I belong to a “Lost Ballparks” group on Facebook and it is interesting to read about and see photos of places like Crosley, Connie Mack (Shibe), Forbes, Sportsman’s, and others that were replaced by about 1970 because they were getting older and smaller and some (like Connie Mack in particular) were in neighbourhoods that were getting crummy and run down and dangerous to be in.
It seems though that the newer (”multipurpose”) ballparks with the Astroturf and built on land that used to be out in the countryside only a few years earlier took away some important things about how the game used to be played and watched (kind of like how helmets in the NHL detracted from the game in terms of player visibility and fan identification and encouraging more careless and deliberate behaviour with stickwork related offences from the players).
im from Detroit...and i still pissed about Tiger Stadium. The last game there in 1999, people came from across the country to witness that. Almost everyone one of em said “i cant you people are gonna tear this down?...add insult to injury, they replaced it with a monstrosity Comerica Park. Mike Illitch was a great owner, but man, he built the tackiest baseball stadium ever seen...especially from the outside. It looks like it was never finished...giant baseball bats..plastic tiger heads with plastic light up balls in their mouth. A big ferris wheel with “baseball seats”, they actually charge little kids 2 bucks to ride. The players absolutely hate it...it faces directly into the sun, no shade anywhere. After only one season, they had to reconfigure the outfield..it was designed so poorly.