Griffith Stadium

The Notch

Center field at Griffith Stadium did not play fair. The field was oriented east-southeast of home plate, and a right-angled notch carved into the center-field fence — the result of homeowners who refused to sell their property to the Senators when the park was renovated around 1920 — left a large tree and five houses standing behind the wall. The dimensions reflected the stubbornness: 421 feet to center, 407 down the left-field line, 328 to right. The notch contributed to the park's cavernous shape and its low home run totals.

Built in a Hurry

The stadium that carried those dimensions almost did not exist in time for the 1911 season. Fire destroyed the wooden stands on the site in March of that year, and the Osborn Engineering firm of Cleveland was hired to design a steel-and-concrete replacement. They built it in record time. The park opened on April 12, 1911, with President William Howard Taft throwing out the first ball before a crowd of 16,000.

What Left the Yard

Even a park built to hold them in could not stop everyone. Josh Gibson reportedly hit fair balls out of the stadium twice during his tenure with the Homestead Grays around 1940. On April 17, 1953, Mickey Mantle hit a home run off Chuck Stobbs that bounced off the top of the back wall and was alleged to have traveled 565 feet — a blast that popularized the phrase "tape measure home run." The ballpark also hosted the MLB All-Star Game in 1937 and 1956.

Griffith Stadium stood in Washington, DC, from 1911 to 1961. The notch, the tree, and the houses behind the center-field wall are all gone.

Reporting: SABR, Wikipedia, Baseball-Reference, Baseball Almanac. Park data: MLB StatsAPI and Retrosheet, via the Fever engine.