SOUTH GRAND — The high school that would produce the most professional baseball players of any high school in the St. Louis area actually grew out of the ashes of a one of the more celebrated major-league baseball ballparks to ever call St. Louis home. And, at one point in the past century, St. Louis housed three major-league ballparks, all lined up neatly along Grand Boulevard.
One of the first pro-league baseball champions ever to call St. Louis home actually played on a ballpark nestled next to a streetcar barn in an area of town that has been rebuilt into a … well, baseball field.
And wait until you hear what sits now on the site of St. Louis’ first professional baseball field.
With a map, a couple cars and the guidance and expertise of local ballpark historian Joan Thomas, relentlessly energetic photographer Parker Michels-Boyle and myself snaked through St. Louis to work on a multimedia project for the Post-Dispatch. It was originally planned to be a scavenger hunt, an offseason project for the blog here, Bird Land. But with the 80th All-Star Game coming to St. Louis next month we thought it would be a good time to share with visitors all of the sites around town that have hosted major-league baseball. Think of it as a Map to the Stars for a Baseball City.
This is the result of our tour, complete with a map — designed deftly by technologically nimble Erica Smith — that allows you to virtually peel around St. Louis and check out video about each ballpark, the history of each ballpark, a milestone that happened at the ballpark (A 300th victory? On the SLU campus?), and even a slideshow from the ballpark. Follow the link, click the red balloon-like arrows:
A GUIDED TOUR OF ST. LOUIS HISTORIC BALLPARKS
At many of them, like the St. Louis “Cardinals” first home of Robison Field, there are plaques that have been provided by the Bob Broeg Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). They tell the history of the site, some of the Hall of Famers who have played there and offer a way to orient yourself so that you can look out from home plate at, say, Robison and see how Beaumont High has risen in its place.
Spend some time with the interactive feature and you’ll know what team had a pool table in the clubhouse and where that traveling professional ball club “The Blonds & Brunettes” once played. At the modern-day ballpark, you’ll hear from Cardinals manager Tony La Russa about “The Monster” in his old office.
Enjoy.
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