My friend Zack Hample has started doing something on his blog this year that I thoroughly enjoy. Click here to get an idea, and here to get another.

For those of you that may be too lazy to click, or maybe you did and you still don’t know what I mean, he has analyzed a few old, not used anymore, stadiums from a ballhawking standpoint.

I love this idea! Even though ballhawking, or snagging, or whatever you want to call it is relatively a new phenomenon, I like to think about what it may have been like to get a shot at snagging at some of those places.

I’ve given Zack a few suggestions, as I know others may have too, but with his schedule and all he has going on, I decided to take a shot at a couple myself.

Before I tell you which one I’m going to start with, I must clarify a couple of things up front. I know this is a predominantly Rangers-only blog, but for those who don’t know, I was born in Ohio. Even though my team is the Rangers, I follow the Indians as close as I can in Texas.

With all of that being said, I present to you Cleveland Municipal Stadium….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmm….

Well, I guess it served it’s purpose, but it’s not eye candy by any means.

Let’s start with a look at some homerun opportunities….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bleachers in the above photo are in centerfield. The Marlboro scoreboard is in straightaway center.

You see the grass behind the centerfield wall? And behind that are some empty rows of bleachers? Those are there because the original outfield wall extended to where those empty bleachers are. To give you a little visual, here’s some field dimensions before and after the reconfiguration.

Before….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

….and after….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You see what I mean?  The 463, 475, and 463 would be where those empty bleachers are in the photo of centerfield. Could you imagine sitting in dead centerfield and waiting on a homerun? I wonder how many (if any) actually made it out there?

The foul lines being at 320 (or 322 depending on what reference you use) would provide a good spot in right or left field. But as you’ll see in a moment, the opportunity for lateral movement was almost nonexistent.

Next, on to foul ball opportunities, Cross aisles….?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes and no.

Do you see the numbers 1,2, and 3 in the above photo? Let’s start by going through those numerically.

1) — This looks like the largest cross-aisle in the place. If you click the photo to enlarge it, you can see how wide it actually is. I’d say at least 6 feet wide, maybe 7. That’s not bad for a ballpark that old. The real question would have to be “how accessible is it?”. Right? That’s what I would like to know. How strict were the ushers? Could anyone walk around down there? That also looks like a good spot for 3rd out balls.

2) — From other pictures I looked at on yahoo images, this looks to be the same size as number 1. The obvious question would be “do foul balls actually reach that aisle?” Maybe. Another question would be, “can you get down to the first row of the 2nd level?” Probably. This photo was taken somewhere between 1991 and 1993 (the final year of the stadium), and I would guess that this would be around a normal sized crowd, so seat switching wouldn’t be that big of a deal.

3) — There’s a question mark by this one, because from what I’ve seen in other photos (that I couldn’t copy), this is barely an aisle at all. Meaning, I don’t know how you could walk between the seats without turning sideways. So, it seems rather insignificant.

Here’s a look from the opposite side of the stadium from the above photo….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That second deck really overhangs the first.

That’s about it. There’s really not much more to this place. I can see now why they wanted a new ballpark. Since I was only 6 years old the one and only time I went to a game there, I don’t remember anything about it.

Well, I do remember this….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chief Wahoo!

It seemed like you could see that sign from a mile away. I didn’t get to see many games from inside, but whenever I saw the Chief, I knew I was close to something cool.

Sometime in the next month or so, I want to revisit the old Arlington Stadium, the original home of the Texas Rangers. So stay tuned, maybe I’ll do some others as well.

By the way, if you have about 7 minutes to kill, and you are interested in watching someone’s home video from a final season game against the Rangers (ironic?), click here. You might get a kick out of Nolan Ryan stretching before the game. I know I did, since he’s our club president and everything.

Thanks for stopping by!