Crosley Field on a day for "Rainout Theater."

I admit to a slightly morbid, or at least useless but let me add harmless, fascination with baseball stadiums. I plan to be sharing my obsession with stadiums past, present, and future on this website as the season unfolds. Most of the great ones are gone. By any objective measure, they might not have been perfect venues. But they were perfectly great: Forbes Field. Briggs Stadium. Comisky Park. Ebbets Field. Busch Stadium (League Park). Griffith Stadium. Sick’s Stadium. Jarry Park. Exhibition Stadium. Each (to name but a few) reflected their respective eras and cities. They tended to be working-class cathedrals. One that stuck in my imagination since the 1961 World Series is Crosley Field, home of the Cincinnati Reds. Cincinnati, once upon a time, held the distinction of being the National League city that hosted the very first game of the season, a date I believe shared with Washington till the Senators (the various Senators teams, left for good). Of especial interest at Crosley was the “slight incline” in left field, upward, to the wall.