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ALL-STAR GAMES: none LIGHTS: never
The Baker Bowl (named for William Baker, who owned the Phillies from 1913 to 1930) was one of the major league ballparks whose existence I was unaware of until I began reading up on the subject a few years ago. When built in 1895, it was a state-of-the-art facility, the first baseball stadium whose grandstand was built of concrete and steel. (The bleachers were always wooden, however.) It became totally outclassed during the stadium construction boom of the 1910s, and for the next twenty years the Phillies played in the tiny ballpark that gradually decayed and became a dilapidated joke, often derided as the "cigar box" or "band box." Sections of the upper deck collapsed on two occasions. In August 1903 11 fans were killed, and the Phillies played for the rest of the season in the Athletics' home field, Columbia Park. When a portion of the upper deck collapsed in May 1927, many were injured but no one died. For two weeks while repairs were made, the Phillies played their home games in Shibe Park, which would eventually become their permanent home.
A railroad switching yard was located across the street from right field, which had absurdly short dimensions that were partly offset by a 40-foot high wall and (after 1915) a 20-foot in-play fence on top of that. It was much like Cleveland's League Park. A railroad tunnel under deep center field created a slight bulge in the surface out there. The franchise clubhouse in center field sometimes had seating on the top, and there were also bleachers in front of it in some years. Although extremely asymmetrical in one sense, nearly all the fences and stadium structures were at perpendicular angles to each other, a very uninteresting design. The octagonal "turret" where patrons paid and entered was an intriguing oddity, as were the castle ramparts that were originally located on top of both ends of the second deck. Only one World Series was played there, in 1915, and the Phillies lost to the Red Sox. During the Depression it was just too costly to make continual repairs, so in 1938 the Phillies moved into Shibe Park across town and became tenants of the Philadelphia Athletics. The Baker Bowl was demolished in 1950, and no one seemed to miss it.
