Connie Mack Stadium
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Connie Mack Stadium, known for the first two-thirds of its life as Shibe Park, was a Major League Baseball park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was on the block bounded by Lehigh Avenue, 20th Street, Somerset Street and 21st Street. It was thus just five blocks west, corner-to-corner, from Baker Bowl, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies starting in 1887.
The Philadelphia Athletics of the American League opened the ballpark in 1909 after abandoning Columbia Park. The park was first called Shibe Park, named for one of the initial owners along with Connie Mack. Mr. Mack eventually acquired full ownership, but kept the name the same. The park was finally renamed Connie Mack Stadium in 1953 by the Phillies, in honor of the gentlemanly and modest Mr. Mack, who by then was known as "The Grand Old Man of Baseball".
The Athletics played in the stadium until the 1954 season before relocating to Kansas City in 1955. The National League's Philadelphia Phillies had abandoned Baker Bowl in mid-season 1938, and played at the stadium from then until the stadium was closed after the 1970 season when the team moved to the new Veterans Stadium. The National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles also played at the stadium during most of the 1940s and 50s, before moving to Franklin Field and eventually to The Vet.
Connie Mack Stadium sat empty and unwanted for the better part of six years, suffering fire and vandalism and jungle-like growth of weeds. It was finally razed in 1976. The ballpark that was once a "church of baseball" is now the site of an actual Christian church.
Dimensions
1909
- Left Field - 378 ft.
- Center Field Corner - 515 ft.
- Right Field - 340 ft.
1925
- Left Field - 334 ft.
- Center Field Corner - 468 ft.
- Right Field - 331 ft.
1950's
- Left Field - 334 ft.
- Left Center - not posted
- Deep Left Center - 420 ft.
- Center Field - 447 ft.
- Deep Right Center - 405 ft.
- Right Center - not posted
- Right Field - 329 ft.
1968
- Left Field - 334 ft.
- Left Center - not posted
- Deep Left Center - 387 ft.
- Center Field - 410 ft.
- Deep Right Center - 390 ft.
- Right Center - not posted
- Right Field - 329 ft.
Sources:
- To Everything a Season, by Bruce Kuklick
- Philadelphia's Old Ballparks, by Rich Westcott
- Lost Ballparks, by Lawrence Ritter
- baseball annuals
- Connie Mack Stadium at Ballparks.com (http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/american/shibep.htm)