The article that I used for this assignment was “Fenway Park and the Golden Age of the Baseball Park”. The main idea behind the article was giving in detail how baseball parks were built, what they looked for in a location, and numerous other things. Some of the baseball parks talked about were Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park in Chicago and Tiger Stadium. In this summary I intend to describe the audience of this article, summarize it, describe the organization of the article, and the main point that I took away from this article.
I feel that this article was intended for the specialized audience. In my opinion, someone would pick up this article only if they had a fascination about not only baseball, but the history of the baseball parks. I have learned that there is more history in the ball parks themselves, than history of the baseball team. Another reason I feel that the author is aiming at the specialized audience is because of his intent to portray baseball as the national pastime. Finally I believe this is geared towards a specialized audience because there is a lot of information given on the history of these parks. Those who didn’t have any interest in baseball wouldn’t take the time to read this article. Knowing that this is a specialized article helps us get into the authors main points of his article.
The main idea of this article included how sites were chosen to build baseball venues. There are four main factors to think about when building a new stadium: accessibility, neighborhood, room for expansion, building material, and availability (Bluthardt, 1987). Accessibility was what most fans were looking for. The ease of transportation by means of street cars, subway lines, or taxis were what fans were looking for in accessibility (Bluthardt, 1987). Fenway Park was thought to be very accessible. The article also notes about that accessibility for motorcycles, bicycles, and baby carriages was also important (Bluthardt , 1987).
The next items that a builder looked for when building a stadium were a good neighborhood and room for expansion. Fenway Park was located in a quiet area with few neighbors (Bluthardt, 1987,). The only bad thing about its location was that it could not expand beyond its original site because it was built on a irregular shaped plot (Bluthardt, 1987). It was very important to have a friendly neighborhood because it was inviting tofans. The material that these builders used was another important factor.
Concrete and steel were the main choice when building a new stadium (Bluthardt, 1987). It was extremely important because other stadiums had problems with catching on fire. In 1894, ten wooden baseball parks caught on fire and burned (Bluthardt, 1987). Fenway was constructed with wood, but its main grandstands were concrete and steel and the pavilion areas were also made from steel (Bluthardt, 1987). These building materials impacted how the interior of the field was laid out and how it was decorated.
Fenway Park had the classic image of a park with the advertisements plastered all over the stadium (Bluthardt, 1987). This was a trend that most parks during these time periods all followed. Fans believed that these advertisements helped the appearance of the ball park. Along with the interior filled with billboards, seating became a bigger issue. Before the 1909-1915 era, ten thousand was a good crowd (Bluthardt, 1987). Fenway Park doubled these numbers and the perception of larger changed crowds. Fenway Park allowed more people to watch the game and drew record number spectators, especially women and set an example for other ball parks.
In my opinion, this article was very well written and organized. It seemed to flow from topic to topic smoothly with very little repetition. The main ideas were highlighted clearly and presented in a very professional manner. I feel the text was very easy to read. The author used normal everyday language, and I didn’t have to refer to a dictionary to look up any words. I feel that this author gave great detail on how Fenway Park became what it is today.
There were many key ideas that I was able to take away from this article. The most important piece of information that I came away with is how old Fenway Park really is. I have been a baseball fan for many years, but I didn’t realize that this park has been around for so long. The author gave great detail about every part of the stadium from the scoreboard to the seating to the pavilion areas to the concrete structures in the outfield. I feel that no detail was left out. Another thing that I took from this article was how stadiums were constructed in the past. I would have never of thought that they were mainly built of concrete and wood until the 1900’s. To have ten stadiums burn down in one year is a lot, I think. Overall, this was a very informative article and it gave me a greater respect for the history of baseball stadiums.
References
Bluthardt, R.F. (1987). “Fenway Park and the Golden Age of the Baseball Park, 1909-1915. Journal of Popular Culture, 21 (1) 43-52
I feel that this article was intended for the specialized audience. In my opinion, someone would pick up this article only if they had a fascination about not only baseball, but the history of the baseball parks. I have learned that there is more history in the ball parks themselves, than history of the baseball team. Another reason I feel that the author is aiming at the specialized audience is because of his intent to portray baseball as the national pastime. Finally I believe this is geared towards a specialized audience because there is a lot of information given on the history of these parks. Those who didn’t have any interest in baseball wouldn’t take the time to read this article. Knowing that this is a specialized article helps us get into the authors main points of his article.
The main idea of this article included how sites were chosen to build baseball venues. There are four main factors to think about when building a new stadium: accessibility, neighborhood, room for expansion, building material, and availability (Bluthardt, 1987). Accessibility was what most fans were looking for. The ease of transportation by means of street cars, subway lines, or taxis were what fans were looking for in accessibility (Bluthardt, 1987). Fenway Park was thought to be very accessible. The article also notes about that accessibility for motorcycles, bicycles, and baby carriages was also important (Bluthardt , 1987).
The next items that a builder looked for when building a stadium were a good neighborhood and room for expansion. Fenway Park was located in a quiet area with few neighbors (Bluthardt, 1987,). The only bad thing about its location was that it could not expand beyond its original site because it was built on a irregular shaped plot (Bluthardt, 1987). It was very important to have a friendly neighborhood because it was inviting tofans. The material that these builders used was another important factor.
Concrete and steel were the main choice when building a new stadium (Bluthardt, 1987). It was extremely important because other stadiums had problems with catching on fire. In 1894, ten wooden baseball parks caught on fire and burned (Bluthardt, 1987). Fenway was constructed with wood, but its main grandstands were concrete and steel and the pavilion areas were also made from steel (Bluthardt, 1987). These building materials impacted how the interior of the field was laid out and how it was decorated.
Fenway Park had the classic image of a park with the advertisements plastered all over the stadium (Bluthardt, 1987). This was a trend that most parks during these time periods all followed. Fans believed that these advertisements helped the appearance of the ball park. Along with the interior filled with billboards, seating became a bigger issue. Before the 1909-1915 era, ten thousand was a good crowd (Bluthardt, 1987). Fenway Park doubled these numbers and the perception of larger changed crowds. Fenway Park allowed more people to watch the game and drew record number spectators, especially women and set an example for other ball parks.
In my opinion, this article was very well written and organized. It seemed to flow from topic to topic smoothly with very little repetition. The main ideas were highlighted clearly and presented in a very professional manner. I feel the text was very easy to read. The author used normal everyday language, and I didn’t have to refer to a dictionary to look up any words. I feel that this author gave great detail on how Fenway Park became what it is today.
There were many key ideas that I was able to take away from this article. The most important piece of information that I came away with is how old Fenway Park really is. I have been a baseball fan for many years, but I didn’t realize that this park has been around for so long. The author gave great detail about every part of the stadium from the scoreboard to the seating to the pavilion areas to the concrete structures in the outfield. I feel that no detail was left out. Another thing that I took from this article was how stadiums were constructed in the past. I would have never of thought that they were mainly built of concrete and wood until the 1900’s. To have ten stadiums burn down in one year is a lot, I think. Overall, this was a very informative article and it gave me a greater respect for the history of baseball stadiums.
References
Bluthardt, R.F. (1987). “Fenway Park and the Golden Age of the Baseball Park, 1909-1915. Journal of Popular Culture, 21 (1) 43-52
Image from trsullivan.mlblogs.com/Fenway-Park-Photograph... Retrieved June 25, 2009.
You pointed out a good point. If someone is not interested in baseball they wouldn't read the article. I found this analysis very knowledgeable because I never would have guessed all the procedures followed to make sure a baseball field is built to suit it's fans. Great analysis, and great sport. I never been to Fenway Park, but as I grow older I am starting to appreciate our historical parks and what they represent.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article. While I'm not really a baseball fan (I prefer football) I can see where there would be a need to have a well thought out plan when building these famous venues.
ReplyDeleteFenway... caught a game there a few years ago. Absolutly amazing ball park. Great article, and good post. It's sad that in the US, when something gets old, we tear it down and build a newer, more expensive park in it's place.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about there being fans of the ball parks more so than that of baseball teams. I like to take trips to Chicago just to catch a game at Wrigley Field where the Cubs play. I go for the atmosphere and the park setting.
ReplyDeleteHeard about Fenway Park, I'll have to take a trip to Boston sometime and catch a game.
Nice article analysis Nate.
Great article choice Nate, of course my opinion is a little biased since I really like baseball.You did a very nice job of summarizing the article as well. This was very interesting to learn just how much detail goes into building these stadiums right down to baby stroller access. It is surprising to me that this was built in a nice neighborhood. I have been to many NFL and NBA games and the neighborhoods are definitely not nice!
ReplyDeleteI like this article and how you did your analysis on it. I learned a lot from your analysis, about how they quit making ball parks out of wood and that they made them out of concrete and steel years ago. I heard a lot about Fenway Park over the last few years and it sounds like it was a very famous park. I think I heard that some great ball players like shoeless Joe Jackson and Babe Ruth played there. So, this is a very interesting article that you chose.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great article and analysis. I also have to say, as some have said before me, that I might have just really liked this because I am a huge baseball fan. But really you analysis of the article was good. You not only included the main points of the article and explained the reasoning for the structures and locations but also explained why you thought the article was effective and ineffective all at the same time. Again, I could talk about baseball all day but you took this beyond just talking ball and parks. You really took the instructions of the assignment and broke the article down. Great job!
ReplyDelete