Assignment 7: Prints and Photographs

Wrigley Field, located in Chicago, Illinois and Fenway Park, located in Boston, Massachusetts are the last surviving dinosaurs of classic American baseball parks. They represent an era of baseball unmarred from the current steroid scandal and far removed from excessive salaries and multimillion-dollar stadiums built from tax revenues. In fact, these two stadiums did not even host night games until 1988 and 1946 respectively. Wrigley Field and Fenway Park continue to draw sellout crowds despite their lack of modern amenities offered by their competitors.

I attended a Chicago Cubs baseball game at the historic Wrigley Field on Thursday, July 15, 2010. It was an amazing look into past juxtaposed with the realities of the modern day. Perhaps patrons who sat in the upper decks in the early 20^th century did not have to use the bathroom facilities during the course of the ballgame, because they still do not exist. Patrons must exit the upper decks and walk down to the ground level to use these facilities. However, when they enter, they can use the bathroom amenities, updated since 1914.

I began my search for photographs or prints by searching exclusively for Wrigley Field. This search only yielded eight results. I continued my search using the following search terms:

Wrigley Field Chicago, Illinois

Classic American Ballparks

Chicago Cubs

I did not have much success. The “Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois” search garnered me the same information as my first search. I received one result during my search of “Classic American Ballparks”. My search using “Chicago Cubs” produced the most results. However, most of them were baseball card prints and did not feature Wrigley Field.

I next searched for Fenway Park. I received 26 results, far greater than my search for Wrigley Field. I continued to search using the following search queries:

Fenway Park, Boston Massachusetts

Boston Red Sox

The “Fenway Park, Boston Massachusetts” search resulted in a reduced number of results (12) while the search for “Boston Red Sox” produced (162) results. The latter search produced many print baseball cards very similar to my search for the Chicago Cubs.

The lack of results surprised me. I intended to find some quality photographs or prints of both the exterior and interior of two classic American ballparks still used today. I did not succeed in this quest. I only bookmarked seven results on my Delicious account and very few of them are Wrigley Field. I believe that this is a good source for a narrow topic. It would also be a good source to use for someone looking for historic photographs or prints. Although I was not successful with my research, I would give this service another attempt in the future.

http://delicious.com/anthony.forfia