Appreciating Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium

THAT'S 380 FEET STRAIGHTAWAY TO DEAD CENTER. I love going to Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium. It's been two years since I covered a UAAP baseball match but it's still is a thrill to go there once in a while. Like today. Maybe it's because there wasn't a game going on as I attended the Philippine Baseball Summit. Although I sat there half listening to a discussion that for the most part never went anywhere. Mostly I was looking at the architecture and thinking of it's storied past. As a baseball fan who was weaned on a bygone age, I appreciate Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium for its retro feel. I have no idea if it has received a massive facelift since it was constructed in 1934 but it's gorgeous on a hot June day with the place surprisingly quiet. Just staring at the wall with all those names on them with the home runs exploits is fanboy heaven.

I look up at the steelworks and marvel at it. The Sto. Niño Baseball Field (in Marikina) has a certain charm to it but the RMBS has history written all over it. I guess you all know that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig hit some dingers here during a barnstorming tour back in the day. But the wall has the names of Filipino greats as well. 

I get this retro feel when I am here. I have no idea what the new Yankee Stadium is like but the old one was dripping with history. Another ballpark that I really like -- Camden Yards in Baltimore. I heard so much about it that I just had to watch a game there. Naturally, the hometown Orioles played the visiting Yankees (who won the game). But what makes it retro are the box-type seating areas that you'll find in a park like Fenway. Camden Yards has modern amenities but they are built into a retro-ballpark setting.


Anyways, I also think of A League of Their Own which is one of my all-time favorite films. Tom Hanks and Geena Davis were awesome in that film.

The attendees of the Philippine Baseball Summit. There were others seated to the left of me when I took this picture. Had high hopes for this one. Instead it turned out to be a talkfest that I don't think got us where we wanted to go. But we still have to try.