Diamonds CL

The first modern concrete and steel stadium, Philadelphia's Shibe Park, was opened in 1909. Following in quick succession were more ballparks with their distinct personalities, among them the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, Boston's Fenway Park, Wrigley Field in Chicago and Brooklyn's Ebbets Field. In the '60s and '70s, Houston's Astrodome and similarly constructed stadiums, which Gershman describes as ``concrete doughnuts,'' sprang up from Philadelphia to Seattle. Gershman is brutal in some assessments, likening the Metrodome in Minneapolis to a ``circus tent on steroids'' and Seattle's Kingdome to ``a Tomahawk missile launch site.'' But, he suggests, the opening last year of Baltimore's enormously popular Camden Yards signals a move to recapture the flavor of an era past. In fact, the model for the Milwaukee Brewers projected park bears a remarkable resemblance to Ebbets Field. The 250 black-and-white photographs that Gershman ( The Score Board Book of Baseball Cards ) has assembled are exceptional. Many are rare, including one spine-tingler of Babe Ruth looking down the right field line at the old Polo Grounds. We get to see ballparks under construction (Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park), and are shown how some of these were remodeled to take the shape they hold in the memories of many readers. This book is for those who can recall the thrill of seeing their first big league game as a kid, and would like to revisit that special place again. Author tour. (Oct.)