skip to main |
skip to sidebar
My first time in the ‘old’ Yankee Stadium was 1994 against the Indians. This was the year baseball split the AL and NL into three divisions. The Yankees would win the east that year while the Indians would finish second in the central, 1 game behind the White Sox. (The following year Milwaukee went to the NL. Coincidentally, Bud Selig was the MLB commissioner at that time.) We got to the stadium early enough to walk through monument park. Back then there were only three statues; Ruth, Huggins, and Gerhig. [Mantle and DiMaggio were still alive.] This particular game included Don Mattingly, Wade Boggs, and Paul O’Neill on the Yankees and Kenny Lofton, Albert Belle, Eddie Murray, and Sandy Alomar Jr. on the Indians. The game did not disappoint. Jim Abbott started for the Yankees (no decision) and the Yankees won 6-5. Steve Howe, who led the majors in lifetime suspensions, got the save.
I did get to a few more games at Yankee before it closed. Even though the Old Yankee was originally built before WWII, the structure was remodeled in the 1970’s successfully removing any original charm.
I went to one game at the old Cleveland stadium the last season the Indians player there. This was a pre-WWII park that opened in the 1930’s that still had wood seats. It was huge by today’s standards with over 70,000 capacity for baseball. I went in July as part of my first baseball tour. We arrived at the stadium about 2 hours before game time. The gates were closed but we managed to find one that let some fans in anyway. We walked down to the field on the third base side while the A’s were taking BP. Dave Henderson came over and signed autographs for the crowd. As he was signing I asked how his road trip was going. He joked about not playing well, but despite not being in the lineup the night before had a hit in every game on the current trip (5 for 16 overall). The game was relatively uneventful. A’s won 7-2. Rickey Henderson stole a base. Dennis Eckersley pitched the 9th despite it not being a save situation.
After the game we asked if there was a good spot for autographs. The usher pointed us to the player parking lot. Since this was an old stadium, players didn’t have an isolated lot away from fans. From the locker room exit there were some saw-horse barricades set up and that was about it. Kenny Lofton came out, signed a ball, walked 20 feet, signed a program, walked 20 feet, signed something else, and was gone. During the game Jeff Treadway swung at a pitch, the bat came out of his hands and flew into the stands. A kid (probably 10-12 years old) ended up with the bat. As he came out of the locker room, he asked if the kid with the bat was there. Sure enough he was and Jeff made sure to sign the bat. It was also the only thing Jeff signed before the left. Finally Albert Belle walks out. There are a lot of kids around and one of the ones next to me groans as he sees Belle. I asked why. The kid says, “Albert never signs for anyone.” As the door closed behind him he paused, looked at the crowd, walked to the start of one side of the barricades and signed for everyone. Didn’t matter what they had; ball, program, bat, jersey, other. At this time in his career, Belle was developing a reputation for being an asshole. On this night, Albert was the coolest player in the game.
This was a very utilitarian stadium. Nothing very unique about it other than the beer barrel in center field where Bernie Brewer would slide down the ramp into the giant mug of beer when the Brewers would hit a home run. The one game I saw was in 1993, when the Brewers were still in the AL. You know how they announce special groups in attendance? They had a church association outing for this game that sold 14,000 seats. This stadium had the best smelling parking lot before a game - due to the expert tailgating prowess of the Milwaukee locals.
We sat in the front row on the upper deck along the 3rd base line. We were just above one of the scoreboards. It was a hot day and it was nice being able to stretch out.
The game was against the White Sox who would win the division that year while the Brewers would finish last. The Sox had Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, and Tim Raines. This was Robin Yount’s last year in the majors. It was a 1-1 game until the top of the 9th when Chicago scored 2 to win the game. Roberto Hernandez got the save to complete a four game sweep of the Brewers.
I went to Tiger a few years before the stadium closed (1993). There was talk about closing the stadium but plans for the new park had not been made official yet. We sat on the third base side in front of a support beam. Tiger was an older park that didn’t need huge support beams since they weren’t supporting 5,000 skyboxes. Plus the upper deck seats were almost flush with the lower seats. This team was when the Tigers had serious home run power; Fielder, Tettleton, and Deer. During the game I saw, Cecil hit a shot that cleared the 440 mark in center. Deer had a home run too. They played a good Twins team with Puckett, Hrbek, and Dave Winfield. The Twins took the lead in the 8th and Aquilera got the save.
Tiger was unique in that they had cyclone fencing separating the cheap general admission seats the rest of the stadium. Of all the parks I have visited, walking the 300 yards from the bus to the stadium gates was the most scared I’ve ever been walking into a stadium. For starters, the tour company put us in hotels in Canada rather than stay in Detroit. As the bus pulled up to the park, street vendors pushed their way onto the bus. The area was crowded with people who were not there for the game.
During the game itself, a fat guy decided to run across the field. He started on the third base side (not too far from where we were sitting) and ran to the right field bleachers. Since he was really out of shape, by the time he got to the RF wall he was too tired to climb the fence. He was escorted off the field in shame. This action, however, inspired another fan who was in much better shape. Starting from roughly the same location, he made it to the RF wall and cleared it easily. At this point, the security guards got to the fence but they weren't nearly as quick getting over so the fan runs up the stairs and into a tunnel leading to the concession area underneath the seats. About 5 minutes later, the fan runs out of another tunnel – still being chased by security – across a few sections and back into another tunnel. We didn’t see him again after that but I’d like to think he got away.
One more odd thing about my experience at Tiger. In the next section over from us there was a biker/prison looking guy with his 'special needs' brother. I didn’t talk to them but I assumed they were brothers due to their ages, interactions, just the two of them going to a baseball game, and no other logical explanation. What caught my attention was near the end of the game when they were leaving, the biker/prison guy grabbed his brother in a bear hug and carried him out that way. It’s not something you see every day. What was really odd about this is that I swear I saw them again years later at a Padre game at Jack Murphy Stadium.
The old Comiskey Park closed in 1990. In the late 1970’s I remember sitting in box seats along first base. This was after the Bill Veeck Bermuda shorts but still one of the ugliest uniforms in MLB history. I remember that Lamar Johnson and Don Kessinger were in the infield. For some reason we were making fun of Kessinger’s age even though he wasn’t that old. I also remember that it was hot out and I was more interested in food and drinks than the game.
Of note, the New Comiskey Park (aka US Cellular Field) was the last of the concrete donuts to be built and the location of the old Comiskey home plate can be found on the walkway from the parking lot into the new stadium.
I am just a fan of the game. I grew up mostly in Phoenix with limited exposure to professional baseball. After undergrad I moved to San Diego and started going to Padres, Dodgers, and Angels games. I started traveling to different ballparks.
Over the years of traveling to the different parks I have had the opportunity to visit some that have closed. Openings and closings are just a natural part of the ballpark lifecycle. With the exceptions of Fenway and Wrigley all cities have replaced their original parks. When I first started going to different stadia in the mid 1990’s there were still a handful of pre-WWII parks still in use: Wrigley and Fenway (obviously), Tiger Stadium (Detroit), County Stadium (Milwaukee), Cleveland Municipal Stadium, and Yankee Stadium (sort of). The problem with counting Yankee is the significant renovations that occurred in the early 1970’s. For no particular reason I thought I would start posting some thoughts and memories about my various experiences. I'm going to start with the closed stadiums.
