Philadelphia's Old Ballparks

Baseball in America

by Rich Westcott

Philadelphia's baseball history goes beyond Shibe Park. Philadelphia's Old Ballparks is both a documentary and an oral history, providing colorful descriptions of all the old professional parks and the many teams that played in them. Baker Bowl, with its right field wall so close to home plate, for instance, prompted sports writer Red Smith to quip, "It might be exaggerating to say the outfield wall casts a shadow across the infield. But if the right fielder had eaten onions at lunch, the second baseman knew it." Shibe Park's idiosyncrasies are also well-documented, as are the others. The recollections of dozens of people: players, owners, vendors, ushers, groundskeepers, and fans have been called upon in recreating the world that was held within those walls.

Genres: Baseball

206 pages, Hardcover

First published June 7, 1996

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rich Westcott purports to be a baseball historian and perhaps in the shorter pieces he writes for various baseball history publications his style fits. But in longer books, it just doesn't work. He often uses the passive voice and sounds like he keeps a thesaurus near him which he consulted whether he needed to or not. Still, he does love his subject. And so we get a history of major league parks prior to Veterans Stadium which was then still being used by the Phillies. After giving the 19th century parks a cursory glance, he focuses his examination to the long-time home of the Phillies - the Baker Bowl and the home of the A's and Phillies after they left the Baker Bowl - Shibe Park (later renamed Connie Mack Stadium). Westcott's depiction of the Baker Bowl is extraordinary in its thoroughness of how decrepit the park was even from the outset. The facilities were outdated and laughably idiosyncratic. The legendary 40 foot tall tin wall only 270 feet from home plate was only typical of how atypical the park was. In contrast, Shibe Park was a virtual palace. Westcott gives us a picture of a park that was loved by home and visiting players and fans alike. However, Westcott does not go into much depth in the memories. He discusses how the park developed and was used. There are some gaps in his story, however, especially in whitewashing the greeting that Jackie Robinson received in his first appearance at Shibe Park, attributing the heckling and abuse he received from Philadelphia fans and the Phillies themselves to a dispute between Robinson and Phillies manager Ben Chapman over a botched bunt attempt and not mentioning the racist epithets hurled at Robinson by Chapman.Throughout, you can tell that Westcott loves his subject. He does not lack in passion, but what he does lack is an editor.

[Alexander deLong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book because I wanted to learn more about Baker Bowl since there aren't many great sources out there. Philadelphia's Old Ballparks delivered great encyclopedic knowledge of the park and the other pre-Veteran's Stadium professional baseball homes in Philadelphia.

For anyone interested in learning about the experience at Baker Bowl, Shibe Park and earlier parks, the is the definitive book. Published in 1996, the book benefits from firsthand interviews from fans and workers at the ballparks to provide their experiences along with quotes from players, managers and umpires too.

The writing style, however, is seldom engaging and the information becomes repetitive. Philadelphia's Old Ballparks drifts between encyclopedia and essay leading to an informative but somewhat laborious read.

I found several times in the book where I wanted to know more about a season, a world series or a person and the writing would move on to the next stadium section, and I would have to remind myself this book is about the ballparks first and the people involved second. On a few occasions Weston would provide a quote and then a nearly identical quote from another person as if obligated to include every tidbit. He also varies his vocabulary for the sake of varying his vocabulary, which is fine but feels inorganic in this writing.

Philadelphia's Old Ballparks is a great artifact of the subject matter, and I'm very glad that it exists. The writing style leans more fact sharing than narrative-driven, making it difficult to read in one sitting.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is about Philadelphia’s pre-Veterans Stadium ballparks.
Unfortunately, typical of Westcott’s writing, he gives summaries of events without detail or conclusion to the event. He mentions an interesting item about a stadium then just moves on without finishing the tale of that item.
Also, he includes many interviews with unknown people without explaining who they are, why they are being asked about the topic or why we should care about their opinion or story.
“Joe Smith remembers….”
Well who is Joe Smith and why should we care?
He also often mentions various people for no apparent reason. For example “Tom Jones worked near Shibe Park during the War…”
Then nothing else. My two examples are made up but are perfect examples of westcott’s shoddy writing.
His research is lazy at best and his writing style is kind of like a person who can’t focus telling a story, quickly jumping from one topic to the next.
How he has garnered such accolades is beyond me. Every one of his books I have read is the same way.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are interested in learning about Philly's old ballparks, this is a good read.