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October 9, 1914. "Watching the first game of the 1914 World Series from rooftops overlooking Shibe Park in Philadelphia." View full size | A look back at the lookers the previous year. George Grantham Bain Collection.
Those crowds eventually led to the construction of what was called the 'Spite Fence" at Shibe.
During the 1934-1935 winter (as at the point both the Phils and A's were horrible teams an thus a bad draw at the gate) Jack Shibe and Connie Mack raised the fence from 12 feet to over 50 feet to deliberately block those views from the rooftops.
Worse, they did it 'on the cheap' with tacky looking corrugated metal, which not only looked ugly, it caused all sorts of mayhem on the field as lefthanded hitters lost run production plus should a ball bounce off the thing, its path depended entirely on chance as to what direction it would ricochet off into, causing fielding nightmares.
Philly being Philly, they've held a grudge about it ever since.
Very interesting that on top of the apartments they have built bleachers to sit on. Do the landlords collect for the privilege? Also, noticed on the look back link that both the Philadelphia Phillies and Athletics shared this park from 1938 to 1954. Must have been a challenge for scheduling.
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