Paul Goldberger Plays Ball With His New Book ‘Ballpark: Baseball In The American City’

Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic, Paul Goldberger, is currently on tour to discuss his newest book, “Ballpark: Baseball in the American City,” and he’s making a stop at the Parrish Art Museum on July 5, to talk with Ken Auletta, writer for The New Yorker.

The book is an account of the history of baseball in America as told through its ever-changing ballparks. As an architectural critic, Mr. Goldberger defines this history by explaining that the changing locations and architecture of ballparks helps reveal the manifestations of society through the years.

From the earliest corrals of the mid-1800s (Union Grounds in Brooklyn was called a “saloon in the open air”), to the much mourned parks of the early 1900s (Detroit’s Tiger Stadium, Cincinnati’s Palace of the Fans), to the stadiums of today, in his book Mr. Goldberger establishes the inextricable bond between the American city and America’s favorite pastime. Through our ballparks, Mr. Goldberger reveals the manifestations of a changing society: the earliest ballparks evoked the Victorian age in their accommodations, which included bleachers for the riffraff, grandstands for the middle-class; the “concrete donuts” of the 1950s and ’60s made plain television’s grip on the public’s attention; and more recent ballparks, like Baltimore’s Camden Yards, which signal a new way forward for stadium design and for baseball’s role in urban development.

Throughout the book, Mr. Goldberger shows readers the way in which baseball’s history is concurrent with our cultural history, including the rise of urban parks and public transportation, the development of new building materials and engineering, and design skills. And how the site details and the requirements of the game—the diamond, the outfields, the walls, the grandstands—shaped our most beloved ballparks.

Mr. Goldberger, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and writer at Architectural Digest, wrote on the topic of architecture for decades at the New York Times, and from 1997 to 2011 at The New Yorker. In addition to “Ballpark,” he is the author of “Beyond the Dunes: A Portrait of the Hamptons,” and “Up From Zero: Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York,” among others.

Ken Auletta began writing for The New Yorker in 1977 and has been the “Annals of Communication” columnist since 1992. The author of 12 books, including three national bestsellers, Mr. Auletta was the chief political correspondent for the New York Post, a staff writer and weekly columnist for the Village Voice, and a contributing editor at New York Magazine. He has played for the writers team in the Hamptons Writers and Artists baseball game since the 1980s.

The talk and book-signing will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, July 5, at the Parrish Art Museum, 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. Tickets are $12 at parrishart.org (free for members, children and students).

Mr. Goldberger will also talk about the book on Thursday, July 11, at 7 p.m. as part of the Salon Series of speaker events at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, 44 Woods Lane, East Hampton. Visit jcoh.org for tickets.