New Tool From SABR Makes Baseball Road Trips Easier
Today, an IBWAA and SABR member writes about a new tool developed by the SABR Landmarks Committee that will help fans find baseball sites all over the country.
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . There’s a marker honoring former Chicago White Sox pitcher, Ed Walsh, in Plains, Pennsylvania.
. . . A portion of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ former home, Forbes Field, still stands on the University of Pittsburgh campus.
. . . The ticket booth from Beyer Stadium, home to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL)’s Rockford Peaches from 1943-54, still stands.
Leading Off
Baseball History Off The Beaten Path: SABR Landmarks Map
By Bill Pearch
Being married to a Milwaukee Brewers fan, I spend substantial time enjoying games at American Family Field. As a visiting Cubs fan, I know the Cream City has a rich history of Minor and Major League Baseball.
Growing up in greater Chicagoland, we had two teams with legendary ballparks that were the oldest in the American and National leagues. The White Sox called Comiskey Park, constructed in 1910, home. The Cubs called Wrigley Field, originally constructed in 1914 for the Federal League, home.
These ballparks served as living landmarks to iconic baseball moments, including Babe Ruth’s called shot at Wrigley (1932), the inaugural All-Star Game at Comiskey (1933), Gabby Hartnett’s “Homer in the Gloamin’ at Wrigley (1938), and Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey (1979). Beyond the ballparks, I direct friends to significant local landmarks, such as where the West Side Grounds used to stand and how to find old Comiskey Park’s home plate marker.
What about Milwaukee’s baseball points of interest? Our friends at the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) have the answer.
In 2022, the SABR Landmarks Committee unveiled a versatile solution. Available to all baseball fans, the SABR Baseball Map is a searchable tool that helps plan baseball trips with GPS coordinates for more than 2,000 distinct baseball sites, complete with smartphone turn-by-turn direction capability.
“The SABR Baseball Map is a living project,” said John Racanelli, SABR Landmarks Committee co-chair. “With an army of volunteers, the Landmarks Committee was able to build and populate the map with an impressive database including active and historic ballparks, statues, museums, historical markers, murals and public art, gravesites, and more. We are continually looking to update and add information for the locations already on the map and are constantly in search of new baseball-related locations that warrant addition to the map.”
“I wish this map existed years ago when I drove from Cooperstown to Cortland to see Graham Parker perform,” said Jeff Katz, former Cooperstown mayor and author of Split Season 1981. “In 2010, less than a half hour from Cortland, I passed the sign for Truxton, the home of John McGraw. An obelisk in a green and flowered patch in the middle of a roundabout? I slammed on the brakes, got out and observed the pillar honoring the local legend. I never expected to see such high-level baseball history winding my way along a rural road.”
“I am excited about the SABR Baseball Map,” said Chris Kamka, SABR Landmarks Committee co-chair. “After conquering all 30 MLB ballparks, I enjoy looking for new and interesting baseball sites to uncover. This will be an invaluable resource for baseball fans with similar passions. I'm honored to be a part of this.”
When SABR’s Landmarks Committee moved the map into its beta-testing phase, I was invited to take it for a test drive. After helping verify several Illinois-based coordinates, I took a deep dive into Milwaukee’s landmarks. I knew Milwaukee was the birthplace of the American League, but had no idea about the plaque commemorating the event. We pass the monument celebrating the Milwaukee Braves’ tenure at County Stadium every time we attend a game. But a marker in the parking lot recognizing Henry Aaron’s final home run? How could I have missed that?
“Most people who travel to Orlando spend all of their time at Disney World,” said Racanelli. “I’m the kind of person who also made the trip to downtown Orlando to see where Hall of Famer Joe Tinker had his real estate office and to explore the former site of Tinker Field.”
Along with the SABR Baseball Map, the Landmarks Committee launched a companion blog called The Hardball Voyager. This forum encourages SABR members to share their detective work to find long-lost places, celebratory gatherings, ideas for marking currently unmarked locations, stories about what makes the landmark special in the first place, and more.
“The map project lends itself to storytelling,” said Mark Armour, president of the SABR board of directors. “Why is the plaque here? Why did I decide to visit? We’d love to read what map users have to write.”
Plenty of exciting improvements are slated for the 2023 baseball season, too. SABR will be adding the gravesite locations for Baseball Hall of Fame members along with comprehensive collegiate summer wood bat league information.
Planning a summer vacation? Take the SABR Baseball Map for a spin. You’ll be surrounded by baseball history.
Bill Pearch, a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, serves as newsletter editor for SABR’s Emil Rothe Chapter (Chicago). He has contributed to SABR’s publications about old Comiskey Park and the 1995 Atlanta Braves. He will have two game summaries in SABR’s upcoming publication, Ebbets Field: Great, Historic, and Memorable Games in Brooklyn’s Lost Ballpark. Follow him on Twitter: @billpearch
What a wonderful surprise this unexpected feature proved to be this morning! Love it...great stuff...keep the spices of baseball coming. Thanks.