Ballparks: A Quiz

1. Who were the two Cincinnati pitchers who took a rowboat across the outfield wall of a flooded Crosley Field in 1937?

2. Where did the 1914 Boston Braves and the 1915-1916 Boston Red Sox play their home World Series games?
3. In several World Series, all the games were played in one park; name the years and parks.
4. What major league park hosted the first night game?
5. Wrigley Field came within months of having lights in 1942. What happened?
6. Where is Navin Field today, and who was Navin?
7. Fenway Park’s left-field wall or Connie Mack Stadium’s right-field wall: which was higher?
8. In what park did a goat assist the groundskeeper in trimming the outfield grass?
 
9-14. In what parks would you find these places:
 
9. Ashburn’s Ridge
10. Duffy’s Cliff
11. The Crow’s Nest
12. Ruthville
13. The Jury Box
14. Kiner’s Korner
 
15. In what park was umpire George Magerkurth attacked by a fan?
16. First called Weeghman Park, it is still in use today. What is the pres­ent name, and who was Weeghman?
17. Who first cleared the right-field roof at Forbes Field with a towering home run?
18. Thirty years ago, a friend says, “Meet me under the tree.” What park will you be visiting?
19. What famous event took place at Ebbets Field at its first night game in 1938?
20. Mickey Mantle victimized what pitcher at what park for his famous 565-foot home run?
21. Where did Babe Ruth “call” a World Series homer?
22. The first All-Star Game graced what park?
23. Walter Johnson pitched only one no-hitter in his career; where?
24-33. Match the streets with the parks they bordered:
24. Gaffney Street Wrigley Field
25. Montgomery Street Sportsman’s Park
26. Waveland Avenue Shibe Park
27. Trumbull Avenue Ebbets Field
28. Sennott Street Tiger Stadium
29. Georgia Avenue Polo Grounds
30. York Street Crosley Field
31. Dodier Street Forbes Field
32. Somerset Street Braves Field
33. East 155th Street Griffith Stadium
34. Few hitters ever reached the center-field bleachers at the Polo Grounds; name the first three.
35. Which team can claim the old­est park in operation today in the majors?
36. Who was Abe Stark?
37. It is September 21, 1961; what park is closing and what is unusual about the game?
38. Cite the outfield distances at Yankee Stadium in its last year before remodeling.
39. Where did a groundskeeper live in the ballpark?
40. Which park never hosted a no-hit game?
41. To the distress and embarrassment of all, what park opened with­out a press box?
42. In what park did a public ad­dress system first appear?
43. In the World Series, there has been one unassisted triple play; where did it occur?
44. The home team has just hit a home run; an eagle on the scoreboard celebrates the event; where are you?
45. It held fewer than 20,000 seats and its right-field wall loomed a scant 280 feet from home plate. A marvel when it opened in 1887, it was a joke when it closed in 1938. What park?
46. Name the five hitters who have cleared the center-field wall in Fen­way Park to the right of the flag pole.
47. Who are the famous Yankees honored by the tablets that used to reside in the center field of Yankee Stadium?
48. What former park now sits in the backyard of a baseball fan?
49. Where did the longest game in the majors take place?
50. You are watching a game at the Polo Grounds, but the Giants are the visiting team! Explain.
 
BOB BLUTHARDT works at the Fort Concho Museum in San Angelo, Texas.
 
Answers:
 
ANSWERS TO QUIZ ON P. 77
1. Lee Grissom and Gene Schott.
2. The Braves used Fenway Park as their new park wasn’t ready. Returning the favor, they let the Sox use Braves Field a year later.
3. In 1921 and 1922 the Yankees and Giants battled at the Polo Grounds; in 1944, the Browns and Cardinals played at Sportsman’s Park.
4. Cincinnati’s Crosley Field on May 24, 1935. President Roosevelt threw the lights on from a switch in the White House.
5. The lights were ready to be installed, but World War II came, and Phil Wrigley donated them to a nearby shipyard to help the war effort.
6. Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Frank Navin was president of the Tigers from 1911 to 1935.
7. Fenway’s “Green Monster” has stayed at 37-plus feet for over 40 years; from 1934 to 1956 Connie Mack’s rightfield wall checked in at 50 feet.
8. In Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis in the 1930s.
9. In Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium (Shibe Park). It was a doctored area of the third-base line to assist his bunting.
10. In Fenway Park, the famed sloped left field that Duffy Lewis played so well.
11. In Pittsburgh at Forbes Field. This extra deck of seats was added in 1938 in anticipation of a Pirate pennant that didn’t happen.
12. In Yankee Stadium, the right-field bleachers, a favorite target of Babe Ruth. This area was also known as Gehrigsville.
13. In Braves Field, the detached, box-like bleacher section in right field.
14. In Forbes Field, the shortened left-field corner feasted upon by Ralph Kiner. Once Kiner left the club, the distance was restored.
15. In Ebbets Field after a game in 1939.
16. Today, Weeghman Park is Wrigley Field. Charles Weeghman owned the Chicago Whales of the short-lived Federal League. Built in 1914, the park was taken over by the Cubs in 1916.
17. Babe Ruth, when he played with the Boston Braves in 1935, his last season. His last of three homers that May 25th cleared the roof.
18. Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. The tree was just outside the center-field wall.
19. Johnny Vander Meer pitched his second straight no-hitter for Cincinnati.
20. Senators’ pitcher Chuck Stobbs at Griffith Stadium in 1953.
21. Wrigley Field.
22. Chicago’s Comiskey Park in 1933.
23. Fenway Park.
24. Braves Field.
25. Ebbets Field.
26. Wrigley Field.
27. Tiger Stadium.
28. Forbes Field.
29. Griffith Stadium
30. Crosley Field
31. Sportsman’s Park
32. Shibe Park! Connie Mack Stadium
33. Polo Grounds.
34. The Braves’ Joe Adcock was first in 1953; later came Lou Brock and Hank Aaron.
35. The White Sox at Comiskey Park-first game on July 1, 1910.
36. A Brooklyn businessman whose sign on Ebbets Field’s right-field wall offered a free suit for any hitter striking it.
37. It is the last game at Griffith Stadium and the expansion Washington Senators are playing the old Senator team now called the Minnesota Twins.
38. Left field, 301 feet; center field, 461 feet; right field, 296 feet.
39. In the Polo Grounds, head groundskeeper Matty Schwab lived under section 31 in left field. Horace Stoneham had lured him from Ebbets Field, and he built an apartment for Schwab and his family under the stands.
40. Forbes Field.
41. Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field in 1913.
42. Polo Grounds, 1929: a microphone was attached to the mask of the home-plate umpire.
43. At League Park in Cleveland in the 1920 Indians-Dodgers contest. Bill Wambsganss pulled it off in game 5.
44. Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
45. Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl.
46. Hank Greenberg, 1937;Jimmy Foxx, 1937; Bill Skowron, 1957; Carl Yastrzemski, 1970; Bobby Mitchell, 1973; Jim Rice, 1975.
47. Miller Huggins, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jake Ruppert.
48. Crosley Field, at least many pieces of it, now endures in the large yard of a super fan in Kentucky.
49. At Braves Field: Boston against Brooklyn, 26 innings of l-l baseball in 1920.
50. It is 1962 or 1963 and the Giants, now in San Francisco, are meeting the New York Mets; or it is the World Series of 1921 or 1922 (see question 3).