This might be my favorite video of yours! Great job dude!

That was really really interesting, not just someone with google earth.

I love that you are watching an American Architect with knowledge of the stadiums and their history instead of someone who just looks at Google Earth and knows nothing about the history, architecture, or explanation for the design of each stadium within the MLB. I work in the architectural field in the US, and although never had the privledge of designing a Stadium (its such a specialized field of architecture, engineering, and interior design). We take so much pride in the history of our architecture for our young country.

Moving and/or raising fences happens from time to time. It was even noted in this video. And yes teams did other things to gain an advantage. In the 60's the L.A. Dodgers had a very fast team and also lacked power. So the field was manicured to exploit their speed. The infield grass close to the foul line was kept a bit tall. When a Dodgers speedster laid down a bunt along the foul line the tall grass slowed the ball down and prevented the ball from rolling foul....the batter always beat the throw. The dirt in the infield was kept hard so that even softly hit balls skipped threw the infield. The firm dirt helped speedy runners. The S.F. Giants (the Dodgers' rival) would sprinkle a little too much water at 1st base when the Dodgers played up in San Francisco. It got a little muddy and the Dodgers base stealers had poor traction. The field at the Cincinnati Reds' old stadium had a terrace in front of the left field wall. I forget exactly, but the left fielder had to run uphill. The field was at an incline that started 20 feet from the left field wall and gradually increased until it reached the four feet grade at the base of the wall. It was very tricky..so a great home field advantage. Minute Maid Park in Houston had a similar terrace in centerfold but after a few years they leveled the field. I understand that the old stadium in Detroit was a complete double-decker and that the second deck overhang the field by a few feet. Outfielder would run deep, stop and be in position to catch the ball as it fell but it would fall in the overhang for a homerun. Most outfield "brick" walls were not padded. Many an outfielder would get seriously hurt crashing into unfamiliar walls.

The Astrodome actually had grass in its first season. If you notice, the dome is mostly skylights. The players complained that they couldn't see the ball going from window to window, so they painted over the windows over the outfield. Then without the windows, the grass died and they played out the season on dirt painted green before finally coming up with Astroturf.

The reason Citi Field was based on Ebbets Field was because the previous owner was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan and admitted to going overboard. They've added more emphasis to the Mets' history over the years and the new owner is a Mets fan and really ramped it up. And as far as it being away from the city, it's offset by the 7 Train line and Long Island Railroad stopping in front of the stadium. So it's very easy to get there.

06:35 For your question about the rules about how the field is made, baseball does have a minimum required distance from home to the fences. It is OBR Rule 2.01 Any fence in fair territory must be at least 250 ft from home plate. The foul poles must be at least 320 from home plate. Center field is preferred to be at least 400 ft or equivalent from home plate. Boundaries in foul territory is recommended to be at least 60 ft near the infield. College and the minor leagues tend to have slightly closer fences with the poles being about 270-300 ft and center being about 350-400 ft. High school and lower tend to have the poles around 200-250 ft and center field being about 325-380 ft. Little League sits around 170 ft to the foul poles and 250 ft to center field. Of course some stadiums break these requirements like Fenway's Pesky Pole sitting at 302 ft.

The video was way too short!!! Loved it!

When I first saw Wrigley Field, the tour was all booked. I was with my mom so we walked around the outside. About 3/4 around, my mom asked "where's the stadium"? I said "right here, we've been walking around it this whole time". She said "that's a baseball stadium? I thought it was a warehouse".

Because of the different park dimensions and other park factors, many team often build their team in a way so they play better at home. Yankees Stadium is one of the more notable examples. It has a short right field wall that is also fairly close to the batter. So the Yankees tend to load up on power hitting lefter handers in hopes to sneak a few home runs over that wall. Coors Field in Denver, Colorado is infamous for being a hitter's park. The stadiums rest nearly 1 mile about sea level and thus the air is much thinner and the ball carries much farther when it into the air. To compensate, Coors has one of the largest outfields in the sport and the team loads up on fast and high quality outfields who can patrol the outfield and take hits away. Also pitching is very hard there since many pitches don't move the same way, so they don't really value pitching like most other teams.

The only old ballparks still in use are Fenway and Wrigley Field.

I love our new stadium here in Miami....never a rain delay, yet erly in the season when it's still not too hot & sticky the roof is opened and it's just awesome - not a bad seat in the whole place and it's an intimate place too as it's capacity is just under 38,000

This was a more interesting watch then previous stadium videos. Loved the history!

Comerica Park was built with one of the deeps center field and gaps, to make it a "pitchers" park. They eventually brought in the fence because it was harder to hit home runs and the team had acquired some power hitters

If you want to see one of the most uniquely shaped fields ever in the MLB, look up "Polo Grounds". Its in MLB The Show and is always so wacky to play at.

There has been ballparks that adjusted to help the teams home run average. When Citi Field, in Queens, was built the outfield was too large and they ended up added additional sitting to help move in the outfield. There were other cases of this as well.

The orioles recently made their short left field very deep and with a higher fence to suit their pitching

I being been born in Houston have been to the Astrodome many times and the sights and sounds and smells were awesome I miss it

There was real grass in the Astrodome, when it was first built. That's why the glass tiles were used on the roof. But, they found out that it still wasn't viable for real grass, and the glass panels made it impossible to follow a ball, with sunlight glaring through them.

I'm glad that the Negro Leagues are finally getting the attention they deserve. Probably the best baseball that we didn't get to see. Story goes that Cool Papa Bell was so fast that he could switch off the lights and be in bed before it got dark. Great video. Those old stadiums are pure class.

Cleveland Municipal Stadium was built in the hopes of Cleveland being awarded an Olympic Games. For a while the baseball team only used that stadium for Saturday and Sunday games. Weekday games were played in a smaller ballpark in another part of town. The owner of the Athletics, when they were in Kansas City tried to "artificially" create a short right field by building an inner wall at 297 ft down the right field line. The other owners were not amused and now there are some limits on how a team is allowed to manipulate their park's dimensions. One thing that was not mentioned was thst old Yankee Stadium wzs short in right field, but was also very deep to the left field power alley, whiich also helped dictate how Yankee teams were built to emphasize lefty hitters. The Astrodome initially tried to use natural grass, but it died when they had to paint the windows in the dome to cut down on glare for the players. Astrotu4t was developed afterwards.

There are some fields with extremely short walls in sections. Fenway is know for the Green Monster in left field, but their right field fence is as short as 3 feet. Most people are right handed and most players are pull hitters, so some teams are a bit cheeky about making right field small and having short fences. Cleveland Municipal Stadium used to move the fence in and out based on their opponents, until the AL made a rule to pick a size and stick with it all season specifically to stop the Indians shenanigans.

Good stuff here salute from puerto rico 🇵🇷

Disliking Citi Field is a weird flex, I love the throwback to Ebbets Field and how the exterior colonnade looks like a Roman aqueduct

A note on Citi Field as a fan of the beautiful game, the ballpark may be a little bit out of context/removed from the urban fabric right now, but it soon won’t be. NYCFC is building their soccer-specific stadium across the road along with a new neighborhood surrounding the two stadiums. Soon Citi Field will be much more integrated into a neighborhood setting, like a European stadium.

Funny that you mentioned that Veterans Stadium in Philly "looks like a prison" because they actually had a holding cell for unruly fans to were arrested at games at that stadium.

Chase Field in Phoenix is one of the first US retractable roof ball parks at over 20 years old. Its for the heat (over 38C for most of the season) and weather like a dust storm. (see Fox10 Dust Storm footage for about 10 years ago)

New or changed outfield dimensions have to be approved by MLB. They'll allow them within reason, but would definitely not allow 300ft to center or the power alleys. I think they had even specified sonething like 330' down the lines until Camden Yards came along

This guy did a great job laying out the evolution of ballparks. It still baffles me how Miami can't sell tickets to save their lives at that place, it's a million times better than when they shared the stadium with the Dolphins and closer to downtown

Having been to the old CN Exhibition stadium in Toronto as well as the Rogers Centre I really appreciate that dome. I remember a few games in April and early October having to blink away the snow flakes.

Hinchcliffe Stadium in Paterson, NJ was used for motorsports, baseball, and football. It was used by the New York Black Yankees of the Negro Leagues. The stadium was recently renovated, and used for the independent team, the New Jersey Jackals.

You could build the walls shorter for more home runs but the other team also gets to hit more home runs as well.

The outfield fences in new ballparks are supposed to be at least 320 feet from home plate down the foul lines, and at least 400 feet from home in straightaway center field. There have been exceptions, though, when new ballparks were built. The wall in Oracle Park in San Francisco (built in the year 2000) is only 309 feet down the right field line. Despite this, it's one of the worst home run parks in MLB. Older parks, like Fenway, are grandfathered in. The Astrodome originally had a transparent roof to let the sunlight it, so grass could grow inside. This roof created so much glare, however, that outfielders couldn't track the ball. They switched to an opaque roof, which forced them to use AstroTurf. For a while, artificial turf was popular even in outdoor ballparks. Batted balls would bounce higher, and ground balls wouldn't slow down as much, so teams needed outfielders with a lot of speed. Also, it was possible to get on base by slapping the ball. This led to a lot of high-average singles hitters. Artificial turf lost its popularity over time, and now there's a lot less emphasis on speed. Babe Ruth's birthplace is a short walking distance from Camden Yards. It's now a museum.

Should watch the best baseball brawls!

the ball park could even change who they might go after in free agency. If your left field is very long but you right is short than some teams want players who hit it long towards the right or vice versa.

9:44 Your question had kind of already been answered at 7:53. You were just coincidentally talking at that point so probably didn't hear it. But yea, apparently they kind of were able to do that. Nowadays, they have a range on how far the outfield walls are allowed to be which still allows for a slight variance on all the outfields.

MLB just announced they will play a game at rickwood field next season

Jeez, why is that guy so down on CitiField? Yeah, Ebbets Field was "cozier", but it could only seat about 32,000 fans. (And that includes the bleacher seats behind the outfield wall, 300-400 ft from the action on the bases.) That ain't gonna fly in modern days. And you get there by train. About those stadiums that are "outside of the city" (meaning not shoe-horned into city grids), the bars, burger joints and pizza places are INSIDE the modern stadiums and are available before, during and maybe even after the game.

The problem with making fields in a way to increase offense is that it's hard to convince good pitchers to want to sign with your team. You'll end up doing 50/50 at home and then sucking when you're on the road for the most part.

Fun fact they tried to run a nascar race in the Astrodome but due to fumes it failed miserably

I was wondering if people in the UK or Europeans travel to other sports stadiums? I know it’s a huge thing to do in the US, especially baseball stadiums (due to the longer season and tickets are way cheaper).

That was good.

There's been a ton of new stadiums built in the last 20 years. The Braves have played in three different stadiums since 1995 for instance. Their newest park is unique though, as they built a mini city and hotel around the park. It's outside of the city center but still has plenty of life around it.

At last! Somebody says something nice about the Marlins stadium. It is gorgeous inside and out. I've been there many times - I hate it! I miss the Marlins playing at the Dolphins stadium which is just 14 minutes from my home. I don't appreciate the Marlins lack of consideration for my convenience! 😥

Citi field is awesome. Such an awesome stadium. Guess he doesn’t think so 🤷‍♂️. Can’t please everyone. And the new owner is filling all that empty space with malls, apartments, bars so in 20 years that spot will be poppin

The iconic Yankee stadium no longer exists

The Negro Leagues is "baseball history"! ...By the way, you would be surprised at how interesting and beautiful many of the minor league ballparks are in America. For example, "121 Financial Ballpark" in Jacksonville, Florida.

9:51 - I suppose a team could bring their fences way in, but it would be a disaster and I don't think MLB would approve it. Let's say a franchise owner has a team with a lot of home run hitters and decides to bring in the outfield wall by about 100-125 feet. Yeah it would create a lot more HR's for the team but it would also create a lot more for their opponents. Your pitchers would have to throw a helluva lot more pitches because what used to be routine fly ball outs are now home runs and extra base hits. As a result, your pitchers would wear their arms out after 2 months they'd be far more susceptible to serious injury. No team wants to destroy their pitchers arms. And free agent pitchers would never sign to play in a park like that Every game would be 16-13, or 17-15, and would go on for 5 hours. Occasionally there are crazy high scoring games in MLB, and they're a lot of fun, but if those type of games become the norm than you no longer have major league baseball but instead you have beer league softball. Finally MLB historic baseball records would be rendered meaningless, because anyone can be Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron with a 250 ft. Power Alley. Home Runs and offense in general would be cheapened. It would be similar to futbol/soccer stretching their goals out by 20 feet in each direction to create more scoring. It would destroy the games integrity.

Was it Mark Twain who said that building and prostitutes become more respectable with age? Someday, people may regret the passing of the concrete donut stadiums. But I doubt it.

This architect disses Citifield for not being "in" the city, but fails to mention it was built next to the stadium it replaced, Shea Stadium which itself was opened in 1962 on a tract of land in Flushing Meadows- Corona Park. The City of New York chose the location for Shea Stadium, paid for it's construction and rented it to the Mets. It is also a adjacent to the US Tennis Center where the US Open is played and the location of the 1964-1965 World's Fair. So Citifield wasn't just dumped in the middle of nowhere for no reason. And for all the architectural "superiority" and for being a part of the city, no one goes to the stadium in Miami to see the Marlins, not even the baseball-mad Cubans who live there.

Funny you said Veterans Stadium in Philly looked like a prison - the Eagles (both Phillies & Eagles played there) had a court, a judge and a jail during home games there! **Also resembles “The Roundhouse” - the old Philadelphia Police headquarters

there would be no advantage because then the other team could hit a lot of homeruns.

European again ,Well I think most of us did come from Europe at that time. LOL

This guy dumping on Citi Field because it's not an inner city location is ridiculous. NYC is perhaps, the most densely packed real estate market in the world. Where could this be built to make it part of the city grid? Gee maybe they could have built it in Central Park! Stick to architecture Entablature boy.