Late Afternoon Shadows

[DOUGHBOYS]

Back in 1909, the first Major League Stadium was built.
Until then, baseball was played on 'fields', smaller venues not designed to hold crowds as we think of today.
Baseball was a business then, no doubt, but folks were happy to sit on blankets spread out on the grass as they would seats.
Seats or benches were just more handy at the time. Not a necessity.

Forbes Field in Pittsburgh was the house that Honus built....That never caught on.
It was a 10 minute trolley ride from downtown. A good sized walk or bicycle ride for everybody in the area.
Those lucky enough to have a car could even bring one of those as transportation.
It was a steel and concrete stadium in a time of wooden seats and fields.
It was the first stadium to have a three tiered grandstand behind home plate, extending towards each dugout.
It was magnificent.

Of course, there were no night games.
Although Thomas Edison had invented light bulbs thirty years earlier, baseball lights were not around yet.
The Pirates played the Cubs in the first game of the grand stadium.
The Cubs won, 3-2.
The first pitch ws thrown from the second deck by the Mayor of Pittsburgh to celebrate the stadium and its design.
More than 30,000 people watched the game.
Home runs were not embraced. Especially by the owners of the Pirates. They did not want any 'cheap home runs', preferring players to earn it by running hard all the way around the bases.
The dimensions worked well for that. Distances around the field ranged from 360 feet to 462 feet.
It was the original pitchers park.
The Pirates once hit eight triples in a game, but home runs over the fence were very rare.
Despite that, almost 5,000 games were played at Forbes Field, and never was a no-hitter thrown.

In attendance that first day was first season ticket holder, Ebenezer Allen.
Allen was a devout baseball fan with a sense of history.
As late afternoon arrived during that first ball game, Ebenezer noticed the shadows that the three tiered stadium created on the field.
Some of the shadows between pitchers mound and home plate.
"I wonder if that effects the hitters and pitchers", he wondered aloud.
The fan next to him said that he didn't know, but to mention the shadows again the next day.
He did and he mentioned them everyday for the rest of his life in attendance at the stadium.
And when Wrigley Field and Fenway Park were built later, somebody(s) in their parks mentioned the shadows of the late afternoon.
Then all other parks that followed.
Not one ball park has gone through a late afternoon without those shadows being mentioned.

Ebenezer Allen on his death bed knew about the legend of the spoken shadows. His sense of history, young and alive in him, even at his advanced age.
He summoned his grandson to his side. He implored his grandson to make sure the tradition was kept alive all through his lifetime as well.
It was very fortuitous that Ebenezer's grandson grew up to be more well known to baseball fans as Mel Allen, voice of the New York Yankees.
In every radio broadcast, Mel Allen would always mention late afternoon shadows.
And during workshops and union meetings with other announcers, Allen would tell other broadcasters to please keep the legend of the late afternoon shadow mentions and also wonder if it effects hitters as a bonus in their broadcasts.
If not mentioned, he was sure that his grandfather would haunt him in that radio booth in the press box, located near the third tier of the stadium.
Since, every broadcaster has mentioned the late shadows and wonder aloud of the effects on the hitters.
The legend passed down from one announcer to another in every ball park in America.
Late afternoon shadows never go without mention.
And that is why, to this very day, that shadows from late afternoon stadiums are always mentioned.
And if there is any effect on the hitters facing a pitcher with those shadows.
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.
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I tell this story to my kids, grandkids, and any other kids that want to listen...and now, to you.
Everything is true except for anything written after the Ebenezer Allen reference.
It's just my way of poking fun at people in the stands and broadcasters who seem almost obligated to mention the late afternoon shadows and their effects on hitters.