Storied Stadiums: Baseball's History Through Its Ballparks [Hardcover]

Curt Smith (Author), Bob Costas (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 9, 2001

Critically acclaimed author Curt Smith fulfills the wildest dreams of baseball fans everywhere by traveling through space and time in a vast, entertaining volume that spares readers the price of gas, food, lodging (and admission) and puts them in a field box at every big-league park in the pastime’s history—from Fenway and Ebbets to Camden Yards and PNC Park. Just as Smith’s critically acclaimed Voices of the Game is the definitive history of baseball broadcasting, Storied Stadiums chronicles the stories, statistics, and characters behind all of baseball’s venues. From park to park throughout the years, the great game’s triumphs, tragedies, and comedies unfold in a kinetic prose as full of surprises as a wind-aided knuckleball. Illustrated with 36 color lithographs from the Bill Goff Collection, Storied Stadiums is at once a fact-filled almanac of the more than 125 major-league ballparks, past and present, and a paean to our national pastime.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this long, rambling account of the national pastime, Smith (Voices of the Game) visits various ballparks, often repeatedly, and recounts the dimensions of each park, the stories behind its construction and the history of the team(s) that occupied it. Smith, a former presidential speechwriter, mixes in quotations and anecdotes, both from the baseball world and the world at large, relating them to the stadiums and to the teams. Even if it takes readers 150 pages to get used to Smith's prose replete with colons, long dashes and short, abrupt sentences they still have 450 more to enjoy. Not for beginners, the book is riddled with jargon and slang sure to please the cognoscenti: "Boston '16 edged Brooklyn, 2-1, in 14 innings. Joe Oeschger and Brooklyn's Leon Cadore pitched 26 in 1920: Darkness called the game, 1-1. Offense woke with '28's inner fence." The book, while overlong, feels cramped and at times rushed because Smith attempts to cover the entire history of baseball. Quotations are sometimes repeated, clogging up the narrative. Still, the anecdotal style is enjoyable and appropriate to the topic. Fans of Bob Costas, who writes a short, predictable introduction, will find Smith's angle on baseball history palatable. Despite the repetition and bulk, it ends up being an enjoyable, informative read. (Oct.)Forecast: Costas's endorsement and a playoff-season release should help sales, though the distracting writing style and imposing length will scare off many readers. But most sports fans, of baseball especially, eat up anything praising their sport in print.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this examination of major league ballparks, one-time presidential speechwriter Smith provides an iconoclastic look at the national pastime that baseball fans will likely enjoy. Not a standard history, Storied Stadiums covers nearly a century and a half and is replete with both the statistics baseball is known for and amusing and revelatory anecdotes. Sometimes difficult to follow, this encyclopedic book melds contemporary developments and some of baseball's most historic moments, thus delivering both more and less than his title suggests. Though intriguing tidbits and discussions of various pennant races are included, no systematic examination of major league stadiums is offered. Far more attention is paid proportionately to the game's last four decades, with the exploration of Candlestick Park among the book's highlights. Noteworthy photographs of classic stadiums are included, and a particularly useful appendix contains "franchise genealogy," attendance figures, chronology, and capacity sizes of various ballparks, along with "facts and fillips" of stadiums from the 1870s onward. A mixed bag; for general libraries. Robert Cottrell, California State Univ., Chico
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 624 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf; 1ST edition (September 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786709480
• ISBN-13: 978-0786709489
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,696,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Too many errors, November 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Storied Stadiums: Baseball's History Through Its Ballparks (Hardcover)

Being somewhat of a baseball ballpark fan, I eagerly awaited the publication of this book. To admit to my disappointment in it is even more frustrating. There are too many factual errors that even a fan like myself could not miss.

Some of the errors include:

The wrong location for Washington Park in Brooklyn (page 22).

Saint Louis described as the westernmost city in baseball until 1958 (page 57; don't tell any of the fans of the Kansas City A's).

The 1919 White Sox at white cubed Comiskey (page 60; The ballpark was not white-washed until several more DECADES had passed).

The 1902 AL Browns left Baltimore for St. Louis (Wrong, they left Milwaukee, page 131)

Some of the errors in the appendix include:

Roosevelt Stadium was in New Jersey, not Brooklyn (page 570; The address given was for the Dodgers corporate office).

And this chestnut from page 568- League Park (Cleveland) opened on April 29, 1901 with a 5-4 victory over Indianapolis!

I actually have started to tape little post-it markers on the pages with the errors. With all the errors that I have spotted, I am uncertain as to the correctness of all the information.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment, July 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Storied Stadiums: Baseball's History Through Its Ballparks (Paperback)

"Storied Stadiums" is the most poorly written book I've read in quite some time. To illustrate, here's one example among many:

"Note merely how offspring spurred the pastime's throb. Brooklyn baseball began a century before proving that even in the fifty-second World Series-Game Seven, October 4, 1955, Brooklyn 2, Yankees 0, after losing seven straight Series, five to New York-a franchise could run into luck" (page 20).

One must work extremely hard to deconstruct the author's circuitous (and sometimes inexplicable) line of thought and the device of using various song titles to introduce each section seems rather silly.

Considering the author's qualifications, I would have expected a more polished and professional style. Quite disappointing on the whole.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Learn how to write, May 6, 2003

By 

Wayne Lynch (Waukesha, WI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Storied Stadiums: Baseball's History Through Its Ballparks (Hardcover)

Curt, I loved Voices of the Game and Storytellers, but you lost your way on this one. How about this sentence: "Classic parks forged a Mayberry of puppies and emerald turf and picket fences and small-town marms -- frozen in amber, but fixed and sure."
WHAT? Claptrap....pure and simple....and that was only page 3.
My real favorite was "If Bogart means Key Largo, baseball can mean year." HUH? At least match the verb syntax, Curt. Fantastic research, but you need to relearn writing for the reader. For God's sake, tell your editor(s) to find a new line of work.