----- Original Message -----

From: rselter

To: 'Ballparks List SABR'

Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 12:06 PM

Subject: [SABRballparks] Lloyd Street Grounds

An updated and hopefully improved article on a little-studied ballpark-Lloyd Street Grounds in Milwaukee.

 

 

                                          Milwaukee’s First AL Ballpark: Lloyd Street Grounds

            Lloyd Street Grounds was located at 16th and Lloyd streets near downtown Milwaukee.  The park was configured in a manner similar to the Polo Grounds in New York.  The park site was quite narrow and as a result the right and left field fences, located on the eastern and western boundaries of the park, were parallel to each other.  The CF fence was, unlike the early Polo Grounds, perpendicular to the home plate-CF axis and extended from almost straightaway LF to almost straightaway RF.  Like the Polo Grounds the foul lines intersected the right and left field fences at about 135 degrees.  There were two 90 degree corners in the park: one each where the LF and RF fences met the CF fence.
            The basis of the park’s configuration and dimensions (that are certainly less than definitive) were: (1) an 1894 Sanborn fire insurance map of the city block in which the ballpark was later sited, and (2) photos of the park from Baseball Memories 1900-1909.   The 1894 Sanborn map showed the width of the park site (425 ft) to have been a bit more than half of the width of that city block.  The eastern boundary was 16th St. and the parcel that included the park was quite deep (855 feet).  From the photos of the ballpark, it is clear that the park site was not anything like 855 ft deep.  The only clue to the actual depth of the park was a photo taken from behind the CF fence.  This photo, (Baseball Memories 1900-1909 page 55), from a 1901 game shows the centerfielder playing relatively close to the CF fence.  This suggests the park’s CF dimension was probably a fair amount less than 400 ft.  Another photo in Baseball Memories 1900-1909 shows a substantial amount of foul territory adjacent to both 1B and 3B and suggests the home plate-backstop distance was about 65-75 ft.  In addition this photo shows the RF fence meeting the foul line at much more than 90 degrees.  The artist’s depiction of the park’s configuration, in Baseball Memories 1900-1909, shows home plate and the infield centered between the eastern and western boundaries of the park' site.  Given this location of home plate, the LF and RF dimensions would have been equal and were calculated on the Sanborn map.  This location of home plate and the CF fence being parallel to the park’s southern boundary (Lloyd St) made the entire playing field perfectly symmetrical.
            A study of home runs hit at Lloyd Street Grounds during the 1901 season showed slightly more than half of the total home runs (15 of 29) were Over-the-Fence type.  This proportion (53%) of Over-the-Fence home runs at Lloyd Street Grounds was more than average for the first decade of the Deadball Era.  This fact, in conjunction with, the batting park factors (shown below) suggests that the outfield distances, most likely in LC, CF, and RC, were slightly less than average for the early part of the Deadball Era.  As there were no Over-the-Fence home runs to CF, the CF dimension was estimated to have been about 380.  Recently compiled Home/Road AL batting data for the 1901 season showed Lloyd Street Grounds to have been a consistently slightly-below-average offensive park.  Data for seven offensive categories are shown below.    This suggests the park was about typical in size and configuration as compared with the average of the other 1901 AL parks.  Home run data, dimensional estimates, and park factors for Lloyd Street Grounds are shown below in five tables:

                                         

 

 

 

 

                                          Home Runs By Type

                                          Year           Total     OTF       Bounce        IP
                                          1901             29         15              0            14
______________
OTF: Over-the-Fence
Bounce: Included in OTF category
IP:  Inside-the-Park

                                                                       
 

                                          Dimensions (All Estimated)

                                          Year           LF      LC      CF      RC       RF
                                          1901          295     384     380     384      295

  

                                           Average Outfield Distances (All Estimated)

                                           Year             LF        CF       RF
                                           1901             368        382      368

 

                                          Fence Heights (All Estimated)
 
                                           Year             LF        CF       RF
                                           1901             20         10        10

                 
                                          Park Factors-1901

 

                                          BA             94

                                          OBP*        95

                                          Slug            94

                                          2B/AB       90

                                          3B/AB       98

                                          HR/AB       97

                                          BB/TPA*  96

 

* Excludes HBP as data  not readily available    

 

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