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177-405: (1950) Left Field – 334 ft Deep Left Center – 420 ft Center Field – 447 ft Deep Right Center – 405 ft Right Field – 329 ft (1968) Left Field – 334 ft Deep Left Center – 387 ft Center Field – 410 ft Deep Right Center – 390 ft Right Field – 329 ft [REDACTED] Shibe Park , (pronounced "shy," ending with

354-463: A cantilevered upper deck seating area that hung out over the lower seating area. Although it did not use reinforced concrete in its construction, Baker Bowl is considered the first of the jewel box parks. The first to use reinforced concrete was Shibe Park , which opened in 1909, also in Philadelphia. The upper decks were typically held up by steel pillars that obstructed the view from some seats in

531-413: A chain-link fence. Beyond the infield and between the foul lines is a large grass outfield, generally twice the depth of the infield. The playing field is bordered by fences of varying heights. The infield fences are in foul territory, and a ball hit over them is not a home run; consequently, they are often lower than the outfield fences to provide a better view for spectators. Sometimes, the outfield fence

708-409: A couple of years of life left in the park, a curving inner fence across center field reduced the distance from 447 to 410. The final seating capacity of the ballpark, as recorded in the 1970 Sporting News Baseball Guide , was 33,608. Carpenter's reluctance about Connie Mack Stadium soon proved justified. He found it impossible to find a way to make the park profitable. His first thought was to extend

885-463: A double-deck that extended from the foul pole to the center field corner. This construction covered the "terrace" except in the deepest part of center field which still had a slight upslope. Where the upper deck of the main stands abutted the upper deck of the bleachers, there was a slight overhang. Whether this ever affected play is unknown. They also extended the upper deck out over the pavilions. These expansions resulted in another 10,000 seats. In 1928,

1062-523: A few which are oriented just slightly west of straight north. (Left-handed pitchers are called "southpaws", and indeed the pitcher's left hand is toward the south in the usual park layout, and this has often been cited as the source of the appellation. But this is most likely a false etymology , or partly so, as "southpaw" for left-handers has been in use since at least the mid 19th century, and applied to boxers.) Today, in Major League Baseball ,

1239-460: A four-story house at 72 rue Charles Michels in the suburbs of Paris. Coignet's descriptions of reinforcing concrete suggests that he did not do it for means of adding strength to the concrete but for keeping walls in monolithic construction from overturning. The, 1872–1873, Pippen building in Brooklyn stands as a testament to his technique. In 1854, English builder William B. Wilkinson reinforced

1416-755: A hard "b") known later as Connie Mack Stadium , was a ballpark located in Philadelphia . It was the home of the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League (AL) and the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League (NL). When it opened April 12, 1909, it became baseball's first steel-and-concrete stadium. In different eras it was home to "The $ 100,000 Infield" , "The Whiz Kids" , and "The 1964 Phold" . The venue's two home teams won both

1593-453: A major league franchise. The problem with the deal was Connie Mack Stadium. The plan assumed a $ 1.5 million cash infusion from Bob Carpenter to buy the old ballpark, and he was unenthusiastic. "We need that ballpark as much as we need a hole in the head", he said. Its upkeep had deteriorated to the point that Carpenter estimated that modernizing the place would cost a million dollars, and even at that he believed it would be impossible to enlarge

1770-453: A major role in the evolution of concrete construction as a proven and studied science. Without Hyatt's work, more dangerous trial and error methods might have been depended on for the advancement in the technology. Joseph Monier , a 19th-century French gardener, was a pioneer in the development of structural, prefabricated and reinforced concrete, having been dissatisfied with the existing materials available for making durable flowerpots. He

1947-546: A million dollars after his 7-year ownership; he secured a 3-year lease and an option to stay through 1967 while he pursued his Torresdale stadium plan. The New York buyers quickly flipped the property to another New York consortium who, assuming the Phillies would be gone by 1967, began planning the demolition of the stadium and construction of a bowling alley and discount store on the site. Then in May 1964, Jerry Wolman , who had just bought

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2124-494: A minimum distance of 325 feet (99 m) from home plate to the fences in left and right field, and 400 feet (120 m) to center. (Rule 1.04, Note(a)). This rule was passed to avoid situations like the Los Angeles Coliseum , which was 251 ft (77 m). down the left field line. However, with the opening of Baltimore's Camden Yards (1992), the "minimum distance" rule began to be ignored. One factor may be that

2301-429: A multi-tiered seating area, a grandstand , surrounds the infield. How far this seating extends down the baselines or around the foul poles varies from park to park. In minor league parks, the grandstands are notably smaller, proportional to expected sizes of crowds compared with the major leagues. The seating beyond the outfield fence generally differs from the grandstand, though some multi-purpose or jewel box parks have

2478-413: A new place to play. He searched for a site for his new park and found one on Lehigh Avenue between 20th and 21st Streets, five blocks west of Baker Bowl , straddling the neighborhoods known as Swampoodle and Goosetown. It was still primitive at the time, an area of "high clay bluffs, rain-washed gullies, quagmires, open fields, even ponds" where chickens pecked and pigs rooted. Although a grid of streets

2655-450: A new, larger scoreboard in deep right-center field, replacing the small board that had been in the same general area, and about the same time an imposing sign went up on the left field fence with the message: "Warning: Persons throwing bottles or other missiles will be arrested and prosecuted." A few years later, he would add a tunnel between the visitors' clubhouse and their dugout to avoid confrontations with belligerent hometown fans. After

2832-419: A reduction in its durability. Corrosion and freeze/thaw cycles may damage poorly designed or constructed reinforced concrete. When rebar corrodes, the oxidation products ( rust ) expand and tends to flake, cracking the concrete and unbonding the rebar from the concrete. Typical mechanisms leading to durability problems are discussed below. Cracking of the concrete section is nearly impossible to prevent; however,

3009-473: A rugby venue in New Zealand with an ETFE roof allowing grass to be grown indoors, or NFL stadiums like State Farm Stadium and Allegiant Stadium , which allow the grass field to be grown outside and then rolled indoors for games), the first generation of indoor parks predated such abilities. Since there was not enough light to grow grass, artificial turf is installed, and this affected the game. Artificial turf

3186-472: A similar boom. One of the first major league ballparks to be called a "stadium" was actually the Polo Grounds, which was temporarily renamed Brush Stadium from its reconstruction in 1911 until the death of owner John T. Brush in the 1920s. By then, the most famous baseball "stadium" of them all had been constructed: Yankee Stadium . From that point until the retro building boom of the 1990s, the suffix "Stadium"

3363-519: A small "terrace" that ran across left and center field. The upper deck was built of wood mounted on steel girders, while the lower deck was built of concrete and steel. The only link with the Columbia Park was the transplanted sod, rolled out at the new venue. The 1909 seating capacity certainly was an upgrade from Columbia Park: 11,000 in the double deck and 12,000 in the two pavilions, for a total of 23,000. Overflow crowds were accommodated by roping off

3540-524: A small suite he kept at the ballpark; when Roy heard about it, he had the water shut off in the place. Despite undeniable deterioration, it would be a few more years before the operation collapsed entirely. In the meantime, the Macks tried to capitalize on the vestiges of affection in the city for their father, who turned 90 years old in December 1952. They opened a nostalgic Elephant Room, filled with memorabilia from

3717-426: A well-chosen concrete mix will provide additional protection for many applications. Uncoated, low carbon/chromium rebar looks similar to standard carbon steel rebar due to its lack of a coating; its highly corrosion-resistant features are inherent in the steel microstructure. It can be identified by the unique ASTM specified mill marking on its smooth, dark charcoal finish. Epoxy-coated rebar can easily be identified by

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3894-658: Is a mixture of coarse (stone or brick chips) and fine (generally sand and/or crushed stone) aggregates with a paste of binder material (usually Portland cement ) and water. When cement is mixed with a small amount of water, it hydrates to form microscopic opaque crystal lattices encapsulating and locking the aggregate into a rigid shape. The aggregates used for making concrete should be free from harmful substances like organic impurities, silt, clay, lignite, etc. Typical concrete mixes have high resistance to compressive stresses (about 4,000 psi (28 MPa)); however, any appreciable tension ( e.g., due to bending ) will break

4071-528: Is coating them with zinc phosphate . Zinc phosphate slowly reacts with calcium cations and the hydroxyl anions present in the cement pore water and forms a stable hydroxyapatite layer. Penetrating sealants typically must be applied some time after curing. Sealants include paint, plastic foams, films and aluminum foil , felts or fabric mats sealed with tar, and layers of bentonite clay, sometimes used to seal roadbeds. Corrosion inhibitors , such as calcium nitrite [Ca(NO 2 ) 2 ], can also be added to

4248-471: Is harder, and thus a ball hit on the ground moves faster and bounces higher. This, coupled with the usually dull white or gray roofs that could camouflage a fly ball, causing what Twins fans called a "dome-field advantage". A park of note is Olympic Stadium in Montreal. The park was designed with a large tower that loomed over top. Cables came down from the top of the tower to connect to the large oval center of

4425-417: Is little consistency in the choice between "Field" and "Park". For example, Houston's Minute Maid Park was originally named "Enron Field". Seating area design of stadiums is affected by many variables, including required capacity, audience access, and road traffic. Early ballparks like Elysian Fields were a far distance from the city center. Each game was an event, and fans traveled by public transit to watch

4602-423: Is little space between the field and the street beyond. Some in-play scoreboards and high fences reached 50 to 60 feet (18 m), whereas a few outfields were even lined with hedges rather than normal fences or walls. The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome , when set up for baseball, had a 23-foot (7.0 m) right field "fence" that was actually a relatively thin blue plastic sheet covering folded up football seats. It

4779-495: Is located across the bay from San Francisco . Two years later, El Campanil survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake without any damage, which helped build her reputation and launch her prolific career. The 1906 earthquake also changed the public's initial resistance to reinforced concrete as a building material, which had been criticized for its perceived dullness. In 1908, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors changed

4956-431: Is made higher in certain areas to compensate for close proximity to the batter. In many parks, the field is surrounded by an area roughly 10 feet (3.0 m) wide made of dirt or rubberized track surface called a " warning track ". In the 1937 refurbishment of the original Yankee Stadium , a running track that ran the perimeter of the field was incorporated into the field of play as the first warning track. MLB formalized

5133-541: Is one in which both the compressive and tensile zones reach yielding at the same imposed load on the beam, and the concrete will crush and the tensile steel will yield at the same time. This design criterion is however as risky as over-reinforced concrete, because failure is sudden as the concrete crushes at the same time of the tensile steel yields, which gives a very little warning of distress in tension failure. Steel-reinforced concrete moment-carrying elements should normally be designed to be under-reinforced so that users of

5310-428: Is one in which the concrete element is only reinforced near the tensile face and the reinforcement, called tension steel, is designed to resist the tension. A doubly reinforced beam is the section in which besides the tensile reinforcement the concrete element is also reinforced near the compressive face to help the concrete resist compression and take stresses. The latter reinforcement is called compression steel. When

5487-430: Is one in which the tension capacity of the tension steel is greater than the combined compression capacity of the concrete and the compression steel (over-reinforced at tensile face). So the "over-reinforced concrete" beam fails by crushing of the compressive-zone concrete and before the tension zone steel yields, which does not provide any warning before failure as the failure is instantaneous. A balanced-reinforced beam

Shibe Park - Misplaced Pages Continue

5664-437: Is the catcher's box, where the catcher and the home plate umpire stand. Next to the first and third base are two coaches' boxes, where the first and third base coaches guide the baserunners, generally with gestures or shouts. As the baserunner faces away from the outfield when running from second base to third, they cannot see where the ball is and must look to the third base coach on whether to run, stop, or slide. Farther from

5841-579: Is the theoretical failure point with a certain probability. It is stated under factored loads and factored resistances. Reinforced concrete structures are normally designed according to rules and regulations or recommendation of a code such as ACI-318, CEB, Eurocode 2 or the like. WSD, USD or LRFD methods are used in design of RC structural members. Analysis and design of RC members can be carried out by using linear or non-linear approaches. When applying safety factors, building codes normally propose linear approaches, but for some cases non-linear approaches. To see

6018-446: Is transferred from the concrete to the bar interface so as to change the tensile stress in the reinforcing bar along its length. This load transfer is achieved by means of bond (anchorage) and is idealized as a continuous stress field that develops in the vicinity of the steel-concrete interface. The reasons that the two different material components concrete and steel can work together are as follows: (1) Reinforcement can be well bonded to

6195-480: Is usually embedded passively in the concrete before the concrete sets. However, post-tensioning is also employed as a technique to reinforce the concrete. In terms of volume used annually, it is one of the most common engineering materials. In corrosion engineering terms, when designed correctly, the alkalinity of the concrete protects the steel rebar from corrosion . Reinforcing schemes are generally designed to resist tensile stresses in particular regions of

6372-614: The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis , which instead of a rigid masonry roof was covered by inflatable fiberglass sheeting, held up by air pressure. A drawback to this design, at least in Minnesota's severe winter climate, was revealed when the dome collapsed three times in its first three years of operation due to accumulated snow. The Tokyo Dome has a similar roof; due to Tokyo's considerably milder winter climate, that stadium has not had

6549-555: The Kingdome , whose formal name was "King County Domed Stadium", and the Metrodome, for which the Minneapolis highway signs directed the driver to "Metrodome Stadium". The retro era of the 1990s and early 2000s saw some venues return to using "park" in a stadium's name, even in domed structures such as T-Mobile Park and American Family Field (which opened with the name Miller Park). There

6726-517: The New York Yankees ' top minor-league affiliate, but intended to sell it to the city for upgrading to major league standards. Roy, Earle and Connie Mack, Sr. would get about $ 1.5 million, Johnson would pay off the remaining mortgage, and he would assume the $ 400,000–$ 800,000 debt to the concessionaires. Very little of Johnson's own cash would be involved: the deal depended on real estate and the eagerness of Kansas City town fathers to take on debt for

6903-596: The Oakland Coliseum being the last one in use. The Athletics moved out of Oakland Coliseum in 2024 and have temporairy moves into West Sacramento 's Sutter Health Park for three seasons as a new dedicated facility of their own is built in Las Vegas. Their former co-tenants, the NFL Oakland Raiders , moved to Las Vegas in 2020 & into Allegiant Stadium . Note: To reduce redundancy, this table does not list

7080-572: The Philadelphia Eagles in February, brought the stadium ownership back to town, paying $ 757,000 for it as part of a larger real estate deal. Wolman's motivations for the purchase are in dispute – all the mortgage shuffling did not slow the decay out at the park – but he claimed he wanted to help the Phillies; the move also put him at the very center of the emerging fight over a new stadium in Philadelphia, which would likely affect his Eagles. Wolman,

7257-458: The United States , the most common methods of doing this are known as pre-tensioning and post-tensioning . For a strong, ductile and durable construction the reinforcement needs to have the following properties at least: François Coignet used iron-reinforced concrete as a technique for constructing building structures. In 1853, Coignet built the first iron reinforced concrete structure,

Shibe Park - Misplaced Pages Continue

7434-452: The second Yankee Stadium , built 2009, used the same dimensions as the original Yankee Stadium . The heights of the fences can also vary greatly, the most famous example being the 37-foot (11 m)-high Green Monster in Fenway Park 's left field. Such tall fences are often used to stop easy home runs in a section of the ballpark where the distances from home are shorter, or where there

7611-462: The tensile strength of concrete was improved by the reinforcing. Before the 1870s, the use of concrete construction, though dating back to the Roman Empire , and having been reintroduced in the early 19th century, was not yet a proven scientific technology. Ernest L. Ransome , an English-born engineer, was an early innovator of reinforced concrete techniques at the end of the 19th century. Using

7788-697: The 1890s, Wayss and his firm greatly contributed to the advancement of Monier's system of reinforcing, established it as a well-developed scientific technology. One of the first skyscrapers made with reinforced concrete was the 16-story Ingalls Building in Cincinnati, constructed in 1904. The first reinforced concrete building in Southern California was the Laughlin Annex in downtown Los Angeles , constructed in 1905. In 1906, 16 building permits were reportedly issued for reinforced concrete buildings in

7965-451: The 1950 "Whiz Kids" Phillies team brought the NL pennant to Philadelphia for the first time in 35 years. As the Phillies improved baseball life in Philadelphia, there was a decline in the fortunes of the A's – in the team, in the owner, and in the ballpark. Mack had alienated many fans in 1915, and again in 1932, when he sold off his pennant-winning teams for cash. His clashes with his neighbors over

8142-420: The A's offices, those of Shibe's sons Jack and Tom, who ran the day-to-day business aspects of the team, and the domed cupola on the very top were to house Mack's office. On the ground floor was a main entrance lobby. Bobby Shantz , pitcher for the A's in their last years at Shibe, wrote that the corner tower entrance "looked almost like a church." Shibe was proud of the egalitarianism of the design; he said it

8319-673: The City of Los Angeles, including the Temple Auditorium and 8-story Hayward Hotel. In 1906, a partial collapse of the Bixby Hotel in Long Beach killed 10 workers during construction when shoring was removed prematurely. That event spurred a scrutiny of concrete erection practices and building inspections. The structure was constructed of reinforced concrete frames with hollow clay tile ribbed flooring and hollow clay tile infill walls. That practice

8496-592: The English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. In 1877, Thaddeus Hyatt , published a report entitled An Account of Some Experiments with Portland-Cement-Concrete Combined with Iron as a Building Material, with Reference to Economy of Metal in Construction and for Security against Fire in the Making of Roofs, Floors, and Walking Surfaces , in which he reported his experiments on the behaviour of reinforced concrete. His work played

8673-419: The Metrodome's snow-related issues. Reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete , also called ferroconcrete , is a composite material in which concrete 's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ductility. The reinforcement is usually, though not necessarily, steel reinforcing bars (known as rebar ) and

8850-558: The National League's Phillies had been trying to escape their dilapidated home, Baker Bowl , and move to Shibe Park as tenants of the A's. However, it took them until mid-season 1938 to get out of their lease and move the five blocks west on Lehigh to Shibe Park. The Phillies' arrangement with Connie Mack was simple: they would pay rent of ten cents a head for every fan that came through the gates, and would hire and pay their own stadium staff on game days. While moving to Shibe likely saved

9027-417: The Phillies from extinction, having two teams play in the park complicated scheduling enormously. The extra income from the Phillies was offset by the crowded baseball schedule tying up the park for nearly all of the summer, so it affected the A's bottom line very little. The Phillies' first game at Shibe Park was a split doubleheader against Boston on July 4, and they finished the season last, 24½ games behind

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9204-574: The Shibe family, who still owned 40% of the stock, while Roy and Earle shelved their years of squabbles to present a united front against what they derisively called "the Shibe faction." To raise cash for the coming struggle, Roy and Earle made poor decisions. They re-mortgaged the ballpark at a time when cashflow was uncertain, and they leased park concessions to an outside food service corporation. The brothers had simultaneously acquired huge debt and lost their best income sources. They managed to buy out Junior,

9381-470: The Steele company and added a new unroofed bleacher section across left field, taking advantage of the site's rectangular, rather than square, shape, and also added roof structures to cover the open pavilions down the first base and third base lines. After Ben Shibe's death in 1922, sons Tom and Jack became president and vice president, respectively. and in 1925 they replaced the 1913 open left field bleachers with

9558-695: The actual available length is inadequate for full development, special anchorages must be provided, such as cogs or hooks or mechanical end plates. The same concept applies to lap splice length mentioned in the codes where splices (overlapping) provided between two adjacent bars in order to maintain the required continuity of stress in the splice zone. In wet and cold climates, reinforced concrete for roads, bridges, parking structures and other structures that may be exposed to deicing salt may benefit from use of corrosion-resistant reinforcement such as uncoated, low carbon/chromium (micro composite), epoxy-coated, hot dip galvanized or stainless steel rebar. Good design and

9735-461: The actual bond stress varies along the length of a bar anchored in a zone of tension, current international codes of specifications use the concept of development length rather than bond stress. The main requirement for safety against bond failure is to provide a sufficient extension of the length of the bar beyond the point where the steel is required to develop its yield stress and this length must be at least equal to its development length. However, if

9912-575: The actual home run distance. In 1956, Bob Carpenter replaced the old 1941 scoreboard in right-center field with a new, much larger board, constructed for Connie Mack Stadium. A prominent feature of the new board was the Ballantine Beer advertisement across the top and the Longines clock perched above it. The board's superficial resemblance to the similarly adorned board in Yankee Stadium gave rise to

10089-429: The bases: an urban location, with plenty of parking and public transportation available. The first professional baseball venues were large wooden ballparks with seats mounted on wood platforms. Although known for being constructed out of wood, they featured iron columns for better support. Some included one tier of inclined seating, topped with either a flat roof or, in some instances, a small upper tier. The outfield

10266-554: The bay window of the front bedroom and more even on the porch roof. Viewers on the block could number up to several thousand for important games. Housewives served up refreshments for sale and children scurried to the hot dog vendors on the street, bought dogs for a nickel, and brought them back to sell for a dime. With so much money on the line, the business got organized and formalized very quickly. Homeowners were soon squeezed for bribes by city amusement tax collectors, and city police collected commissions for collaring and herding fans from

10443-403: The block, with open pavilion seating extending to the foul poles. The outfield was a large rectangle, surrounded by a 12-foot (3.7 m) brick wall that bordered the streets. The deepest part of center field was a square corner 515 feet (157 m) from home plate. It was 378 to the left field foul marker, and 340 to right field. The slight upslope of the land from south to north was reflected in

10620-473: The brothers installed a mezzanine that added 750 pricey box seats and the following year they raised the original grandstand roof and installed a press box underneath it, along with 3,500 more seats. For the 1923 season, Connie Mack had moved the infield back an estimated 21 feet (6.4 m). This was a choice of speed over power, as moving the plate back increased left field and right field dimensions by 15 feet (4.6 m) each. Home runs dropped about 50% for

10797-496: The ceremony was emceed by sportscaster Bill Campbell . Shortly after, the Philadelphia City Council removed Reyburn's name from the park and replaced it with Mack's. The statue was later moved to Veterans Stadium in 1971, and ultimately to Citizens Bank Park in 2004 . For the 1960 season, additional box seats in front of the original grandstand reduced the plate-to-screen distance by about 10 feet (3.0 m). With

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10974-543: The chief reasons for the failure of reinforcement bars in concrete. The relative cross-sectional area of steel required for typical reinforced concrete is usually quite small and varies from 1% for most beams and slabs to 6% for some columns. Reinforcing bars are normally round in cross-section and vary in diameter. Reinforced concrete structures sometimes have provisions such as ventilated hollow cores to control their moisture & humidity. Distribution of concrete (in spite of reinforcement) strength characteristics along

11151-400: The city would be closing the facility. Without the hospital, the area's stigma would eventually dissipate, but at the time, the land was still a bargain. Shibe quietly assembled title to his square block of land early in 1907, picking up parcels "through a complicated series of acquisitions, preventing price inflation by masking his intentions," even using straw buyers to keep his name out of

11328-732: The city's building codes to allow wider use of reinforced concrete. In 1906, the National Association of Cement Users (NACU) published Standard No. 1 and, in 1910, the Standard Building Regulations for the Use of Reinforced Concrete . Many different types of structures and components of structures can be built using reinforced concrete elements including slabs , walls , beams , columns , foundations , frames and more. Reinforced concrete can be classified as precast or cast-in-place concrete . Designing and implementing

11505-552: The city's first skyscraper , the Witherspoon Building at Walnut and Juniper Streets. The Steele design for the Shibe façade was in the ornate French Renaissance style, including arches , vaultings , and Ionic pilasters . The grandstand walls were to be of red brick and terra cotta and featured elaborate decorative friezes with baseball motifs, while cartouches framed the Athletics' "A" logo at regular intervals above

11682-567: The city, and even Carpenter were all exploring plans to solve the town's stadium problem. The plan that came closest to fruition was a complicated 1964 package that called for a new stadium with parking for 7,000 cars to be built "on stilts" over the vast railroad yards near 30th Street Station . This plan had considerable backing from city politicians and businessmen, but it too eventually unraveled when federal urban renewal funds did not come through and extended wrangling between Wolman and everyone else involved brought it down. Wolman then tried to sell

11859-422: The compression zone of a concrete is inadequate to resist the compressive moment (positive moment), extra reinforcement has to be provided if the architect limits the dimensions of the section. An under-reinforced beam is one in which the tension capacity of the tensile reinforcement is smaller than the combined compression capacity of the concrete and the compression steel (under-reinforced at tensile face). When

12036-541: The concrete resists compression and reinforcement " rebar " resists tension can be made into almost any shape and size for the construction industry. Three physical characteristics give reinforced concrete its special properties: As a rule of thumb, only to give an idea on orders of magnitude, steel is protected at pH above ~11 but starts to corrode below ~10 depending on steel characteristics and local physico-chemical conditions when concrete becomes carbonated. Carbonation of concrete along with chloride ingress are amongst

12213-412: The concrete roof and floors in the two-story house he was constructing. His positioning of the reinforcement demonstrated that, unlike his predecessors, he had knowledge of tensile stresses. Between 1869 and 1870, Henry Eton would design, and Messrs W & T Phillips of London construct the wrought iron reinforced Homersfield Bridge bridge, with a 50' (15.25 meter) span, over the river Waveney, between

12390-423: The concrete that might cause unacceptable cracking and/or structural failure. Modern reinforced concrete can contain varied reinforcing materials made of steel, polymers or alternate composite material in conjunction with rebar or not. Reinforced concrete may also be permanently stressed (concrete in compression, reinforcement in tension), so as to improve the behavior of the final structure under working loads. In

12567-416: The concrete, thus they can jointly resist external loads and deform. (2) The thermal expansion coefficients of concrete and steel are so close ( 1.0 × 10 to 1.5 × 10 for concrete and 1.2 × 10 for steel) that the thermal stress-induced damage to the bond between the two components can be prevented. (3) Concrete can protect the embedded steel from corrosion and high-temperature induced softening. Because

12744-810: The constraints of actual city blocks, often resulting in significantly asymmetrical outfield dimensions and large outfield walls to prevent easy home runs. Notable examples included League Park in Cleveland, which had a 40-foot (12 m)-tall wall in right field, and the Green Monster , the 37-foot (11 m)-tall left field wall at Fenway Park in Boston. Notable exceptions include Shibe Park and Comiskey Park , which were built on rectangular city blocks that were large enough to accommodate symmetrical left and right fields. Other sports, such as soccer and football , were often played at these sites (Yankee Stadium, for example,

12921-403: The cross-section of vertical reinforced concrete elements is inhomogeneous. The reinforcement in a RC structure, such as a steel bar, has to undergo the same strain or deformation as the surrounding concrete in order to prevent discontinuity, slip or separation of the two materials under load. Maintaining composite action requires transfer of load between the concrete and steel. The direct stress

13098-442: The dealings. He spent a total of $ 67,500 ($ 2.29 million in 2023 dollars) on seven land packages totaling 5.75 acres (2.33 ha), and in February 1908, he arranged to have two projected streets running through his block dropped from the city plan. For the design and its execution, Shibe hired William Steele and Sons. Their engineering staff had worked with the new technology of steel-reinforced concrete , and designed and built

13275-592: The death of Mr. Mack in February 1956, a Mack Memorial Committee raised funds and commissioned sculptor Harry Rosin to create a statue of "Mr. Baseball". On April 16, 1957, it was unveiled across Lehigh Avenue in Reyburn Park – named after the mayor who threw out the first ball at Shibe back in 1909 – as part of the Opening Day ceremonies for the 1957 season. Commissioner Ford Frick , AL president Will Harridge and Leo Durocher all attended, as did many former A's players;

13452-531: The dugout, leaving game strategy in the hands of his coaches. When he was awake, he often made strange calls that the players and coaches usually disregarded. He would also call for players from decades earlier to pinch-hit; in the 1940s it was not uncommon for him to yell " Baker !" or " Foxx !" – sluggers he had sold off decades before. Most ominously, the crowds at Shibe Park were so small that AL teams could not cover their travel expenses, leading owners to complain that receipts at Shibe Park were too small to justify

13629-509: The earliest baseball stadiums that incorporated this type of design was Cleveland Stadium (built 1932), which featured an oval grandstand that was more friendly to goal-centered sports like football. A park built to suit all sports well, which was co-owned by the teams or the city, seemed advantageous to all, especially because it was less expensive to maintain one stadium rather than two. Some parks that were originally built for one sport were renovated to accommodate multiple sports. The shape of

13806-511: The early ballparks. With the beginnings of professional baseball, the ballfield became part of a complex including fixed spectator seating areas, and an enclosure to restrict access to paying customers, as with a fairgrounds. The name "Grounds" began to be attached to ballparks, starting with the Union Grounds in 1862. The suffixes "Field" and "Park" were still used, but many professional ballparks were "Grounds". The last major league "Grounds"

13983-410: The elements. Besides the drawbacks of the cantilever design, there were other issues with these parks. With few exceptions, seating was angled to face the center of the field of play, rather than home plate. The furthest seats in these parks were 500 feet (150 m) or more from the plate. The capacities of these stadiums were larger than previous baseball stadiums. Typical game attendance did not fill

14160-429: The end of the season. The power vacuum in the wake of "Mr. Baseball's" exit only worsened the problems, however. Roy and Earle Mack, "undistinguished men living in the shadow of their father," were from Mack's first marriage; their half-brother Connie, Jr. – 20 years their junior – came from his second. As the family factions squared off to battle for control of the A's, Junior and his mother joined forces with remnants of

14337-473: The entire deal off. Carpenter was now in a bind, since there was no other facility in the Delaware Valley that was suitable even for temporary use. Reluctantly, he bought the park for $ 1.7 million in December, and formed the 21st and Lehigh Realty Company to run it. Nominally, the Phillies were Carpenter's tenants, paying him rent just as they had paid rent to the A's previously. In practice, however, Carpenter

14514-455: The entrances. The souvenir program on Opening Day called it "a fetching combination of color." Gabled dormer windows on the upper deck's copper-trimmed green-slate mansard roof looked out over the streets below. Presiding over all were terra cotta busts of Shibe and Mack above the main entrances on Lehigh and 21st. The signature feature of the exterior design was the octangular tower on the southwest corner. The upper floors would accommodate

14691-403: The examples of a non-linear numerical simulation and calculation visit the references: Prestressing concrete is a technique that greatly increases the load-bearing strength of concrete beams. The reinforcing steel in the bottom part of the beam, which will be subjected to tensile forces when in service, is placed in tension before the concrete is poured around it. Once the concrete has hardened,

14868-491: The fans had difficulty seeing over the football benches. This was evident in the movable seating sections in RFK Stadium. The first ten rows of the football configuration were practically at field level, and fans in those sections often stood up on their seats to get a better view. Other stadiums overcame this simply by covering those seats, not bothering to sell them. Despite being cost-effective, these problems eventually caused

15045-453: The field. Like its English relative, cricket , there is significant flexibility in the shape and size of the rest of the playing area. Baseball leagues may specify a minimum distance from home plate to the outfield fences. Generally, the higher the skill level, the deeper the minimum dimensions must be, to prevent an excess of home runs. In the major leagues, a rule was passed in 1958 that compelled any new fields built after that point to have

15222-672: The first and last games at the stadium: the Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox 8–1 on opening day 1909, while the Phillies beat the Montreal Expos 2–1 on October 1, 1970, in the park's final contest. Shibe Park stood on the block bounded by Lehigh Avenue, 20th Street, Somerset Street and 21st Street. It was five blocks west, corner-to-corner, from the Baker Bowl , the Phillies' home from 1887 to 1938. The stadium hosted eight World Series and two MLB All-Star Games , in 1943 and 1952 , with

15399-557: The first concrete buildings constructed in the United States was a private home designed by William Ward , completed in 1876. The home was particularly designed to be fireproof. G. A. Wayss was a German civil engineer and a pioneer of the iron and steel concrete construction. In 1879, Wayss bought the German rights to Monier's patents and, in 1884, his firm, Wayss & Freytag , made the first commercial use of reinforced concrete. Up until

15576-596: The first indoor sports stadium ever built, was built to escape the hot and very humid climate of Houston and the Kingdome was built to escape Seattle's constant fall and winter rains. In Japan, domed stadiums were built to escape frequently rainy climates, as well as extreme snowfall in Sapporo. There is little to no natural light in these parks, necessitating the use of one of the most distinguishing aspects of an indoor park: artificial turf. While technology now allows for grass to be used in indoor venues (see Forsyth Barr Stadium ,

15753-420: The foul lines to accommodate the bullpens. They also added an "annunciator" on the upper deck beyond third base that flashed the at-bat number; ball-strike-out count; hit or error; and score. At the park's beginning, homeowners on both Somerset Street and 20th Street had a great view of the proceedings within, thanks to the low outfield fences. While this changed for the people on Somerset in 1913 when Shibe added

15930-399: The foul poles and did not completely enclose the field. Plans were made to enclose the grandstand and build a dome, but engineers discovered that the structure could not handle the load of the proposed dome. Thus, the area behind the outfield fence remained open. One major innovation of the multi-purpose parks was the cantilevered upper deck. In earlier ballparks, the columns used to support

16107-440: The franchise and sold it for $ 190,000 and a $ 50,000 note to lumber baron William Cox , who paid off Mack and put money down on future rent. The flamboyant Cox poured money into the team in an effort to turn it around, but he also abraded fans, his own players, fellow owners, and Landis. The uproar did not last long; when Cox was found to be betting on Phillies games, Landis banned him for life on Nov. 23, 1943. The same day that Cox

16284-426: The game. With the growth of professional leagues, and consequent growth in the quantity of games, each game became less of an event, and fan convenience became more important. Many professional ballparks were built either near the city center, or in working-class neighborhoods, based on the expected economic level of the average fan. Consequently, the classic ballparks typically had little space for automobiles, as it

16461-487: The gates. Hundreds poured in without paying admission, and an estimated 7,000 standing-room only spectators saw that first game ringing the outfield up to seven-deep, held back by a rope stretched between the left field seats and the right field bleacher. Another 6,000 more looked in from various rooftops around the block. "It seemed as if all of Philadelphia was there", wrote the Public Ledger . Mayor John E. Reyburn called

16638-404: The glory days, under the first base grandstand. They renamed the park Connie Mack Stadium in February 1953 for the opening of the 1953 season, hanging a new metal plate over the old SHIBE PARK inscription, which was "still written in stone" beneath. Many old-timers refused to acknowledge the change. The Macks' bad business decisions finally caught up with them in 1954. While Roy had hoped to keep

16815-415: The grandstand surround the entire field. This area could contain inexpensive bleacher seats, smaller grandstands, or simply inclined seating. In local ballparks, there are often simply a set or two of aluminum bleachers on the first-base and third-base sides. Distinctive from "goal games" such as football and basketball , which have fixed-size playing areas, the infield is the only rigidly laid-out part of

16992-402: The high right-field fence cost them many home runs. It dogged them when they played the field, too: its rippling corrugations made caroms unpredictable, with some balls dropping straight down, others bounding all the way back to second base and some bouncing radically to one side or another, sometimes into the bullpen. It was "one of the hardest" walls to play in the majors. For several years,

17169-429: The home plate area, aligned with the first and third bases. These are the foul lines or base lines , usually differentiated by referring to them as the first base line, or the third base line. If a ball hit by the batter lands outside of the space between these two lines or rolls out of this space before reaching first or third base, the ball is "foul" (meaning it is dead and the play is over). If it lands between or on

17346-430: The income but now suffering from the tough economy like everyone else, sent reps to the lines – such as they were – at the park box office to offer discount seats and poach customers from the ball club. This was the last straw for Jack Shibe. In the winter of 1934–35, he ordered the fence raised to 34 feet (10 m). While the higher fence was Jack Shibe's idea, it became generally known as "Connie Mack's Spite Fence." This

17523-440: The indoor stadiums of the multi-purpose era in this section. *A baseball-only ballpark converted to a multi-purpose stadium. **A football-only stadium converted to a multi-purpose stadium. ‡ denotes stadium is also a retractable-roof ballpark An important type of ballpark is the indoor park . These parks are covered with a fixed roof, usually a hard concrete dome. The reasons to build indoor parks are varied. The Astrodome ,

17700-452: The infield and the outfield. The infield is an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined in part based on the placement of bases, and the outfield is where dimensions can vary widely from ballpark to ballpark. A larger ballpark may also be called a baseball stadium because it shares characteristics of other stadiums . A baseball field can be referred to as a diamond. The infield is a rigidly structured diamond of dirt and grass containing

17877-401: The infield on either side are the dugouts, where the teams and coaches sit when they're not on the field. They are named such because, at the professional levels, this seating is below the level of the playing field to not block the view from prime spectator seating locations. In amateur parks, the dugouts may be above-ground wooden or CMU structures with seating inside, or simply benches behind

18054-645: The knowledge of reinforced concrete developed during the previous 50 years, Ransome improved nearly all the styles and techniques of the earlier inventors of reinforced concrete. Ransome's key innovation was to twist the reinforcing steel bar, thereby improving its bond with the concrete. Gaining increasing fame from his concrete constructed buildings, Ransome was able to build two of the first reinforced concrete bridges in North America. One of his bridges still stands on Shelter Island in New Yorks East End, One of

18231-414: The last one, Oriole Park V, burning down in 1944. The earliest ballparks built or rebuilt of reinforced concrete , brick, and steel are now known as the jewel box ballparks or classic parks . Two-tiered grandstands became much more prevalent in this era, as well. The Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, which opened in 1895, was the first to use steel and brick as the primary construction materials and included

18408-467: The latter game holding the distinction of being the only All-Star contest shortened by rain (to five innings). In May 1939, it was the site of the first night game played in the American League. Phillies Hall-of-Fame centerfielder and longtime broadcaster Richie Ashburn remembered Shibe Park: "It looked like a ballpark. It smelled like a ballpark. It had a feeling and a heartbeat, a personality that

18585-436: The left field area in front of the wall. Some 500 tons of steel went into the construction. On Monday, April 12, 1909, the Opening Day proceedings walked a fine line between festival and chaos. More than 30,000 fans showed up and got in; another 15,000 showed up and were turned away. Nervous officials closed the gates hours before game time, turning the outsiders into a "howling mob of thousands" whose pressure forced open one of

18762-557: The left field bleacher section and blocked the view from that direction. It was still a clear shot in from 20th Street over the low, 12-foot wall in right. The view from the roofs, the bedroom bay windows, and even the porch roofs on 20th was as good as from some of the seats inside the park. Pathé News , Universal Newsreel Fox Movietone News even set up cameras at 2739 North 20th as part of their World Series coverage. The numbers involved in this cottage industry were considerable. A rooftop bleacher could hold up to 80 people, with 18 more in

18939-458: The length of his income season by adding a football team. In 1959, he sought to buy an American Football League franchise, but the negotiations failed. Additionally, the neighborhood experienced white flight , leading to perceptions of rising crime; the phrase "Watch your car, mister?" became a catch phrase to game attendees. Indeed, the parking problem became the very crux of the issue in the 1950s and 1960s: whereas most people had formerly come to

19116-811: The light green color of its epoxy coating. Hot dip galvanized rebar may be bright or dull gray depending on length of exposure, and stainless rebar exhibits a typical white metallic sheen that is readily distinguishable from carbon steel reinforcing bar. Reference ASTM standard specifications A1035/A1035M Standard Specification for Deformed and Plain Low-carbon, Chromium, Steel Bars for Concrete Reinforcement, A767 Standard Specification for Hot Dip Galvanized Reinforcing Bars, A775 Standard Specification for Epoxy Coated Steel Reinforcing Bars and A955 Standard Specification for Deformed and Plain Stainless Bars for Concrete Reinforcement. Another, cheaper way of protecting rebars

19293-436: The lines, it is "fair". At the end of the lines are two foul poles, which help the umpires judge whether a ball is fair or foul. These "foul poles" are actually in fair territory, so a ball that hits them on the fly is a home run (if hit on the bounce, it is instead an automatic double). On either side of home plate are the two batter's boxes (left-handed and right-handed.) This is where the batter stands when at bat. Behind home

19470-452: The lower level. However, because of the supports used, the upper decks could come very close to the field. The two-tiered design was the standard for decades, until the New York Yankees built Yankee Stadium . To accommodate the large crowds Babe Ruth drew, Yankee Stadium was built with three tiers. This became the new standard until some recently built parks reverted to two, including PNC Park in 2001. Most jewel box parks were built to fit

19647-438: The microscopic rigid lattice, resulting in cracking and separation of the concrete. For this reason, typical non-reinforced concrete must be well supported to prevent the development of tension. If a material with high strength in tension, such as steel , is placed in concrete, then the composite material, reinforced concrete, resists not only compression but also bending and other direct tensile actions. A composite section where

19824-656: The most efficient floor system is key to creating optimal building structures. Small changes in the design of a floor system can have significant impact on material costs, construction schedule, ultimate strength, operating costs, occupancy levels and end use of a building. Without reinforcement, constructing modern structures with concrete material would not be possible. When reinforced concrete elements are used in construction, these reinforced concrete elements exhibit basic behavior when subjected to external loads . Reinforced concrete elements may be subject to tension , compression , bending , shear , and/or torsion . Concrete

20001-664: The most famous examples is the original Yankee Stadium, whose odd-shaped plot of land caused right field to be over 100 feet (30 m) shorter than left, although this difference lessened over time. The rectangular Polo Grounds had extremely short distance down the lines, 258 ft (79 m). to right and 280 ft (85 m). to left. In contrast, the deepest part of center field was nearly 500 ft (150 m). from home plate. Older ballparks, such as Fenway Park , were grandfathered in and allowed to keep their original dimensions. Also, new parks have sometimes received special dispensation to deviate from these rules. For instance,

20178-418: The new facility a "pride to the city" and threw out the first ball. The A's beat the Boston Red Sox that day, 8–1. The Athletics and their new stadium were a hit: the A's won pennants – and brought World Series to town – in 1910 and 1911, and by 1913, when they would win another, Shibe initiated the first of the expansions of seating capacity that would continue right on through the 1950s. He called again upon

20355-535: The next three seasons. The Shibe brothers moved it back to its original position, resulting in field dimensions of 331 feet (101 m) to right field, 334 to left, and 468 to the square corner in center. In 1936, A's President Tom Shibe died, and Connie Mack succeeded in gaining control of the team by buying out Tom Shibe's share from his widow. The move made the Mack family the controlling partner in 1937, though various Shibe family members still had "considerable holdings" in

20532-481: The old Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., part of center field had to be built around a cluster of apartment houses and the result was a rather large angular indentation in the left-center field fence. Now, these variations are mostly influenced by the specifications and whims of the designers. New "retro" parks, which try to recapture the feel of the jewel box parks, are often designed to have these quirks. Baseball

20709-592: The park on public transportation, after the war, the automobile became the standard mode of transport. There was a 500-car lot, later expanded to 850 cars, across 21st Street, but it was not nearly enough. Carpenter tried to buy the whole block in 1959 for a multi-level garage, but the deal fell through. The team maintained special "Phillies Express" buses to shuttle fans from transportation hubs in Camden and 69th Street Transportation Center in Upper Darby Township , but

20886-471: The park to the city for the nominal price of 50 cents, but Mayor James Tate balked at using city money to pay for major renovations. Eventually the city would build Veterans Stadium in South Philadelphia and the Phillies would leave Connie Mack Stadium. The final game at Connie Mack Stadium was played on October 1, 1970, with the Phillies defeating the Montreal Expos 2–1 in 10 innings. The occasion

21063-552: The parks generally depended on the original use. Ballparks that were renovated to accommodate football, like Candlestick Park and Anaheim Stadium , were usually asymmetrically shaped. Football stadiums that were renovated to accommodate baseball, like Sun Life Stadium and Mile High Stadium , were usually of a rectangular shape, though Mile High actually started its life in 1948 as a Minor League Baseball park known as Bears Stadium. Parks that were built to serve both were usually circular and completely enclosed on all sides. These were

21240-490: The parks that gained multi-purpose parks the reputation as bland cookie-cutter structures. The first of these parks was DC Stadium (renamed RFK Stadium in 1969) in the District of Columbia . RFK is unique in that it hosted two different baseball teams , and that it was the first to originally be intended for multiple sports. A notable variant among the cookie-cutter stadia was Shea Stadium . Its grandstand extended just beyond

21417-451: The parks to become unfashionable. The multi-purpose architecture reached a climax when Toronto's SkyDome (now Rogers Centre ) opened in 1989. It had state-of-the-art amenities including a retractable roof, hotel, and a restaurant behind the outfield from where patrons could view the games. Rogers Centre was renovated into a baseball only stadium from 2022 to 2024. There are no more purely open-air multi-purpose parks still in use today, with

21594-448: The passivation of steel at the anodic oxidation sites. Nitrite is a much more active corrosion inhibitor than nitrate , which is a less powerful oxidizer of the divalent iron. A beam bends under bending moment , resulting in a small curvature. At the outer face (tensile face) of the curvature the concrete experiences tensile stress, while at the inner face (compressive face) it experiences compressive stress. A singly reinforced beam

21771-401: The play area, its fascia would have to be in the plane of the existing right field fence while its hindquarters would have to protrude out back, dangling some 15 feet (4.6 m) above the west sidewalk of North 20th Street and forming a covered arcade walkway. The $ 2.5-million proposal galvanized the 20th Street neighbors against the A's again, and this time the legal team could not overcome

21948-435: The playing field running toward the north or east or some direction between. Major League Baseball Rule 1.04 states that it is "desirable" (but not required) that the central axis run east-northeast (about 22 degrees north of east). This is to prevent the setting sun from being in the batter's eyes. In practice, major league parks vary up to about 90 degrees from east-northeast in either direction, but none face west, except for

22125-412: The quaint, "retro" look of Camden Yards, with its irregular measurements, proved to be very popular, along with a traditionalist backlash against the symmetrical, multi-purpose, "cookie-cutter" stadiums. Since the opening of Camden Yards, many other "retro" stadiums have been built, each with asymmetrical fences. These distances vary from park to park, and can even change drastically in the same park. One of

22302-433: The reinforced concrete element is subject to increasing bending moment, the tension steel yields while the concrete does not reach its ultimate failure condition. As the tension steel yields and stretches, an "under-reinforced" concrete also yields in a ductile manner, exhibiting a large deformation and warning before its ultimate failure. In this case the yield stress of the steel governs the design. An over-reinforced beam

22479-401: The roof. This oval center was supposed to be lifted by the cables, opening the park up if the weather was pleasant. However, the mechanism never worked correctly, and what was supposed to be a retractable roof was initially not used, then used for only a short period of time, and later replaced with a permanently fixed roof, making the stadium a strictly indoor facility. Another notable park was

22656-430: The seating capacity. He also recognized the growing parking problem, as well as the declining affluence of the neighborhood. He tried to pass on the purchase, reminding Johnson that he had a lease until 1957. Johnson responded by threatening to raise the "rent" to 20 cents a head, and to bill the Phillies for stadium upkeep the A's had always paid for. When Carpenter did not show signs of giving in, Johnson said he would call

22833-475: The second Mrs. Mack and the remaining Shibes late in 1950. However, they then made one of the worst of several bad business decisions by mortgaging the team and pledging Shibe Park as collateral, saddling the A's with hefty mortgage payments that could have been spent on improving the team and the park. They immediately resumed battling each other, and much of the brothers' discord made the newspapers. In one famous episode, Earle separated from his wife and moved into

23010-616: The service never really caught on. Carpenter also investigated land tracts first in West Philadelphia, then in the Torresdale section of the city, as well as nearby suburban Cheltenham and farther-flung Camden, across the river in New Jersey. But there were prohibitive problems with every one of those proposed sites. Carpenter finally gave up and in 1961 sold the stadium for $ 600,000 to a group of New York real estate investors, losing over

23187-445: The seventh place Brooklyn Dodgers and 43 games back overall. 21st and Lehigh was one of the gloomiest addresses in baseball in the late 1930s and early 1940s. At the time, both Philadelphia teams were in long stretches of futility. The Phillies had notched one winning season since 1918, while the A's had not had a winning season since 1933. Both teams finished last in their leagues in 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1945. Making things worse

23364-580: The sidewalk into particular homes. By 1929, the extra income from the rooftop bleachers actually caused real estate values to climb on the 2700 block of North 20th Street. As long as the A's were winning games and filling the park, the 20th Street entrepreneurs were annoying, but little more, to Mack and the Shibes, but that changed in the early 1930s. Starting in 1932, Mack's sell-off of his Second Dynasty stars, combined with general Great Depression hard times, sent attendance plummeting. 20th Streeters, accustomed to

23541-581: The size and location of cracks can be limited and controlled by appropriate reinforcement, control joints, curing methodology and concrete mix design. Cracking can allow moisture to penetrate and corrode the reinforcement. This is a serviceability failure in limit state design . Cracking is normally the result of an inadequate quantity of rebar, or rebar spaced at too great a distance. The concrete cracks either under excess loading, or due to internal effects such as early thermal shrinkage while it cures. Ultimate failure leading to collapse can be caused by crushing

23718-453: The spite fence, the night games and the 20th Street overhang sparked ill will between the team and its fan base. The Phillies began to outdraw the A's, who were in a vicious circle of bad teams and empty seats. There was also a precipitous decline in the boss himself. 1950 marked Mack's 50th year in Philadelphia and his 87th birthday, and for the better part of a decade it had been obvious he was going senile. He would spend most games asleep in

23895-401: The stadiums. Due to the rectangular shape needed for football or soccer, outfield dimensions were generally symmetrical, and even seats at field level down the lines could be far from the action. Multi-purpose stadiums also posed issues for their non-baseball tenants. The "cookie-cutters" with swiveling, field-level sections proved problematic. Because the front rows were too close to the field,

24072-463: The stands. In Citi Field and Oracle Park , part of the right field fence juts unevenly into the outfield as if the builders were trying to create an unpredictable ricochet effect for balls hit against it. Some "retro" parks, such as Globe Life Park in Arlington , throw in a sudden and small inward turn (often referred to as a jog) just to give a little quirkiness to the design. Milwaukee's Miller Park

24249-405: The stretch run. Even Mayor Joe Clark hurt the effort: he admitted he was a Phillies fan. The A's finished 1954 last in the majors, sixty games out of first; their final game at Shibe drew only 1,715 fans. In early August, Chicago businessman Arnold Johnson stepped forward with a complicated $ 3.375 million plan to buy the Athletics and move them to Kansas City. He owned Blues Stadium , home to

24426-468: The structure will receive warning of impending collapse. The characteristic strength is the strength of a material where less than 5% of the specimen shows lower strength. The design strength or nominal strength is the strength of a material, including a material-safety factor. The value of the safety factor generally ranges from 0.75 to 0.85 in Permissible stress design . The ultimate limit state

24603-417: The suburbs and bought cars, the lack of parking became an important issue. Some ballparks remedied this problem through the construction of parking garages in the vicinity, or building new ballparks with ample parking. Others built ballparks in the suburbs, typically with large parking areas. The ballpark/stadium thus became an "island" in an "ocean" of parking space. The modern "retro" trend seeks to cover all

24780-581: The team had two official nicknames simultaneously, the Phillies and the Blue Jays. The new Blue Jays moniker was ultimately unpopular; it was officially dropped by the team in January 1950. However, an expansion team in Toronto picked it up for its inaugural 1977 season and would coincidentally go on to play the Phillies in the 1993 World Series . The Blue Jays recorded the city's first million-fan season in 1946, and

24957-421: The team's image and way of doing business. They wanted to shed the image of failure by changing the team's nickname. Before the 1944 season, the team held a fan contest soliciting a new team nickname. Management chose "Blue Jays," the fan submission of Elizabeth Crooks, who received a $ 100 war bond as compensation. Phillies management said that the Blue Jays name was as an official "additional nickname," meaning that

25134-403: The team, Earle wanted out, and the meager attendance figures were hard to argue with. The A's business plan required attendance of 550,000 to break even, but in 1954 they drew just 305,000. A "Save The A's" committee formed to help, publishing daily the turnout needed to stay out of the red, but the turnstile count remained flat while the published number grew each day and the committee collapsed in

25311-417: The team. More renovation – and a round of controversy – came after the 1938 season when Mack sought to install light towers for night play, which local residents were against. They objected in general to the light, noise and traffic that night games would bring to the neighborhood, and objected specifically to the danger of home run balls hitting them as they sat on their porches and to the ability of fans in

25488-454: The tension on the reinforcing steel is released, placing a built-in compressive force on the concrete. When loads are applied, the reinforcing steel takes on more stress and the compressive force in the concrete is reduced, but does not become a tensile force. Since the concrete is always under compression, it is less subject to cracking and failure. Reinforced concrete can fail due to inadequate strength, leading to mechanical failure, or due to

25665-460: The three bases, home plate, and the pitcher's mound. The space between the bases and home is normally a grass surface, save for the dirt mound in the center. Some ballparks have grass or artificial turf between the bases, and dirt only around the bases and pitcher's mound. Others, such as Koshien Stadium in Hyōgo Prefecture , Japan, have an infield of entirely dirt. Two white lines extend from

25842-438: The trip. Despite this, the A's managed to tally three straight winning seasons from 1947 to 1949. This led to hopes that the A's would give "The Grand Old Man of Baseball" the perfect 50th anniversary present – a pennant. However, the 1950 season was a disaster. By May 26, they were 11–21, their season all but finished. On that date, Mack's sons Roy and Earle gently pushed their father into announcing that he would retire at

26019-427: The upper decks obstructed the view from some seats in the lower deck. In the new design, the upper decks were extended upwards and the columns were removed. However, even though the extension counterbalanced some of the weight, the upper decks could no longer extend as close to the field and had to be moved back. Also, the roofs could no longer be as large, and often only covered the top 15 or so rows. This exposed fans to

26196-532: The upper decks to peer into their bedrooms at night. The matter went to court, and Mack hired a young Philadelphia lawyer to plead his case. The presentation of young Richardson Dilworth , future mayor of the city, carried the day: the A's won the case and the light towers went up in time for the 1939 season. The first night game in the AL was at Shibe Park on May 16, 1939: the Indians beat the A's, 8–3. In 1941, Mack installed

26373-521: The urban legend that the board was acquired second-hand from the Yankees. However, the boards differed in many details, and the Yankee Stadium board remained until 1959 when it was replaced, a few years after Connie Mack Stadium's new board had made its appearance. The big scoreboard extended well above the top of the right field fence, topping out at 75 feet (23 m) including the clock. The entire board

26550-430: The walls and roofs of the outfield: Foremost dairy, Goldenberg's Peanut Chews , Philco , Cadillac , Alpo , Coca-Cola and Martz Tours signs became familiar sights to stadiumgoers and to fans watching on television. A new straight-across fence covered the square corner in center field and most of the remaining "terrace", reducing the distance to a still-formidable 447 feet (136 m). Distance markers also appeared on

26727-427: The walls for the first time. In addition to the foul poles (334 and 331) and the center field area (447), a 400 marker was posted just to the center field side of the scoreboard, and a 405 marker in the corresponding area of deep left center field. A few years later, wooden fencing covered the rough bricks along the right field wall, and eventually the 331 sign was changed to read 329, although that change had no impact on

26904-434: The war, the Macks wanted to expand the seating capacity again, in a park that was running out of room to expand into. In 1949, they proposed erecting the ultimate spite fence : a new double-deck seating section in right field that would boost the park's capacity to 50,000. The problem was that the home plate-to-right field axis was the shorter dimension of the Shibe block rectangle, and since the new stand could not intrude into

27081-434: The warning track as a requirement in 1949. Beyond the outfield fence in professional parks is an area called the batter's eye . To ensure the batter can see the white ball, the batter's eye contains no seating and is darker in color. The batter's eye area can be anything from a dark wall to a grassy slope. Most major league ballparks are oriented with the central axis (home plate through second base through center field) of

27258-403: The water mix before pouring concrete. Generally, 1–2 wt. % of [Ca(NO 2 ) 2 ] with respect to cement weight is needed to prevent corrosion of the rebars. The nitrite anion is a mild oxidizer that oxidizes the soluble and mobile ferrous ions (Fe ) present at the surface of the corroding steel and causes them to precipitate as an insoluble ferric hydroxide (Fe(OH) 3 ). This causes

27435-904: The wooden stands aged and dried. Many parks caught fire, and some were leveled completely. This problem, along with the popularization of baseball and expectations for long-term use of the parks were major factors that drove the transition to the new standard materials for ballparks: steel and concrete. Some famous wooden parks, such as the Polo Grounds III in New York and National League Park in Philadelphia, burned and were rebuilt with fire-resistant materials (Polo Grounds IV and Baker Bowl). Others were simply abandoned in favor of new structures built elsewhere. These new fire-resistant parks often lasted for many decades, and (retrospectively) came to be known as "jewel boxes". There are no more professional ballparks in existence left with this architectural trend, with

27612-463: The world." American League president Ban Johnson pronounced that "Shibe Park is the greatest place of its character in the world." In more recent times, baseball author David M. Jordan wrote that it was "a splendid forerunner of others like it ... Ben Shibe and the Steeles initiated 'the golden age of ballparks'." The original 1909 configuration was a double-deck grandstand in the southwest corner of

27789-412: The zoning issues. The Macks did spend $ 300,000 on renovations in 1949 and managed to shoehorn 2,500 more box seats in; the old lower deck pavilion seating was reconstructed to turn the more distant seats toward the diamond instead of facing the outfield. This resulted in the high corners that were a noticeable feature of the ballpark during its final two decades, the corners being just far enough away from

27966-472: Was "for the masses as well as the classes." In April 1908, design in hand, the Shibes and the Steeles broke ground. With the resources of the Steele firm, construction was speedy, efficient and completed in time to open the 1909 season. The city was excited about its new ballpark – the Philadelphia Public Ledger called it "a palace for fans, the most beautiful and capacious baseball structure in

28143-473: Was all baseball." In the early years of the 20th century, the Philadelphia Athletics were so popular that team president Ben Shibe found his team regularly turning away customers from their cramped Columbia Park ballpark even though it was just a few years old. When as many as 28,000 showed up to fill the 9,500 wooden bleacher seats, Shibe and manager/part-owner Connie Mack decided the A's needed

28320-585: Was banned from baseball by Landis — Nov. 23, 1943 — Bob Carpenter Sr. , scion of the Delaware-based duPont family , bought the team with his son for an estimated $ 400,000. Carpenter Sr. gave the club presidency to his son, Bob, Jr. – a 28-year-old Delawarean whose mother was a DuPont and who was himself part-owner with Connie Mack of the Wilmington Blue Rocks minor league team. The genial young millionaire admitted at his first press conference that he

28497-507: Was because Mack had been operating head of the franchise since Ben Shibe's death. The fence not only limited the view from the street, but the unattractive corrugated metal structure curtailed much of the goodwill the team had had with its neighbors, goodwill that would never return. It also frustrated many Philadelphia players, both offensively and defensively. Among them, A's and Phillies outfielder Elmer Valo and Phillies right fielder Johnny Callison , both lefthanded batters, complained that

28674-399: Was bordered by tall walls or fences covered in advertisements, much like today's minor league parks. These advertisements were sometimes fronted with bleacher seats, or "bleaching boards". Wood, while prone to decomposition, was a relatively inexpensive material. However, the use of wood as the primary material presented a major problem, especially as baseball continued to thrive. Over time,

28851-782: Was designed to accommodate football). In contrast to the later multi-purpose parks, the seats were generally angled in a configuration suitable for baseball. The "retro" ballparks built in the 1990s and beyond are an attempt to capture the feel of the jewel box parks. The only jewel box parks still used by Major League Baseball are Fenway Park and Wrigley Field . From the 1960s until the arrival of retro parks in 1992, baseball built many multi-purpose ballparks . Also derisively known as "concrete donuts", "cookie-cutters", or "giant ashtrays", they were usually tall and circular or square structures made entirely of, usually bare, reinforced concrete. The parks were built to hold baseball, but also were able to host other sports, such as football and soccer. One of

29028-450: Was designed, with the help of former player Robin Yount , to promote extra base hits . Originally (mostly in the old jewel box parks) these variations resulted from the shape of the property where the park was constructed. If there was a street beyond left field, the distance to the left field fence would be shorter, and if the distance was too short, the fence would be higher. For example, in

29205-441: Was expected that most fans would take mass transit to the games, a situation that still prevails at Boston's Fenway Park and Chicago's Wrigley Field , for example. Some early ballparks, such as Brooklyn's Eastern Park , were abandoned because the trolley lines did not go out far enough and the team was not performing well enough for people to tolerate the inconvenience. As fans became more affluent, and especially as they moved to

29382-404: Was granted a patent for reinforcing concrete flowerpots by means of mixing a wire mesh and a mortar shell. In 1877, Monier was granted another patent for a more advanced technique of reinforcing concrete columns and girders, using iron rods placed in a grid pattern. Though Monier undoubtedly knew that reinforcing concrete would improve its inner cohesion, it is not clear whether he even knew how much

29559-486: Was in play except for the clock that topped the board: Balls that hit the clock were home runs. Dick Allen was the only player to ever hit a home run over the Ballantine Beer sign and scoreboard. The scoreboard was used through the final year at the ballpark. Also in 1956, a new Plexiglas barrier replaced the old backstop screen, an experiment also conducted at Cincinnati's Crosley Field around that same time. After

29736-416: Was marred by souvenir hunters literally dismantling the stadium even while the game was still in progress. A special post-game ceremony – including a helicopter removal of home plate and delivery of it at The Vet – was cancelled in the mayhem. Ballpark A ballpark , or baseball park , is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into two field sections called

29913-408: Was often called a "baggie" or "Hefty bag". Some ballparks have irregularly shaped fences. Ballparks may have round swooping fences or rigidly angled fences, or possibly a significant change in direction or irregular angle. For example, the center field stands and the left field stands at Fenway Park meet at an uneven angle, creating an indentation (called "the triangle") that angles sharply back into

30090-450: Was originally played in open fields or public parks. The genesis of modern baseball is conventionally connected with Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey , a large public park where the businessmen of New York City gathered from time to time to play organized baseball games and cricket matches, starting around the mid-1840s. The name "Field" or "Park" was typically attached to the names of

30267-526: Was planned for the area, few actually existed. The area was already served by public transportation: trolleys ran up and down Broad Street and back and forth along Lehigh, and both the Pennsylvania and Reading railroads had major stations nearby. The area had "underachieved" thus far due to the presence of the city's Hospital for Contagious Diseases (the "smallpox hospital") a block west on Lehigh, but Shibe's privileged connections in town brought him word that

30444-502: Was short on experience, adding, "But I'm not worried. I think we can all have a good time." Carpenter slowly pulled the team out of its "dime store" way of doing business and invested heavily in the farm system, and hired marketing consultants. He upgraded his staff with professional administrators who modernized operations, while spending time in Mr. Mack's plush tower office listening to The Grand Old Man of Baseball. The Carpenters tried to polish

30621-422: Was strongly questioned by experts and recommendations for "pure" concrete construction were made, using reinforced concrete for the floors and walls as well as the frames. In April 1904, Julia Morgan , an American architect and engineer, who pioneered the aesthetic use of reinforced concrete, completed her first reinforced concrete structure, El Campanil, a 72-foot (22 m) bell tower at Mills College , which

30798-490: Was that Phillies owner Gerald Nugent was mired in debt to both Mack and the National League , and other NL owners were grumbling about the dismal receipts their Philly trips earned them. In 1943 Nugent agreed in principle to sell the Phillies to Bill Veeck , only to have that sale derailed by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis 's objections to Veeck's plans to stock the Phillies with Negro league stars. The league took over

30975-545: Was the Polo Grounds in New York City, which was razed in 1964. The term " stadium " has been used since ancient times, typically for a running track and its seating area. As college football gained in popularity, the smaller college playing fields and running tracks (which also frequently had the suffix "Field") gave way to large stadiums, many of them built during the sport's "boom" of the 1920s. Major league baseball enjoyed

31152-520: Was transferring money from one pocket to the other. In early 1955, two trucks backed up to the stadium and packed the artifacts from the Elephant Room for removal to Kansas City. Carpenter encouraged Mr. Mack to continue using his opulent tower office in the stadium that now bore his name, which he did almost daily until his death some 13 months later. When the stadium opened for the 1955 season, Carpenter's first, advertising billboards first appeared on

31329-483: Was used for almost every new major league venue, and was sometimes applied to the old ones, such as Shibe Park , which was renamed Connie Mack Stadium in 1954. The suffix "Dome" was also used for the indoor stadiums constructed from the 1960s onward. The official names of those arenas also often included the word "Stadium", such as the Houston Astrodome , whose formal name was "Harris County Domed Stadium" in 1965;

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