Sad day
I know this is related to the dreaded Yankees, but it's still sad to see Yankee Stadium going the way of the dodo (Courant, by Karen Matthews). All the great, old stadiums continue to disappear.
My brother got to Comiskey the year before the ChiSox switched parks. He told me that the original Comiskey was probably the best baseball park there was. And it's sad to see them all go. I just hope Fenway and Wrigley can continue to stand up to the seemingly perpetual pressure to "upgrade" them.
Tim White
TimWhite98@yahoo.com
2 comments:
Actually it was 1989, two years before the White Sox moved to New Comiskey (now U.S. Cellular, part of the growing trend of selling park names to soulless corporations, but that's a topic for another time). And I don't recall ever claiming that Olde Comiskey was the best park ever -- it was crumbling and desperately needed to be replaced -- but it was a good park (though well past its prime) that let the fans snuggle up close to the real-grass diamond, and it carried decades of history within its confines.
So, Yankee Stadium. It's now on the clock, and while there is a measure of sadness to losing an old park, particularly one as storied as Yankee (does any other park come close? And I ask this as an unabashed Red Sox fan), it also gives new generations of fans their own opportunities to build their own legends and remembrances, free from the burdens of existing history (though, again, Yankee is so storied that most memories are, for the home fans, pretty good ones indeed).
Make no mistake, however, that the new park is being built primarily for greater revenue, no matter how sturdy or sagging the current stadium may be. It's all about the munny.
I've been to twelve major league parks that are no longer in service, and the only ones I'd even consider worthy of reminiscing about at length are Tiger and the Astrodome. The others were, each in their own ways, unmemorable; either gigantic and undistinguishable ashtray football stadia that had baseball shoehorned in, or ancient and hulking edifices in various but unrecoverable states of shambles. Gone, remembered, but the replacements are so much better that no one feels too much grief at their closures. (And, frankly, there's a few more that need to go away, though only ten of the 30 major league parks have not been replaced since 1989.)
As a Red Sox fan, here's my fantasy scenario:
2008 All Star Game -- AL wins, giving home field advantage in the World Series to the American League team.
2008 World Series -- Yankees, having dastardly crushed all opposition during the season and AL playoffs, take the pennant. In a seven-game struggle, they lose Game 7 and the championship, dousing the lights for the last time under dour circumstances.
Winter 2008 -- Yankees auction off the right to push The Button triggering stadium demolition on eBay. Some super-wealthy Red Sox fan wins.
Demolition Day 2009 -- proudly wearing Boston "B" cap, remains of Yankee Stadium are brought down by a loyal representative of the rival team.
Bwa ha ha.
Hi big bro... sorry I got your memories of Comiskey wrong. I did remember you speaking of it fondly though.
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