o avid baseball fans, summer is everything: season tickets, double plays, the crack of the bat, doubleheaders, cracker jacks, the disabled list. These days, New Yorkers have some elegant stadiums to watch both major and minor league ball—but the oldest among them, the Richmond County Bank Ballpark and MCU Park, where the Staten Island Yankees and the Brooklyn Cyclones play, were built in 2001. Citi Field and Yankee Stadium’s latest incarnation are even newer. So as the summer wears on, the All-Star break comes and goes, and the Subway Series grows ever more heated, take a moment to remember the city’s great ballparks that were. Journey from the very early days of the Capitoline Grounds to the expansion of Harlem’s Polo Grounds, where people perched on bluffs to watch the matches for free. Remember the dear departed Ebbets Field (sadly replaced by an apartment complex, though its flagpole stands at Barclays Center) and the wonderfully retro 60s-era colored paneling of the original Shea Stadium. If we missed any of your favorites, please let us know in the comments or by email. Now please doff your cap to rise for the national anthem. And play ball!

Remembering New York’s Historic Baseball Stadiums, In Photos – Summer Flashbacks – Curbed NY.