Baker Bowl - Disasters

Disasters

Fire destroyed the grandstand and bleachers of the original stadium on August 6, 1894. The $80,000 in damage (equal to $2,148,923 today) was covered fully by insurance. The fire also spread to the adjoining properties, causing an additional $20,000 in damage, equal to $537,231 today.

Temporary stands were built in time for a game on August 18. It was then fully rebuilt of fireproof materials with a cantilevered upper deck. It also contained a banked bicycle track for a while, exploiting the cycling craze of the late 19th century. In terms of pure design, the ballpark was well ahead of its time, but subsequent problems and the parsimony of the team's owners undermined any apparent positives, as the ballpark soon became rundown and unsafe.

During a game on August 8, 1903, an altercation between two drunken men and two teenage girls in 15th Street caught the attention of bleacher fans down the left field line. Many of them ran to the top of the wooden seating area, and the added stress on that section of the bleachers caused it to collapse into the street, killing 12 and injuring 232. This led to more renovation of the stadium and forced the ownership to sell the team. The Phillies temporarily moved to the Philadelphia Athletics' home field, Columbia Park, while Baker Bowl was repaired. The Phillies played sixteen games at Columbia Park in August and September 1903.

During a game on May 14, 1927, parts of two sections of the lower deck extension along the right-field line collapsed due to rotted shoring timbers, again triggered by an oversize gathering of people, who were seeking shelter from the rain. Miraculously, no one died during the collapse, but one individual did die from heart failure in the subsequent stampede that injured 50.

After both of those catastrophes, the Phils rented from the A's while repairs were being made to the old structure.