Whats Left of the Jewel Box Ballparks?

Correction: This was Apple Maps not Google maps.

At least any replaced from the mid 1990s onwards have been replaced by parks built for Baseball, And Football similarly in stadiums built for Football. Multipurpose stadiums might have been fantastic ideas in the accounting department but were terrible for both sports.

I think the biggest reason the classics get replaced is nobody wants obstructed views. And owners want fat cat rich people boxes.

And of course today the owners do not even have to give up buying that second or third yacht, they just threaten to move the team somewhere else and city officials wanting to win their next election are happy to raise the bonds to pay for it and keep the home team in town.

Cleveland saves the old park dimensions but get rid of the Indians name, go figure.

Memorial Stadium, in Baltimore, is completely gone. While not a jewel box there is an all purpose field there similar to League Park. Anyone attending a game should bring a lawn chair. The old Oriole Park which severed the original American League Orioles (1901-1902), the Federal League team and a couple of minor league teams, now has a brewery, Peabody Heights, located in the confines of what uses to be the park. You can have a beer in what used to be left field. The Book Thing is about 100 feet North of the brewery, where you can pick up FREE books to read. NOTE: Peabody Heights and old Memorial Stadium are .8 miles apart. Peabody Heights and Oriole Park at Camden Yards are 3.5 miles apart.

i love fenway.

Love Fenway but what a brutal experience to sit in those seats. They were fine when I was 10 years old in 67 attending my first games but anyone over 6 foot will beg to leave after a few innings of constricted torture.

Went to Shibe as a kid, the architecture was so grand. These really were baseball palaces, built for baseball games and not advertising and skybox revenue. They're gone and nothing like them will ever come again, because the last thing anyone cares about is the fans.

The old Forbes Field location is occupied by the University of Pittsburgh. In one of the corridors of Posvar Hall, they have home plate under plexiglass. The tour guide told me that it was not precisely in the exact original location, but very close. Had they put it exactly where it was, it would have been in the restroom!

"Hello. I'm Joe Pera."

Forbes field home plate is encased in the ground exactly where it was

comisky

The Jewel Box ballparks are the American equivalent to those historic soccer/football stadiums in the UK like Anfield, Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford, and it's a shame that most of them are gone.

Really great ball parks🇺🇸

League park is still there but the entire neighborhood surrounding it is gone… lost to race riots in the 60’s, It used to be a very densely populated neighborhood with walk up apartment buildings, Now their are only a handful of suburban style mc mansions.

When all those stadiums were replace in the 60s/early 70s were there any people/groups who tried to save the old stadiums or did anyone care?

You forgot Fenway!

Great video. Before the Red Sox played at Fenway beginning in 1912 they used to play at a place named the Huntington Avenue Grounds. It's currently on the campus of Northeastern University and they have a life size statue of Cy Young exactly where the pitcher's mound was located. They also have a stone home plate on the grass 60'6" away, but it is actually on the wrong location, but they put it where they did as the original location is now inside an administrative building.

Why were they called jewel box fields?

Home plate still exists for Forbes field under glass inside one of the University of Pittsburgh buildings

Cleveland should 100% next stadium rebuild jewel box bring it back

A definition of a Jewel Box Ballpark at the beginning of the video would have helped. I had an idea of what it was but paused to go back and get a good definition.

Even though I've always preferred NL ball to AL ball, I loved going to Tiger Stadium in the early 90s, and it makes me sad to think of it as gone.

Nothing matters but money.

I think Camden yards is the true gem of ballparks today besides Fenway and Wrigley

You should talk slower

Please explain the meaning of
“jewel box” ball parks?

I've seen three incorrect spellings of "Comiskey" in the comments. Good thing the Sox park now has the beautiful name "Guaranteed Rate" so people will be able to spell it with ease!😂 I guess it's a step up from "U.S. Cellular Field". Hilarious how corporate greed destroys things. What a mess!

Home plate in Forbes field is still in its original location in one of the buildings at the college.

Sportsmans Park, at Grand & Dodier in StL could have been on this excellent vid. I went to many games there in early-60s. The city & Boys Club have a nice remembrance of it there. I never took to big, symmetrical, mammoth TV screen, heavy metal rock (puke) stadiums crammed with people on their f÷=//]] phones and f0llowing announcements about when to cheer (ugh).

In cade it wasnt mentioned: The home plate of Braves Field is currently on display at TD Garden's New England Sports Museum. It was taken out of the ground during demolition in 1952

Additionally , the outline of Forbes Field left field wall extends in that direction, with a small plaque where Bill Mazeroski’s 1960 home run cleared the wall. The home plat of Forbes Field is in the University of Pittsburgh building , encased in a floor mounted plexiglass case.

I like the video I live here in Baltimore the old ballpark here was called Memorial Stadium if you didn't know where it was you could drive right past it nothing is left there is a YMCA and a senior center where it stood me and my father spent many a summer nights at the Ballpark that's why I miss it the most

I love what they did in Cleveland

Forbes Field’s home plate is still intact if you go inside the Univ of Pittsburgh education building. It’s preserved under glass on the bottom floor.

Surprised you didn’t mention the OG Yankee stadium… the winningest stadium of them all

Great work, love your videos. You should consider Parc Jarry, first home of the Expos de Montréal. Such a cozy place, I am old and I have been many times. ⚾⚾🇨🇦🇺🇲⚾⚾

The flagpole of tiger stadium is still standing

It’s too bad they couldn’t do what BU has done with Nickerson Field at other places. Retain a manageable section. An echo of the past, but with a functional use.

What's left, besides Fenway and Wrigley?

I’ve been inside a building at the University of Pittsburgh which includes a hallway with the original home plate of Forbes Field under a glass cover. An inscription says the plate is in its original spot. Right where Maz won the ‘60 World Series with his homer, and where Roberto Clemente hit his many.

Guaranteed Rate field was a disaster. It did not improve visibility for the fans and they didn't keep enough of the old building. They could have at least taken the fucking bricks and used all them. I will never set foot in that shit Stadium. It's all a moot point as all the spooby's ruined Chicago for everybody. I am a lifelong White Sox fan

A correction of a common misconception. The ballpark most think of when they talk about the Polo Grounds never actually hosted polo.

This is beautiful, compact yet expansive. It stirs so many memories of a more innocent and confident era. Bravo!

Could you do videos on all former mlb fields

I believe the original Yankee stadium across the street from the new stadium is also a baseball field now Technically the original renovated stadium reopened in 1976 if I remember correctly

Thank you for making this Vid. You rock!

Tiger Stadium is now used by the Detroit Police Department as their athletic field. During football season, the gridiron is layout in the exact same place as it was when the Lions played there until to 1974.

Baseball can outdo the field of dreams game rather easily. Rebuild the polo grounds.

Nickerson Stadium was used by the Boston Breakers of the USFL for the 1983 season. They used to sell out but only 16k or so and since there was nowhere else for them to play they moved to New Orleans for the 1984 season then to Portland for the '85 season. The New Orleans Breakers are one of the teams being brought back for the USFL reboot this year.

Bush Stadium in used to host the AAA Indianapolis Indians. It was replaced by Victory Field in 1996. It went through a few other increasingly pathetic uses for a while.

But now, the grandstand has been replaced by apartments called Stadium Lofts. The original field and dimensions are still intact.

I grew up going to baseball games at Bush in its twilight years. One time when I was about 12, we were sitting in the wooden right-field bleachers. I touched the bench and then rubbed my eye, getting a splinter in my eye!