The Columbia Avenue Grounds

As I’ve prob­a­bly men­tioned else­where, I often take my son Char­lie on dri­ves around our neigh­bor­hood to give mom a break and to get him to nap for about an hour or so. I fre­quent­ly dri­ve to the sites of old Philadel­phia ball­parks, most of which are just a short dri­ve from our home in the Port Fish­ing­ton triangle.

Today I took Char­lie past the old Colum­bia Avenue Grounds on Cecil B. Moore at 29th Street. I was shocked when I arrived and there was no his­tor­i­cal mark­er indi­cat­ing that it was once the home of the Philadel­phia Ath­let­ics. A World Series was played there, right in the heart of Brew­ery­town! There’s a great arti­cle here about the sights, sounds, and smells of the ball­park. Check it out.

The deep­er I delve into the his­to­ry of Philadel­phia base­ball, the more I fall in love with this city and its rich his­to­ry. Every­one likes to talk about Philadel­phia as the colo­nial cap­i­tal, but too many his­to­ri­ans and tourists treat the city as if it were frozen in amber in 1787. The his­to­ry of its neigh­bor­hoods are told by those blue his­tor­i­cal mark­ers that dot the city’s land­scape, serv­ing as reminders of the city’s won­drous past.

The next ques­tion is how do we rec­ti­fy this prob­lem and get the Colum­bia Avenue Grounds a his­tor­i­cal mark­er? (Orig­i­nal­ly post­ed at the Bring Your A’s Game tum­blog.)