Standing outside the gates of Elysium

I have been reading "Storied Stadiums" (I'll throw out a basic review whenever I finish), and it got me, the art history fanatic, thinking about art at our ballparks...especially the requisite statues of players outside the parks.

Between my own knowledge and what I have been learning in this book, it seems that statues have graced almost every, if not all, of the modern parks, and some of the ones that are gone.

Does anyone remember statues at the old parks? (Like the Walter one in DC?)

What statues are outside your nearest major-league park?


(Maybe there is a book idea in this?)

[sweaver]

I don't remember any statues outside Riverfront in the 1970's, but I was young then. Outside Three Rivers, the Pirates had Clemente and Honus Wagner, and now outside PNC they have Clemente, Wagner and Willie Stargell, all in bronze and more than life size.

[WiredTiger]

I don't remember Tiger Stadium having any statues. They had big plaques outside but no statues.

Comerica has a nice set of bronze statues in the OF stands of Kaline, Gehringer, Greenberg, Cobb and Willie Horton.

[TimmyB]

No statues at Fenway (unless you count Mike Greenwell playing left field a few years back). Plaques on the outside wall near Gate A for Tom Yawkey and Eddie Collins.

[KCBOOMER]

In KC there were no statues at the old Municipal Stadium. Out at Royals Stadium there are statues of Ewing and Muriel Kauffman (the original owners of the Royals) and there will soon be one of George Brett.

[Gosfgiants]

Pac Bell has a statue of Willie Mays in front of the main gate. There is also a statue of a seal with a baseball balanced on his nose behend the centerfield gate next to the ferry landing. The seal is a tribute to the San Francisco Seals who were the Pacific Coast League team in SF until the Giants arrived.

[say hey student]

Pac bell does have that awesome statue of the say hey kid at the main entrance to the building at 24 Willie Mays Plaza (come on, no championship since 54 and only two pennants, we really don't have that much to cheer about). The stick had no statues of Giants, but it did have statues of great 49ers.

At Busch stadium there used to be no statues, but in the late 80's they created this plaza of champions thing (which is quite awesome) that has 9 monoliths with flags on the top. Each monolith is a tribute to a championship the cards one. On the flaggpole is the cards pennant on top of whatever team from the junior circuit they beat that year. In the middle of this half circle is a giant statue of stan the man in that crazy crouched and contorted batting stance he used. Then, all the way around the stadium there are statues to the other greats: gibby, Lou Brock, the wiz, etc.

Originally posted by WiredTiger
I don't remember Tiger Stadium having any statues. They had big plaques outside but no statues.

Comerica has a nice set of bronze statues in the OF stands of Kaline, Gehringer, Greenberg, Cobb and Willie Horton.

Wired, I have not seen too many pics/shots of Comerica, but the book I am reading says there are a ton of tiger (animal) statues there, almost to the point of overkill. Are there really that many?

[moose]

monument park in yankee stadium - plaques, not monuments tho

[MattNYY]

That's just a great experience. It's great that you can walk down there and touch the Babe's head, just like Rocket does, and then go watch the game, and in 20 years see the faces of the players you saw playing out their. Baseball is a sport based on history. The best baseball fans love the records never broken, they love the old time sounding announcers, and the old uniforms, they love small-ball, and long-standing records.

Anyone know of any of the more historical or good Triple A ballparks? I've only experienced Single A Jamestown Jammers and Triple A Buffalo Bisons stadiums, the Bisons however is nice, they play all the pro playoff games from the Sabres and Bills on the big screen when they're road games, and you can get a good view of the stadium from the side of the highway.

[Gosfgiants]

Originally posted by johnny


Wired, I have not seen too many pics/shots of Comerica, but the book I am reading says there are a ton of tiger (animal) statues there, almost to the point of overkill. Are there really that many?

You bet. Comerica is covered in tigers. The main gate has two huge ones standing over it. There tigers at all of the other gates as well.

[say hey student]

If you want a cool AAA park, try Raley's field in Sacramento CA. THe A's farm team plays there. They're the Sacto River Cats. Sacramento is a great place to watch a game because it's a very large city and a bit hotter than the bay area, so the beginning of the night games are a little hot, but when the sun goes down it's paradise. My buddies and I always head to a mexican place on the river for dinner, and then over to the game where you can buy bleacher tickets for 2 bucks. The bleachers are just a pleasant grass hill just on the other side of the fence where the beer drinking and chain jerking with the buds can continue.

[SmedIndy]

Say hey, we're talking about statues and other adornments to stadiums.

[hmrsf]

Originally posted by TimmyB
No statues at Fenway (unless you count Mike Greenwell playing left field a few years back). Plaques on the outside wall near Gate A for Tom Yawkey and Eddie Collins.

LOL, projectile spit funny!!

[nyy26wc]

Originally posted by moose
monument park in yankee stadium - plaques, not monuments tho

In addition to the plaques, Huggins, Gehrig, Ruth, Mantle and DiMaggio all have monuments.