10 mortars bristling from the top for firing Roman candles. Behind the scoreboard, the fireworks crew shot off bombs, rockets and anything else they happened to think of. Nor was shooting rockets and bombs all out talented scoreboard could do.

Entire article: https://bosoxinjection.com/2014/04/15/wreck-day-bill-veeck-comiskey-parks-exploding-scoreboard/

 

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This would never happen today.

 

[ScriptOhio]

Campbell's Field was a 6,425-seat baseball park in Camden, New Jersey, United States that hosted its first regular season baseball game on May 11, 2001. The ballpark was home to the Rutgers–Camden college baseball team, and until 2015 was home to the Camden Riversharks of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. The naming rights were owned by the Camden-based Campbell Soup Company, which paid $3 million over ten years. Stadium demolition started in mid-December 2018.

Camden Athletic Complex - EwingCole

www.ewingcole.com

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY​

CAMDEN ATHLETIC COMPLEX​

Camden, NJ​

After the demolition of Campbell’s Field in 2019, the Rowan University-Rutgers Camden Board of Governors and Rutgers-Camden marked a new use for the site at Pearl Street, Penn Street, and Delaware Avenue along the waterfront. The design includes a turf baseball field and multipurpose field, an eight-lane track, pole vault and steeple chase, and a clubhouse with locker rooms, bathrooms, and training rooms. The facility also includes 26 new parking spaces with bike racks, new sports lighting, and is equipped with enhanced stormwater management. EwingCole and key Rutgers and municipal stakeholders developed the new athletic complex to be utilized by Rutgers University–Camden’s NCAA Division III soccer, baseball, lacrosse, track, and club teams, as well as by the larger Camden community. Dubbed one of the “best backdrops in college baseball” by the NCAA, players in the batter’s box have a stunning view of the towering Ben Franklin Bridge facing center field and the Philadelphia skyline to the left.