Tuesday, January 21, 2003

Another One Bites The Dust   It amazes me that we seem to live in an era of disposable stadiums and arenas. Every time some team gets a new state-of-the-art facility, complete with luxury boxes, club seating, holodecks and the like, some other team with an old (say ten year old) stadium starts to shake down the local municipality with the threat of moving elsewhere where some other suckers (taxpayers) are willing to fork over the dough. Nevertheless, I can’t say that I’m saddened with the demise of the Vet in Philadelphia.   This passed Sunday Veterans Stadium hosted its last pro football game. The Phillies still have a baseball season to play, and then they’re on their way out to greener fields too. The Vet had all the charm of a giant ashtray.   Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a fan of Philadelphia sports teams. The thought of seeing a Flyers logo turns my stomach. But I remember the first game I went to at the Vet when my friend, a Phillies fan, kept bragging about the new stadium, how much its scoreboard cost and how it had usherettes in “hot pants” escorting you to your seat. I remember going in that giant cold concrete bowl and coming out to see what looked like a giant pool table, not a baseball field. Even in the field boxes along the first base line I felt like I was a mile away from the action.   I can remember the first baseball game I ever went to. That was in Philadelphia too. My Little League sponsored a bus trip to see the Phillies play Houston at Connie Mack Stadium. I remember getting off of the bus outside of what looked like a rundown warehouse and going up some rickety stairs into the left field bleachers. I came out into a field that looked like paradise. The grass was so green, the infield so precisely maintained and the smell of hot dogs was all over the place. I don’t remember who won that game, but I’ll never forget how beautiful that field looked. Nobody on my team gave any thought to the stadium being old and decrepit. It was a real ballpark.   There aren’t many of them left. I was at Tiger Stadium the year before the Tigers left. Yankee Stadium is still here until the Boss has his way. Fenway looks to be leaving us soon. Visit them while you still can. 10:10:38 PM    Go Ahead, make my day  []