CrashingTheGoalie

by Ron Spence

Some things just come together.

I have an interest in old brick buildings, from the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

I have also been doing research in/ and writing articles about the new monoliths which redefined sports in the 1910s – the baseball stadiums.

And then, I discovered this picture of a turnstile from the Shibe Stadium – built in Philadelphia in 1909. The turnstile had been sold at a memorabilia auction.

So, I just had to write this post – with accompanying photos.

When the Philadelphia Athletics had a capacity crowd at the Columbia Park stadium – 9,500, later 13,600 when bleachers were constructed – they had to close the gates.

Columbia Park, built for only $35,000, had wooden grandstands on either side of the field – from home plate to first and third bases – and open bleachers from the grandstands down both foul lines.

It was cheap, and bare bones, and the Athletics were losing money hand over fist.

The Columbia Park’s most memorable game took place on September 30, 1907. It was between the Athletics and the Detroit Tigers, who were two games behind the A’s in the standings.

A huge crowd included: 24,127 paid, and another 2,000 who had climbed the fences, to pack the grandstands and the outfield.

Outside, thousands stood on ladders, hay bales and the roofs of the nearby houses.

The people on the ladders wouldn’t be working out on their Stairmasters the next day. The game lasted 17 innings, before being called because of darkness.

“If it had been possible to accommodate them, 50,000 people would have attended the game,” the Philadelphia North American stated.

So, Ben Shibe decided to build a new park. He was an Athletics’ stockholder and a baseball manufacturer.

And Shibe’s stadium just couldn’t be larger, it would have to be stronger, to support the tens of thousands of people coming in and going out, and sitting with all their dead weight on the 8 inch benches and wooden chairs.

And, most important, there couldn’t be fire hazards, with so many people packed into his stands.

Shibe Park was thus built of steel-reinforced concrete.

It was finished in less than a year, cost $141,918.92 for the land, and $315,248.69 for the stadium.

Shibe Park had a double-deckered grandstand, that extended around homeplate, from first to third base, and the bleachers met the lower grandstand and extended down the foul lines. The capacity was 20,000, and could be increased by 10,000 by allowing fans to stand in deep centerfield.

Shibe would add upper-deck and left field stands in 1925, and a Mezzanie in 1929.

Ten World Series would be played in this park – the first in 1910, and the final one in 1950. Shibe Park also hosted All-star games in 1943 and 1952.

THE CONCRETE AFTER THE WOOD

The secret to building stadiums – these days – is to construct them a relatively short distance from the paying customers, where the land is cheap – or should I say, cheaper.

That’s what Mr. Shibe did in 1908. At that time,  21st and Lehigh was considered to be in the northern outskirts of Philadelphia.

The land was relatively cheap, seven blocks walking distance from the Broad Street trolley, and close to three railway lines.

As can be seen in the picture above, there is farm land adjoining the stadium, and Shibe’s neighbours kept chickens and pigs in their fenced yards.

Shibe Park’s dimensions were huge – 378 ft. (left), 340 (right), and 515 ft. (center) – because the land was cheap – and the bigger the field, the larger the stands surrounding it.

Shibe Park was the first of the new age monoliths, opening on April 12th, 1909, when the Athletics played the Red Sox.

Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field opened that same year, but a couple of months later, on June 30th.

Chicago’s Comiskey Park opened on July 1, 1910,  and two stadiums the following season: Washington D.C.’s Griffith Stadium on April 12, 1911, and New York’s Polo Grounds IV on June 28, 1911.

Cincinnati’s Crosley Field  opened on April 11, 1912, and Detroit’s Navin Field and Boston’s Fenway Park both opened nine days later, on April 20th.

For the next three years, from 1913 until 1915, three more ballparks opened their gates: Brooklyn’s Ebbetts Field on April 9, 1913, Chicago’s Wrigley Field on April 23, 1914, and Milwaukee’s Braves Field on August 18, 1915.

The day of the Shibe opening, the National League’s Commissioner thanked him, for as the Washington Post reported, “[being] the first person to take advantage of the situation and realize that the fan’s wishes had to be gratified; and that was accommodation.”

In other words, there were a lot of people who loved baseball, and had both the time and money to watch games. They just needed large venues, such as Shibe’s, in which to watch their games.

The Evening Telegraph reiterated this, writing that “[It was] an enduring monument to the national past-time: baseball — the greatest game ever intended for all classes of people, for all ages and for women as well as men.”

American League president Ban Johnson added that the new Shibe Park was “the greatest place of its character in the world….”

The words “SHIBE PARK” are engraved over the main entrance (at the far left), and the words “ENTRANCE TO GRANDSTAND” are engraved over the adjacent entrances (See the middle door above.).

“Shibe was a major contributor to baseball’s development,” Stuart Schimler, of The Baseball Historical Society,  wrote. “It was his business savvy that helped turn a nascent game at his birth into a multi-million dollar enterprise by his death.”

“[Shibe] is wise, shrewd, a clever calculator, a great money-maker…” William A. Phelon wrote in Baseball Magazine, “but it’s not so many years ago that he put his money and his shoulders back of what seemed a losing venture, showed himself a grim fighter and a dead game sport – and pushed the White Elephants to the front.”

“[Ted Shibe was] the Edison of the sport,” James C. Isaminger of the Philadelphia North American, wrote in his 1922 obituary.

Shibe enlisted architects William Steele and Sons to design a facade to emulate the Philadelphia’s majestic City Hall, which had been completed in 1901.

“When [Shibe Park] first opened, the park was described as a palace – with rusticated bases, composite columns, arched windows and vaultings, ornamental scrollwork, and a fabulous French Renaissance tower with cupola that housed the offices of team Vice President John Shibe and A’s Manager Connie Mack,” wrote the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society.

The walls were brick, with terra cotta ornamentation, and the copper trimmed roof was made of green slate.

The thing to remember is: Shibe Park and the other new stadiums were replacing the old wooden baseball parks that weren’t attractive, and couldn’t hold many fans.

And visionaries, such as Shibe were taking a basic cement box and making it somewhat majestic.

They were giving respect to their sport - honouring the people who were handing over their quarters, and giving up their time, to come to baseball games.

THE FIRST GAME-Programs 10 cents

On April 12, 1909, 30,162 people paid to watch the first game in Shibe Park – the As versus the Red Sox.

The Philadelphia Inquirer called it “the greatest crowd that has ever witnessed a baseball game,” and noted that in addition to the paying crowd, “5,000 others gained admission by invitation, by scaling the high walls, or by pressing into the grounds when the gates were rushed by surging crowds.”

Another 30,000 were stuck outside the ballpark when the gates were closed, and some tried to storm the gates and pelted the ticket windows with rocks before police broke up the riot (They called them commotions in those days.).

“It was a great day for Philadelphia in the baseball world,” The Evening Bulletin reported, “it was a great day for the fans, a most profitable one for the owners of Shibe Park, and a grand start for the Athletics. The attendance will probably go on the record as the largest in the history of baseball.”

Cy Morgan, Philadelphia Athletics – 1910

Athletics’ fans had the choice of three ticket prices: Box and Reserved Seats were $1.00; Grandstand Seats – with folded chairs – were $.75; and the bleachers, with an 8 inch plank were $.25.

There were 13,000 bleacher seats in Shibe Park, the most in the Major Leagues. Chicago’s Comiskey Park would have 7,000, while most teams would only have 2,000 of the “cheap seats.”

“[Those] who live by the sweat of their brow,” Shibe said, “should have as good a chance of seeing the game as the man who never had to roll up his sleeves to earn a dollar.”

Over the next couple of years, bleacher seats would double in price to $.50.

Both the Grand Stand and bleacher seats may be seen in the World Series picture below.

Shibe Park, Philadelphia, 1911 – WORLD SERIES – New York Giants vs. Philadelphia Athletics

Shibe Park would be renamed the Connie Mack Stadium in 1953, and the last game played there would be on October 1, 1970. Home plate was moved from Connie Mack Stadium to Veterans Stadium via helecopter in 1971.

The empty building was damaged by fire in August, 1971 and torn down in June, 1976. The demo balls were pulverizing the old walls as the All-stars were knocking balls out of  Veterans Stadium.

And Shibe’s Church of Baseball is now the site of the Deliverance Evangelistic Church.