STADIA-PART II
BY ROI L. MORIN
The YANKEE STADIUM, NEW YORK
OSBORN ENGINEERING CO., Architects and Engineers
T
HOUGH the new stadium for the Hew York American League Baseball Club was designed primarily for baseball, one may readily see it was borne in mind that it would serve other purposes from time to time, as it is provided with a 400-yard cinder track and space for a football field. It will be used for important college football games this Fall, as it has already been used for championship prizefights and a “Rodeo.” (A heavy cocoa matting was spread over the entire extent of turf, to prevent it from being injured by the horses’ hoofs.)
A glance at the general layout of the field proper, Fig. 4, shows immediately a fault which one often encounters in baseball parks in some large cities, namely, that the right and left fields are too shallow, being cut off at the foul lines by the stands. There are a number of outfielders in the big leagues today, fleet enough to get a “fly” fully twenty-five yards further out (I have in mind, at the moment, the entire outfield of the Cincinnati Reds) and many heavy hitters welcome these short fields to pile up home-run averages.
The field itself is excellently surfaced and drained, so well, in fact, that a moderate rainfall half an hour before the opening will not prevent a game. Two drainage systems of pipes were laid,
one of eleven 9 pipes in the outfield, and another of twenty-four smaller pipes in the infield, pitching from the pitcher’s plate toward the baselines. A concrete gutter runs around the base of the entire stand, draining into the municipal sewers.
The grandstand, which is little more than half built for the present, is a threfrdeck steel and concrete structure, with T. C. partitions, built on large footings of crushed rock slushed in with cement, so as to form large monoliths. As the structure is on filled ground, the only alternative was to drive piles, but it was thought that this type
of foundation would prove as serviceable and far more economical. Time seems to substantiate this conclusion, as, some six months after completion, the settlement is almost negligible.
The perspective, Fig. 1, indicates that the whole structure will completely enclose the field. For the present, however, the outfield is enclosed by temporary wooden bleachers, as shown in Fig. 4. The total seating capacity will be in excess of 85,- 000; while the present capacity, 70,000, is more than adequate, and the Yankee Stadium, as it stands today, seats more people than any other similar structure. The seating capacity is probably already too large, as the stands will rarely be filled except at World’s Series games, and then not always. The daily attendance during the sea
FIG. I. PERSPECTIVE OF PROPOSED COMPLETED STRUCTURE, YANKEE STADIUM, NEW YORK
BY ROI L. MORIN
The YANKEE STADIUM, NEW YORK
OSBORN ENGINEERING CO., Architects and Engineers
T
HOUGH the new stadium for the Hew York American League Baseball Club was designed primarily for baseball, one may readily see it was borne in mind that it would serve other purposes from time to time, as it is provided with a 400-yard cinder track and space for a football field. It will be used for important college football games this Fall, as it has already been used for championship prizefights and a “Rodeo.” (A heavy cocoa matting was spread over the entire extent of turf, to prevent it from being injured by the horses’ hoofs.)
A glance at the general layout of the field proper, Fig. 4, shows immediately a fault which one often encounters in baseball parks in some large cities, namely, that the right and left fields are too shallow, being cut off at the foul lines by the stands. There are a number of outfielders in the big leagues today, fleet enough to get a “fly” fully twenty-five yards further out (I have in mind, at the moment, the entire outfield of the Cincinnati Reds) and many heavy hitters welcome these short fields to pile up home-run averages.
The field itself is excellently surfaced and drained, so well, in fact, that a moderate rainfall half an hour before the opening will not prevent a game. Two drainage systems of pipes were laid,
one of eleven 9 pipes in the outfield, and another of twenty-four smaller pipes in the infield, pitching from the pitcher’s plate toward the baselines. A concrete gutter runs around the base of the entire stand, draining into the municipal sewers.
The grandstand, which is little more than half built for the present, is a threfrdeck steel and concrete structure, with T. C. partitions, built on large footings of crushed rock slushed in with cement, so as to form large monoliths. As the structure is on filled ground, the only alternative was to drive piles, but it was thought that this type
of foundation would prove as serviceable and far more economical. Time seems to substantiate this conclusion, as, some six months after completion, the settlement is almost negligible.
The perspective, Fig. 1, indicates that the whole structure will completely enclose the field. For the present, however, the outfield is enclosed by temporary wooden bleachers, as shown in Fig. 4. The total seating capacity will be in excess of 85,- 000; while the present capacity, 70,000, is more than adequate, and the Yankee Stadium, as it stands today, seats more people than any other similar structure. The seating capacity is probably already too large, as the stands will rarely be filled except at World’s Series games, and then not always. The daily attendance during the sea
FIG. I. PERSPECTIVE OF PROPOSED COMPLETED STRUCTURE, YANKEE STADIUM, NEW YORK