Rumor in Town: MLB 1939-World Series-Cincinnati Reds @ New York Yankees

Source:The Daily Journal

I think Yankee Stadium was a great place for baseball, but I’m not sure it was a great ballpark. And what do I mean by that? That when I think of ballparks I think of places that primarily for baseball and were designed primarily for baseball. To the point that if you tried to play another sport there the park would look funny because of how the seats would have to be rearranged for football are soccer to be played there. And that sight lines would look funny as well. I think of Fenway Park as the example of a great ballpark. Wrigley Field would be another one and modern ballparks like Oriole Park Jacobs Field would great modern ballparks.

Yankee Stadium was a great place for baseball, but it was a stadium a very big one at that. At one point it seated something like seventy-thousand for baseball and like eighty-thousand for football. Yankee Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium and one of the few good if not great multipurpose stadiums that were ever built. Baltimore Memorial Stadium would be another one and Tiger Stadium in Detroit would be another one as well. And Yankee Stadium the old one at least was certainly a great baseball castle, but I wouldn’t put it down as a great ballpark, because it was a multipurpose stadium instead.