Don't forget about Jingu (and Koshien)!

I find it hard to disagree with Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci that Fenway Park is the greatest venue in all of sports. I was even lucky enough to see Billy Hatcher steal home there on August 3, 1992 – a feat no Red Sox player has pulled off since.

Nonetheless, this part of the essay left me scratching my head:

Fenway and Wrigley are the last places standing where you can watch a big league game in the same ballpark where people saw Babe Ruth play.

The first thing that jumped to my mind was Yankee Stadium; after all, it’s the House that Ruth Built, right? But Verducci passes that idea off in a parenthetical statement:

Yankee Stadium is very different in its remodeled reincarnation, and will be wiped away entirely after this season.

Whatever. But when I really got to thinking, it occurred to me: Ruth played at both Jingu Stadium in Tokyo and Koshien, and both are very much still standing.

Are we splitting hairs over what counts as “big leagues?”

Babe Ruth in Japan