It’s summer. Baseball is on the mind.
After a visit to Safeco Field for my birthday a few weeks ago, I thought I’d look up the older pro stadiums from years past. As it turns out, Seattle has gone through stadiums like it was a full time job. Madison Park, YMCA Park, Recreation Park, Yesler Way Park, Dugdale Park, Civic Field, Sick’s Stadium, Kingdome, and now Safeco Field.
Dugdale Park lasted from 1913 until July of 1932 when it was burned down by local arsonist Robert Driscoll. It was the first Seattle stadium to use lights at night and among the players who graced the field were Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.
Sick’s Stadium was built on the same site in 1938 (there’s
now a Lowes there). Scope out this vintage photo of Dugdale, well before it met its fiery demise.
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| Dugdale Athletic Park, circa 1907. Copyright deposit; Fremont C. Plummer; November 24, 1907; Image courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. |
Who can explain the torso in the lower right corner?
I was wondering the very same thing! Weird, legless baseball fan.
Too funny! I noticed the legless floating guy too before reading the two preceeding comments. Seems strange since you can see the shadows of the people where his legs should be, so does not appear to be a torn corner of the picture. It appears he was somehow superimposed on the actual picture — an early example of Photoshopping perhaps? Maybe it is the photographer insterting himself in the picture after the fact a la notable painters of historic scenes?
A cardboard cutout?
I think it’s the other way around — the photographer erased some of the stands on the right, below the people, to make a cleaner edge.
What I’m wondering about is how this photo shows a game from 1907, if the stadium wasn’t built until 1913 as your text suggests.
Fnarf: I was wondering that. All of the sources I’ve found put the stadium begginning at 1913. Maybe that was the year the first professional game was played there? Or perhaps this is some kind of precursor phase to the stadium construction (it doesn’t have the lights the stadium was known for). Hmm.
Cliffe
I’m surprised that this ballpark wasn’t mentioned in any of Paul Dorpat’s books on Seattle history. I’ve studied Seattle’s history in great depth, and I on;y found out about it yesterday in connection with the demise of the Seatle P./I. How can I get a copy of the above picture? I lived for years within just a few blocks from Sick’s Stadium and didn’t even know about the baseball park that existed before it. The fact that Babe Ruth played there in 1924 makes it that much more mesmerising. Thank you.
The explanation for the dates is that the Rainier Ave Dugdale Park was the second Dugdale Park. The first one, says http://pauldorpat.com/?page_id=1710 , was built in 1907 between Yesler Way and Fir Street and 12th and 13th Avenues. So this photo is probably that earlier park, not the Rainier Ave one at all.
About the ‘legless figure’ at the lower right… it’s not torn, or there wouldn’t be a shadow. I believe the left field wall is jutting out from right to left across the bottom corner. That’s what blocks the view of the lower half of the people there. Remember, this is when spectators used to sit on the field of play…