Before the Video Boards Went Jumbo

While browsing through some "golden oldies" I've taken, I went back to my last visit to Veterans Stadium on Labor Day 2003. A couple things about this image grabbed my attention: first Brett Myers was at bat for the Phillies -- he's just signed as a free agent with the Indians. The information is on the screen to the right, and the picture of him at bat is on the left. Take a moment, though. Notice the size of the screens in proportion to the ballpark. They don't overwhelm or dominate your view. Have today's new stadiums (retro or otherwise) gone too far? Compare that to your outfield view at Citizens Bank Park, with its towering video and scoreboard combined with a light structure...
...or Yankee Stadium's wall of video and advertising?

Comments

Rick Marks said…
I remember Shea Stadium's "breakthrough" Stadiorama centerfield scoreboard when it opened in 1964. It's amzaing visual graphics consisted of a smallish square box atop the scoreboard that would open like a garage door to reveal a screen that would show poor color slides of whatever Met was at bat. It wasn't utilized that frequently. The definition was so poor that it was never used for day games.
January 18, 2013 at 10:56 AM
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