A review by mstanger
Ballpark: Baseball in the American City by Paul Goldberger

3.0

I had high expectations for the book but feel rather disappointed. It would be a terrific introduction to the topic for architects and fans who haven’t read many of the referenced books. The one historical perspective I learned was about Chris Von der Ahe and his St Louis ballparks. Other than that, only a few tidbits were new for me. I’m a planner, not an architect, so I’d hoped to learn more about design. Other than brief mentions of materials (usually exteriors of the newest parks) and upper deck angles, not much here to chew on. Too much repetition, as if the author expected readers to randomly select chapters to read instead of finding a narrative arc, as I expected. The arc could have been Goldberg’s insight, which he presented early on, that ballparks represent a joining of the urban and rural/pastoral and that the relationship or quality of that joining has waxed and waned over time—and explained why along the way. Unfortunately, I think it’s not so easy to find that thread, as presented.