Sportsman's Park

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Sportsman's Park
Busch Stadium
Location	Sullivan Ave. Dodier St. & N Grand Blvd. St Louis, Missouri (now demolished)
Coordinates	38°39′28.02″N, 90°13′13.06″W
Broke ground	1880
Opened	May 21, 1881
Renovated	1902, 1909
Expanded	1922
Closed	May 6, 1966
Demolished	1966
Owner	St. Louis Browns (1881-1953)
Operator	St. Louis Browns (1881-1953)
Surface	Grass
Construction cost	$300,000 USD
Architect	Osborn Engineering
Former names
*Grand Avenue Ball Grounds (1867–1880) *Previous ballpark located on this site
Tenants
St. Louis Brown Stockings (NA/NL) (1875–1877) St. Louis Brown Stockings (AA) (1882–1893) St. Louis Browns (AL) (1902–1953) St. Louis Cardinals (NL) (1920–1966) St. Louis Cardinals (NFL) (1960–1965)
Capacity
8,000 (1881) 18,000 (1902) 30,500 (1925)
Dimensions
Left Field – 351 ft (106.9 m) Left-Center – 379 ft (115.5 m) Center Field – 426 ft (129.8 m) Right-Center – 354 ft (107.8 m) Right Field – 310 ft (94.4 m) Backstop – 68 ft (20.7 m)

For the race track outside Chicago known as Sportsman's Park, see Chicago Motor Speedway.

Sportsman's Park was the name of a former Major League Baseball ballpark in St. Louis, Missouri.

Contents 1 History 2 Dimensions 3 References 4 External links

[edit] History

For 33 years, 1920–1953, it was the home field of both the St. Louis Browns of the American League and the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League, after which the Browns departed to become the modern-day Baltimore Orioles. St. Louis is by far the smallest market ever to support two major-league teams in the same sport for a protracted period.

This ballpark (by then known as Busch Stadium, but still commonly called Sportsman's Park) was also the home of the St. Louis Football Cardinals of the National Football League for a few years after transferring from Chicago and before Busch Memorial Stadium opened its doors.

Baseball was played on the Sportsman's Park site as early as 1867. The tract was acquired in 1866 by August Solari, who began staging games there in 1867. It was the home of the St. Louis Brown Stockings in the National Association and the National League from 1875 to 1877. Originally called the Grand Avenue Ball Grounds, in 1876 it was re-named Sportsman's Park. The first grandstand--one of three on the site--was built in 1881. At that time, the diamond and the grandstands were on the southeast corner of the block, for the convenience of fans arriving from Grand Avenue. The park was owned by the then-major American Association entry, the St. Louis "Brown Stockings", or "Browns". The Browns were a very strong team in the mid-1880s, but their success waned over time. When the National League absorbed the strongest of the old Association teams in 1892, the Browns were brought along. Soon they went looking for a new ballpark, finding a site just a few blocks northwest of the old one, and calling it New Sportsman's Park, which was later named Robison Field. They also changed team colors from Brown to Cardinal Red, thus acquiring a new nickname, and leaving their previous team color available.

When the American League Browns moved from Milwaukee in 1902, they built a new version of Sportsman's Park. They initially placed the diamond at the northwest corner of the block. In 1909, the Browns rebuilt the facility as a steel and concrete venue. The diamond was relocated to the southwest corner, where it stayed. The previous wooden grandstand was retained as left-field bleachers for awhile, but was soon replaced with permanent bleachers. The Cardinals came on board as tenant in mid-1920 after abandoning the outdated, mostly-wooden Robison Field.

After nearly winning the American League Pennant in 1922, Browns owner Philip Ball confidently predicted that there would be a World Series in Sportsman's Park by 1926. In anticipation, he increased the capacity of his ballpark from 18,000 to 30,000. There was a World Series in Sportsman's Park in 1926 - the Cardinals upset the Yankees. St. Louis had been considered a "Browns' town" until then; after 1926 the Cardinals dominated St. Louis baseball, while still technically tenants of the Browns.

Although the Browns had been the stronger team in the city for the first quarter of the century, they had never been quite good enough to win a pennant. After the previously weak Cardinals moved in, the two teams' situations started to reverse, both on and off the field. The 1944 World Series between the Cardinals and the Browns, won by the Cardinals 4 games to 2, was perhaps a good metaphor for the two clubs' respective situations.

Anheuser-Busch bought the Cardinals in 1953. Soon afterward, the Browns were forced to sell Sportsman's Park to the Cardinals. The Browns could not afford to make repairs necessary to bring the park up to code. The next year, the Browns were in Baltimore. The brewery originally wanted to name the ballpark Budweiser Stadium. Ford Frick, the Commissioner of Baseball, vetoed the name because of public relations concerns over naming a ballpark after an alcoholic beverage - an arguably hypocritical attitude, given all baseball clubs' significant revenues from beer sales. However, the Commissioner could not stop Anheuser-Busch president August Busch, Jr. from renaming it after himself, and so he did. However, many fans still called it by the old name. (Miller Park, the home field of the Milwaukee Brewers, is named after the Miller Brewing Company.)

Sportsman's Park / Busch Stadium was the site of a number of World Series contests, first way back in the mid-1880s, and then in the modern era. The 1964 Series was particularly memorable, and was also the park's last Series. The Series featured brother against brother, Ken Boyer of the Cardinals versus Clete Boyer of the Yankees. The Cardinals' triumph in seven games led to Yankees management replacing Yogi Berra with the Cardinals' ex-manager Johnny Keane (he had resigned after winning the Series), an arrangement which lasted only to early 1966. The stadium also hosted Major League Baseball All-Star Games in 1940, 1948, and 1957.

Sportsman's Park / Busch Stadium was replaced early in the 1966 season by Busch Memorial Stadium, which was in turn replaced by the new Busch Stadium in 2006. The Sportsman's Park site is now home to the Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club, with the stands removed and the diamond still intact at that time. The field is now being used for other sports.

[edit] Dimensions

For a small park, there were plenty of posted distance markers. Once the final major remodelling was done in 1926, these were the distances:

• Left Field Line - 351 ft
• Medium Left Center - 358 ft
• True Left Center - 379 ft
• Deep Left Center - 400 ft
• Deep Left Center Field Corner - 426 ft, the distance usually given for center field
• Deep Right Center Field Corner - 422 ft, true center field
• Deep Right Center - 405 ft
• True Right Center - 354 ft
• Medium Right Center Field - 322 ft
• Right Field Line - 310 ft
• Backstop - 68 ft

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• USGS aerial showing site of both Sportsman's Park and Robison Field, if you know where to look
• Aerial Photo of Sportsman's Park at Google Maps - Home Plate was located approximately where the tennis courts are now
• Sportsman's Park Photographs in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri-St. Louis

• Photographs of Sportsman's Park taken in 1961 and 1962

Preceded by N/A	Home of the St. Louis Brown Stockings (AA) 1882–1893	Succeeded by Robison Field 1893–1920
Preceded by Lloyd Street Grounds 1901	Home of the St. Louis Browns (AL) 1902–1953	Succeeded by Memorial Stadium (as Baltimore Orioles) 1954–1991
Preceded by Robison Field 1893–1920	Home of the St. Louis Cardinals (NL) 1920–1966	Succeeded by Busch Memorial Stadium 1966–2005
Preceded by Yankee Stadium	Host of the All-Star Game 1940	Succeeded by Briggs Stadium
Preceded by Wrigley Field	Host of the All-Star Game 1948	Succeeded by Ebbets Field
Preceded by Griffith Stadium	Host of the All-Star Game 1957	Succeeded by Memorial Stadium
Preceded by Soldier Field 1959	Home of the St. Louis Cardinals (NFL) 1960–1965	Succeeded by Busch Memorial Stadium 1966–1987

St. Louis Cardinals
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