December 3, 2024 • 39 mins
How many ballparks have you visited around the country or around the world? Do you aspire to visit your favorite team’s home turf? Ken Smoller is a travel writer and photographer who has visited nearly 2,400 stadiums, including 700 ballparks in 48 states and 24 countries! Ken stopped by to share his experiences and take your calls on the stadium(s) of your choosing!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm telling you fleasy Boston Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
All right, welcome back. Before we get to my guest,
and we're going to talk about stadia or stadiums in
the Latin night the plural of a stadium venue for
a sporting event. We think about stadiums in this country
as baseball parks and football fields and all of that.
We're going to talk to my guest in just a moment.
(00:28):
Had him on a couple of weeks ago. He's written
a book called The Last Kamiski. I thought it'd be
a great guest to talk to and give you an
opportunity to check in. Before we get to Ken Smaller.
Let me just take a moment here to remind all
of you we have a couple of very important programs
coming up here on Nightside. Every night is an important
show as far as we're concerned. But next Monday night,
(00:51):
we'll be doing what we call our annual College Admissions Panel.
We've done this program for eighteen years. Every one of
those years we've been joined by Bill Fitzsimmons, the dean
of Admissions at Harvard. Grant Goslin is filling in. I
shouldn't say, filling in. He succeeded a great representative of
(01:17):
Boston College, Paul Mahoney who was there for many, many years.
And so Grant Goslin and Bill Fitzsimmons who join us
at eight pm on Monday night, December the ninth. Uh
they start at eight o'clock. And if you have John,
when I said Paul Mahoney, I meant this John Mahoney,
(01:38):
how can I say, Paul Mooney, John Mahoney of Boston
College who succeeded to become the provo of Boston College.
And now Grant Goslin is he's not pinch hitting, he's
now he's now a regular on the panel. We've done
this every year for every year of Nightside, and it's
great for individuals who are facing the college admissions process
(02:02):
for the first time, families who have never had. You know,
if you've been through this grind, if you will for
many times or several times with older students, you kind
of know the roopes. But if you have a high
school freshman, sophomore, junior who are approaching the selection of
(02:22):
a college, there's some great information and be available free
of charge right here on Nightside. Next Monday Night, at
eight o'clock with Bill Fitzimmons of Harvard and Grant Goslin
of Boston College. And then on Friday night the twelfth,
the twentieth of December, we do our fourteenth annual night
(02:44):
Side Charity Combine. And that is excuse me, not the fourteenth,
my mistake. It's the twelfth annual Nightside Charity Combine. And
if you have, if you're involved in a charity, I'd
like to get some free publicity. We will into view
upwards of twenty charities that night, the last couple of
hours of my broadcast year. It's all done remotely. You
(03:07):
don't have to drive to the studio, will set you
up as a time. We run this like clockwork, and
we'll give you an opportunity to talk about the charity
doesn't It can be big, it can be small. Just
has to be legitimate. We'd like them to be five
o' one c threes, but they don't have to be.
We don't want Uncle Harry's Beer Fund. Nope, that's not
something like that. These are charities that are helping other people.
(03:28):
And you tell us what you need. Do you need volunteers,
do you need money? Do you need financial support? Many
of the charities have been very pleased with the benefits
that they received from being on for three or four minutes.
We talked with a wide there were so many great charities,
big and small, that are serving the needs of our
fellow New Englanders. And it's anywhere in New England. To
(03:51):
be honest, we do. We've actually had a couple of
charities on from other parts of the country which were
they were kind of exceptions. But all I gotta do
is send me an email at Dan Ray at iHeartMedia
dot com, or you can call our producer Marita aka
Lady Lightning during the day. Her office number is seven
eight one three five zero one seven two six. That's
(04:13):
seven eight one three five zero one seven two six.
And it is really a great opportunity to tell the
world what you do, what you're involved in. And we've
had some very interesting charities. You think of some of
the bigger ones that we've had on, you know, Big Brothers,
Peak Sisters and Great Charity and all of that United
Way and things like that, but there are some great
(04:34):
small charities out there that do specific work in one
community or on one particular topics. So email me with
a daytime phone number of the person who would represent
the charity. We will call that person and then we
will give them a half an hour window and they
will be interviewed during that half an hour window. Trust me,
Dan ray d A n R e A at iHeartMedia
(04:55):
dot com or Marita. You can just call Marita on
her phone seven eight one three five zer zero one
seven six. Now I'm delighted to welcome back to Night's
Side the author of the last Kamiski my guest who's
a boss well Brookline resident, Ken Smaller, Ken, welcome back
(05:16):
to Nightside. How are you?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I'm doing great, Thanks so much for having me back.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
So you've written, you've you've visited somewhere around twenty five
hundred stadiums in operas of twenty four countries worldwide. I
think you're Your Twitter handle is is it stadium vagabond.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Correct stadium vagabonds, the Twitter and all social media, as
well as my website stadium vagabond dot com, where I
write about sports, travels and show my photographs and offer
them as prints in framed form as well, which is
a great gift of course for holidays. But yeah, I've
(05:58):
been to I checked my numbers. Twenty four to sixty
five in my current tally of stadiums around the world
in looks like forty eight states in twenty four countries.
Is my current tally.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
When did you start this travel? How do you know
all of us remember the first sports stadium that we
walked into. I remember as I was probably six or
seven or eight years old and walked into with my
dad Fenway Park and walked up one of those ramps.
It was an off day for the Red Sox. This
(06:33):
goes back into the nineteen fifties when people could just
just walk into Fenway Park. There was no one's going
to stop you. And I remember walking up the same
walkway that I've walked up. It was just to the
right of home plate and looking out at the green
grass and it wasn't even called the green Monster then,
I don't think the left field wall and the pitching
(06:56):
mound and realizing the pitching mound was elevated and I
I cannot erase and Noel would I want to erase
that image in my mind? What was the first stadium?
Did you have one?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah? Yeah, I had a very similar experience back in
nineteen seventy seven at Kimiski Park in Chicago, which of
course is the subject of the book. But I was
probably about six or seven years old at the time,
and my dad brought my sister and me to Komiskey
to see the Orioles play against the White Sox. It
(07:27):
was a summer day. I remember vividly doing something similar
to what you described, walking up the steep stairs behind
home plate. The structure of the stadium was pretty similar
to Fenway, where you had the concourse below the stands,
so you had that dramatic walk up and then the
green grass would unfold before your eyes, and it looked
(07:51):
so much different than what you had seen on TV
for all those years. And I was hooked from day
one this theater that was unlike anywhere else. And then
I continued on, you know, through the eighties in Chicago,
going to Chicago Stadium and Soldier Field, and eventually getting
(08:11):
to Wrigley Field despite the fact that we were big
White Sox fans in my family, and then venturing up
north to County Stadium where the Brewers used to play,
which was only about ninety minutes north of Chicago. But
it really blossomed for me in college. I was a
photo editor at the student run Michigan Daily in the
early nineties at the University of Michigan.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
And Wolverine then correct, I am.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
A happy Wolverine this week. A successful season has been
had after last week as well as.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
If I'm not mistaken, at Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
You know, some some teams just don't know how to
behave after games, and those those guys down south of
the border of uh Michigan, Ohio just you know, couldn't
really deal with the adverse. But I was really lucky
when I was in college. I got to trail Desmond Howard,
(09:06):
who went on to become the Heisman Trophy winner that year,
and I got to watch and photograph every one of
his games throughout the Big Ten. And actually he played
over at BC and the Heights that year and scored
four touchdowns against Boston College. And I also got to
cover a year later the Fab Five, which, for those
(09:28):
folks who don't remember, was a rarity at the time.
There were five freshman basketball players who came to Michigan
and ended up getting all the way to the NCAA
Championship game, only to lose to Duke Chris Webber being
the biggest star in Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard, and
I got to watch and photograph from the court when
(09:48):
I should have been studying for my econ midterm. In
the Metrodome, I got to cover the final four in
the NCAA Championship game. And after college, I decided to
go to law school and find myself a sort of
a straight career, but always wanted to continue to photograph
sports and stadiums on the side, and everywhere I've gone
(10:11):
since then, I've done something to either go to a game,
or go on a tour, or see the stadium or
arena or a ballpark in a particular city, and it's
just become kind of an obsessive hobby that really will
never end as long as I can keep walking and
keep taking photographs. And now you know, I bring my
(10:32):
wife along, and now that I have two teenage boys,
they come along with me to these various adventures and
it's like a worldwide scavenger hunt. I always look for
the unusual stadiums in a new city that I'm going to,
and it takes me to parts of the stadium the
city that I probably wouldn't otherwise, never visit that wouldn't
necessarily make the dour guides, but it really provides an
(10:53):
interesting foray into a.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Do you work as a full time lawyer.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, I'm a full time real commercial real estate lawyer.
So this is a business for me.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
This neck of the woods out in Michigan.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I went to law school down in Philadelphia at Penn
and got to see some terrific stadiums down there. One
of the best is the Plaster in Philadelphia. Uh, the
old Basketball Arena which is home to Penn but also
the Big Five Basketball tournaments.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
When you when when you say stadiums to me, I
think about the outdoor venues. Okay, maybe they're a covered
venue like the old Houston Astrodome or the the Dome
down in Louisiana and New Orleans or Tampa Bay. So
you include you would include on the under the term
(11:39):
stadium hockey arenas or or oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Any I kind of kind of mentally have made this decision.
At any place where they built a structure to house
sporting events constitutes the stadium. And sometimes it's something unusual
like the symphony orchestra here Boston Symphony for brief period
in two thousand and two was the home of the
US Squash Open and turned into a stadium for about
(12:07):
ten days back in two thousand and two when they
held the squash Championships.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
There in your calculation, that counts, Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I'm going to count that. I'll count that one. They're
not many like that, but a few.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
As I say, we have the love of sports arenas
and stadiums in common as well as I'm a Boston
University law school guy, so we have the legal background
and the love of sports. We take a break. I'm
going to invite callers to join the conversation and see
(12:38):
if we can stump Ken. Maybe there's a stadium that
you've seen that Ken hasn't seen. I suspect probably not.
But we'll talk about some of the stadiums that Ken
has seen around the world. Twenty four countries. I mean
most people never travel. I mean the vast majority of
people never travel to five countries in their life, never
(13:00):
mind twenty four, and they never see sports stadiums. They
may pass through an airport or two. But we'll we'll
enjoy our conversation, and this is just sort of a
as we get into December, we we do we do
our politics and our serious subjects, but we're also going
to find subjects that everybody can relate to, and you
don't have to be a sports officionado or an expert.
(13:21):
Join the conversation six one, seven, two, five, four ten
thirty six one seven, nine, three, one ten thirty. My
name is Dan Ray. We're talking about stadiums that people
have visited. I can I've never done account of. It's
not gonna be anywhere close to what Can has, that's
for sure. But I've been to a few interesting facilities
over the years, including Kimiski Park. So Gaylord Perry and
(13:44):
Wilbur Wood hook up in a pictures duel back in
I think nineteen seventy three at that old Ballyard. We'll
take a quick break, coming back on Nightside talking about
sports stadiums, which include arenas. We'll be back on Nightside
after this.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World,
Nice Sight Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
We'll gome back. Everybody's talking with Ken Smallum. Ken is
from the Boston area written a book called The Last Kimiski.
I want to talk about the book for a couple
of minutes, then get back to the stadiums and your travels. Obviously,
since Kimiski Park was the first stadium that you have
visited as a child, I'm sure that that is why
(14:32):
that's the subject of your book. How's that book doing
at this point.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Yeah, we're doing pretty well. It started based on a
documentary by a first time documentarian named Matt Flesh, and
he put together in crowdsourced a bunch of photos and videos,
including my photos, to do a documentary during COVID, and
we decided to turn it into a book given the
great feedback we got for the documentary and so many
(14:59):
my photos didn't make the final cut of the film,
and I had over four hundred photos that I wanted
to share with baseball and sports fans, not just white
Sox fans, but really people who love sports history. And
it really kind of guides us through the last seasons
of old Chimiskey Park and some real special times that
(15:20):
took place during those last few years. I was really
lucky to have my childhood hero, Azzige and the manager
that helped them win the World Series and five and
was Rookie of the Year in nineteen eighty five for
the team provide the forward to the book, which was
a real thrill to have him give his thoughts and
memories of old Chimisky Park, which was just as special
(15:42):
to him as it was to baseball fans from throughout
the country, if not world, whoever visited it. It was
a real special place, and it's just wonderful to provide
fans who both have memories of it, but even younger
fans who never got to visit it time travel back
into those days to a ballpark that was a real
(16:02):
unique ballpark unlike anything else that ever was built before
or since, and it lasted for eighty years, was home
to the White Sox, the Negro League American Giants, the
Chicago Stings soccer team, and a lot of people forget
the Chicago Cardinals played there for decades, played more games
there and any other stadium, even than their current stadium
(16:26):
in Glendale, Arizona, which I think they'll soon surpass Miski
Park in a few years. And it's just a real
special place, you know. We put together both the photos
and the content from the documentary, it's something that people
can really look at and have as a keepsake.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
And how's the how's the book doing? I assume it's
a big hit in Chicago.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, it's doing well and actually was just nominated for
the Chicago Writers Association non Fiction Award for Book of
the Year for twenty twenty four. We're going to find
out any day whether or not the book was the winner.
It's up against some stiff competition, but it's really exciting
to know that other folks, including people in the literary community,
(17:08):
really appreciate this this window back in time through this book.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
So you visited, as you said, I think it was
twenty four hundred and sixty five stadium stadiums is the
plurals in Latin, it would be stadia and that includes
not only you know, fields that we think of baseball
parks and all of that, but you've mentioned some others
and arenas and all of that. When we get back,
(17:36):
I want to talk about some of the countries that
you have gone to and visited. And I also want
to talk You mentioned that there was a handball tournament
held at Boston Symphony Hall, and so that's one of
the twenty four hundred and sixty five that you count
as having visited. How many of the Major League baseball
parks have you have you Have you done every Major
(17:57):
League ballpark baseball park?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, done, recurrent one, and I think about thirty three
former ones, either that were in existence for long periods
or some for very short periods, such as San Juan,
Puerto Rico was the home ballpark for the Expos for
about forty games before they moved to Washington.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, I forgot that. Oh sure, Okay, what are some
I mean the ballparks that I can remember going to.
I remember going to the Vet in Philadelphia, going to
the old Memorial Stadium for the Baltimore Orioles get down
in Maryland. I'm trying to think of some of the
other Arlington There was the Rangers for wild played in
(18:38):
an old park down in Arlington, Texas. Did you get
any of those along the way or.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
It's funny you mentioned that, because one of the ones
that I'm really lament never getting to is the Arlington one.
I got to all those old old doughnut sort of stadiums,
Veterans stadiums in Philly Three Rivers and in Pittsburgh, Oakland
Alameda Calism which had just closed down recently, with another
(19:05):
one of them in Atlanta, Fulton County Stadium, river Front
Stadium in Cincinnati and Bush Stadium in Saint Louis. All
those stadiums met either the wrecking ball or the implosion
dynamite in the nineties or early aughts, and we had
a real influx of new stadiums hitting really throughout the
(19:26):
world in the late nineteen nineties and early two thousands.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
As It's funny, all of those stadiums that were built
in the early seventies sort of you know, Forbes Field
passed on and it became Three Rivers in Pittsburgh. That
and the vet which came along after Shy Park. They
(19:50):
didn't have much life expectancy. I mean, as you mentioned
Kimiski at eighty four years, Fenway still going strong now
in what next year will be the one hundred and
thirteenth year of Fenway Park. I think Fenway Park is
the second oldest ballpark. There's a ballpark, and I think
it's Birmingham, Alabama.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
That correct, That.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Is that is still the oldest ballpark. I'm not sure
that it's still in continuous use, by the way, Oh
it is.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
It actually recently became a major League ballpark.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Well it was one it was, yeah, it was one
night only, right.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, one night June.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Yeah, yeah, I know that. Okay, Well, take a break.
My guest is Ken Smaller. Love to hear from you
as to what was maybe the first stadium he went to,
or what was the stadium that you fell in love with.
Maybe some of you have been up on the kiss
cam or the engagement camp in some of these ballparks. Look,
there are some ballplayers who have been married at at
(20:45):
at stadium at stadiums. Don Zimmer, the Red Sox manager,
was married i think at the Dodgers Triple A Stadium
back in the nineteen fifties. So feel free to join
the conversation. I'm enjoying it. I hope you will as well.
We'll be back on Nightside right after the News at
the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
My guest is Ken Smaller. He has visited two and
sixty five stadiums, which again includes baseball parks, football fields,
but also arenas twenty four countries. Some of the countries
that you've been to were these were these countries that
you were going to and you just found stadiums along
(21:33):
the way over these countries you went to knowing you
wanted to see a specific stadium a.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Little bit of both. I was in Japan to go
see baseball, but naturally, when I was there, I wanted
to see sumo as well, and got to see the
Grand Championship in two thousand and five of the culmination
of a fifteen days sumo tournament in Tokyo, which was
one of the most amazing experiences of my life seeing that.
(22:00):
Another example was being in Dublin. I was there for
a brief trip and got to see hurling at Croke Park,
which was something that I knew nothing about and became
hooked on it after seeing it live in person. You know,
all kinds of different things. I went to try to
see the Leeds soccer stadium without realizing that a Jehovah's
(22:22):
Witness rally was occurring right there and then, and that
was the only way I was going to gain entry
if I grabbed a prayer book and went in and
quietly was reverent while I took my pictures, and my
wife sat there quietly looking at a prayer book while
while I roamed around taking some photos of this legendary
soccer ground.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
And you almost got arrested in one.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
You told me yeah, I almost got arrested in Barcelona.
It was the week of the Real Madrid Barcelona match
and I snuck in trying to take photos of the stadium,
not realizing they were practicing at the time. I got
grabbed by a guard I'm not quite sure whether he
(23:04):
was a police or a guard, and he dragged me
to their office and ripped the film out of my
cameraposing it dedriving me of some great photos because he
thought I was a spy trying to get the plays
on behalf of Real Madrid's team.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah, well that must have. That would have been like
photographing a Patriots practice before a Super Bowl when Belichick
was coach.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Exactly exactly By the way you mentioned weddings, My kids
have only seen one wedding in person. It was during
the halftime a few years ago in Buffalo of the
Bills Pats game. A lucky contest winner a couple of
Big Bills fans got married by one of the former players.
Jim Kelly was the best man. The mascot was there
(23:51):
as the ring bear. There was a wedding in front
of seventy five eighty thousand people during halftime of the game.
I think it was two thousand and twenty two.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
I can't think of a more appropriate way for a
Buffalo Builds fan to get married. That was it snowing?
I hope at the time.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
It was early in the season.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
It was September, doesn't matter, it still could have been snowing.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
You know. Afterwards I classed through a table in the
parking lot. That would have been been the the whole scene.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Let's let's get a couple of phone calls in here.
My guest is Ken Smaller. He is a photographer and
a lawyer, but most importantly for our show, the author
of book The Last Kamiski. He has visited twenty four
hundred and sixty five stadiums around the world. The most
exotic country that you I mean, obviously Ireland is a
(24:41):
wonderful country, but I wouldn't call it exotic Spain. What's
the most exotic country you photographed? Have visited?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
My honeymoon in Thailand. We were in Chiang Mai seeing
a bunch of ancient temples that are around for hundreds
of years, thousands of years, and I told my tour guide,
you know, there's a there's a soccer stadium up the road,
can we just take a little bit of a detour
and go check that out? And it wasn't in season,
(25:10):
but I got a nice photograph of the stadium on
the outside that was in northern Thailand called uh Soccer
games in Israel of A. Recently went to a demolition
derby at a bullfight ring in Tijuana, Mexico, which is
not that far away, but with a pretty unusual event
(25:33):
right right to the.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Border, and it's it's it's not a great tourist down
from my recollection, but believe.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
That a lot better. It's gotten a lot better.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
But I'll bet, I'll bet, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
I was taking my son to a baseball game there
and our guide I wanted to see that bullfighting ring
and lo and behold there was a demolition derby taking place,
and it was one of the most unusual fun events
that I've ever seen live.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Bulls weren't driving the automobiles.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Assume no, no, I think I think they've they've banned
bullfighting in a lot of Mexico, including Dijuanna.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Okay, let's let's go to Tony and wo Tony, start
us off, Tony ken small and go right ahead, Tony,
how are you.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Dan, how are you. I've been listening the whole time
I've been. I haven't talked to you a while. This
is my.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Puerto Rican hockey player from Worcester Ken by the way,
he's a goaltender, right.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Tony, No, No, I was a right winger. You keep
saying I was a goaltender.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
You were for some reason. Yeah, okay, right winger, fair,
fair enough, Okay, you were my enemy then because I
was a goaltender.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
How good you were? I would have I would have
liked to test you other time.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
You wouldn't pretty good I had. I had a very
quick glove hand and uh, nothing was going over my
right shoulder and on the stick side. Trust me on
that go ahead And I'm only getting go ahead. You
probably was going to listen.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
I had a I want to talk about a stadium, right, Yeah.
I've been to Nicaralla for about thirty years, working, you know,
through a mission mission, working churches and schools down there,
and I, uh, about fifteen years ago. You remember the
Roberto Clemente story.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Right, yes, sure, yeah, fifteen years ago. That was Yeah,
you're talking you said fifteen years ago. It's nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Seventy two yeah, yeah, yep, so yeah, that was nineteen
seventy two. Anyway, so I think it was.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
New Year's Eve if i'm if I'm not correct, If I'm.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Correct, that's right, that's right. So anyway, I always carry
that in my heart because you know, at that time
it was one of our heroes. You know, it was
a very good baseball player. He was very very well
loved in an island.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
You know, there's Umanitarian mission to help people. Just unbelievable,
that's right. Sacrifice.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
So anyway, uh, I was down there and I had
a console. One of the music the women from one
of my churches broke and I found out a person
in this city of Massiah. They had some pots for it.
You know, they don't they don't. They don't buy anything
new down there. They repair everything. You know. It's like
the nineteen fifty cars in Cuba.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
The socialist country. That's what happens in all these socialists.
Guts you go ahead, that's.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Right, that's right. So anyway, I went to Massiah with
this other kid looking for pots, and I get up
to this hill and I noticed this big rusty metal
doors and they had and they had all this green
and all these vegetation growing on them. But one of
them was cracked open. I said, gee, you well, what
kind of big doors are there? So as I got
close to it, I can see in memory of Roberto
(28:46):
Clementing so I in Spanish, you know, So I cracked
it all open. I walked in and I was shocked
as I walked into the dinner. It used to be
a stadium one time. All I found was goats and
cows and horses, and the whole field was like one
big forest. So, anyway, my cousin in Puerto Rico does baseball.
(29:08):
You know, he's an announcer over there. He's been doing
that like for forty years. And so I went over
there and I talked to him, and I said, listen,
I went to Nicaragua and I found the stadium out
there in the wild, in the woods, and it was
all taken over by by trees, and it was Roberto
Comente Stadium. There was named after him, you know, after
(29:29):
what he did tried to do in that country to
help those people. So he said, really, So, anyway, one
thing led to another and he talked to some people.
The next thing, you know, about three years ago, major
League Baseball and Puerto Rico got together and they went
down there. And I've been going to visit the stadium
(29:49):
and the last three years down there, and it was
almost finished. I was there in January fifth and I
was visiting and it was nearly finished, and they let
me walk into the you know, the snow ground still
nothing like that, and they made me walk in the
field and take pictures of it. It's really amazing. All
because I talked to my cousin and he talked to
some people. Eventually he got the May Major League Baseball
(30:13):
and they sponsored the money on Puerto Rico sponsor money
and they went down there and built on a stadium.
Then I also went to Manawa, like back in May,
and I went to the city of Manawa, and all
of a sudden, I see this big song a new stadium,
Roberto Clemente Stadium. So they had an old stadium in
(30:34):
Manawa which they are rehabilitating to name it after ROBERTA. Clemente.
So it's amazing to me that just a few words
with people, you know, that you get these things to happen.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
You know, there are about eighteen Major League Baseball players
who were born in Nicaragua. I remember there was a pitcher,
Albert Williams who pitched in the nineteen eighties. Also Dennis
my Tinas who pitched for the Orioles. Yeah, Jonathan uh
Lusiga who's a reliever for the Yankees for a while,
(31:08):
he's still active technically, Devern Handsack pitch for the Red Sox.
A bunch of these guys whose names I recommended, who
I recognize. So there's Nicaragua has produced some Major League
Baseball players. Tony, I'm past my break, so I gotta
let you run. But you're a great caller always, and uh,
remember keep your head up, okay, never when you're carrying
(31:30):
a part, and keep your head up.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Well okay, yeah, just make show you keep that stick
on the ground. Don't let it be your leg.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
You got it, You got it. Thanks, Tony talks talk soon, Okay,
thank you. Tony is a great friend and and a
great and a great guy. Ken. Uh. And so you've
never been in Nicaragua, but there's a couple of stadiums
you could.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
No, I got it yet there. Roberta. Clemente is honored
with both a ballpark and an arena in Puerto Rico
that I visited.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
I'm not mistaken meant he ended up exactly with three
thousand hits.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I think you're exactly right.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yeah, ironically, and and died in that plane crash trying
to bring help to people in Nicaragua. Six one seven
thirty six one seven. My name is Dan ray Uh.
I would love to hear your baseball or your arena story.
My guest is Ken Smaller. He has visited two thousand,
(32:25):
four hundred and sixty five stadiums, uh at arenas around
the world, twenty four countries, forty eight states, has photographed
stadiums in every state except Montana and Alaska. And this
is this is this is a an avocation, but what
a great avocation, particularly if you're a sports fan. Movie
(32:48):
right back on night Side, Ohm, I go to Daryl
new Brunswick, Darryl, you're my guest, Ken Smaller talking sports stadiums,
go right ahead, stadiums.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Stay Ken, Hey, Dan, I would like to actually go
back to the old Tiger Stadium and Uh. When we
were younger, me and my twin brother were invited through
a family friend, invited by Bill Lee from Texas, UH
to see him pitch at Tiger Stadium.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Bill Lee, the Red Sox pitcher you've been talking about.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Uh he he pitchs for Texas Rangers.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
So it's a different Bill Lee, not the Billy of
Red Sox fame. Uh.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
He could have played for Red Sox prior.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Bill He never played, never played for the U, for
for the for the Tigers, that I can assure you. Oh.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
No, he played for Texas.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
No, I know that. But the Bill Lee that we
know here in Boston is it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
It could be, it could be, it could be the
same person. But it was nice to have that invite
through a family friend.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
And for the were you watching the Red Sox playing?
Speaker 1 (34:00):
I mean, was it I was like ten years old?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Yeah, okay, well maybe he was catching for the Red
Sox against the Tigers, so you might have seen the
Red Sox play.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
No, definitely pitching against Tigers for sure.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Oh that was Billy. Okay, that that was Billy for
the Red Sox. Okay, that's pretty good. Here was that?
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Here was that? That was like mid seventies.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
That would have been That would have been the time
Bill Lee was in the starting rotation of the Red Sox.
You got any baseball stadiums in New Brunswick, Daryl.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Not that I know of. They're still trying to get
Canadian football out here.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Okay, but let me ask my guest Ken Smaller Canada.
Have you gone to Canada to photograph? I assume you
probably follow.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah, oh yeah, I've got a game in Montreal. Yeah,
I got a few CF falcon I've seen Jarry Park
before they converted it to a tennis stadium. I've seen
the win Peg Blue Bombers before they tore down their
old stadium, which started as a ballpark. Montreal. The Loettes
have a terrific stadium, Moulson Stadium, right on the campus
(35:11):
of McGill University. We used to have a great view
of the skyline, but they built an upper deck to
block the skyline. But that's a great place to see
see CFL. They had terrific crowds. It's just enough of
a different game than the NFL or college football in
the States to make it really interesting and at a
different environment.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Longer. I think the field's one hundred and it's one
hundred and twenty yards, right, yeah, they.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Have it's fifty five yards. They have a fifty five
yard line and then their end zones are twenty yards
long with the field goalpost being in the end zone,
like the way that the NFL was back before the seventies.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Back in the old days. Yeah, all right, all right,
you must have some arenas up there, Daryl in New Brunswick.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Right, well, we we just got rid of the old
coliseum in Edmonton and then they had the new facility
belt and here's the old maple leaf gardens when you'd
actually walk up into the nosebleeds and it was like, yeah,
it felt like you were falling over right, But I'm.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Talking about the New Brunswick where you live. You had
is Monkton in New Brunswick, if I.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Mom mistaken, Moncton is but I haven't been there yet.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Right, But they for many years they had an American
Hockey League team.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I know that, Yes, And we go back to WILLI.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
O're right, sure, yeah, absolutely, Will o re and uh
who made his debut first black com player in the NHL.
We're flat out of time, Darryl, So I got to
let you run as always. Thanks for joining the conversation
and adding to the program. Great to hear you, and
we will talk to you before Christmas.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Okay, stay warm.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Yeah, it's pretty cool down here, right, That's that's for sure,
ken I enjoyed this as always. Uh, tonight, you told
me that you ran into trouble at a stadium in Antwerp,
if I'm not mistaken. Wasn't that one that you ran
into a little bit of a trouble?
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah? Yeah, recently an Antwerp I Uh, I hustled up
five flights of stairs to try to take a photograph
of a stadium that I knew was not really open,
and I got caught and escorted out before I can
snap my photo. So I was huffing and puffing, pleading
my case and to no avail, I did not get
my picture. It happens now.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
And then these stadium guards that you would.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Think they can be tough, they can be tough.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
They really can. So so folks want to get the
book The Last Kimiski, Do you have a website or yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:40):
If at Last Yeah, no, it's not at Amazon, it's
at last comiskeybook dot com. That's last comisky book dot com.
Comisky spelled co m I s k e y. Or
you can always go to my website stadium vagabond dot
com and there's a link there well, and then on
(38:02):
social media at Stadium vagabond. I post three to five
stadiums every day and try to vary it and take
requests as well. I love when my followers give me
requests for stadiums and try to stump me, and also
give me good average ideas of new places to go to.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Thanks so much, Ken, I really enjoyed it. Hope you
have a great holiday season, whatever holiday you happen to
associate yourself with. And remember, once we get to the
holiday season, we'll be in the new year, and the
truck will be leaving for Fort Myers sometime in the
first week in February, so baseball will return. See where
the Red Sox signed Chapman, the left handed relief pitcher
(38:43):
who can still get the ball up to the plate
one hundred miles an hour. Not a bad signing, a
little expensive.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Neither of my socks had a very good season last year,
so hoping Red and White are on the improving incline now.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Well, the White Sox had a particularly horrific Yeah, there's
only they can only get better.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Well, you know what, White Sox fans worry it could
get worse.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
I doubt it. I doubt it. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
We'll talk great to talk to you that Happy holidays,
same to you, Thanks Ken.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
All Right we get back. We have the fourth and
final hour coming up here on a cold Tuesday night
here in New England. It's December third, and winter has
arrived and it's only going to get worse for the
balance of the week. Back on night Side right after
this
It's Nightside with Dan Ray.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm telling you fleasy Boston Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
All right, welcome back. Before we get to my guest,
and we're going to talk about stadia or stadiums in
the Latin night the plural of a stadium venue for
a sporting event. We think about stadiums in this country
as baseball parks and football fields and all of that.
We're going to talk to my guest in just a moment.
(00:28):
Had him on a couple of weeks ago. He's written
a book called The Last Kamiski. I thought it'd be
a great guest to talk to and give you an
opportunity to check in. Before we get to Ken Smaller.
Let me just take a moment here to remind all
of you we have a couple of very important programs
coming up here on Nightside. Every night is an important
show as far as we're concerned. But next Monday night,
(00:51):
we'll be doing what we call our annual College Admissions Panel.
We've done this program for eighteen years. Every one of
those years we've been joined by Bill Fitzsimmons, the dean
of Admissions at Harvard. Grant Goslin is filling in. I
shouldn't say, filling in. He succeeded a great representative of
(01:17):
Boston College, Paul Mahoney who was there for many, many years.
And so Grant Goslin and Bill Fitzsimmons who join us
at eight pm on Monday night, December the ninth. Uh
they start at eight o'clock. And if you have John,
when I said Paul Mahoney, I meant this John Mahoney,
(01:38):
how can I say, Paul Mooney, John Mahoney of Boston
College who succeeded to become the provo of Boston College.
And now Grant Goslin is he's not pinch hitting, he's
now he's now a regular on the panel. We've done
this every year for every year of Nightside, and it's
great for individuals who are facing the college admissions process
(02:02):
for the first time, families who have never had. You know,
if you've been through this grind, if you will for
many times or several times with older students, you kind
of know the roopes. But if you have a high
school freshman, sophomore, junior who are approaching the selection of
(02:22):
a college, there's some great information and be available free
of charge right here on Nightside. Next Monday Night, at
eight o'clock with Bill Fitzimmons of Harvard and Grant Goslin
of Boston College. And then on Friday night the twelfth,
the twentieth of December, we do our fourteenth annual night
(02:44):
Side Charity Combine. And that is excuse me, not the fourteenth,
my mistake. It's the twelfth annual Nightside Charity Combine. And
if you have, if you're involved in a charity, I'd
like to get some free publicity. We will into view
upwards of twenty charities that night, the last couple of
hours of my broadcast year. It's all done remotely. You
(03:07):
don't have to drive to the studio, will set you
up as a time. We run this like clockwork, and
we'll give you an opportunity to talk about the charity
doesn't It can be big, it can be small. Just
has to be legitimate. We'd like them to be five
o' one c threes, but they don't have to be.
We don't want Uncle Harry's Beer Fund. Nope, that's not
something like that. These are charities that are helping other people.
(03:28):
And you tell us what you need. Do you need volunteers,
do you need money? Do you need financial support? Many
of the charities have been very pleased with the benefits
that they received from being on for three or four minutes.
We talked with a wide there were so many great charities,
big and small, that are serving the needs of our
fellow New Englanders. And it's anywhere in New England. To
(03:51):
be honest, we do. We've actually had a couple of
charities on from other parts of the country which were
they were kind of exceptions. But all I gotta do
is send me an email at Dan Ray at iHeartMedia
dot com, or you can call our producer Marita aka
Lady Lightning during the day. Her office number is seven
eight one three five zero one seven two six. That's
(04:13):
seven eight one three five zero one seven two six.
And it is really a great opportunity to tell the
world what you do, what you're involved in. And we've
had some very interesting charities. You think of some of
the bigger ones that we've had on, you know, Big Brothers,
Peak Sisters and Great Charity and all of that United
Way and things like that, but there are some great
(04:34):
small charities out there that do specific work in one
community or on one particular topics. So email me with
a daytime phone number of the person who would represent
the charity. We will call that person and then we
will give them a half an hour window and they
will be interviewed during that half an hour window. Trust me,
Dan ray d A n R e A at iHeartMedia
(04:55):
dot com or Marita. You can just call Marita on
her phone seven eight one three five zer zero one
seven six. Now I'm delighted to welcome back to Night's
Side the author of the last Kamiski my guest who's
a boss well Brookline resident, Ken Smaller, Ken, welcome back
(05:16):
to Nightside. How are you?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I'm doing great, Thanks so much for having me back.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
So you've written, you've you've visited somewhere around twenty five
hundred stadiums in operas of twenty four countries worldwide. I
think you're Your Twitter handle is is it stadium vagabond.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Correct stadium vagabonds, the Twitter and all social media, as
well as my website stadium vagabond dot com, where I
write about sports, travels and show my photographs and offer
them as prints in framed form as well, which is
a great gift of course for holidays. But yeah, I've
(05:58):
been to I checked my numbers. Twenty four to sixty
five in my current tally of stadiums around the world
in looks like forty eight states in twenty four countries.
Is my current tally.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
When did you start this travel? How do you know
all of us remember the first sports stadium that we
walked into. I remember as I was probably six or
seven or eight years old and walked into with my
dad Fenway Park and walked up one of those ramps.
It was an off day for the Red Sox. This
(06:33):
goes back into the nineteen fifties when people could just
just walk into Fenway Park. There was no one's going
to stop you. And I remember walking up the same
walkway that I've walked up. It was just to the
right of home plate and looking out at the green
grass and it wasn't even called the green Monster then,
I don't think the left field wall and the pitching
(06:56):
mound and realizing the pitching mound was elevated and I
I cannot erase and Noel would I want to erase
that image in my mind? What was the first stadium?
Did you have one?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah? Yeah, I had a very similar experience back in
nineteen seventy seven at Kimiski Park in Chicago, which of
course is the subject of the book. But I was
probably about six or seven years old at the time,
and my dad brought my sister and me to Komiskey
to see the Orioles play against the White Sox. It
(07:27):
was a summer day. I remember vividly doing something similar
to what you described, walking up the steep stairs behind
home plate. The structure of the stadium was pretty similar
to Fenway, where you had the concourse below the stands,
so you had that dramatic walk up and then the
green grass would unfold before your eyes, and it looked
(07:51):
so much different than what you had seen on TV
for all those years. And I was hooked from day
one this theater that was unlike anywhere else. And then
I continued on, you know, through the eighties in Chicago,
going to Chicago Stadium and Soldier Field, and eventually getting
(08:11):
to Wrigley Field despite the fact that we were big
White Sox fans in my family, and then venturing up
north to County Stadium where the Brewers used to play,
which was only about ninety minutes north of Chicago. But
it really blossomed for me in college. I was a
photo editor at the student run Michigan Daily in the
early nineties at the University of Michigan.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
And Wolverine then correct, I am.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
A happy Wolverine this week. A successful season has been
had after last week as well as.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
If I'm not mistaken, at Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
You know, some some teams just don't know how to
behave after games, and those those guys down south of
the border of uh Michigan, Ohio just you know, couldn't
really deal with the adverse. But I was really lucky
when I was in college. I got to trail Desmond Howard,
(09:06):
who went on to become the Heisman Trophy winner that year,
and I got to watch and photograph every one of
his games throughout the Big Ten. And actually he played
over at BC and the Heights that year and scored
four touchdowns against Boston College. And I also got to
cover a year later the Fab Five, which, for those
(09:28):
folks who don't remember, was a rarity at the time.
There were five freshman basketball players who came to Michigan
and ended up getting all the way to the NCAA
Championship game, only to lose to Duke Chris Webber being
the biggest star in Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard, and
I got to watch and photograph from the court when
(09:48):
I should have been studying for my econ midterm. In
the Metrodome, I got to cover the final four in
the NCAA Championship game. And after college, I decided to
go to law school and find myself a sort of
a straight career, but always wanted to continue to photograph
sports and stadiums on the side, and everywhere I've gone
(10:11):
since then, I've done something to either go to a game,
or go on a tour, or see the stadium or
arena or a ballpark in a particular city, and it's
just become kind of an obsessive hobby that really will
never end as long as I can keep walking and
keep taking photographs. And now you know, I bring my
(10:32):
wife along, and now that I have two teenage boys,
they come along with me to these various adventures and
it's like a worldwide scavenger hunt. I always look for
the unusual stadiums in a new city that I'm going to,
and it takes me to parts of the stadium the
city that I probably wouldn't otherwise, never visit that wouldn't
necessarily make the dour guides, but it really provides an
(10:53):
interesting foray into a.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Do you work as a full time lawyer.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, I'm a full time real commercial real estate lawyer.
So this is a business for me.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
This neck of the woods out in Michigan.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I went to law school down in Philadelphia at Penn
and got to see some terrific stadiums down there. One
of the best is the Plaster in Philadelphia. Uh, the
old Basketball Arena which is home to Penn but also
the Big Five Basketball tournaments.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
When you when when you say stadiums to me, I
think about the outdoor venues. Okay, maybe they're a covered
venue like the old Houston Astrodome or the the Dome
down in Louisiana and New Orleans or Tampa Bay. So
you include you would include on the under the term
(11:39):
stadium hockey arenas or or oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Any I kind of kind of mentally have made this decision.
At any place where they built a structure to house
sporting events constitutes the stadium. And sometimes it's something unusual
like the symphony orchestra here Boston Symphony for brief period
in two thousand and two was the home of the
US Squash Open and turned into a stadium for about
(12:07):
ten days back in two thousand and two when they
held the squash Championships.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
There in your calculation, that counts, Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I'm going to count that. I'll count that one. They're
not many like that, but a few.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
As I say, we have the love of sports arenas
and stadiums in common as well as I'm a Boston
University law school guy, so we have the legal background
and the love of sports. We take a break. I'm
going to invite callers to join the conversation and see
(12:38):
if we can stump Ken. Maybe there's a stadium that
you've seen that Ken hasn't seen. I suspect probably not.
But we'll talk about some of the stadiums that Ken
has seen around the world. Twenty four countries. I mean
most people never travel. I mean the vast majority of
people never travel to five countries in their life, never
(13:00):
mind twenty four, and they never see sports stadiums. They
may pass through an airport or two. But we'll we'll
enjoy our conversation, and this is just sort of a
as we get into December, we we do we do
our politics and our serious subjects, but we're also going
to find subjects that everybody can relate to, and you
don't have to be a sports officionado or an expert.
(13:21):
Join the conversation six one, seven, two, five, four ten
thirty six one seven, nine, three, one ten thirty. My
name is Dan Ray. We're talking about stadiums that people
have visited. I can I've never done account of. It's
not gonna be anywhere close to what Can has, that's
for sure. But I've been to a few interesting facilities
over the years, including Kimiski Park. So Gaylord Perry and
(13:44):
Wilbur Wood hook up in a pictures duel back in
I think nineteen seventy three at that old Ballyard. We'll
take a quick break, coming back on Nightside talking about
sports stadiums, which include arenas. We'll be back on Nightside
after this.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World,
Nice Sight Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
We'll gome back. Everybody's talking with Ken Smallum. Ken is
from the Boston area written a book called The Last Kimiski.
I want to talk about the book for a couple
of minutes, then get back to the stadiums and your travels. Obviously,
since Kimiski Park was the first stadium that you have
visited as a child, I'm sure that that is why
(14:32):
that's the subject of your book. How's that book doing
at this point.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Yeah, we're doing pretty well. It started based on a
documentary by a first time documentarian named Matt Flesh, and
he put together in crowdsourced a bunch of photos and videos,
including my photos, to do a documentary during COVID, and
we decided to turn it into a book given the
great feedback we got for the documentary and so many
(14:59):
my photos didn't make the final cut of the film,
and I had over four hundred photos that I wanted
to share with baseball and sports fans, not just white
Sox fans, but really people who love sports history. And
it really kind of guides us through the last seasons
of old Chimiskey Park and some real special times that
(15:20):
took place during those last few years. I was really
lucky to have my childhood hero, Azzige and the manager
that helped them win the World Series and five and
was Rookie of the Year in nineteen eighty five for
the team provide the forward to the book, which was
a real thrill to have him give his thoughts and
memories of old Chimisky Park, which was just as special
(15:42):
to him as it was to baseball fans from throughout
the country, if not world, whoever visited it. It was
a real special place, and it's just wonderful to provide
fans who both have memories of it, but even younger
fans who never got to visit it time travel back
into those days to a ballpark that was a real
(16:02):
unique ballpark unlike anything else that ever was built before
or since, and it lasted for eighty years, was home
to the White Sox, the Negro League American Giants, the
Chicago Stings soccer team, and a lot of people forget
the Chicago Cardinals played there for decades, played more games
there and any other stadium, even than their current stadium
(16:26):
in Glendale, Arizona, which I think they'll soon surpass Miski
Park in a few years. And it's just a real
special place, you know. We put together both the photos
and the content from the documentary, it's something that people
can really look at and have as a keepsake.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
And how's the how's the book doing? I assume it's
a big hit in Chicago.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, it's doing well and actually was just nominated for
the Chicago Writers Association non Fiction Award for Book of
the Year for twenty twenty four. We're going to find
out any day whether or not the book was the winner.
It's up against some stiff competition, but it's really exciting
to know that other folks, including people in the literary community,
(17:08):
really appreciate this this window back in time through this book.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
So you visited, as you said, I think it was
twenty four hundred and sixty five stadium stadiums is the
plurals in Latin, it would be stadia and that includes
not only you know, fields that we think of baseball
parks and all of that, but you've mentioned some others
and arenas and all of that. When we get back,
(17:36):
I want to talk about some of the countries that
you have gone to and visited. And I also want
to talk You mentioned that there was a handball tournament
held at Boston Symphony Hall, and so that's one of
the twenty four hundred and sixty five that you count
as having visited. How many of the Major League baseball
parks have you have you Have you done every Major
(17:57):
League ballpark baseball park?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, done, recurrent one, and I think about thirty three
former ones, either that were in existence for long periods
or some for very short periods, such as San Juan,
Puerto Rico was the home ballpark for the Expos for
about forty games before they moved to Washington.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, I forgot that. Oh sure, Okay, what are some
I mean the ballparks that I can remember going to.
I remember going to the Vet in Philadelphia, going to
the old Memorial Stadium for the Baltimore Orioles get down
in Maryland. I'm trying to think of some of the
other Arlington There was the Rangers for wild played in
(18:38):
an old park down in Arlington, Texas. Did you get
any of those along the way or.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
It's funny you mentioned that, because one of the ones
that I'm really lament never getting to is the Arlington one.
I got to all those old old doughnut sort of stadiums,
Veterans stadiums in Philly Three Rivers and in Pittsburgh, Oakland
Alameda Calism which had just closed down recently, with another
(19:05):
one of them in Atlanta, Fulton County Stadium, river Front
Stadium in Cincinnati and Bush Stadium in Saint Louis. All
those stadiums met either the wrecking ball or the implosion
dynamite in the nineties or early aughts, and we had
a real influx of new stadiums hitting really throughout the
(19:26):
world in the late nineteen nineties and early two thousands.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
As It's funny, all of those stadiums that were built
in the early seventies sort of you know, Forbes Field
passed on and it became Three Rivers in Pittsburgh. That
and the vet which came along after Shy Park. They
(19:50):
didn't have much life expectancy. I mean, as you mentioned
Kimiski at eighty four years, Fenway still going strong now
in what next year will be the one hundred and
thirteenth year of Fenway Park. I think Fenway Park is
the second oldest ballpark. There's a ballpark, and I think
it's Birmingham, Alabama.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
That correct, That.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Is that is still the oldest ballpark. I'm not sure
that it's still in continuous use, by the way, Oh
it is.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
It actually recently became a major League ballpark.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Well it was one it was, yeah, it was one
night only, right.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, one night June.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Yeah, yeah, I know that. Okay, Well, take a break.
My guest is Ken Smaller. Love to hear from you
as to what was maybe the first stadium he went to,
or what was the stadium that you fell in love with.
Maybe some of you have been up on the kiss
cam or the engagement camp in some of these ballparks. Look,
there are some ballplayers who have been married at at
(20:45):
at stadium at stadiums. Don Zimmer, the Red Sox manager,
was married i think at the Dodgers Triple A Stadium
back in the nineteen fifties. So feel free to join
the conversation. I'm enjoying it. I hope you will as well.
We'll be back on Nightside right after the News at
the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
My guest is Ken Smaller. He has visited two and
sixty five stadiums, which again includes baseball parks, football fields,
but also arenas twenty four countries. Some of the countries
that you've been to were these were these countries that
you were going to and you just found stadiums along
(21:33):
the way over these countries you went to knowing you
wanted to see a specific stadium a.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Little bit of both. I was in Japan to go
see baseball, but naturally, when I was there, I wanted
to see sumo as well, and got to see the
Grand Championship in two thousand and five of the culmination
of a fifteen days sumo tournament in Tokyo, which was
one of the most amazing experiences of my life seeing that.
(22:00):
Another example was being in Dublin. I was there for
a brief trip and got to see hurling at Croke Park,
which was something that I knew nothing about and became
hooked on it after seeing it live in person. You know,
all kinds of different things. I went to try to
see the Leeds soccer stadium without realizing that a Jehovah's
(22:22):
Witness rally was occurring right there and then, and that
was the only way I was going to gain entry
if I grabbed a prayer book and went in and
quietly was reverent while I took my pictures, and my
wife sat there quietly looking at a prayer book while
while I roamed around taking some photos of this legendary
soccer ground.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
And you almost got arrested in one.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
You told me yeah, I almost got arrested in Barcelona.
It was the week of the Real Madrid Barcelona match
and I snuck in trying to take photos of the stadium,
not realizing they were practicing at the time. I got
grabbed by a guard I'm not quite sure whether he
(23:04):
was a police or a guard, and he dragged me
to their office and ripped the film out of my
cameraposing it dedriving me of some great photos because he
thought I was a spy trying to get the plays
on behalf of Real Madrid's team.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah, well that must have. That would have been like
photographing a Patriots practice before a Super Bowl when Belichick
was coach.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Exactly exactly By the way you mentioned weddings, My kids
have only seen one wedding in person. It was during
the halftime a few years ago in Buffalo of the
Bills Pats game. A lucky contest winner a couple of
Big Bills fans got married by one of the former players.
Jim Kelly was the best man. The mascot was there
(23:51):
as the ring bear. There was a wedding in front
of seventy five eighty thousand people during halftime of the game.
I think it was two thousand and twenty two.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
I can't think of a more appropriate way for a
Buffalo Builds fan to get married. That was it snowing?
I hope at the time.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
It was early in the season.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
It was September, doesn't matter, it still could have been snowing.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
You know. Afterwards I classed through a table in the
parking lot. That would have been been the the whole scene.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Let's let's get a couple of phone calls in here.
My guest is Ken Smaller. He is a photographer and
a lawyer, but most importantly for our show, the author
of book The Last Kamiski. He has visited twenty four
hundred and sixty five stadiums around the world. The most
exotic country that you I mean, obviously Ireland is a
(24:41):
wonderful country, but I wouldn't call it exotic Spain. What's
the most exotic country you photographed? Have visited?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
My honeymoon in Thailand. We were in Chiang Mai seeing
a bunch of ancient temples that are around for hundreds
of years, thousands of years, and I told my tour guide,
you know, there's a there's a soccer stadium up the road,
can we just take a little bit of a detour
and go check that out? And it wasn't in season,
(25:10):
but I got a nice photograph of the stadium on
the outside that was in northern Thailand called uh Soccer
games in Israel of A. Recently went to a demolition
derby at a bullfight ring in Tijuana, Mexico, which is
not that far away, but with a pretty unusual event
(25:33):
right right to the.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Border, and it's it's it's not a great tourist down
from my recollection, but believe.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
That a lot better. It's gotten a lot better.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
But I'll bet, I'll bet, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
I was taking my son to a baseball game there
and our guide I wanted to see that bullfighting ring
and lo and behold there was a demolition derby taking place,
and it was one of the most unusual fun events
that I've ever seen live.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Bulls weren't driving the automobiles.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Assume no, no, I think I think they've they've banned
bullfighting in a lot of Mexico, including Dijuanna.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Okay, let's let's go to Tony and wo Tony, start
us off, Tony ken small and go right ahead, Tony,
how are you.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Dan, how are you. I've been listening the whole time
I've been. I haven't talked to you a while. This
is my.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Puerto Rican hockey player from Worcester Ken by the way,
he's a goaltender, right.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Tony, No, No, I was a right winger. You keep
saying I was a goaltender.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
You were for some reason. Yeah, okay, right winger, fair,
fair enough, Okay, you were my enemy then because I
was a goaltender.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
How good you were? I would have I would have
liked to test you other time.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
You wouldn't pretty good I had. I had a very
quick glove hand and uh, nothing was going over my
right shoulder and on the stick side. Trust me on
that go ahead And I'm only getting go ahead. You
probably was going to listen.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
I had a I want to talk about a stadium, right, Yeah.
I've been to Nicaralla for about thirty years, working, you know,
through a mission mission, working churches and schools down there,
and I, uh, about fifteen years ago. You remember the
Roberto Clemente story.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Right, yes, sure, yeah, fifteen years ago. That was Yeah,
you're talking you said fifteen years ago. It's nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Seventy two yeah, yeah, yep, so yeah, that was nineteen
seventy two. Anyway, so I think it was.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
New Year's Eve if i'm if I'm not correct, If I'm.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Correct, that's right, that's right. So anyway, I always carry
that in my heart because you know, at that time
it was one of our heroes. You know, it was
a very good baseball player. He was very very well
loved in an island.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
You know, there's Umanitarian mission to help people. Just unbelievable,
that's right. Sacrifice.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
So anyway, uh, I was down there and I had
a console. One of the music the women from one
of my churches broke and I found out a person
in this city of Massiah. They had some pots for it.
You know, they don't they don't. They don't buy anything
new down there. They repair everything. You know. It's like
the nineteen fifty cars in Cuba.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
The socialist country. That's what happens in all these socialists.
Guts you go ahead, that's.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Right, that's right. So anyway, I went to Massiah with
this other kid looking for pots, and I get up
to this hill and I noticed this big rusty metal
doors and they had and they had all this green
and all these vegetation growing on them. But one of
them was cracked open. I said, gee, you well, what
kind of big doors are there? So as I got
close to it, I can see in memory of Roberto
(28:46):
Clementing so I in Spanish, you know, So I cracked
it all open. I walked in and I was shocked
as I walked into the dinner. It used to be
a stadium one time. All I found was goats and
cows and horses, and the whole field was like one
big forest. So, anyway, my cousin in Puerto Rico does baseball.
(29:08):
You know, he's an announcer over there. He's been doing
that like for forty years. And so I went over
there and I talked to him, and I said, listen,
I went to Nicaragua and I found the stadium out
there in the wild, in the woods, and it was
all taken over by by trees, and it was Roberto
Comente Stadium. There was named after him, you know, after
(29:29):
what he did tried to do in that country to
help those people. So he said, really, So, anyway, one
thing led to another and he talked to some people.
The next thing, you know, about three years ago, major
League Baseball and Puerto Rico got together and they went
down there. And I've been going to visit the stadium
(29:49):
and the last three years down there, and it was
almost finished. I was there in January fifth and I
was visiting and it was nearly finished, and they let
me walk into the you know, the snow ground still
nothing like that, and they made me walk in the
field and take pictures of it. It's really amazing. All
because I talked to my cousin and he talked to
some people. Eventually he got the May Major League Baseball
(30:13):
and they sponsored the money on Puerto Rico sponsor money
and they went down there and built on a stadium.
Then I also went to Manawa, like back in May,
and I went to the city of Manawa, and all
of a sudden, I see this big song a new stadium,
Roberto Clemente Stadium. So they had an old stadium in
(30:34):
Manawa which they are rehabilitating to name it after ROBERTA. Clemente.
So it's amazing to me that just a few words
with people, you know, that you get these things to happen.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
You know, there are about eighteen Major League Baseball players
who were born in Nicaragua. I remember there was a pitcher,
Albert Williams who pitched in the nineteen eighties. Also Dennis
my Tinas who pitched for the Orioles. Yeah, Jonathan uh
Lusiga who's a reliever for the Yankees for a while,
(31:08):
he's still active technically, Devern Handsack pitch for the Red Sox.
A bunch of these guys whose names I recommended, who
I recognize. So there's Nicaragua has produced some Major League
Baseball players. Tony, I'm past my break, so I gotta
let you run. But you're a great caller always, and uh,
remember keep your head up, okay, never when you're carrying
(31:30):
a part, and keep your head up.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Well okay, yeah, just make show you keep that stick
on the ground. Don't let it be your leg.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
You got it, You got it. Thanks, Tony talks talk soon, Okay,
thank you. Tony is a great friend and and a
great and a great guy. Ken. Uh. And so you've
never been in Nicaragua, but there's a couple of stadiums
you could.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
No, I got it yet there. Roberta. Clemente is honored
with both a ballpark and an arena in Puerto Rico
that I visited.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
I'm not mistaken meant he ended up exactly with three
thousand hits.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I think you're exactly right.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yeah, ironically, and and died in that plane crash trying
to bring help to people in Nicaragua. Six one seven
thirty six one seven. My name is Dan ray Uh.
I would love to hear your baseball or your arena story.
My guest is Ken Smaller. He has visited two thousand,
(32:25):
four hundred and sixty five stadiums, uh at arenas around
the world, twenty four countries, forty eight states, has photographed
stadiums in every state except Montana and Alaska. And this
is this is this is a an avocation, but what
a great avocation, particularly if you're a sports fan. Movie
(32:48):
right back on night Side, Ohm, I go to Daryl
new Brunswick, Darryl, you're my guest, Ken Smaller talking sports stadiums,
go right ahead, stadiums.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Stay Ken, Hey, Dan, I would like to actually go
back to the old Tiger Stadium and Uh. When we
were younger, me and my twin brother were invited through
a family friend, invited by Bill Lee from Texas, UH
to see him pitch at Tiger Stadium.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Bill Lee, the Red Sox pitcher you've been talking about.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Uh he he pitchs for Texas Rangers.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
So it's a different Bill Lee, not the Billy of
Red Sox fame. Uh.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
He could have played for Red Sox prior.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Bill He never played, never played for the U, for
for the for the Tigers, that I can assure you. Oh.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
No, he played for Texas.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
No, I know that. But the Bill Lee that we
know here in Boston is it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
It could be, it could be, it could be the
same person. But it was nice to have that invite
through a family friend.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
And for the were you watching the Red Sox playing?
Speaker 1 (34:00):
I mean, was it I was like ten years old?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Yeah, okay, well maybe he was catching for the Red
Sox against the Tigers, so you might have seen the
Red Sox play.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
No, definitely pitching against Tigers for sure.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Oh that was Billy. Okay, that that was Billy for
the Red Sox. Okay, that's pretty good. Here was that?
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Here was that? That was like mid seventies.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
That would have been That would have been the time
Bill Lee was in the starting rotation of the Red Sox.
You got any baseball stadiums in New Brunswick, Daryl.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Not that I know of. They're still trying to get
Canadian football out here.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Okay, but let me ask my guest Ken Smaller Canada.
Have you gone to Canada to photograph? I assume you
probably follow.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah, oh yeah, I've got a game in Montreal. Yeah,
I got a few CF falcon I've seen Jarry Park
before they converted it to a tennis stadium. I've seen
the win Peg Blue Bombers before they tore down their
old stadium, which started as a ballpark. Montreal. The Loettes
have a terrific stadium, Moulson Stadium, right on the campus
(35:11):
of McGill University. We used to have a great view
of the skyline, but they built an upper deck to
block the skyline. But that's a great place to see
see CFL. They had terrific crowds. It's just enough of
a different game than the NFL or college football in
the States to make it really interesting and at a
different environment.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Longer. I think the field's one hundred and it's one
hundred and twenty yards, right, yeah, they.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Have it's fifty five yards. They have a fifty five
yard line and then their end zones are twenty yards
long with the field goalpost being in the end zone,
like the way that the NFL was back before the seventies.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Back in the old days. Yeah, all right, all right,
you must have some arenas up there, Daryl in New Brunswick.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Right, well, we we just got rid of the old
coliseum in Edmonton and then they had the new facility
belt and here's the old maple leaf gardens when you'd
actually walk up into the nosebleeds and it was like, yeah,
it felt like you were falling over right, But I'm.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Talking about the New Brunswick where you live. You had
is Monkton in New Brunswick, if I.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Mom mistaken, Moncton is but I haven't been there yet.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Right, But they for many years they had an American
Hockey League team.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I know that, Yes, And we go back to WILLI.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
O're right, sure, yeah, absolutely, Will o re and uh
who made his debut first black com player in the NHL.
We're flat out of time, Darryl, So I got to
let you run as always. Thanks for joining the conversation
and adding to the program. Great to hear you, and
we will talk to you before Christmas.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Okay, stay warm.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Yeah, it's pretty cool down here, right, That's that's for sure,
ken I enjoyed this as always. Uh, tonight, you told
me that you ran into trouble at a stadium in Antwerp,
if I'm not mistaken. Wasn't that one that you ran
into a little bit of a trouble?
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah? Yeah, recently an Antwerp I Uh, I hustled up
five flights of stairs to try to take a photograph
of a stadium that I knew was not really open,
and I got caught and escorted out before I can
snap my photo. So I was huffing and puffing, pleading
my case and to no avail, I did not get
my picture. It happens now.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
And then these stadium guards that you would.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Think they can be tough, they can be tough.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
They really can. So so folks want to get the
book The Last Kimiski, Do you have a website or yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:40):
If at Last Yeah, no, it's not at Amazon, it's
at last comiskeybook dot com. That's last comisky book dot com.
Comisky spelled co m I s k e y. Or
you can always go to my website stadium vagabond dot
com and there's a link there well, and then on
(38:02):
social media at Stadium vagabond. I post three to five
stadiums every day and try to vary it and take
requests as well. I love when my followers give me
requests for stadiums and try to stump me, and also
give me good average ideas of new places to go to.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Thanks so much, Ken, I really enjoyed it. Hope you
have a great holiday season, whatever holiday you happen to
associate yourself with. And remember, once we get to the
holiday season, we'll be in the new year, and the
truck will be leaving for Fort Myers sometime in the
first week in February, so baseball will return. See where
the Red Sox signed Chapman, the left handed relief pitcher
(38:43):
who can still get the ball up to the plate
one hundred miles an hour. Not a bad signing, a
little expensive.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Neither of my socks had a very good season last year,
so hoping Red and White are on the improving incline now.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Well, the White Sox had a particularly horrific Yeah, there's
only they can only get better.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Well, you know what, White Sox fans worry it could
get worse.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
I doubt it. I doubt it. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
We'll talk great to talk to you that Happy holidays,
same to you, Thanks Ken.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
All Right we get back. We have the fourth and
final hour coming up here on a cold Tuesday night
here in New England. It's December third, and winter has
arrived and it's only going to get worse for the
balance of the week. Back on night Side right after
this
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