6 interesting venues to host future MLB games
On July 3, baseball will be played in one of the most unique settings in its history when the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves square off at Fort Bragg, N.C., in a specially constructed stadium. It will mark the first time a major professional sports league has held a regular-season game on an active military base.
It won't be the first sports event held in a unique location - we've seen hockey games in historic ballparks, college basketball on an aircraft carrier, and numerous pro sports leagues move games across oceans. MLB has seen its share of odd parks, from Australian cricket grounds to makeshift fields built to skirt Sunday blue laws of the early 1900s.
The Fort Bragg game made us think about where baseball should be played next. Here are some places we'd like to see MLB go in the future:
Wembley Stadium: London, England
While the Netherlands, a country that's home to a growing baseball culture, would make a fine choice to host a game, London - one of the world's great cities - has already hosted NFL and NBA games, making it the obvious and likely choice for MLB's first foray into Europe. The only question would be where to play, and historic Wembley Stadium would be a perfect location. And if you think a long, rectangular stadium that's better suited for soccer and football might be a problem when it comes to fitting in a baseball diamond, then you never watched the Dodgers play at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Field of Dreams: Dyersville, Iowa
If you're a baseball fan, you've seen "Field of Dreams," which is still widely considered one of the best baseball films ever. The site itself, located in rural Iowa, has become a tourist attraction that continues to draw fans from far and wide. If the field was good enough for Shoeless Joe Jackson, then it's surely the perfect diamond to host a special MLB contest. Playing the All-Star Game here would be a sight to behold in person, while making for a memorable television spectacle.
Doubleday Field: Cooperstown, N.Y.
Prior to 2008, the home of baseball's famed museum hosted the annual "Hall of Fame Game" exhibition at Doubleday Field - named for the sport's purported inventor - between two MLB teams who'd usually line their rosters with minor leaguers for the day. A reprise of the contest in regular-season form as part of the Hall's induction weekend would add a great contemporary flavor to the proceedings.
Elysian Fields: Hoboken, N.J.
Of course, the myth of Abner Doubleday inventing baseball in Cooperstown was debunked long ago. Baseball's first game actually took place June 19, 1846 at Hoboken's Elysian Fields, when the Knickerbocker Club - led by captain Alexander Joy Cartwright, the sport's actual inventor - took on the New York Nine. The original field is now the site of office buildings, but there are surely plenty of open fields in the area that could host an MLB game to pay tribute to baseball's origins. A pregame exhibition match using the 1846 rules could add a fun wrinkle to the day.
Your local diamond
Since baseball is suddenly in the business of building temporary ballparks, why not take the game all the way back to its roots like hockey's done with its outdoor contests? Set up shop at a local neighborhood diamond, add some extra seating, and play the game. Every pro learned baseball on their local diamond, and moving a regular-season game there would certainly attract attention. Just make sure you don't park your car in the outfield.
A Pesapallo field in Finland
"Pesapallo" is Finland's unique version of baseball. While the games are quite similar in many ways, the rule differences are even more complex than those between Canadian and American football - here's a good introduction - and the "diamond" it's played on is barely a diamond at all:
Let's send MLB to Helsinki, put two teams on a Pesapallo field with regular baseball rules, and let 'em figure it out. It would be the zaniest baseball game ever played - and of course we'd all be watching.