Storied Stadiums: Baseball's History Through Its Ballparks

by Curt Smith, Bob Costas (Foreword)

Critically acclaimed author Curt Smith fulfills the wildest dreams of baseball fans everywhere by traveling through space and time in a vast, entertaining volume that spares readers the price of gas, food, lodging (and admission) and puts them in a field box at every big-league park in the pastime’s history—from Fenway and Ebbets to Camden Yards and PNC Park. Just as Smith’s critically acclaimed Voices of the Game is the definitive history of baseball broadcasting, Storied Stadiums chronicles the stories, statistics, and characters behind all of baseball’s venues. From park to park throughout the years, the great game’s triumphs, tragedies, and comedies unfold in a kinetic prose as full of surprises as a wind-aided knuckleball. Illustrated with 36 color lithographs from the Bill Goff Collection, Storied Stadiums is at once a fact-filled almanac of the more than 125 major-league ballparks, past and present, and a paean to our national pastime.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

608 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2001

Reviews

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Curt Smith explores Baseball's history through its stadiums. I was a Baseball fan when I was younger, but my local team was terrible. I didn't have any Baseball skills, so I developed other interests. Off the top of my head, I could name three stadiums before reading this book: American Family Field, Wrigley Field, and Fenway Park.

So much of baseball’s history goes hand in hand with American history. Smith rattling off names reminds me of the scene in The Sandlot where they read the autographed baseball, but the MC only recognizes Babe Ruth. The book taught me a few things as well. I always thought Abner Doubleday invented the game as an offshoot of Cricket. The book argues that baseball was invented by a man named Wainwright. Or maybe it was Cartwright. I don’t know who is right, and it happened so long ago that I don’t care, except as a trivia question.

The book is like a bible to baseball fans. It covers everything about the game from the stadium's perspective. It talks about the invention of the curveball, which a pitcher probably threw due to their lack of fingers. Along the way, we get snippets of history in other fields.

The one issue I have with the book is the jargon. Sometimes I don’t know if they are talking about wins in a season or runs earned on each side.

I enjoyed the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.

[Tristan Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone who loves the game and wants to learn more about the history of the game and the ballparks it’s played in, highly recommended. The book goes into great depth about the history of the most storied parks and provides great anecdotes on the players and events that happened from the creation of the game to 2001.

[Lawrence A · Rating 1 out of 5]

God-awful, too-cute-for-words writing, compounded by confusing text, out-of-context narrative, and plenty of factual errors. I learned at p 105, for instance, that John Garfield became president of the United States in 1881(which, if true, meant that he was the first Jewish president of the US, and the first actor to become president, besting Ronald Reagan by 100 years!) Methinks the author meant James Garfield, but who's to know? The name "Nationals" or "Nats" is used in the text to refer to, variously, the old Washington Senators, the New York Giants (sometimes referred to as the Stonehams), the St. Louis Cardinals, the Philadelphia Phillies, or players in the National League generally---and this in a book that was written several years prior to the Montreal Expos' transformation into the current Washington Nationals. It's up to you, dear reader, to figure out which "Nationals" is which. The author has gone deep into his Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, included some clever quotation in almost every section (and sometimes in every paragraph), and tried, with little success, to stretch the meaning of the quote so as to have it seem relevant to some incident in baseball history. Well, at least the pictures were nice.

[Rob Best · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Storied Stadiums" is a fascinating look at the lengthy history of baseball and its venues. It is a really good account of the different ballparks, their quirks, and some of the historic moments that have taken place within. The well-researched account by Curt Smith definitely breeds in the reader an appreciation for the design and nuance of the venues that house America's Pasttime.

Unfortunately good research doesn't always mean good writing. Smith's narrative is often very choppy, with thoughts that are difficult to unpack and mentions of moments, quotes, and players that sometimes seem out of context or hard to follow. He can't be faulted too much--writing in 540 pages a sweeping history of over 100 years of baseball is not an easy task. But the compromise to fit park and game information together is readability.

Overall, though, it is a great read for anyone interested in baseball and especially interested in where the game has been housed. The lithographs in the color inserts are wonderful and really take readers back to the days of yore.

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview of major league parks since around 1901 to 2001. There are wonderful anecdotes about parks and players that I would rate 5 stars, but Smith's writing style is very poor and his connective passages are very weak. A mixed bag overall, only recommended to baseball fans.