This Tuesday in 1955, after a night of heavy rain, our town’s professional baseball stadium re-opened as “Municipal Stadium” for the inaugural season of the Kansas City Athletics. The stadium at 22nd and Brooklyn had been home to the American Association’s minor league Kansas City Blues and the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs since 1923 under the names Muehlebach Field, Ruppert Stadium, and Blues Stadium. But with the arrival of the A’s, the KC ballpark needed to be upgraded. Muehlebach Field was built with expansion in mind, but the footings built for installation of an upper deck were found to be insufficient once construction began. The city chose to completely rebuild the footings and—similar to the fabled story of KC rebuilding its convention hall in only three months’ time—the new Municipal was rebuilt, using three shifts of construction, in only 90 days.
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In The Loop: April 10, 2022
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This Tuesday in 1955, after a night of heavy rain, our town’s professional baseball stadium re-opened as “Municipal Stadium” for the inaugural season of the Kansas City Athletics. The stadium at 22nd and Brooklyn had been home to the American Association’s minor league Kansas City Blues and the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs since 1923 under the names Muehlebach Field, Ruppert Stadium, and Blues Stadium. But with the arrival of the A’s, the KC ballpark needed to be upgraded. Muehlebach Field was built with expansion in mind, but the footings built for installation of an upper deck were found to be insufficient once construction began. The city chose to completely rebuild the footings and—similar to the fabled story of KC rebuilding its convention hall in only three months’ time—the new Municipal was rebuilt, using three shifts of construction, in only 90 days.