The Philadelphai Athletics had played their games at Columbia Park, a wooden facility, since the team's creation in 1901. But this was an age of change, both in baseball and in architecture. New construction techniques in engineering and design made the development of larger, grander and more permanent facilities possible. At the same time, a series of grandstand fires and structural collapses blamed on rotting wood underscored the inherent dangers of the older parks.
Taking advantage of this reality, Athletics' owner Benjamin Shibe ordered the drawing of plans for a new park, but one unlike any other in existence at the time. His park would be constructed of concrete and steel, not wood. It would be situated at a spot along the trolley line extending from downtown for accessibility, and it would be designed in a French Renaissance style complete with a dome at the home plate entrance. Best of all, its double-decked grandstand and bleachers would seat more than 20,000 people, who could access the upper level via ramps. The pricetag, $300,000, was breathtaking, but the park, in Shibe's jugement, was worth every penny.
Shibe Park opened April 12, 1909, and initiated the era of the "classic" stadium. Literally within weeks, Pittsburgh's Barney Dreyfuss raised a concrete and steel park of his own, Forbes Field, which debuted in June. By the start of the following season, Charles Comiskey added a third "classic" stadium, Comiskey Park, in Chicago. The era of wood was over.
Cleveland shortstop Neal Ball executes an unassisted triple play July 19.
Henry Clay Pulliam, president of the National League, apparently distraught over criticism of his performance in office, shoots himself in the head July 29; he dies the following morning.
IN THE WORLD
W.E.B. DuBois establishes the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.