Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium

[old perfessor]

I saw a documentary on PBS the other night entitled, "White Elephant - What is There to Save?" The documentary tells the story of Miami Stadium, built in 1948. I'd always admired the architecture of the stadium with it's curved cantilevered roof. But the story behind the man who built it, and how he obtained the money to build it was absolutely fascinating. This link leads to a lengthy article published in 1996 in the Miami New Times about the history behind the stadium and it's original owner. That history weaves through the accent of Castro in Cuba, Satchel Paige, Jimmy Hoffa and JFK's assassination, the Baltimore Orioles, refugees from Nicaragua and urban blight in Miami. It is a fascinating read..almost as good as the documentary itself.

http://urbanparadise.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/rough-diamond.pdf

http://i41.tinypic.com/ztyxqr.jpg

[87Twins91]

Cool ballpark. I wonder what the "extra" infield down the 3rd baseline was used for? Never seen anything like that before.

[Paul W]

here's a little info on the dodgers spring training at "miami stadum"...
click on the link below the picture -
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://sneakykitchen.com/Stories/images/PeeWee.gif&imgrefurl=http://sneakykitchen.com/Stories/ms1949.htm&usg=__haE-ll7cOvQI2TeNNriTFSpDYug=&h=147&w=213&sz=32&hl=en&start=62&um=1&tbnid=XWi7vUFrbGTK2M:&tbnh=73&tbnw=106&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522miami%2Bstadium%2522%26ndsp%3D18 %26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D54%26um%3D1

extra fields (full/partial) were common attached to mlb spring training parks before "complexes" were built...

[majorleads]

My favorite memory of that ballpark was during batting practice in spring training when everyone would stand outside the LF wall and try to catch the BP hr's that would bounce high and all over the place on the hard pavement. It was always a mad scramble and I used to walk away from that park with at least a baseball or 2. I still have several from Cal Ripken.