National League
(1953-57)
Ebbets Field
Home of: Brooklyn Dodgers
Opened: 1913
Life: Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958
Features: Base of right field scoreboard jutted out 5 feet from wall at 45-degree angle; "h" in "Schaefer" beer sign lit up to signify hit, second "e" for error. "Ebbets Rotunda," at park entrance, was 80-foot circle enclosed in Italian marble; floor tiled with stitches of baseball and chandelier with 12 bats holding 12 baseball-shaped globes.
Monumental Feats: The Braves' Joe Adcock hit only homer over roof.
Best player of '50s: Roy Campanella
County Stadium
Home of: Milwaukee Braves
Opened: 1953
Life: Now home of Brewers
Features: Spruce and fir trees behind center-field fence formed "Perini's Woods;" replaced by bleacher seats in 1961. Until park was expanded in 1973, patients at National Soldiers Home Veterans Hospital sat outside their rooms on Mockingbird Hill overlooking right field and watched games for free.
Monumental Feats: Only homer ever hit over left field seats was by Cecil Fielder.
Best player of '50s: Hank Aaron
Crosley Field
Home of: Cincinnati Reds
Opened: 1912
Life: Reds moved to Riverfront in 1970
Features: "The terrace" - a steep incline, unique to major-league baseball - served as outfield warning track. right field bleachers known as "Sun Deck." "Superior Towel & Linen Service" was a working company located beyond left-field wall. Above that sign, was a famous Siebler Suit Sign. "Hit This Sign, Win a Suit." 176 batters did.
Monumental Feats: Ernie Lombardi's homer over center-field wall landed in truck and went 30 miles.
Best player of '50s: Ted Kluszewski
Shibe Park/Connie Mack
Home of: Philadelphia Phillies
Opened: 1909
Life: Phillies moved to Veterans in 1971
Features: Had beautiful French Renaissance church-like dome on exterior roof behind home plate; before 1935, 20th Street residents could sit on roofs and watch games over 12-foot high concrete fence in right field. Fans could see lines of laundry on roofs. Connie Mack lost lawsuit to prevent this, so he added 22 feet of corrugated iron atop concrete; balls batted off iron caromed at wacky angles; top of Ballantine Beer sign on right-center scoreboard was 60 feet high.
Best player of '50s: Robin Roberts
Sportsman's Park
Home of: St. Louis Cardinals
Opened: 1920
Life: Cardinals moved to Busch Stadium in 1966
Features: Beginning in '54, Busch Eagle flapped its wings after each Cards' homer; it sat on top of the left-center scoreboard. Wire screen (installed in 1929) in front of right field pavilion was removed for 1955 season because lineup was predominantly left-handed, but they didn't hit any more homers, so screen came back down in '56.
Best player of '50s: Stan Musial
Polo Grounds
Home of: NY Giants
Opened: 1911
Life: Giants to SF, 1958; NY Mets, 1962-63
Features: In play 470 feet from home plate was 5-foot high memorial to Reds third baseman Eddie Grant, who was killed in World War I; huge billboard atop center-field bleachers touted Knickerbocker Beer or Chesterfield cigarettes. Second deck overhung left field wall (279 feet) by 21 feet. Outfield slightly sunken; if standing in dugout, you could see only top half of outfielders.
Monumental Feats: Only Luke Easter, Joe Adcock, Henry Aaron and Lou Brock hit homers into center-field bleachers, 450 feet away.
Best player of '50s: Willie Mays
Forbes Field
Home of: Pittsburgh Pirates
Opened: 1909
Life: Pirates moved to Three Rivers in 1970
Features: Ivy covered brick wall in left and left-center; balls hit off 14-foot high Longines clock and speakers atop left field scoreboard were homers. Right field screen added in 1932; Roberto Clemente was unequalled at playing ball off screen.
Monumental Feats: Only 16 homers were hit on or over 86-foot high right field roof. First of those was final home run hit by Babe Ruth, May 25, 1935 (he hit 3 that day). The last was by Willie Stargell in 1970.
Best player of '50s: Roberto Clemente
Wrigley Field
Home of: Chicago Cubs
Opened: 1914
Life: Still active
Features: Ivy on outfield walls was planted in 1937 by Bill Veeck, who also commissioned building of 75-foot wide, 27-foot high scoreboard the same year; 10-foot diameter clock was added in 1941. Most distant outfield measurement is 495 feet on the roof of a house across Sheffield Avenue in right-center.
Monumental Feats: Nobody has ever hit a baseball to the scoreboard , but Roberto Clemente's drive sailed just left of it.
Best player of '50s: Ernie Banks
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American League
(1954-60)
Yankee Stadium
Home of: New York Yankees
Opened: 1923
Life: Still active
Features: Until 1974-75 renovations, center-field monuments (Ruth, Gehrig, Huggins) in fair play (475 feet to straightaway center behind monuments), left-center ("Death Valley") was 463 feet and a beautiful copper art deco frieze encircled entire roof, not just center-field bleachers as now.
Monumental Feats: Josh Gibson hit only fair ball completely out of park near left field foul pole (1934). Mickey Mantle's 1963 blast came within 6 inches of clearing 108-foot high roof in right center (620 feet if unimpeded).
Best player of '50s: Mickey Mantle
Municipal Stadium
Home of: Cleveland Indians
Opened: 1931
Life: Indians moved to Jacobs Field in 1994
Features: Cavernous (73,811) stadium, built in hopes of landing 1932 Olympics, which went to LA. Bandstand in cf between fence and bleachers in 1953. Later changed to picnic area. Center-field standing room area made into garden in 1957. From 1932-47, was steep incline in front of center-field bleacher wall.
Best player of '50s: Bob Lemon
Comiskey Park
Home of: Chicago White Sox
Opened: 1910
Life: White Sox moved to Comiskey II in 1991
Features: In 1950, bullpens moved from foul territory down lines to behind center-field fence. In 1960, Bill Veeck installed first "exploding scoreboard" in majors. Green cornerstone (laid on St. Patrick's Day, 1910) stayed that color until 1960, when Veeck had building painted white.
Monumental Feats: Only 7 batters have homered into center-field bleachers - Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg, Alex Johnson, Dick Allen, Richie Zisk, Tony Armas and George Bell.
Best player of '50s: Luis Aparicio
Memorial Stadium
Home of: Baltimore Orioles
Opened: 1954
Life: Orioles moved to Camden Yards in 1992
Features: Center-field "wall" was line of 10-foot high hedges April-early June 1954. Chuck Diering leaped into hedges to rob Mickey Mantle of a home run.
Monumental Feats: Frank Robinson hit only homer out of park on May 8, 1966 - a 450-foot drive over left- center-field bleachers. Flag reading "HERE" flies at spot where ball left park.
Best player of '50s: Brooks Robinson
Briggs Stadium
Home of: Detroit Tigers
Opened: 1912
Life: Still active (Tiger Stadium)
Features: Right field second deck overhangs lower deck by 10 feet. String of spotlights mounted under 10-foot overhang to illuminate right field warning track. Ballpark has only double-decked bleachers in majors. Upper deck runs from left-center to center, lower deck from center to right-center.
Monumental Feats: Only batters to hit homer over left-field roof are Harmon Killebrew, Frank Howard and Cecil Fielder.
Best player of '50s: Al Kaline
Griffith Stadium
Home of: Washington Senators
Opened: 1911
Life: Senators moved to Texas in 1972 (original Senators moved to Minnesota in 1961)
Features: Center-field wall detoured around five trees and a huge tree in center. Height of National Bohemian Beer Bottle, in play above the right- center field scoreboard, was 56 feet. Grandstand wall was the right field foul line for the last 15 feet in front of foul pole.
Monumental Feats: Only homers to clear back left-field bleacher wall were Josh Gibson, twice, and Mickey Mantle, whose blast nicked the beer sign, 60 feet above the field.
Best player of '50s: Mickey Vernon
Municipal Stadium
Home of: Kansas City Athletics
Opened: 1923 (Negro League Monarchs)
Life: A's (1955-67) moved to Oakland in 1968
Features: When park was rebuilt in 1955, home plate was moved 25 feet toward outfield. Right-center-field scoreboard also added in 1955; it originally stood at Boston's Braves Field. Bottom of left-center-field light tower was in play, making for some unusual bounces. Team owner Charlie O. Finley "copied" Yankee Stadium's 296-foot right field "porch" by installing 4 1/2-foot high green plywood fence into Municipal's right field corner, painting on the words, "Pennant Porch."
Best player of '50s: Vic Power
Fenway Park
Home of: Boston Red Sox
Opened: 1912
Life: Still active
Features: 37-foot high "Green Monster" as left field wall. Before '47, was covered with ads (GEM razor blades sign prominent). In 1936, 23 1/3-foot screen placed atop wall in left to protect windows on Lansdowne.
Monumental Feats: Six balls hit out of park to right of flag pole - Hank Greenberg (1937), Jimmie Foxx (1937), Bill Skowron (1957), Carl Yastrzemski (1970), Bobby Mitchell (1973), Jim Rice (1975).
Best player of '50s: Ted Williams
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