Ballpark

April 15, 2019
Vanity Fair contributing editor and renowned architecture critic Goldberger (Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry, 2015, etc.) sets his gaze on the design of Major League Baseball stadiums. The detail of the research, both its breadth and depth, is remarkable, and the author doesn't limit himself to current stadiums; he also looks at some dating back to the 19th century. The volume also includes more than 150 illuminating photos scattered throughout the text. Though the narrative is not always cohesive--Goldberger jumps from one ballpark and city to another--each chapter carries a theme and subthemes as the author demonstrates trends in stadium design. He discusses the evolving designs in terms of the quality of the viewing experience for fans, and he evaluates how each stadium shapes the city around it--and is simultaneously shaped by the characteristics of that particular city. Goldberger's touchstone is Camden Yards, the home of the Baltimore Orioles that opened in 1992. It's clear that the author considers Camden Yards the most exciting stadium ever constructed, and in his opinion, since it was built, it has not been surpassed. In addition to discussing inanimate qualities such as the wood, steel, stone, and concrete of the edifices, Goldberger provides miniportraits of hundreds of men (and a few women) who have owned the baseball teams, influenced the politics of the cities where the stadiums sit, and designed the stadiums in both derivative and original ways. Goldberger is aware that he could have also included ballparks from the minor leagues across the United States, from the now defunct Negro League, and from baseball cultures outside North America. He explains that such inclusivity would have yielded an encyclopedia rather than a smooth narrative, so he set limits on the scope of the book, which is quite impressive in its current form. A tour de force that will appeal to devoted baseball fans, architecture devotees, and even casual readers.

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May 1, 2019

Goldberger (Why Architecture Matters) skillfully illustrates the history of the ballpark, its architectural beauty, and even the importance of the city where games are played. Beautifully interwoven throughout are stories about the fruition of the ballpark along with accounts of their owners. The diamond-shaped infield, the outfield, the dugout, the walls, and the overall ambience of the stadium is truly a work of art and one of the many reasons baseball games are so special. The author covers stadiums such as Baltimore's Camden Yards, San Francisco's Oracle Park, Detroit's Tiger Stadium, and Brooklyn's legendary Ebbets Field, demonstrating their uniqueness and giving readers a new appreciation for their existence. VERDICT This carefully researched, captivating look at the history of the ballpark and the American city will be thoroughly enjoyed by fans of baseball and architecture.--Gus Palas, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2019
As a boy, former baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti knew that Fenway Park was on the level of Mount Olympus . . . except . . . better. For Goldberger, Boston's reverence-inspiring park?together with Brooklyn's Ebbets Field and Chicago's Wrigley Field?will forever define a golden era in the construction of American ballparks. But that era shines as just one luminous chapter in this amply illustrated history, stretching from the nineteenth-century Union Grounds, on what had been a Brooklyn skating pond, to twenty-first-century Oakland Ballpark, with plans for a landscaped roof when completed in 2023. Forceful personalities make a difference: acquisitive tavern-keeper Chris von der Ahe puts the nineteenth-century St. Louis Browns into a carnivalesque Sportsman's Park, with a beer garden in the outfield; sophisticated art dealer Jeffrey Loria gives the twenty-first-century Miami Marlins a municipal home boasting sculptures and ceramic displays. In the best episodes of this chronicle, Goldberger recognizes the baseball park's singular power to harmonize the nostalgic rural symbolism of green outfields with the urban dynamism of the surrounding modern city. But Goldberger concludes with a warning that Atlanta's SunTrust Park augers a new era, as the baseball stadium simply displaces the surrounding city, converting entire neighborhoods into a preplanned theme park. Attractive as a coffee-table book; probing as a sociological analysis.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)