Some Jazz-Age Ballparks

[asrivkin]

Hi, all. I've been playing OOTP since March (after playing various dice and baseball games on and off since the 80's). I've got two leagues going, which (if I get brave enough) I'll talk more about in some other thread. In any case, after seeing (and using!) the amazing work folks on this message board have done with new stadiums and after watching the YouTube video series by Silvam14 I thought I'd give back by posting the stadiums I've been working on.

Fair warning--I'm a noob. I wasn't planning to do any of this, but decided it would be a good pandemic project. So as a disclaimer for all of the stadia:

1) I'm not a real detail-oriented kind of guy, even when I'm trying to be.
2) I'm not an artist or graphics kind of guy either, though I do have experience with some image processing kinds of things
3) I only downloaded Sketchup a bit over a month ago, and while I've been coming up the learning curve on it I'm still far, far from expert.
4) I've borrowed a lot from other stadiums that other folks have made, and also from the 3D Warehouse. So, again, thanks to all. Parts of Exposition Stadium in particular appear a lot.
5) I do research for a living, and have been working from various maps and info that I can find. But as I'm sure many/most of you know, there's very little info for some of these parks. So in some cases I've improvised. I'll try to include that info in the posts.

I'll put one ballpark per post in my next posts. The ones I have done so far are:

--Baltimore's Terrapin Park (aka Oriole Park (V)) circa 1915
--Newark's Wiednmayer's Park circa 1915
--Buffalo's Olympic Park (a bit of a hybrid with Offermann Park)
--Kansas City's Gordon and Koppel Park circa 1915
--Indianapolis' West Washington St. Park circa 1915-1920 (I think)

It's been kind of fun to do these, so I'll probably keep doing them, and if they're useful I'm happy to keep posting them...

Edited to add: Here's a link to the whole folder. In addition to the parks mentioned above the drive (and the thread) contains (as of 3 May 2021):
--Heinemann/Pelican Park in New Orleans circa late 1920s
--Parkway Field in Louisville in kind of a general 20s/30s era
--Plant Field in Tampa, late 1910s
--Whittington Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas, mid-late 1910s
--Durkee Park in Jacksonville, shooting for late 1910s
--Katy Park in Waco, 1920s
--Almendares Park I in Havana, early 1910s
--Gimnasio Escolar in Santo Domingo, late 1910s
--Elysian Grove in Tucson, 1910s
--Red Elm/Elmwood/Russwood Park in Memphis, 1910s
--Mo'ili'ili Park in Honolulu, 1910s.


Some of the zip files for parks in this thread did not include Day/Night images. You can find links to the relevant missing pieces in this post: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...&postcount=266

[asrivkin]

OK! Terrapin Park was in use for 30 years by the Federal League and the minor league Orioles before it went up in flames in 1944. The two images below, representing the field as it looked near its start, was what I tried to match.

(Sorry these images are giant--I have no idea how to shrink them...)




I put a ton of buildings in, had trouble getting the OBJ file to output, and simplified things greatly to make it a bit more manageable. Still, it takes up a lot of disk space--hopefully I'm getting better about that. Here's how the field looks:

I decided I really wanted to keep the church across the way and the greenhouse that the Sanborn Map says was next-door, plus a few houses...

You can grab a zip file with everything in it here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LzY...ew?usp=sharing

Let me know if there are any issues, and I'll see if I can tackle them. I did an in-game test for a few innings and it seemed OK.

[silvam14]

Originally Posted by asrivkin

OK! Terrapin Park was in use for 30 years by the Federal League and the minor league Orioles before it went up in flames in 1944. The two images below, representing the field as it looked near its start, was what I tried to match.

(Sorry these images are giant--I have no idea how to shrink them...)




I put a ton of buildings in, had trouble getting the OBJ file to output, and simplified things greatly to make it a bit more manageable. Still, it takes up a lot of disk space--hopefully I'm getting better about that. Here's how the field looks:

I decided I really wanted to keep the church across the way and the greenhouse that the Sanborn Map says was next-door, plus a few houses...

You can grab a zip file with everything in it here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LzY...ew?usp=sharing

Let me know if there are any issues, and I'll see if I can tackle them. I did an in-game test for a few innings and it seemed OK.

Great work!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[joefromchicago]

Good work! The Sanborn maps are an excellent resource for stadiums of this era. The one that shows Terrapin Park is especially good.

One interesting factoid: the Terrapins built their stadium directly across the street from the ballpark that was used by the International League's Baltimore Orioles. That stadium was, in turn, originally built for the American League Orioles and used by them during the 1901-02 seasons. After the FL disbanded, the Orioles moved across the street into the newly renamed Oriole Park, where they played until a 1944 fire destroyed the stadium. The Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro American League played home games there as well. So if you need photographs of the stadium and find that there aren't many of the FL Terrapins, you could probably use photos of the minor-league Orioles playing at home - it's the same stadium.

[asrivkin]

OK, second is Wiedenmayer's Park in Newark. This was the park that the Newark Peppers of the Federal League wanted to play in, but the International League team held the lease so the Peppers were forced to get a new field built in nearby Harrison. I went back and forth a lot about which of those two parks to try, before settling on Wiedenmayer's since there was more photographic material to work from.




I let myself be a bit more creative with this park. I figured nobody would see the "Hetzel's" sign on the side of the grandstand so I moved it to be a billboard. Another photo has a giant cow and I couldn't tell what the cow was advertising, so I made it a Carnation ad (I now think it was a Bull Durham tobacco ad, but oh well). I enclosed the park and put in ticket booths (which nobody will see). There's an article on the SABR website about the park (https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/wieden...ark-newark-nj/) that mentioned women's restrooms being a perk that they advertised so I put those in (which nobody will see). I also put in a scoreboard (which people will see).

Here's a view of the park:


It was also the first park where I brought in the fences compared to the real-life version--I simply wasn't sure how OOTP would handle it, since I think the home run rate in the real 1910s would have been up in that park since once something got past an outfielder it was a lot easier to run forever, but obviously the algorithms think that home runs would be way down. So I brought them in rather than try and wrestle with that problem.

Enjoy!

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by asrivkin

OK, second is Wiedenmayer's Park in Newark. This was the park that the Newark Peppers of the Federal League wanted to play in, but the International League team held the lease so the Peppers were forced to get a new field built in nearby Harrison. I went back and forth a lot about which of those two parks to try, before settling on Wiedenmayer's since there was more photographic material to work from.

Love that first photo. Do you know when it was taken? I'm always on the lookout for game photos that show a lone umpire taking a position behind the pitcher. In this case, the ump is there because there's a runner on second. It's what I would do when I worked solo umpiring little league games.

[asrivkin]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

Love that first photo. Do you know when it was taken? I'm always on the lookout for game photos that show a lone umpire taking a position behind the pitcher. In this case, the ump is there because there's a runner on second. It's what I would do when I worked solo umpiring little league games.

There's a Twitter account that claims it's from 1912. Some sites claim it's Harrison Park, but there are other pictures from Wiedenmayer's Park that have some features in common so I think it's pretty clearly from Wiednemayer's Park.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by asrivkin

There's a Twitter account that claims it's from 1912. Some sites claim it's Harrison Park, but there are other pictures from Wiedenmayer's Park that have some features in common so I think it's pretty clearly from Wiednemayer's Park.

I believe you are correct. As far as I can figure, Harrison Park was situated in an industrial area with the Passaic River beyond the left field fence and part of the Otis Elevator factory beyond the right field fence. The photo you posted, however, is more rustic. That fits with Wiedenmeyer's Park, which was located in what was then the outskirts of Newark. The 1908-09 Sanborn map shows a dye works behind the third base bleachers (that's probably the factory clearly shown in the second photo) but nothing of much interest beyond the outfield walls. The buildings past the left field wall are probably the paint sheds shown on the Sanborn map. The site is now occupied by a FedEx facility and a concrete company.

Another interesting thing about that photo is that there appears to be a rudimentary attempt at providing a hitter's background by painting the center field fence a dark gray or black.

[asrivkin]

I see I've forgotten to post the actual link! Here's where you can download the park: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1luU...ew?usp=sharing

Note that there may have either been wine involved in forgetting to post the link, or perhaps in posting it twice if I did already post it, or both.

[asrivkin]

This was the wooden ballpark that pre-dated Offermann Stadium. Once again, I went with the park that had more information available, so the Federal League park misses out... This park also went by "Buffalo Baseball Park". Offermann Stadium was built in the same spot, I eventually plan to make a separate version of that ballpark, too.





Here's the file with everything: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sqI...ew?usp=sharing

Enjoy!

[asrivkin]

This was the home of the Federal League's Packers, and the first ballpark I put a background on. There are only a small number of pictures of the park, so I did a bit of extrapolation (and claim a bit of artistic license) along with some research using the Sanborn map and various other online resources about the area at that time. The scoreboard reflects the league I made the park for (the FL Packers and Peppers got absorbed into the AL, the Blues and Terrapins into the NL), but hopefully anyone who might use this park either won't mind or can change it.

Here's a zip file with everything (warning--it's pretty big, over 120 Mb...): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pou...ew?usp=sharing

[Ty Cobb]

Looks like nice additions to the collection! Question: jazz music as you play and design as well? I've often got Duke or Glenn Miller of John Sheridan or the Count rolling as I do my gaming, and would like to feel like I'm not the only one pleasantly trapped in the Jazz Age.

[asrivkin]

Originally Posted by Ty Cobb

Looks like nice additions to the collection! Question: jazz music as you play and design as well? I've often got Duke or Glenn Miller of John Sheridan or the Count rolling as I do my gaming, and would like to feel like I'm not the only one pleasantly trapped in the Jazz Age.

My taste in music is eclectic to the point that an ex-girlfriend told me it was the equivalent of having no taste at all. But I definitely put on that stuff from time to time (I love Bing!) and made a playlist of 20s-era hits years ago that I enjoy. I'm musing about putting "Buffalo Gals" (or other period-appropriate music) in as ballpark music for Olympic Park.

[Ty Cobb]

Great to hear! I was in Nirvana this summer when I scored a free 125 cd freebie of jazz & swing & dixie cd’s from Craigslist. All my parks in the upcoming Mitten League are likely to feature some.

[asrivkin]

Next up!

This was the home of the Indianapolis Indians of the American Association from 1905 to 1931 and also home of the Indianapolis ABCs. There are some amazing panoramas from the mid 1910s that are available online that helped significantly with making the interior.

The background looks a bit like an industrial hellscape, but the period photos suggest that might not be inapt...


Google Drive link to zip file

[asrivkin]

The New Orleans Pelicans played in Heinemann Park (also called Pelican Park) from 1915 to 1957. There was lots of great info and pictures online, including this article on the SABR website and a PDF summarizing the history of the park.

Updated v1.2 of the Pelican Stadium file, which should actually work for crying out loud

I ended up shooting for a late-20s appearance, at least in terms of the grandstands and seating. I did a bit of a nod to the neighborhood around, including putting in a canal, railroads, and a filling station right next to the park, but I was going for look-and-feel rather than exact work. Given the amazing work done by so many of the modders I'm a bit embarrassed to post all of this, but I figure maybe I'm giving hope to the newbies.

[asrivkin]

Happy November!

Here's my attempt at Parkway Field in Louisville. Once again, I was shooting for a mid-late 1920s version, once again I inevitably incorporated later elements. I imported the grain elevator/mill/silos from 3D Warehouse, so they're not as good a match as they could be. I also ran into a conundrum in that I can't seem to reconcile the street layout, the field dimensions that are out there, and the photos. Given that the claimed 500+ foot distance to the deepest part of the park was later found to be off by 20 feet or more, I'm trying not to sweat it too much. The park factors are based on the Sketchup dimensions, not the published ones, but obviously you can go ahead and put in other numbers as you prefer!

Google Drive link for Parkway Field



I'd put my solo OOTP league on hold to make the parks I needed for the 1916 season (Baltimore/KC/Newark/Buffalo), and figured I'd stay on hiatus and make a few more parks until the MLB season ended. My short-term plan is to make a few period-appropriate Spring Training parks for my league (Hot Springs, Jacksonville, Waco?) and then I imagine my pace may slow. But I do plan eventually to get to unmodeled parks in that my league could expand to in the late 20s/early 30s: Minneapolis, Toronto, Montreal, maybe a few others.

[asrivkin]

Hi all!

I figured I'd make some era-appropriate Spring Training fields for my upcoming 1916 season, and thought I'd post them in case anyone else was interested. As with the others in this thread, I'm using whatever documentation I have, but there isn't a whole lot and I'm not being slavish to it. And while I think I'm getting better at Sketchup, I would hardly say I'm actually "good".

To start, here's Plant Field in Tampa. It was built next to the Tampa Bay Hotel, which I stuck in a photo of as a backdrop (among others). It was also built inside of a race track (with the original grandstand clearly centered on the finish line rather than home plate), and there's a second diamond, which is in the aerial photos (and the model) but I don't think dates back to the start.

The Cubs, Red Sox, and Senators all trained here prior to 1930, with the Reds training here for nearly a quarter-century starting in 1930.

Google Drive Link

[asrivkin]

Second in this mini-series is Whittington Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Several teams did their spring training here in the first decades of the 20th century, including the Cubs, Cardinals, Pirates, Tigers, Yankees, Dodgers, and Red Sox. This was a fun one to do--there was decent photo documentation, though as usual it contradicts some of the Sanborn map info either because the map is wrong or due to changes with time. There was an amusement park next door, which I included--the carousel is on the spot where the Sanborn map places one, though there are no photos with it. Across the street was an ostrich farm and an alligator park, the latter of which Babe Ruth hit a home run into. Both of those attractions made it into the 3D model (though I imagined what they might look like rather than modeled reality). I also put in topography for the first time, which might have been overkill but I thought I'd try it out. I was shooting for the 1910s, it's probably an amalagam of early and late in that decade.

Here's the zip file with the ballpark.

[asrivkin]

Happy New Year!

Today I'm posting the next of the 1910s/1920s-era Spring Training parks I've been working on. As with the others, it's a bit of an amalgam of different eras when necessary. This is Durkee Park in Jacksonville, which has gone through several incarnations but still stands today (sort of): Digital Ballparks link. It's a historic structure, and the paperwork filed for it with the National Park Service is available online, which helped to understand what was there in the 1930s but not necessarily what was there in the 1910s. There is an insurance map, but in a familiar refrain it's hard to reconcile all the information I have. So, the appearance is mostly the 1930s-era structure, in wood rather than concrete, tweaked where possible to more consistent with the descriptions I have of it in the 1910s (like the bleachers along the 3rd base line. It unfortunately came out a bit generic, I think, but it should be more or less correct.

Next up, Katy Park in Waco, then Almendares Park I in Havana, then a break to actually play the game.

Link to Google Drive for Durkee Park