(04-09-2014 10:32 PM)pueo99 Wrote:  Beautiful! You nailed it! Thanks for isolating the comments that speak so well of the differences of pro vs amateur athletics and the essential beauty of both. Thank you, sir!

Well said.

(04-09-2014 04:59 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  Here's a photo of Clark Field, with the in-play centerfield escarpment in the background:

Thanks. I don't think I'd ever seen a picture of it, but I recall my dad describing the cliff, and it just never resonated that there could really, actually, be a cliff there.

(04-09-2014 05:29 PM)gmath Wrote:  

(04-09-2014 04:59 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(04-09-2014 01:55 PM)grol Wrote:  

(04-09-2014 11:03 AM)gmath Wrote:  I believe WG was referring to Clark Field. U.T. played there from the late 1920's to the mid-1970's, then moved to the Disch. Clark Field was located north of Memorial Stadium (near the bandhall) and had "Billy Goat's Hill" in play out in right field -- an odd cliff with a plateau on top.

OK, Clark Field. WG mentioned the hill in center. I went to games there as a kid...just couldn't think of the name. Now that was an interesting, old-time baseball field.

Here's a photo of Clark Field, with the in-play centerfield escarpment in the background:



Here's a 1974 newspaper article prior to Clark Field's closing, which includes comments from coaches and a player on why the outcropping was there and how they practiced scaling the limestone cliff, giving the home team a decided advantage.

Also, Clark Field's Wikipedia page

And here's a heartfelt tribute in Texas Monthly to the eccentric old ballyard by Rice grad Paul Burka ('63), including an account of Lou Gehrig's epic home run in a late-1920s exhibition game that "the Los Angeles Times was later to call 'without a shadow of a doubt, the longest home run ever hit by man since the beginning of baseball'."

Oh, it definatley gave the home field an advantage. Houston oil and gas attorney Kent Wilson was a catcher for Baylor and told me a good, first-hand example. Duing a game with Baylor, a U.T. batter hit a ball up on top of the hill. Baylor's outfielder tried to scale the cliff by jumping up and using his arms to pull himself up the face of the cliff. He scraped his arms badly on the rock, was unable to get to the ball, and was all bloody in the dugout between innings. Later in the game, Kent hit a ball on top of the hill and leisurely ran the bases figuring the U.T. outfielder couldn't get to the ball (having seen what the cliff did to his outfielder). Kent said as he rounded a base (I can't remember if it was 2nd or 3rd), the U.T. outfielder had scaled the cliff via some hidden, but strategically placed cut-outs in the rock, got to the ball and it was being relayed into the field to catch Kent for an out. He tells the story with a laugh!

Great story and thanks for sharing!

If anyone else had a field like that, it would be derided as bush league. But when UT does it, people act like it's charming. Ugh!

(04-10-2014 08:15 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  If anyone else had a field like that, it would be derided as bush league. But when UT does it, people act like it's charming. Ugh!

To be fair, I don't think anyone, even UT, could get away with anything like that today... I'm not even sure they could get away with a sloped centerfield with a flag pole in play.

(04-10-2014 08:15 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  If anyone else had a field like that, it would be derided as bush league. But when UT does it, people act like it's charming. Ugh!

George, you are showing your youth.

at UT grad school in 1972 I went to a game at Clark field, didn't know the cliff was in play, and just about dropped my teeth out first time I saw a long fly ball to centerfield. The UT players had a diagonal path upward mapped out, and I saw the centerfielder run up that path to the top of the escarpment and make the catch. I was dumbfounded.

Springtime baseball in Austin was glorious. You could take beer into the stadium, the weather was perfect, and the awesome UT coeds were wearing the latest fashion - short shorts (mainly cutoff jeans with their cheeks hanging out). Ahhhh my goodness.................

No lights at Clark. On game afternoons about 1/2 of the law school faculty could be found there along with a number of law students --me certainly included. Billy Goat Hill and the incline certainly lead to some really strange plays. Pretty amazing how they "replaced" Clark with about as sterile a ball field as could be built -- the college equivalent of the Vet.

(04-12-2014 10:37 AM)austinowl73 Wrote:  No lights at Clark. On game afternoons about 1/2 of the law school faculty could be found there along with a number of law students --me certainly included. Billy Goat Hill and the incline certainly lead to some really strange plays. Pretty amazing how they "replaced" Clark with about as sterile a ball field as could be built -- the college equivalent of the Vet.

I loved the old field too, but w liability issues, clearly not an option these days!

(04-12-2014 10:37 AM)austinowl73 Wrote:  No lights at Clark. On game afternoons about 1/2 of the law school faculty could be found there along with a number of law students --me certainly included. Billy Goat Hill and the incline certainly lead to some really strange plays. Pretty amazing how they "replaced" Clark with about as sterile a ball field as could be built -- the college equivalent of the Vet.

I'm personally amazed how nice DFCU seems now after the upgrades. When they announced they were just renovating rather than razing, I was extremely skeptical that it would be any more than the same POS it had always been.

(04-12-2014 04:33 PM)texd Wrote:  I'm personally amazed how nice DFCU seems now after the upgrades. When they announced they were just renovating rather than razing, I was extremely skeptical that it would be any more than the same POS it had always been.

Glad that a regional appears to be in UT's future as D-F is a pleasant place to spend an afternoon.

Now if they'd just do something about that field . . .

(Did anyone hear C. Way or K. Moreland allege that Rice got crosswise with UT over negative recruiting? A co-worker who mentioned this as the reason for the heretofore cancelled home and home series is sometimes known to stir the pot.)

(04-12-2014 05:58 PM)ausowl Wrote:  

(04-12-2014 04:33 PM)texd Wrote:  I'm personally amazed how nice DFCU seems now after the upgrades. When they announced they were just renovating rather than razing, I was extremely skeptical that it would be any more than the same POS it had always been.

Glad that a regional appears to be in UT's future as D-F is a pleasant place to spend an afternoon.

Now if they'd just do something about that field . . .

(Did anyone hear C. Way or K. Moreland allege that Rice got crosswise with UT over negative recruiting? A co-worker who mentioned this as the reason for the heretofore cancelled home and home series is sometimes known to stir the pot.)

I didn't hear the televised game. Of course it is just UT spin. UT probably still hasn't informed the a Rice coaching staff that the series was cancelled. They found out when a certain Hawaii coach called asking why UT was available and asking to play them on a date that had previously been reserved for the Rice/UT series. It has been many years and people have kissed and made up. Way/Moreland were probably misinformed...