Hi all!
After a few weeks of work + fun travel (I got to see a baseball game in Seoul!) I'm easing back into the swing of things.
So here's the ballpark that hosted Chicago baseball from the National Association to the National League, and was the original home of today's Cubs:
the 23rd Street Grounds.
This park was built the year after the Great Chicago Fire, and the information that's out there is somewhat scarce and a bit contradictory. I used what was posted in the Wikipedia page as well as in the book
Before They Were the Cubs.
Google Drive Link to 23rd Street Grounds
There are no contemporary photos or drawings that I'm aware of. There are a couple of recent depictions, but I don't know that they're terribly historical. I opted for straight walls and sharp corners, which was the general style at the time. There probably wasn't bleacher seating in the outfield, but the park seemed a bit too large without it and it seemed like it might need seating out there to reach the stated capacity (though I suppose spectators out there would have been standing). The background is the correct part of Chicago, with the photos from Google Earth. I edited out a few buildings that looked too modern for me, and didn't include the view back toward the skyscrapers of downtown. Generating background views that look a bit more period appropriate might be another interesting use of AI, I suppose? The bases etc. (and the flag) are meant to be c. 1876 at the start of the National League.
With this park, only the original Polo Grounds remains unfinished of Garlon's original wish list, and my impression is that it's still in progress. We have some more to tackle that the new mod could use, and dfswans is already doing great work! I think the earliest Baltimore parks are the ones I'm likely to try next, and both Providence and Swampoodle Grounds are also on my to-do list (though neither are in the mod)...
Enjoy, and as always let me know if there are problems!