The Many Homes of the Pittsburgh Pirates (cont.)

Continuing on with the search for old pieces of the Pittsburgh parks, I discovered that Forbes has been memorialized through a few different items. A piece of the outfield brick wall with the 406 FT marker, over which Bill Mazeroski hit his walk off home run to end the 1960 World Series, has been moved to the Riverwalk outside of PNC.

I can't find the exact location from any source on the Web, but if it is right outside PNC Park, and close to Mazeroski Way on the Riverwalk, it can't be too hard to find. It will be my mission to locate this wall and mark its location on my Google Map.

View Baseball Tour on Megabus in a larger map

Unfortunately, our short time in Pittsburgh will not allow us the time to visit the other memorials to Forbes Field. They are located on the University of Pittsburgh campus in the North Oakland neighborhood, south of downtown. You can see a reconstructed brick wall standing in the original location of the left-center field wall with the flag pole to memorialize where Mazeroski hit his famous home run in 1960. It has markers to note the distance the ball traveled and a plaque to mark the spot it landed. This brick wall surrounds a field that still stands on the campus.

View Larger Map

Finally, in the lobby of Posvar Hall (in the left side of the map above), the Home Plate of Forbes Field is encased in glass on the floor.

I am coming to realize that Pittsburgh is a town that loves its baseball history. Despite tearing down all of the previous parks, it has maintained a piece of each through the pieces that made the game special. This is more than Detroit is willing to do for Tiger Stadium.

The last park used for the Pirates before PNC was Three Rivers Stadium. This park wasn't just used for baseball, the Steelers used the park for football as well. I know many of the structures in the 1970s weren't built as well as buildings constructed decades before, but to only use a stadium for 30 years when it cost $55 million to build ($329 million in 2012 dollars), is just silly. It seems unlikely that the city, or either club got a return on the investment. In my opinion, the only reason it didn't continue to be used is because the Steelers were jealous that the Pirates were getting a new Park and didn't want to continue to use the "old" park for football. The Steelers demanded a new stadium to stay in Pittsburgh, and the city complied. This sort of blackmail happens too often in professional sports. The owners continue to make huge profits while the city puts up all the dough for the facilities.

The baseball game to be played at Three Rivers ended in a loss to the Cubs on October 1, 2000. This is a recurring theme. It seems the Pirates should stop ending the season with a Cubs game, it might signal the end of another ballpark!

The demolition took place in February 2011. It was completed with Heinz Field on one side and PNC Park on the other. Neither of the new buildings were even touched by the debris of Three Rivers.

The stadium had so much seating, and so little demand for it that the officials closed off parts of the outfield upper deck and used it for advertisements. With so little attendance, how did the Pirates ever get money to build another Park?

Many of the items that were memorable about the Three Rivers Stadium were items brought in from previous parks and moved out prior to implosion. The stadium itself was fairly cookie cutter (which reminds me of the 70s built neighborhood I grew up in, full of split level, 2 garage houses that varied only in color).

The only pieces that remain of the Three Rivers Stadium are located next to the Heinz Field. A 2-story concrete marker for Gate-D still stands facing North Shore Drive with a Pennsylvania Historical Marker. Since this is within walking distance from our Hotel, we'll be checking it out on our journey.

At first I thought this Gate D marker had to have been moved / rebuilt, because it was too close to Heinz. If Heinz wasn't damaged by the debris from the implosion of Three Rivers, it seemed like it must have been further away. That was what I thought, until I found this picture:

I am fascinated by the abilities of the demolition crew. To ensure the newly created stadium was not damaged by the blast took wicked skill. The newly built stadium for the Steelers was only 65 feet from Three Rivers. Obviously the builders did not consider the demolition of the old stadium when they constructed the new one.

This final picture is a great shot of the three stadiums together:

Who would have thought that I would actually be excited to go to Pittsburgh!?

The Many Homes of the Pittsburgh Pirates

If the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox home arenas are known as the game's oldest ballparks, the Pittsburgh Pirates' many homes must rank the team as having the most frequently exchanged ballpark. This is a team that has struggled to win and struggled to fill the seats in recent years. Either this is a sign that trading out nostalgia for fancy seating and a party cove actually repels fans, or it is a sign that the city itself is struggling, and baseball is no longer the escape it once used to be.

The former Pittsburgh parks were home to many firsts:

In 1887 at Recreation Park, Pittsburgh Alleghenies (named after the river that runs through downtown Pittsburgh) won their first game in the National League, defeating the Chicago White Stockings. This park also had the smallest paid crowd of 6 on April 23, 1890 (and so the trend begins for small attendance).

In 1891, the team returned to Exposition Park, very near the same location that PNC Park currently stands. This is the first park that the Pittsburgh Pirates played with that name. This Park was the National League host for the first World Series in 1903. This image of the park is astounding for 2 reasons: the ball park is full and the men actually dressed up to attend.

This person did a great job putting together a tribute to this old ball park:

If the painted bases are still in the parking lot next to the stadium, we will find them.

In 1995, the spot for Home Plate was found by 4 men (in January, burr). A Pennsylvania State Historical marker was placed at the site in September 1998. (Source) This marker was moved to a great stretch of river walk within a couple hundred yards of our hotel and PNC Park. It was most likely moved as a result of the Three Rivers Stadium implosion. The trail system it is on now showcases both PNC and Heinz, a couple of amazing bridges, an amphitheater with some interesting art, and a downtown view.

In 1909, Forbes Field was completed by Barney Dreyfuss. It was criticized for its location. It was originally coined "Dreyfuss' Folly". It moved baseball from the centralized downtown location (where all other ballparks were located in the city) to the then undeveloped area south of downtown in the current Oakland district of Pittsburgh, surrounded by the University of Pittsburgh campus. The home plate occupied the corner of Sennott and Bouquet Streets. A small baseball field, named Mazeroski field, and surrounded by a brick wall memorializing his home run to win the 1960 World Series, currently occupies the space near this intersection. At the time the Field was build, Andrew Carnegie's Technical Institute had already been built in the same area. Several other businessmen of the time soon started building in the area, such as Phipps, Heinz, Frick, and Mellon.

During its inaugural season, the Pittsburgh Pirates won the World Series after losing the first game in the ballpark on June 30, 1909 to the Chicago Cubs. In 1921, the first radio broadcast of an MLB game, the only way to truly enjoy baseball if you can't attend the game in person, took place from Forbes Field. And as a Cubs fan, I can appreciate the "All-Alou" outfield used by the San Francisco Giants at Forbes on September 15, 1963. As the Pirates played their final games in Forbes Field on June 28, 1970, they swept a double header against the Chicago Cubs (figures...). The remnants of the old park can be found at the University of Pittsburgh campus.

If it weren't for the frequent moves of the Pittsburgh Pirates, I could have finished this in one entry, but I'm tired, and am shutting down. I'll pick up the remaining field tomorrow.