Now You Know Baseball. Doug Lennox

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stadiums

       What does the sign “No Pepper” mean at a baseball park?

      The sign “No Pepper” is seen in many baseball dugouts and refers to a game played to warm up the players. During pepper, one player bunts grounders and hits line drives to a group of infielders standing about 20 feet away. The fielders play the ball then throw it back to the batter as quickly as possible, and he then attempts to hit those return throws. Pepper is banned when spectators are in the park for fear of injury.

       They Said It …

      “He was a good umpire, if you didn’t tell him so too often.”

       Johnny Evers on Hank O’Day.

       Why is the warm-up area for baseball pitchers called a “bullpen”?

      As early as 1809, the term bullpen referred to a stockade for holding criminals. In the 1870s, a roped-off area in the outfield for standing room was nicknamed the bullpen by the Cincinnati Enquirer. When relief pitchers were introduced into the game they took over that area to warm up, and in a stroke of brilliance the Bull Durham Tobacco Company erected a sign overhead to confirm it as the bullpen.

       Why are extra seats in a gymnasium or open-air benches in a stadium called “bleachers”?

      Bleachers were used in a pinch as uncovered overflow seating from the grandstand before they became common at baseball and football games. The first recorded printed reference was in the Chicago Tribune on May 6, 1889. They were called “bleachers” because of their exposure to the sun. The folding seating at an inside gymnasium simply took its name from the open seating outside.

       Which team attempted to become the fi rst team to play out of a domed stadium in the 1950s?

      In the 1950s, the Brooklyn Dodgers were still playing out of the beloved, but aging, Ebbett’s Field. Owner Walter O’Malley was keen on building a new park for his team and contacted R. Buckminster Fuller seeking design ideas. O’Malley told Fuller that he was not just interested in building any old stadium — he wanted the Dodgers to be the first team to play out of a domed stadium.

      Fuller put his graduate students on the case and came up with the design for a geodesic dome and stadium suitable for baseball.

      In the meantime, O’Malley’s attempts to work with the city to secure land in a prime location hit roadblock after roadblock, and the owner chose to move his team to Los Angeles. Baseball would not move indoors until the Houston Astrodome was opened in 1965.

       What was the fi rst retractable dome stadium?

      When Montreal’s Olympic Stadium was first built, the plan was for it to have a retractable roof operated from an inclined tower. Labour disruptions and design problems prevented the roof from being ready in time for the 1976 Olympics, or for the building’s use as the home of the Montreal Expos.

      When the city of Toronto began building the retractable SkyDome (now known as the Rogers Centre) for the Blue Jays, Montreal pushed to finally get their retractable roof in place before their Canadian rivals, and in 1988 Olympic Stadium became the first retractable-dome stadium in the majors; the SkyDome followed a year later.

      The convertible era in Montreal was short-lived, however. The roof was difficult to operate, prone to ripping, and unsuited for use in high winds. After three seasons the roof was permanently affixed.

       Players with More Than 3,000 Career Hits, and a Sub-.300 Batting Average

      • Carl Yastrçemski

      • Eddie Murray

      • Cal Ripken

      • Robin Yount

      • Dave Winfield

      • Craig Biggio

      • Rickey Henderson

      • Lou Brock

      • Rafael Palmeiro

      • Al Kaline

       How high was Fenway Park’s left fi eld wall when originally constructed?

      The Green Monster at Fenway stands at 37 feet, two inches, but it was not originally that high — nor was it green.

      When Fenway first opened in 1912, its left field wall was a mere 25 feet high and was covered in advertisements. And while the high wall was a prominent feature of the park, it was not the quirkiest element. In front of the wall was a steep incline that rose 10 feet from its base in left field to its peak at the wall. The hill came to be known as Duffy’s Cliff, named for left fielder Duffy Lewis, who was a master at playing balls off the slope.

      Duffy’s Cliff was flattened in 1934, and the wall ultimately reached its current height. But while it was a monster, it didn’t turn green until 1947.

       What was the fi rst major league stadium to sell its naming rights to an outside corporation?

      Traditionalists have been bemoaning the trend to sell naming rights to stadiums since the mid-1990s, though some would argue that the “trend” is actually quite old. Though Wrigley Field was named after a person rather than a brand of chewing gum, it’s hard not to connect the two, given that the stadium’s owner also owned the gum company.

      Baseball was, nevertheless, opposed to corporate name-plugging for many years, and in 1953 rejected a proposal by Cardinals’ owner Anheuser-Busch to rename St. Louis’s Sportsman’s Park “Budweiser Stadium.” Eventually, they agreed to simply name the stadium (and its successors) Busch Stadium.

      But by 1995, Major League Baseball had warmed up to the notion of corporate money, and put up no fight when the naming rights to the new home of the Colorado Rockies were sold to Coors Brewing Company, and Coors Field became the first big league stadium to officially sell naming rights.

       How many stadiums have the New York Yankees called home?

      Over the course of their history, the New York Yankees — under various monikers — have used six stadiums as their home ballpark.

      The Yankees began life as the Baltimore Orioles in 1901. They played out of one of many stadiums in that city that went by the name “Oriole Park.” After two seasons, the team moved to New York and set up shop in the newly built Hilltop Park, which had a capacity of 16,000. The team was known as the Highlanders.

      In 1911 the park played host to not only the Highlanders, but the New York Giants, who were left homeless after the latest incarnation СКАЧАТЬ