Sportsman's Park | Living St. Louis

[Music] finally tonight another trip to the past but not a serious history lesson this is more good old days stuff nostalgia you know with the new baseball part going up downtown there's bound to be a lot of discussion about baseball's future and baseball's past and for a lot of people that story begins here in North st. Louis at Grand and oh dear the site of the long gone sportsmen park [Music] [Music] it's not just the old field and the old players but the way they fit into the whole old way of life growing up in a city bustling with nearly a million people factories schools churches clubs street cars buses families friends and two baseball teams sharing the same Northside Park at Grandin dodi it was a time when kids could join the not whole gang and see a game for free and you went on your own a late afternoon game and then home for supper a Saturday game and then you could push your way onto a crowded street car with plenty of change in your pocket and plenty more to do the fun was when the school was out then you could get there early enough to noontime to watch batting practice and everything but that that was great back then walking up that ramp there every single Sunday and getting our seats and getting our peanuts popcorn or your coke or whatever you'd have you know it was fun really fun it had grass of course it had grass you wouldn't play baseball on anything else unless you were playing in the street around the playground but even then baseball grass was special and you knew it the first time you saw well in 27 Memorial Day I'll never forget it my uncle my mother's brother agreed to take me so I go charging up from the ground level to the level of weather where the field began and I say I never saw a but sky that was bluer or RA grass was greener or Oh like it was wider than the creamy uniform to the golfers I remember the short right-field porch as they called it and sometimes they had a scream there sometimes they didn't the grass looked like it was out of a burpee catalog I mean it was just so perfect I don't think I've ever seen grass like that ever again except for in a ball park you didn't just sit back and watch from a distance that's the thing everybody remembers about Sportsman's Park how close you were to the players how much you were a part of the game he was still close enough to the field and involved in the action that you can see the expressions on people's faces he could hear some of the language you know which wasn't always the best and you were into the game maybe it has to do with the way the park started out not as an urban renewal project or a part of the Convention and tourism business and not as a way of proving that st. Louis was a world-class City it started out in 1866 as a place to play ball the old grounds played there they later become the Cardinals and then the new grounds of the American League came in and as the professional teams built up the field the city grew up with it and grew up around it the location was a good one for the times right along the main north-south streetcar line so that Sportsman's Park was there in the midst of a busy urban neighborhood across from the YMCA and businesses factories taverns and homes as the crowds grew and the business of baseball grew the stadium group bleachers replaced the wooden fences upper decks were added the result was a park like no other not necessarily better in every way just a place unique to st. Louis our Park when a player took the field he knew exactly where he was and the adjustments he'd have to make well I think the first game I saw at Sportsman's Park was really the Browns and at that time Babe Ruth the only Park he played left field in was its sportsmen all the rest time played right field and all the other parks because of the Sun conditions the right field was very terrible and late afternoon Sun the louvers there that Sun would change through it if you played right field it was awfully tough on the eyes it was an interesting party because for left-hand hitter and we all liked it because that's short right and yes it was a good ballpark defends were close enough you can see the game it was every seat was a pretty pretty good seat so arts questions Park was was a good bark Park I could accept you know the infield in st. Louis in the summer was really hard and with me playing first base sometime my feet would get awful hot the old-time Stadium still had things in common with the school athletic field or the playground players would trot in off the field empty-handed leaving their mitts out on the diamond near their position watch the shortstop after he makes the inning ending play you'd think it wouldn't be safe but nobody remembers anybody ever getting hurt or losing a game because of a mitt on the field and if you've ever wondered why some of the old action photos look so good from those days it's because photographers were on the field gathered near home for the batter or near first or third if they were expecting a play there you didn't need a telephoto lens not even to get a picture when Browns owner Bill Veck sent Eddie Goodell up to bat the famous picture of the if Bill Veck hadn't tipped me off the night before we were drinking we would never had a picture because if guy who have been long gone now he was there but he was able to get out on the field and he kneeled on what you and I would call the on-deck circle to be that close to the all of this plus the physical closeness of the fan to the game made a huge difference in the ballpark experience a difference that was easier to feel than to explain adding Public Address systems and making rules removing gloves and photographers made sense but they removed some of the informality of baseball there was a time when kids knew what it was like to share the field with yeah the kitchen could run around on the field they then stopped the kids at that time after the games were over yes but now you can you get on a field to get arrested what's your honor field the back in sports room park you could do it all going through the Sportsman's Park was just we took the Delmar streetcar down to Grand and then over and and it was just the trip going there was almost as exciting as just being there because he was building up to like Christmas almost you know and when she got in the stadium was like unwrapping the package on Christmas Day [Music]

Channel: Nine PBS

Views: 81,871

Keywords: KETC, LivingStLouis, StLouis, Sportsmans, Park, Baseball, Cardinals, Browns, Musial, Kirchherr

Id: NX3cYftwIcc

Length: 8min 42sec (522 seconds)

Published: Thu May 15 2008