INTO THE STADS : A VISIT TO BASEBALL'S GRAND OLD STADIUMS IS A BLAST FROM THE PAST.

Byline: Gary Warner Orange County Register

A crisp April afternoon at Detroit's Tiger Stadium, the kind of early spring ballgame where a cup of hot coffee feels a lot better than the traditional cold beer.

It's only the second inning of the second game of the season, but in the upper deck, in left field, 18-year-old Mohammad Hamed is already in late-season, bottom-of-the-ninth form.

``Yo! Grif-FEEEY! Ken Grif-FEEEY!,'' he calls. Seattle Mariner star center fielder Ken Griffey shields his eyes and squints up at the noise. Spotting Hamed, Griffey points and waves.

Hamed breaks into a big grin. Griffey's fallen for his trap.

``HI, KENNY, YOU OVERPRICED CRYBABY! YOU STINK! STINK, STINK, STINK!

Griffey's face screws into a scowl. For the the rest of the game, Hamed rides Griffey mercilessly. The all-star slugger scratches out one single in four at-bats as the Tigers swamp the Mariners 7-3.

It wasn't so long ago that baseball had dozens of parks like Tiger Stadium where fans felt a part of the game, not just spectators. Now, just four great baseball parks remain from baseball's golden age: Detroit's Tiger Stadium, Chicago's Wrigley Field, Boston's Fenway Park and New York's Yankee Stadium.

These are ballparks that opened their doors around World War I, when players earned a working man's wage instead of a paycheck befitting a CEO.

The small collection of classic parks will soon shrink. The wrecking ball likely awaits in New York and Detroit, where there are plans for new ballparks by the end of the century. So hurry to visit.

Wrigley Field

The ivy, the bums, Harry and the wind. Those are what makes Wrigley Field great.

And history. In that category, the Cubs' tiny field on the north side of Chicago is in a class of its own when it comes to the National League. Wrigley opened in 1914. The senior circuit's next-oldest stadium is Candlestick Park, opened in 1960.

It's striking how small the place is. Two decks and a narrow wedge of bleachers in the outfield. The rooftops of the neighborhood loom above the fences (families in those row houses once gathered for free peeks at the games). A well-struck ball can be hit ``out of the park,'' smashing a neighbor's window or gdenting a parked car.

Then there's the ivy, the bums, Harry and the wind.

The outfield wall is made of brick that since 1937 has been covered with Boston ivy and Japanese bittersweet plants. It plays havoc with the game - any ball that gets lost in the vines is ruled a double. Pittsburgh Pirate great Roberto Clemente once grabbed for a ball in the ivy, whirled and fired a white soft drink cup toward home plate.

The outfield is home to the Cubs' famed Bleacher Bums, the hard-core Cub rooters. Pouring rain or blistering sun, last place or pennant drive - they're there.

No Cubs game would be complete without Harry Caray, the ancient dough-faced announcer with the porthole-sized glasses whose rambling stories and flubbed calls are adored by Cub fans.

Hitting, pitching and fielding decide most baseball games, but at Wrigley there's a fourth factor: the wind. This close to Lake Michigan, the winds can sometimes make hitting a fly ball more than a few dozen feet impossible. But more often a jet stream to the outfield carries even high pop flies into the stands. Twenty or even 30 runs in a game is not unheard of.

Wrigley's future appears safe for now. But even with the lights installed in 1988, there are still only 18 night games a year - and they're almost always sold out.

Fenway Park:

What writer John Updike called the ``lyric little bandbox of a ballpark'' is the most storied stadium in baseball history. A few acres of history and heartache sandwiched between Boston's Van Ness Street, Yawkey Way and Landsdowne Street.

The red-brick facade and bluegrass field of Fenway Park has been home to many great players since it opened in 1912. But its greatest star is immortal and inanimate: the Green Monster, the infamous 37-foot-tall left-field wall.

To generations of pitchers, it seemed to loom just over their shoulder. Just 310 feet from home plate, many a high fly ball that would be a lazy out elsewhere has drifted over the monster for a home run.

Until 1976, the wall was made of railroad ties covered with tin. Boston Red Sox outfielders such as Carl Yastrzemski would memorize the hard and dead spots, playing hits off the wall perfectly, while visiting fielders would fume over balls caroming over their heads or dropping dead on the warning track.

Fenway is the last single-deck major-league ballpark, meaning fewer than 35,000 fans can cram into its stands. But for late-season games against the hated New York Yankees, more than 10,000 extra fans have paid for the privilege of standing through nine innings.

Nowhere have there been so many dramatic games. Nowhere so many amazing feats.

And World Series horrors: Johnny Pesky's late throw allowing Enos Slaughter to win game 7 for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1946. The Cards' Bob Gibson striking out 10 Red Sox to win game 7 in 1967. Carl Yastrzemski popping up to end the 1975 series against the Cincinnati Reds. The ball skipping through Bill Buckner's legs with the Red Sox just one out away from victory in 1986.

The Red Sox haven't won the World Series since 1918. Many fans blame the trade of Babe Ruth the following year to the Yankees. The ``Curse of the Babe'' has haunted the team since.

But along the way there have been plenty of heroes to salve the wounds of repeated disasters. Jimmy Foxx, Joe Cronin and Bobby Doerr. Ted Williams hitting .406 in 1941, Carlton Fisk clubbing a dramatic 12-inning home run in game 6 of the 1975 World Series. ``Rocket'' Roger Clemens striking out a record 20 batters against Seattle in 1986.

The Red Sox appear to be on the rise again - winning the American League Eastern Division in 1995. Just the environment for yet another epic disaster - or the end to the curse.

Yankee Stadium

Baseball's Hall of Fame is in Cooperstown, but another site in New York may be the game's greatest shrine.

Yankee Stadium is the home of 22 World Championships and 34 American League pennants. Babe Ruth. Lou Gehrig. Joe DiMaggio. Mickey Mantle. Reggie Jackson.

The Yankees vs. the Red Sox is among baseball's greatest blood rivalries. Fittingly, Yankee Stadium is just about everything Fenway Park isn't.

Where Fenway is small and tight, Yankee Stadium is huge. Fenway is all reds and greens. Yankee Stadium is blues and whites.

Fenway's left field seems to end just behind the shortstop. Yankee Stadium's is a sea of bluegrass so vast it's called ``Death Valley.''

Fenway is unfriendly to left-handed batters. Yankee Stadium has the legendary ``short porch'' in right, a treat for Yankee sluggers from Babe Ruth to Mickey Mantle to Reggie Jackson.

The ballpark was made possible by and tailor-made for one man - Babe Ruth, the 1920s' Sultan of Swat. ``The House That Ruth Built'' opened in 1923, designed to maximize the left-handed Ruth's pull-hitting impact with close right-field fences and mammoth distances for the right-handed hitting stars of other teams.

Today, the stadium is the youngest and least authentic of the four classic old-timers. The park was the recipient - some would say victim - of a 1974-75 renovation that stripped off the old facade, a portion of which was rebuilt along the outfield wall. The once herculean distances to left field were cut back so that left-center field, once 457 feet away, is now just 399 feet from home plate.

The short porch in right field, once 296 feet away, is today a less inviting 314 feet.

Sacrilege is in the air these days. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, has proposed a $1 billion multipurpose stadium on the west side of Manhattan. One of baseball's great parks could be replaced by a sterile, one-size-fits-all facility.

Tiger Stadium

The players grouse that Detroit's ballpark has the smallest clubhouse in the major leagues. The relief pitchers say the bullpen reminds them of a zoo cage. The owners fume over the lack of money-making luxury skyboxes.

Everyone hates Tiger Stadium.

Everyone but the fans.

Sharon Hogan and Karen Brant of nearby Monroe, Mich., left a combined seven children at home one recent afternoon to drive to Tiger Stadium for a day game. Sitting in the left-field upper deck, they rooted for the home team between sips of Budweiser and chomps on Italian sausages held inside their baseball mitts.

``I just love it here - right on top of the action,'' Hogan said. ``It's fun, full of heritage. Why would they want to get rid of it?''

But ``they'' do. A new $285 million stadium could be completed as early as 1998.

Nine American League championship flags fly at Tiger Stadium. But the team hasn't been to the World Series since 1984 and the current team has given fans little reason to risk the trip into Detroit's desolate downtown, especially at night.

``We don't need a new stadium, we need a couple of good arms and a winning team,'' Brant said. ``Then the fans will come back.''

The stadium is little changed from the 1920s. The right-field upper deck hangs 10 feet over the field, so fly balls the outfielder thinks will be caught are suddenly rattling around the grandstand. The dugouts are tiny and the bullpens are actual pens - a pair of mesh-covered boxes that look like animal cages brought over from the local zoo.

The right-field deck is plastered with names of Tigers who are in the Hall of Fame. Twenty-seven home runs have been hit over the upper decks and into the streets below. Only three players have muscled a ball clear over the left-field roof - Harmon Killebrew, Frank Howard and Fielder.

For Mohammad Hamed, the new stadium means a likely end to his bellowing exploits. Luxury boxes will push the cheap seats he and his friends can afford too high for his voice to carry to the ears of the enemy players.

``I come at least 30 times a year - I love the Tigers,'' he said. ``But with this new stadium, it's going to be a lot less fun.''

On Location

Here are tips for visiting the fields:

Wrigley Field:

Tickets: Call [phone]. From out of state, call [phone]. Prices: $4-$19. Favorite seats: Sit in the famous bleachers. Avoid rear rows in the first deck - the second deck obscures most fly balls. Food: Italian beef sandwiches are a stadium specialty.

Fenway Park:

Tickets: Call [phone] (be patient and let it ring a long time). Prices: $9-$18. Favorite seats: Section 42 in the bleachers, $8. Good sight lines and a chance to catch home runs for souvenirs. Food: The Fenway Frank, an all-beef hot dog legendary in New England.

Yankee Stadium:

Tickets: Call [phone]. Prices: $6-$19.Favorite seats: Box seats close to the bases. Second-best are reserved seats in sections 247 and 257 on the first-base side. Avoid the upper rows of the bleachers - fans go there to get drunk and rowdy. Food: Vanilla cookies from the Yankees' own bakery.

Tiger Stadium:

Tickets: Call [phone]. Prices: $2.50-$15.Favorite seats: Upper right-field box seats in sections 303-307, $15. Try to get seats on the rail. Center-field bleacher seats for $2.50 are one of the best deals in baseball. Food: Buy a bag of roasted peanuts for $1 outside the stadium. Inside, try the Italian sausage or kielbasa heaped with onions and peppers.

Tours:

Call the teams for times of ballpark tours, which are usually given on off-days and during the day before night games. The Sporting News offers Sporting News Fantrips, three- to nine-day excursions that include stops at the classic ballparks. Call [phone] for price lists and travel dates.

A museum for `original team'

A Louisiana company has created a mini-museum in tribute to the Brooklyn Dodgers, which fans like to call ``The Original America's Team.''

The display is housed at Dugout Memories, a Columbia, La., shop specializing in memorabilia related to the long-loved and long-defunct baseball franchise.

The company's display area features 150 autographed pictures of Brooklyn Dodgers back to the 1920s. There are also pennants, baseball hats and gloves.

The team was especially popular during the 1940s and '50s, when it had several winning seasons. The Dodgers era ended in 1957 when the team moved to Los Angeles.

Dugout Memories is at 112 E. Pearl St. in Columbia, La. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday. Information: [phone]. The company's Web site, www.brooklyn-dodgers.com, features Dodgers clips, statistics and trivia.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, 2 Boxes

Photo: (1--Color) Chicago Cubs fans attend a day game at Wrigley Field, one of the four ballparks that remain from baseball's golden age.

Chas Metivier/Orange County Register

(2--Color) Boston's Fenway Park opened for its first game April 20, 1912.

Susan Walsh/Associated Press

(3) Tiger Stadium in Detroit is one of four ballparks left from baseball's glory days.

Associated Press

Box: (1) On Location (See text)

(2) A museum for `original team'