Some Jazz-Age Ballparks

[asrivkin]

OK, this is coincidentally my 50th post on these boards, so a reasonable time to sum up. I've made about 25 ballparks since I started last August, most but not all of which I've posted here. Nielsoncp noted in his thread a few days ago that the ballpark-making process gets to be addictive, and as fun (in a different way) as the game itself, and I completely agree!

The game I'm playing is currently in 1917. At the pace I'm going I'm not likely to get to 1920 before next summer, and I expect I'd spend a few real-time years in the 1920s. Making missing parks for the (absorbed Federal League) teams, creating appropriate Spring Training or Winter League venues, and making stops for barnstorming tours for the teams in my league has been driving my focus on the 1910s/1920s ballparks. Who knows what the state of the game or Sketchup or anything will be in 2025, of course, but I expect that will be the case for a little while.

Looking ahead, then, the parks I’m imagining making in the near-to-medium term are going to be those that are in the major North American metro areas c. 1920 that don’t already have parks, those in states that don’t have c. 1920 parks made (I’ve identified at least one candidate park per state/territory!), and anything that strikes my fancy (important Negro League parks, neat/unusual settings, requests that I think I can pull off). The more of those boxes something ticks, the more likely I’ll tackle it sooner. Having at least some level of documentation is necessary, though it’s better to have less than have contradictory info (I’m currently utterly stymied by Toronto’s Hanlan’s Point Stadium, where I can’t make sense of maps and pictures and quoted dimensions, and I’m not sure how to reconcile them all).

With all that, here are the next few parks I’m thinking I’ll make, in no particular order. This is neither me claiming territory nor me making promises, so if you’ve got one of these in your plans, knock yourself out! I don’t think any of these have been made, but of course I’ll search the forum before taking any of them on…

• Nicollet Park (Minneapolis)
• Broadway Park (Denver)
• Dugdale Park (Seattle)
• Melrose Park (Providence)
• Municipal Park (Bismarck)
• Bugle Park (Baltimore)

[Ty Cobb]

I truly admire the work of all you modelers. I lack the patience or skill to do that myself, and my play is enriched immeasurably by all of you. I'll be waiting to see these...

[asrivkin]

Hi all,

It's been a crazy few weeks here for various reasons, but I do have another few ballparks to post. To start, here's Nicollet Park in Minneapolis (which I seem to have difficulty spelling correctly), former home of the Minneapolis Millers of the International League and the Minneapolis Millerettes of the AAGPBL. As usual, I'm shooting for a late 1910s appearance etc.

Google Drive Link to Nicollet Park

A few screenshots below along with the real photos I'm sort-of trying to match...

[joefromchicago]

Fantastic work, asrivkin! You have really done an outstanding job on these ballparks.

[asrivkin]

Happy Sunday, and thanks to those of you who've been enjoying these parks. I appreciate the kind words.

Today we have Rourke Park in Omaha, Nebraska. It was also known as "Vinton Street Park" and the extremely generic "League Park" (as many parks throughout the country were known). It hosted Omaha's Western League teams from 1911-1936. The team changed names often but were usually the Rourkes or the Buffaloes in this period. It also hosted Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig as they barnstormed after the 1927 season, as did many of the parks I've been posting..

Google Drive link to Rourke Park (updated 17 August 2021)

I'm reasonably happy with this one. Most of the photo documentation is of the grandstand and seating area, with most of the field itself not shown. Nebraska Baseball History has a photo of it from later years after lights were installed.

I'll note that the dimensions from the maps are very large--and in combination with the fence height suggest a negative home run factor for righties. I didn't want to deal with that, so the park factors that are included with the file come from Gambo's spreadsheet, so aren't generated from the dimensions of the park model (unlike most of the ones I'm posting).

Next up, either Oaks Park or Denver's Broadway Park! Or both!

[asrivkin]

OK, thanks to kcstengelsr for catching some more of my mistakes!

First, here's the actual link to Inlet Park in Atlantic City, which I seem to have omitted from post #53: Updated Google Drive link for Inlet Park

Next, here's a link to Rourke Park that has a .prk file included, though as noted the values in it come from Gambo's spreadsheet rather than being derived from the model's dimensions: New link for Rourke Park.

I'll update the posts themselves, too.

[asrivkin]

Hi all,

Next up, here's two versions of Oaks Park in Oakland, one from the 1910s and one from the 1930s. The only real differences between them are the ads and the scoreboard.

Google Drive link to 1910s Oaks Park

Google Drive link to late 1930s Oaks Park

There's not as much documentation for Oaks Park as I might have hoped, though there was enough. There was a renovation done during WWII, and there are plenty of photos (and even a home movie or two) out there showing that period, but not these earlier periods. But there is some film from Opening Day in 1917 that showed the scoreboard location, and it shows up on the Sanborn maps below. For the 1930s, (which I actually completed first) I used a different scoreboard location/graphic, plus have the lights. I wasn't sure how best to handle day/night images for this, since the range of potentially-lit buildings in the middle ground and in the Oakland and SF skylines seemed to pose a daunting challenge. So, I didn't tackle that aspect of things, at least this time.

Enjoy (and/or let me know of any corrections)!

[The Game]

cool park. This will come in handy in several leagues.

[kcstengelsr]

Oaks Park is a welcome addition to the growing number of historical ballparks created by various members of the OOTP Mods community.

I have been long interested in the historical Pacific Coast League. For many years that league was independent from affiliation with major league teams by most of the PCL teams and the quality was very good as west coast ballplayers frequently first saw action in the PCL. Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams are just two who started their pro careers on the west coast.

Youtube has a nice video from 1946 about the PCL. The league considered itself at the time as nearly major league in quality. Click this to view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPv4...Nostalgist1938

With the 1946 PCL in mind I played a game with 1946 Oakland and Seattle rosters using asrivkin's Oaks Park. I tried to use historical uniforms for the era and also added custom camera views and my Mid Century Baseball Sounds (also at the Mods). The stretch song was popular in 1946. I placed the result on Youtube. Link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb3G...el=kcstengelsr

It looks like almost all of the 1946 Pacific Coast League ballparks are now available at OOTP 3D Mods. LA Wrigley, Seals, and Sicks were made by silvam14. Gilmore, Vaughn, and Lane are found at eriqjaffe's ballparks. Now we have Oakland's Oaks Park by asrivkin. One is still missing--Edmonds Field in Sacramento. Perhaps asrivkin might someday create that Sacramento ball diamond for us?

Oaks Park is a nice and worthy contribution for those interested in baseball history. Thank you, asrivkin!

[asrivkin]

Thanks! And yes, kcstengelsr, Sacramento is the next one I'm planning to tackle!

As with Oaks Park I'll probably make both a 30s/40s version and a late 10s version (they had a big renovation in the early 20s). I have a few other finished ones I'll post first, though...

[Ty Cobb]

Dude...can I put in a request for Hughes in Sacramento as well? I know it's a statistical obscenity, but man is it a fun staidum!!!

There aren't even many 2d pix of it around that I've found.

[asrivkin]

I'll give it a shot!

[Ty Cobb]

Yes! Where's that ($%&&# Thanks button when I need it???

[kcstengelsr]

Maybe someday asrivkin and other 3D Mods creators can also complete the full set of stadiums used by the 1946 Negro Leagues. Looking at Seamheads for the 1946 Negro Leagues stadiums, most are already available with one being asrivkin's own Russwood in Memphis.

The 1946 Negro Leagues by that time frequently played in major league stadiums. Comiskey, Crosley, League, Cleveland Muni, Yankee, Polo Grounds, Shibe, Griffith, and Forbes (all have been done by silvam14) were used by the Negro Leagues that year. Russwood by asrivkin and Blues Stadium in KC and Rickwood in Birmingham by silvam14 have also been published at the 3D mods.

Only two 1946 Negro Leagues teams currently lack any historical ballpark they used that campaign:
Ruppert Stadium for Newark Eagles
Bugle Field for Baltimore Elite Giants

Four other fields are missing in OOTP Mods which were used by the Negro Leagues as alternate sites in 1946:
44th and Parkside for when the Philadelphia Stars were not using Shibe
Martin Park for when the Memphis Red Sox were not using Russwood
Victory Field in Indy (not the modern current one) for when the Cincinnati-Indianapolis Clowns were not using Crosley
Dexter Park in Queens for when the New York Black Yankees or when the New York Cubans were not using Yankee or Polo Grounds

Since the 1946 Negro Leagues are now considered major league and since all the statistics for the 1946 Negro Leagues now count as major league numbers, it would be nice if somehow the various 3D Mods creators would someday complete the ballparks needed to simulate one Negro Leagues season and the complete set of Negro Leagues 1946 ballparks would be very interesting since only these two (or six) are missing. Maybe those creators could communicate with each other, work together, and share this task?

Jackie Robinson first played in the majors in 1947 and he spent 1946 in Montreal as a Dodgers farmhand along with several other Negro Leagues players (like Campanella with Dodgers Nashua team), but most of the Negro Leagues teams were still intact in 1946. Things changed in 1947.

[asrivkin]

While I'm working on the Sacramento Ballpark Triptych, I have a few more things to post. Here's Broadway Park in Denver, which was used for the first quarter-century or so of the 20th century:

Google Drive link to Denver Broadway Park files

A few web pages about the park have some background and pictures in addition to the ones I post below: Article about the local area baseball history, Article on a Rockies fan blog, Pictures from the Denver Public Library

This was a tougher one than it perhaps should have been--the first maps I looked at had the catcher facing NW but when matching aerial photos to the grid it's clear the catcher faces NE, at least in the time period I cared about. I tried not to start completely from scratch, but effectively did that anyhow. I also wasn't sure how best to interpret what looked like a double wall in left field. As usual, I kind of shot for an average appearance and probably didn't get what it actually looked like at any particular time in history. In any case, it should work fine--let me know if it doesn't!

[asrivkin]

OK, I'm going to post Dugdale Park momentarily, but first here's a teaser for Ty Cobb...

[asrivkin]

Next up, here's Seattle's Dugdale Park. This was home to the PCL's Seattle teams prior to its destruction by arson in 1932 (which is also the opening event in the excellent multi-hour history of the Seattle Mariners Jon Bois co-created. This was a pretty big park, the first double-decker on the West Coast. There was an earlier park in a different location also (sometimes) called Dugdale Park, but I think I've kept everything straight. There are a rather a few pictures out there, I've included a representative few of them below along with views of my version.

Google Drive link to Dugdale Park

The dimensions from the map suggest a pretty good park for lefties and a terrible one for righties, at least in terms of home runs, and the .prk file reflects what the OOTP Park Generator on the web gives as park factors.

This was a fun one to make! I have a few others to polish off and post soon, including Des Moines and Salt Lake City, and then I hope to do/finish the older Sacramento park(s)...

[Ty Cobb]

Oh...my...God!!! I'm so excited! Thak you so much!!!

[asrivkin]

While I'm working on the Sacramento stadia (with the help of KCStengelJr and Ty Cobb) I'll post another PCL park: Salt Lake City's Bonneville Park, originally known as Majestic Park. The park was built in 1915 as part of an amusement park complex (also to be called Majestic Park), as was the style in those days. But other than a dance hall, none of the other attractions materialized and the name change was a result. This was the home of the original Salt Lake City Bees of the PCL, and Tony Lazzeri's home park when he hit 60 home runs in 1925. There's some confusion on the web between this park and Community Park/Derks Park, which was a few blocks away and hosted the 2nd incarnation of the Bees starting in the mid-40s.

This plays as a hitters' park, pretty much equally good for lefties and righties. As usual, let me know what slipped through my personal quality control this time.

Google Drive link for Bonneville Park

[sdw1000]

This is awesome! Love the concept! Any more coming I wonder?