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Echoes of baseball history from long-gone Shibe Park

Speaking from across the Delaware River in Camden, Walt Whitman described baseball as "America's game," with "the snap, go, fling, of the American atmosphere." As the 2016 season starts, consider Shibe Park, onetime home to Philadelphia's Athletics and Phillies, demolished 40 years ago this year.

Shibe Park opened in 1909, saw its last game in 1970.
Shibe Park opened in 1909, saw its last game in 1970.Read moreHSP

Speaking from across the Delaware River in Camden, Walt Whitman described baseball as "America's game," with "the snap, go, fling, of the American atmosphere." As the 2016 season starts, consider Shibe Park, onetime home to Philadelphia's Athletics and Phillies, demolished 40 years ago this year.

Named after Athletics majority owner Ben Shibe, the stadium was bounded by what are now West Lehigh Avenue and North 20th, West Somerset, and North 21st Streets.

Unlike the then-popular wooden and brick "bowls," Shibe Park boasted a skeleton of steel and concrete - baseball's first. An eyesore it was not. Opening in 1909, the stadium greeted fans with a facade of friezes, terra cotta sculptures (of Shibe and manager Connie Mack), and arched windows supported by colonnade.

For nearly three decades after the stadium's opening, those living in the neighborhood - especially near right field - enjoyed an excellent view from their rooftops. This changed in 1935. Amid a Great Depression ticket slump, management added a 22-foot wall. Incensed fans quickly labeled the corrugated metal extension "Connie Mack's Spite Wall," though the project had been Shibe's idea.

For a time starting in 1938, the American League Athletics shared the stadium with the National League Phillies.

"YOWEE! That anticipated postwar sports bump isn't in the offing - it's here," ran the Philadelphia Record's coverage of Opening Day 1946. The throng of more than 37,000 fans set a record for the Athletics, despite being swept by the Yankees, 5-0. Less than a year later, 41,660 fans packed into the stadium to witness Jackie Robinson's Philadelphia debut, making it the largest crowd in the Phillies' tenure at Shibe Park.

Renamed Connie Mack Stadium before the 1953 season, the Phillies continued to play in Shibe Park after the Athletics' departure, before themselves moving to South Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium. A wrecking ball batted cleanup in 1976.