The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-05-06
CeDeand Glass As Flag Contender Undergoing SeOere 7est
Gas, Tire RatiOns Will Not Hurt Baseball Greatly
BY BILL BRANDT

mean Gufn-Dack 70 nOTSepack ana bikes for some sizeable strata of patriotic public. For the baseball fan, locking the garage merely means he now goes to ball games via street car, subway, L or train.
 In the years between the wars, parking-space was 8 problem child of the booming artomotive industry as applied to baseball. Jams and bottle-necks became tighter at high- way intersections than on common carriers. This year of fighting forces mobilization and democracy y-arsen- alling swings the pendulum the other way.
 As in grand-dad's day, you go to the ball game now en masse. The fact that baseball in America dates way back beyond grand-dad's time pays of today in practical every- day life, compensating sQuawks heard in recent years that ball parks should be moved out to the suburbs with lots of grass and trees and parking spaces on all sides.
 In the National League, for inc stance, every ball park is readily accessible by rail from any part of town. The senior major league was founded in 1876. Its present 8-city lineup dates from 1900. Some of its playing sites go further back than that. All were chosen prior to the 5-room- house -with-garage era.
 The antiquity of the dates the first games were played in today's National League ball parks means that the sites were chosen with an eye to transportation facilities other than the gas-buggy.
 Streamlined
 Today's National League parks are modern in every sense. They've marched along with the progress of building construction and the fur- therance of the patrons comfort and convenience. They fit this stream-line area. But, what's to the point when war rations are being doled out in the gas line, their ge- ography has stayed put. They still have the same advantageous loca- tions for access and egTess from and to their population centers.
 Following are the dates of the first National League games played on the present sites: Cincinnati Reds Crosley Field, April lo, 1890; New York Giants, Polo Grounds, April 9, 1891: Pittsburg Pirates, Forbes Field, June 30, 1909; Brooklyn Dodgers, Ebbets Field, April g, 1913; Boston Braves, Braves Field, Aug. 1T, 1915; Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field, April 20, 1918; St. Louis Car dinals, Sportsman's Park, July 1, 1920l Philadelphia Phils, Shibe Park, July 4, 1888.
 Good old 1888 seems Q long time ago in these war times, but it's not too long enough to ante-date popu- lar-priced motor cars. This does not spoil the argument, however, for Shibe Park, where the Phils have entertained guests the past four years, was opened for American League ball in the spring of 1909, with trains and street cars feeding its turnstiles. Its location, too, is virtually the same Give blocks dis tant) as the site of the old Phil lies Park" where the first major league game was played April 30, 1887.
 The table also fails by many de- cades to tell the story of St. Louis Sportsman's Park, as applied to the transportation phase. Baseball was played on that soil as long ago as l866l The pre-National League big league, the National Association. used 1t in 1875. The American As- sociation 4-time champion St. Louis Browns played there nthe sos and the American League Browns also called 1t their home grounds in the years before the Cardinals arrived in 1920.
 Wrigiey Field, under another name, was used for wo years by the Chicago Federal League club before the Cubs took over in 1916, and the Giants, when they moved uptown to the present Polo Grounds in 1891, were choosing terrain sea- soned by one years use in the short- lived Brotherhood League.
 Timely marching slogan for fans from Boston to St. Louis, and be- yond the major league zones, too, could well be: Tt doesn't take gas- Oline to get to the ball game"