Zimagal Monthly Magazine - Volume One, Issue Five

In the late 60s - early 70s came a whole new style of ballpark. Stadiums were built to be multi-purpose arenas, to house more than one kind of sporting event. With the addition of football to a stadium's curriculum, there was a need for larger seating capacities. The bowl shape was thought to best accomodate this need.

Apparently, architects in those days were strongly influenced by the apartment and other buildings seen in the 60s television series The Jetsons.

Busch Stadium
St. Louis, MO

Home of
St. Louis Cardinals
5/12/66 - Present

Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO

Aerial View, Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO.
The first of the National League "cookie cutter" ballparks, this unfortunately was not the last. Busch Stadium was designed for baseball only and accomodates 49,676 people.

The Chicago Cubs, at league direction, would play playoff or World Series home games from 1986 until 1988, when Wrigley Field finally installed lights. Not that they needed to utilize the space :).

Cinergy Field
(formerly Riverfront Stadium) Cincinnati, OH

Home to
Cincinnati Reds
6/30/70 - Present

Cinergy Field, formerly Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati, OH

Aerial View, Cinergy Field, Cincinnati, OH.
In addition to the lovely salad spinner basket effect of this park, there is also a multi-level parking garage below it, fortunately not visible in this picture.

Cinergy Field was the second of the National League’s infamous "cookie-cutter" stadiums (debuting four years after St. Louis’s Busch Stadium and two weeks before Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium).

Olympic Stadium
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Home of
Montreal Expos
4/15/77 - Present

Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Aerial View, Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Montreal's own space age stadium, complete with its own joystick.

Due to problems with opening and closing the roof, it has been permanently closed for several seasons. The stadium’s total cost has exceeded $1 billion.

Kingdome
Seattle, WA

Home of
Seattle Mariners
4/76 - Present

Kingdome, Seattle, WA

Kingdome, Seattle, WA.
After seeing a few of these parks, they all sorta start looking the same.... At least this one has a nice (albeit leaky) hat.

Baseball history was made when Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. started a game together in the same outfield, marking the first time that a father and son had taken the field together as players.

Veterans Stadium

Philadelphia, PA

Home of
Philadelphia Phillies
4/10/71 - Present

Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia, PA

Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia PA.
This replaced Shibe Park??

The Phillies, born in 1883, had never won a World Series championship when the Vet opened. They proceeded to win NL East championships in 1976, 1977, and 1978, and, in 1980, the World Series by beating the Kansas City Royals. The World Series returned to Veterans Stadium in 1983 and 1993, but the Phillies lost both times.

Three Rivers Stadium
Pittsburgh, PA

Home of
Pittsburgh Pirates
7/16/70 - Present

Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, PA

Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, PA.
...and this replaced Forbes Field. tsk tsk.

Three Rivers Stadium sits almost precisely on the site of Exposition Park, which housed the Pirates for 19 years from 1891-1909.