A snowstorm didn’t stop the American League debut of MLB in Canada.
by Rich Watson
A snowstorm didn’t stop the American League debut of MLB in Canada.
by Rich Watson
During the early twentieth century, the Philadelphia Athletics were the dominant team in the brand new American League. This meant they were popular—to the point where fans had to be turned away from tiny Columbia Park.
Team president Ben Shibe eyed a square block of land on Lehigh Avenue between 20th and 21st Streets. It was part of an underdeveloped neighborhood, with trolley cars and railroad stations, but also containing bluffs and gullies where live animals roamed. A smallpox hospital was there too, but the city was about to shut it down.
Shibe quietly bought up the land beginning in 1907, with the intent to build a new, bigger ballpark on the site. Two years later, what he and the A’s got was nothing less than a cathedral to baseball.
by Rich Watson
The Astros were born in 1962 as the Colt .45s, and the city of Houston was glad to have them. Watching games at Colt Stadium, though, was like sitting in a sauna. During the heart of the summer, game-time temperatures in the upper nineties were not unusual.
When co-owner Roy Hofheinz visited the Roman Colosseum, he learned it used to have an awning, called a velarium, to shield the audience from the sun. As a result, he financed and developed the creation of the Astrodome, the first domed sports stadium in the world.