Philip J. Lowry - Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of All Major League and Negro League Ballparks ()

By Bob Bluthardt If Phil Lowry had been Captain Ahab and if a ballpark replaced Moby Dick, then the story would have ended several chapters earlier and, I would suspect, more successfully. This fractured literary analogy is my way of noting with great admiration that no man has spent more time seeking more data about more ballparks than Phil Lowry. An obsession? Perhaps, but in the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) there are no obsessions, though many members do spend hours seeking the ultimate truth! Welcome to Green Cathedrals , a book of all things ballparks, including facts and factoids, dimensions and capacities, locations, occupants, names and nicknames, architects, and phenomena, where Phil compiles hundreds of stories that will probably make their way into some radio broadcasters rain delay performance. Beware, there is a little of the whimsical Phil here too as he stretches the occasional fact into an unusual observation. I first met Phil in 1982 at the societys annual meeting in Towson, Maryland, just outside of Baltimore.

SABR affairs in those days were smaller and somewhat chummier, thus a less frantic schedule allowed you to see and do everything, and we all were energized by Phils ballparks history revival speech. At that point, Phil had been working for years on what would become the first edition of Green Cathedrals , published by SABR in 1986. Phils enthusiasm led to the creation of the Ballparks Research Committee of SABR. Of course, Phil didnt invent either ballparks or their history, but timing is indeed everything and few writers had given the games cathedrals their due before Phil. In 1975, Bill Shannon and George Kalinskys The Ballparks marked the first of a soon growing line of ballparks histories, but Phils first version of Green Cathedrals provided a unique collection of data about all Major League and Negro League parks since the professional age began in 1871. Ballparks as a building invention date to the 1860s, when entrepreneurs created a facility to keep the paying faithful inside and everyone else outside.

As the club teams of the 1850s became the semi-pro teams of the 1860s and the full-fledged mercenaries of the 1870s, the business of baseball transformed the crude wooden stands of the late nineteenth century to the brick, concrete, and steel edifices of the twentieth century. When we speak of the classic parks, we mourn the passing of Forbes, Ebbets, Crosley, Shibe, Griffith, Sportsmans, and lately, Tiger, Comiskey, and the original Yankee Stadium. Phil does not limit himself to the twentieth century, nor is he a snob who deals with just the American and National leagues. As a ballparks progressive he includes all Negro leagues, the Players and Federal leagues, and many more. He also seeks the neutral sites used when fire, flood, local ordinance, or other obstacles prevented a game from taking place at a regular site. Read the entire text as you may find a major league game that took place in your backyard.

So, why should you care about all this? Even as a baseball fan, you might consider this material a little arcane and esoteric. You shouldnt! Baseball has two charming aspects that separate it in both style and intensity from other sports: statistics and stories, and Green Cathedrals will wash over you with both. And we all know that often-repeated quote that says if we are to understand America, we must first understand baseball. Well, I would suggest we must understand ballparks to understand baseball. If baseball is a game of inches, isnt it worthwhile to know how those inches have shaped the game at so many ballparks? A higher wall, a shorter power alley, a screen or not over the bleachers: How many such factors can (and did) change the game and its numbers? Most sports take place in standardized settings, but once you follow the ninety-foot square infield and place the pitchers mound sixty feet and six inches from home plate, the rest is left to chance or some interesting and purposeful design aspects that continue in this modern era of retro-classics. Growing up at Fenway Park I assumed that all ballparks were quirky and angular places where batted balls bounced off of walls, ladders, and poles.

Imagine my surprise when I first visited Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia! Regardless of your ballpark past, enjoy this book. It will fill many a rain delay, win you a few trivia contests, and fill you with an appreciation and new perspective of the national pastime and its developing homes for the past 140 years. Read this book and you will never look at a ballpark in the same manner. And if you see a mistake or can suggest an addition, feel free to contact Phil as Captain Ahab sails again soon. Robert F. Bluthardt, June 2013 Ballparks Committee, Society for American Baseball Research