90s
...s where a majority of the population lived. Lack of transportation also played a big role in building a ballpark downtown during the beginning days of baseball. Most people walked to the games, so it was important for the first ballparks to be relatively close to the population. The reason the designers of Camden Yards chose to build it downtown was in conjunction with an urban renewal project that was rebuilding, and beautifying the downtown area of Baltimore known as the Inner Harbor. The next ballpark in the “Construction Era” is The Ballpark at Arlington. The Ballpark in Arlington was based on the retro deign of Camden Yards, however many improvements were built in to the stadium with the lessons learned from the construction of Camden Yards. As with Camden Yards, The Ballpark in Arlington was built with an all brick front with a rustic color to simulate a more retro look. “The Ballpark was built right near the center of Arlington adjacent to Six Flags over Texas”(#1) for the same reasons as Baltimore. One article described the ballpark, as “The Ballpark In Arlington is fan and player friendly with modern amenities that Rangers fans hadn’t seen in 20 years of play in Arlington Stadium outside the park”(#1). Like Camden Yards there are certain aspects of The Ballpark in Arlington that characterize it as a Retro style ballpark. First of all the park was designed based on the same concept as Camden Yards, as far as the look and feel of the ballpark. Second of all the ballpark incorporates the city scenery into the view inside of the park. One of the major differences between The Ballpark in Arlington and Camden Yards is the park in Arlington is entirely closed in, with a hint of the Arlington skyline visible just inside the park. Third of all The Ballpark in Arlington like Camden Yards built an office in the outfield which also houses a restaurant, a club, and a few leased office spaces for other businesses. Fourthly, The Ballpark in Arlington incorporates many retro physical characteristics that are reminiscent of the ballparks of yesteryear. These features are in plain view to the fans. The first retro feature is “A covered pavilion porch in right field that has pillars similar to those at Tiger Stadium”(#1). The second feature is “The many nooks and crannies reminiscent of Ebbets Field in Brooklyn”(1). The last aspect of The Ballpark in Arlington that classifies it as a retro park is the on-field hardware. All of the seats are painted in a retro fashion, and the advertisements use an old time motif in their graphics. The modern part of the hardware is the highest quality audio and visual system, and state of the art multimedia capabilities. Based on eyewitness accounts, there is not a bad view in the park. The Ballpark in Arlington has been described as “ The old ballpark look with a new ballpark flare that contains 1,800,000 square feet of baseball playing surface, office space, restaurants, retails areas, Hall of fame, Learning center, museum, and underground parking”(#5). This leads us to the third most recent retro style ballpark. Jacobs Field, affectionately known as “The Jake” to Cleveland fans is also classified as a retro style field with characteristics associated with ballparks that were built at the beginnings of baseball. Like Camden Yards and the Ballpark at Arlington, Jacobs Field is described as a fan and player friendly ballpark. Jacobs Field was built in 1994 to replace what one writer described as “The mistake on the lake”(#4) in reference to Cleveland stadium. The characteristics, which classify it as a retro style ballpark, are as follows. First of all it has the same basic layout as Camden Yards as far as openness on the field, minus the B&O warehouse of course. However, The Jake is not completely closed in like The Ballpark in Arlington is, but it sports an opening in left-center field. The opening in left-center field gives way to a spectacular view of the Cleveland skyline, which lies just a few blocks away. Like Camden Yards, The Jake was built right in the heart of Cleveland as part of an urban renewal project to reclaim the glamour and the beauty of the city of Cleveland. In right field at The Jake, you will find “ The largest freestanding scoreboard in the United States”(#4). The second characteristic of Jacobs field that makes it a retro ballpark is the “asymmetrical dimensions”(#4), which gives the fan a feeling of openness, not characteristic in the bowl type Cleveland stadium. One cosmetic difference however is the outside of the stadium. The outside of Jacobs Field is comprised of steel girders and cement ramps, much different from Camden Yards, and The Ballpark at Arlington. The reason for the exposed steel as written in ballparks.com was “To capture the look of the steel bridges located on the Northcoast”(#6). As mentioned before the inside is where most of the retro styling was built in. The most prominent retro features are “the bleachers that sit atop a 19-foot left field wall, much like those in Wrigley Field ”(#4). The Jake has many of the same features as Camden Yards, and many improvements. For example, the designers of the Jake angled the left and right field seats so that the fans did not have to tilt their head in order to see the game, unlike in Camden Yards. Second the hardw...