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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Veterans Stadium (1971-2004)
The Spectrum (1967-2011)
John F. Kennedy Stadium (1926-1992)
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
One of the things you minis from the older venues:
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
History of the AstroTurf Brand
AstroTurf — it’s one of the most iconic brands in sports. While everyone recognizes the name, not everyone knows the history.
Houston Astrodome AstroTurf 1966
AstroTurf borrows its name from the Houston Astrodome, where it was first used in a professional sports venue fifty years ago this year. The space race was in full swing. It was a time of palpable optimism. A certain belief that man could conquer the constraints of nature with ingenuity and forward-thinking progress pervaded. The Astrodome was built in the midst of this feverish pursuit of the impossible. It was the first domed stadium and it was a marvel of sports architecture.
There was a major problem, though. The clear Lucite panels that comprised the dome created a glare. Astros outfielders and their opponents were blinded as they attempted — and failed — to catch pop-ups. The initial solution was to paint the ceiling to cut the glare. It worked, but another problem arose. Deprived of adequate sunlight, the grass died!
Meanwhile, Monsanto just had invented a brand new product they called “ChemGrass”. During the Korean War, the U.S. Army had found urban recruits to be less physically fit than rural recruits. Attributing this to lack of green space in cities, the Ford Foundation funded research for Monsanto to create a synthetic grass replica.
The Astrodome brought Monsanto in to install ChemGrass. It was a great success, and Monsanto capitalized on the popularity of its high profile installation to rebrand their grass replica. Thus the “AstroTurf” brand was born.
Entire article: https://www.astroturf.com/about-synthetic-turf/astroturf-history/
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Griffith Stadium
The ballpark was demolished in 1965 and Howard University Hospital now occupies the site.
The ballpark was demolished in 1965 and Howard University Hospital now occupies the site.
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Whatever Happened to ... War Memorial Stadium?
The Buffalo Bills start a new season as the NFL kicks off this week, and the Bills’ stadium has a new name this year — New Era Field.
Before that, the place had been called Ralph Wilson Stadium – nicknamed “The Ralph” – and before that was known as Rich Stadium.
In the days prior to Rich/Ralph/New Era, the Bills played their home games in Buffalo’s War Memorial Stadium, a much-maligned arena also known as “The Rockpile.”
The Bills won an AFL title there and later lost a championship game at The Rockpile that would have gotten the team into the first Super Bowl.
O.J. Simpson started his pro football Hall of Fame career there. Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench got his final minor-league seasoning at The Rockpile as a member of the Buffalo Bisons. Robert Redford starred in an Academy Award-nominated film, The Natural, which was filmed largely at War Memorial Stadium.
So, Whatever Happened To … Buffalo's War Memorial Stadium?
The stadium opened in 1937 at the corner of Best Street and Jefferson Avenue, built as a Works Progress Administration program during the years of the Great Depression.
Originally called Charles E. Roesch Memorial Stadium, the place was re-named Civic Stadium in 1938.
In the early years, the stadium was used for parades and civic gatherings, high school and college sports and boxing and wrestling matches. Pro football teams came and went. When the Bills started play as an original franchise of the American Football League in 1960, the stadium was expanded and renamed War Memorial Stadium.
The Bills played remarkably well during some of their Rockpile years with stars like Jack Kemp, Billy Shaw and Cookie Gilchrist. The team captured the AFL championship in 1964 with a win over San Diego at War Memorial Stadium and then repeated the following year with a road win over the same team. The 1966 AFL title game, also played at The Rockpile, was when the Bills lost to Kansas City, who played in the inaugural Super Bowl.
It wasn’t long before team officials began complaining about the facility.
The AFL and NFL had announced plans to merge leagues and the War Memorial was deemed unsuitable for NFL play. Bills owner Ralph Wilson called the place “totally inadequate,” and was quoted in a 1968 news story saying, “All owners who bring their clubs into Buffalo are appalled by the stadium.”
“It was different in that the fans were right close to the field and it was the same fans that sat behind the bench year after year,” Shaw said in the Rappoport book. “They knew us, our wives, our children. We knew them, and if they weren’t at a game, we would ask, ‘Where is Sally, Sue or Jim?’ It was that kind of atmosphere – a real family atmosphere.”
War Memorial Stadium also was home for some time to the Buffalo Bisons baseball team. Johnny Bench, arguably the greatest catcher ever, played at the Rockpile during the 1967 season. That is, until rioting during those tumultuous Civil Rights times forced the team to play games in nearby Niagara Falls.
The Bills played their last season at The Rockpile in 1972.
The stadium sat mostly dormant for the next several years until a new version of the baseball Bisons arrived in 1979 and called the facility home.
Movie producers selected War Memorial Stadium for the 1984 film The Natural because the place had the right look for an old-time ballpark. (Crews also checked Silver Stadium in Rochester, but ruled it out because it looked “too modern.”)
When the baseball Bisons moved into brand-new Pilot Field in 1988, that sealed the fate of The Rockpile. The old stadium was largely demolished, except for two entrances that were preserved.
A high school athletic field remains at the old site.
Entire article: https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2016/09/10/whatever-happened-rockpile/90182268/
Johnnie B. Wiley Amateur Athletic Sports Pavilion
War Memorial Stadium was demolished shortly after the Bisons moved downtown to Pilot Field. A high school athletic field (Johnnie B. Wiley Amateur Athletic Sports Pavilion – c. 1997) remains at the old site and serves as one of Buffalo's three major high school football fields (the others being All-High Stadium and the field at Riverside Institute of Technology); the field also was the home of the Buffalo Gladiators, an adult amateur football team.
The northwest and southwest entrance to the old stadium was demolished, but the northeast and southeast entrance was saved and preserved. A small baseball diamond is on the former field's southwest corner.
Entire article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Memorial_Stadium_(Buffalo,_New_York)
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BayBuck
Buckeyes are best
Whatever Happened to ... War Memorial Stadium?
The Buffalo Bills start a new season as the NFL kicks off this week, and the Bills’ stadium has a new name this year — New Era Field.
Before that, the place had been called Ralph Wilson Stadium – nicknamed “The Ralph” – and before that was known as Rich Stadium.
In the days prior to Rich/Ralph/New Era, the Bills played their home games in Buffalo’s War Memorial Stadium, a much-maligned arena also known as “The Rockpile.”
The Bills won an AFL title there and later lost a championship game at The Rockpile that would have gotten the team into the first Super Bowl.
O.J. Simpson started his pro football Hall of Fame career there. Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench got his final minor-league seasoning at The Rockpile as a member of the Buffalo Bisons. Robert Redford starred in an Academy Award-nominated film, The Natural, which was filmed largely at War Memorial Stadium.
So, Whatever Happened To … Buffalo's War Memorial Stadium?
The stadium opened in 1937 at the corner of Best Street and Jefferson Avenue, built as a Works Progress Administration program during the years of the Great Depression.
Originally called Charles E. Roesch Memorial Stadium, the place was re-named Civic Stadium in 1938.
In the early years, the stadium was used for parades and civic gatherings, high school and college sports and boxing and wrestling matches. Pro football teams came and went. When the Bills started play as an original franchise of the American Football League in 1960, the stadium was expanded and renamed War Memorial Stadium.
The Bills played remarkably well during some of their Rockpile years with stars like Jack Kemp, Billy Shaw and Cookie Gilchrist. The team captured the AFL championship in 1964 with a win over San Diego at War Memorial Stadium and then repeated the following year with a road win over the same team. The 1966 AFL title game, also played at The Rockpile, was when the Bills lost to Kansas City, who played in the inaugural Super Bowl.
It wasn’t long before team officials began complaining about the facility.
The AFL and NFL had announced plans to merge leagues and the War Memorial was deemed unsuitable for NFL play. Bills owner Ralph Wilson called the place “totally inadequate,” and was quoted in a 1968 news story saying, “All owners who bring their clubs into Buffalo are appalled by the stadium.”
“It was different in that the fans were right close to the field and it was the same fans that sat behind the bench year after year,” Shaw said in the Rappoport book. “They knew us, our wives, our children. We knew them, and if they weren’t at a game, we would ask, ‘Where is Sally, Sue or Jim?’ It was that kind of atmosphere – a real family atmosphere.”
War Memorial Stadium also was home for some time to the Buffalo Bisons baseball team. Johnny Bench, arguably the greatest catcher ever, played at the Rockpile during the 1967 season. That is, until rioting during those tumultuous Civil Rights times forced the team to play games in nearby Niagara Falls.
The Bills played their last season at The Rockpile in 1972.
The stadium sat mostly dormant for the next several years until a new version of the baseball Bisons arrived in 1979 and called the facility home.
Movie producers selected War Memorial Stadium for the 1984 film The Natural because the place had the right look for an old-time ballpark. (Crews also checked Silver Stadium in Rochester, but ruled it out because it looked “too modern.”)
When the baseball Bisons moved into brand-new Pilot Field in 1988, that sealed the fate of The Rockpile. The old stadium was largely demolished, except for two entrances that were preserved.
A high school athletic field remains at the old site.
Entire article: https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2016/09/10/whatever-happened-rockpile/90182268/
Johnnie B. Wiley Amateur Athletic Sports Pavilion
War Memorial Stadium was demolished shortly after the Bisons moved downtown to Pilot Field. A high school athletic field (Johnnie B. Wiley Amateur Athletic Sports Pavilion – c. 1997) remains at the old site and serves as one of Buffalo's three major high school football fields (the others being All-High Stadium and the field at Riverside Institute of Technology); the field also was the home of the Buffalo Gladiators, an adult amateur football team.
The northwest and southwest entrance to the old stadium was demolished, but the northeast and southeast entrance was saved and preserved. A small baseball diamond is on the former field's southwest corner.
Entire article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Memorial_Stadium_(Buffalo,_New_York)
My dad grew up just about a mile from The Rockpile, as the crow flies, and he has always told stories about jumping the fence to sneak into games back in probably the late 50's. This year we finally got a chance to see our first Bills home game together, at New Era Field.
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Who can name them?
Top (L to R): Three Rivers (Pittsburgh) and Riverfront (Cincinnati)..Bottom (L to R) The Vet (Philadelphia), Busch (St. Louis)
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
EXHIBITION STADIUM
Name the MLB stadium where you had a great chance of seeing snow falling while baseball is being played and where you can sit 600 feet away from homeplate. If you guessed Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, you are correct! Before the Blue Jays landed in Toronto, minor league baseball was played in the city between 1896 and 1967. Not to be confused with hockey’s Toronto Maple Leafs, the Minor League Baseball franchise, Maple Leafs played at Maple Leaf Stadium from 1908 to 1967. In the late 1950s and early 1960s Maple Leaf’s owner Jack Kent Cooke tired to get Toronto to construct a new ballpark in an effort to lure a MLB team to the city. That effort failed and the Maple Leaf’s franchise was bought and moved to Louisville, KY after the 1967 season.
In an effort to attract a MLB franchise to the City of Toronto, a $15 million bond was approved to enlarge CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) Stadium in 1974. In 1976 the San Francisco Giants nearly moved to Toronto after local investors purchased the team. However, the newly elected San Francisco major and capital kept the team in San Francisco. The following year Major League Baseball awarded Toronto an expansion franchise, the Blue Jays. Snow covered the field when the Toronto Blue Jays played their first game at Exhibition Stadium on April 7, 1977 against the Chicago White Sox. After the stadium was reconfigured for baseball it still looked primarily like a football stadium. The original grandstand was constructed on the north side of the stadium in 1948 and had a capacity of 20,000. This section of seating formed the nucleus of the facility. The original north grandstand was revamped, the south stands were replaced and a new section of seats were added between the north and south stands to create a baseball field prior to the start of the 1977 season. A stadium club and VIP boxes were also constructed. The main covered grandstand became part of the left field. A 12 foot fence formed the outfield wall that began at the left field foul pole and then curved across the AstroTurf field at the 40 yard line. A large open area was behind the right field fence. The scoreboard was located on the far end past the right field fence.
Although the Blue Jays were a lackluster team in 1977, they drew over 1.7 million fans in their inaugural first season. After over 30 years of talk of building a dome stadium in Toronto, a site was chosen and construction began on a retractable roof stadium in 1986. The Blue Jays played their last game at Exhibition Stadium on May 28, 1989 and moved into their new home, the SkyDome, on June 5, 1989. Exhibition Stadium remained standing until 1999 when it was demolished.
Entire article: https://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/ballparks/exhibition-stadium/
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Re: Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. In 1985 my dad took me and a friend to the Hockey Hall of Fame and while we were in town we caught a Blue Jays game. We sat right about where that picture was taken, halfway up on the 3rd base side. I remember it being cold once the sun went down, being as the place was right on Lake Ontario and I also remember the mosquitoes being huge and plentiful.
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
SHEA STADIUM
With Shea Stadium’s demolition after the 2008 season, it may not be remembered for anything except for the constant sounds of planes flying overhead. For more than a decade there were discussions that a new stadium may be built in Queens. Owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Walter O’Malley began to develop plans for a new stadium to replace Ebbets Field in the late 1940s. O’Malley wanted to construct a new ballpark in Brooklyn, keeping the Dodgers in the neighborhood. However, the Dodgers could not secure land here. New York City official opposed the plan for a new ballpark in Brooklyn, but offered land in Queens. The Dodgers balked at this proposal and moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season. With the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants move to California, the New York metropolitan area had only one baseball team after 1957. That soon changed when New York City Major Robert Wagner appointed William A. Shea, and four other lawyers to acquire a National League franchise for the city. Shea first tried to lure the Reds, Pirates or Phillies to New York but failed. In 1958, Shea started the Continental League, that led MLB to award New York and Houston franchises to begin playing in 1962. The primary reason the Giants and Dodgers left New York City was because they wanted a new stadium.
MEMORABLE MOMENTS
AT SHEA STADIUM
- World Series: 1967, ’73, 2000
- All Star Game: 1964
- 1967 Rookie of the Year Tom Seaver
- The Miracle Mets capture the franchise’s first World Series title in 1969.
- Bill Buckners misses Mookie Wilson’s ground during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series allowing Ray Knight to score, to win the World Series
- John Franco’s 400th save on April 14, 1999
- Mike Piazza’s 352nd home run as a catcher, establishing the all-time record for catchers
The New York Mets played their first game at Shea Stadium on April 17, 1964 when they lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The five tiered stadium seated 55,601 fans. It was the first stadium of its size to have an extensive escalator system, being able to convert from a football gridiron to a baseball diamond by two motor operated stands, not having light towers and in which every seat was directed at the center of the field. After more than 1.7 million fans filled Shea Stadium in 1964 officials announced plans to add 15,000 seats and add a dome. However studies showed that the stadium pilings could not hold a dome, therefore the idea was dropped.
The New York Yankees played at Shea Stadium from 1974-1975, while Yankee Stadium was renovated. With the exception of seats being replaced over the years, very few changes have taken place at Shea Stadium. Prior to the 1987 season, large blue windscreen panels with neon artwork of baseball players were installed. Also 50 club suites were added to the press level of the stadium. The original 175ft. wide by 86ft. high scoreboard in right field was updated and replaced in 1988. Shea Stadium was an enjoyable place to watch a baseball game, with the exception of the airplanes landing and taking off at the nearby LaGuardia Airport. Most fans took the 7 Train to the Shea Stadium stop to get to games. Once off the subway fans could get a glimpse of the stadium from the outside. Inside the ballpark, fans saw a massive super structure consisting of five seating decks that stretched from the left field foul pole to home plate and to the right field foul pole. The Mets Magic Hat was located behind the center field fence. When a Mets’ player homered, an apple rose out of the hat. A small set of bleachers were located behind the left field fence, along with a Diamond Vision video screen. After the 2004 season, the Mets replaced the old Diamond Vision video board, replaced 1,600 field level seats and added two ribbon boards. In April 2006, the Mets unveiled plans for a new ballpark, Citi Field, that was constructed in the parking lot beyond centerfield. The 2008 season marked the Mets 45th and final year at Shea Stadium. On September 28, 2008 the Mets played their final regular season game at Shea Stadium against the Florida Marlins. Shea Stadium was demolished after the season and is used for parking for Citi Field.
Entire article: https://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/ballparks/shea-stadium/
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Couple things about Shea:
1. The Jets couldn't schedule a home game until the Mets were done with their season, and if that season included playoffs, tough titty.
2. In 1975 the Mets, Yankees, Jets and Giants all played there. I find that to be amazing for some reason.
1. The Jets couldn't schedule a home game until the Mets were done with their season, and if that season included playoffs, tough titty.
2. In 1975 the Mets, Yankees, Jets and Giants all played there. I find that to be amazing for some reason.
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