Dodger Stadium for so many of its early years was rightfully known as the Taj Mahal of baseball. During the past two decades of building the retroparks, one hears far less about Dodger Stadium today. There is more focus on all the individual quirks and nuances of the new parks, which often bring up discussion and reference to the oldtimes, Wrigley and Fenway.

Yet when Yankee Stadium is replaced in the Bronx with a completely new Yankee Stadium (unlike the rebuilt 70's version on the steel structue of the orignal stadium), Dodger Stadium becomes the third oldest park in the majors.

Hopefully with that status (or even before that status is achied), MLB fans across the country will grow to reappreciate magnificent Dodger Stadium anew...with its refreshingly clean and sharp symmetrical lines, its outfield views, its sheer size and majesty.

If this one isn't a Cathedral of Baseball, what is?

Good points. i think DS gets overlooked way too much. its a gem and unfortunatley, the east coast media cant get over Fenway and Yankee stadium, as well as Wrigley, all three great parks, but there needs to be room for DS as well.

i hope rebuilding the stadium is on the bottom of the list of things that need to be done.

if it is not, let us hope it not gona be a false-2o's style stadium... something like the death star

Dodger stadium is real cool place, but lets be real, its not even 50 years old. Mid 20th century architecture can't compare to early 20th century architecture. Dodger stadium doesnt have a particular "thing" about it that makes it stand out about the rest. Giant Stadium in SF is now considered one of the nices stadiums in the country, a lot of it has to do with the location and the views. I think that if Dodger stadium were turned around and faced south, things would be completely different. Baseball fans would have been able to literally watch the growth of downtown LA while watching a game, on tv or actually at the stadium.

^ Dodger Stadium doesn't have a particular thing? Look at it more closely. The palmtrees, the mountain views, the shape of the pavillion roofs, built on a hole, designed to expand to 100,000 if needed, that's preety particular.

With all the work that's been done on the stadium lately, it's hanging around for at least another 30 years (unless of course the "big one" destroys it).

Major renovations should end in about 5 years, so we'll let everyone decide how it is once all that is done.

One of the best parts of the stadium is that it does not look at the city, it looks at nature. Baseball is meant to get people away from the city and to calm surroundings and Dodger Stadium does it perfectly (well, at least it used to before they started blasting crap through their speakers).

yeah, but there needs to be more bathrooms (as with almost every sports stadium). If no one had to wait more than 2 minutes to pee that would DEFINATELY get east coast attention

its a beautiful ballpark. defintely one of the best to watch a game at. constantly rated by the players as having one of the best playing surfaces in the league. excellent sight-lines. Baltimore, both NY teams, Houston, St. Louis, Detriot, Pittsburgh, etc, etc, yeah they're all nice retro stadiums, but that’s all they are or ever will be. Fenway, Wrigley, Dodger Stadium, they have a history to them. i think once this current wave of new stadium building is over with, you'll see a greater understand and appreciation for what Dodger Stadium has meant to baseball. it was truly ahead of its time when it was built. it helped set the standard for what and how future stadiums should be built.

that said, i miss the "good ole days" when you didn’t have so many damn advertisements around the place. when you had organ music between innings. those seizure-inducing lights in the bleachers after every home run are lame. can you believe the McCourt’s actually considered selling the naming rights to the stadium when they purchased the team(they still might be!)?

"Hello, I'm Vin Scully, and i'm coming to you live from Betty Crocker Stadium"

ugh.

Fallacy : Dodger fans arrive in the 4th inning and leave in the 7th.

Truth: ALL baseball teams have fans who arrive late and leave early, it's just that in Dodger Stadium, you can see the parking lot from the stands..

I'm not really digging the new colors...well...like 1 year old colors

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b43/samceb/dodgerstadium1.jpg

I thought I posted this thread, but don't see it here, so I'll give it another shot.

In recent years, since Camden Yards started the retro ballpark era, praise has been heaped on the new breed of ballparks and on places like Wrigley Field and Fenway Field that inspired them.

That is all well and good, but it seems like America's baseball fans should still be treasuring and appreciating the true classical nature of what was once referred to as the "Taj Mahal" of baseball. Not only can the clean, sweeping lines of DS and its unique background held up to the test of time, its ability to remain "timeless" will never be matched by most of the new retro parks.

I'm not really digging the new colors...well...like 1 year old colors

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b43/samceb/dodgerstadium1.jpg

They're actually the original colors of the seats when the stadium opened in 1962.
The only thing really new are the seats themselves.

Dodger Stadium IS classic...its architecture represents the 1950s, a time of post-war growth and opportunity. It also represented the Westward expansion of not only Major League Baseball but of professional sports as a whole, a time where sports would never be the same. All of Dodger Stadium's contemporaries either have been or will be torn down, leaving it as the only remaining monument to that era in baseball.

Why don't we combine this thread with DS... since it relates to the same topic?

Fallacy : Dodger fans arrive in the 4th inning and leave in the 7th.

Truth: ALL baseball teams have fans who arrive late and leave early, it's just that in Dodger Stadium, you can see the parking lot from the stands..

Yes very true! also, the color of the seats doesnt help.

Yes very true! also, the color of the seats doesnt help.

Though I'd prefer our Starbust Candy-colored seats to "Generic HOK Stadium Dark Green" ANYDAY!

for some neat photos of the place, check out....

http://www.walteromalley.com/phot_gallery.php?gallery=1&set=1


btw, anyone taken the stadium tour offered by the team? i'm curious to check that out.

well diferent of our futebol stadiums, in Europe

Good points. i think DS gets overlooked way too much. its a gem and unfortunatley, the east coast media cant get over Fenway and Yankee stadium, as well as Wrigley, all three great parks, but there needs to be room for DS as well.

the rebuilt YS of the 70's has none of the classic qualities or sweeping beauty of Dodger Stadium. All that it has is the sense of what has gone on its site (and with its steel structure) since the 1920's and all that Yankee traditon. Now the new YS....that one is really going to be a winner.

Dodger stadium is real cool place, but lets be real, its not even 50 years old. Mid 20th century architecture can't compare to early 20th century architecture. Dodger stadium doesnt have a particular "thing" about it that makes it stand out about the rest. Giant Stadium in SF is now considered one of the nices stadiums in the country, a lot of it has to do with the location and the views. I think that if Dodger stadium were turned around and faced south, things would be completely different. Baseball fans would have been able to literally watch the growth of downtown LA while watching a game, on tv or actually at the stadium.

Pac Bell (I can't say AT&T) is, IMHO, about as good as the new parks can get; no argument there. However, it still relates to everything else in its era. If you look, you will find overlap with Camden Yards, Jacobs Field, Coors, etc.

Dodger Stadium has no peers, no clones. It is an original. It made no effort to link to the past as much as set its own standards. Even its layout of parking lots and easy access to all decks is unique in all of sports.

To say what we see in Chavez Ravine, soon to be the third oldest of all parks, isn't a classic already is absurd.

Pac Bell (I can't say AT&T) is, IMHO, about as good as the new parks can get; no argument there. However, it still relates to everything else in its era. If you look, you will find overlap with Camden Yards, Jacobs Field, Coors, etc.



They are all designed by HOK Sport, Inc.

Phone Company Park in SF is admittedly a good stadium, at least if you overlook all the awful Barry Bonds propaganda in that place.

They are all designed by HOK Sport, Inc.

Phone Company Park in SF is admittedly a good stadium, at least if you overlook all the awful Barry Bonds propaganda in that place.

HOK sure did make a fortune out of the ball park building era. "Phone Company" is a good park. What it really has going for it is that its dimensions are real, no contrieved. It wasn't cutenss that is responsible for that short, short right field; it's China Basin, coming off SF Bay that is responsible for the shape. In other retroparks, that kind of quirky detail is put in to make it appear like an old fashioned park...instead of the honestly shown at AT&T.

Then again, the likes of Wrigley and Dodger Stadium eskew the quirks all together and go for the fairness and the simplicity of symmetry. In this over-the-top era, you've got to appreciate that.