“People will come, Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game. It’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good…and it could be again. People will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.” – Terrance Mann to Ray Kinsela in the movie “Field of Dreams”, talking about the baseball field that Ray built on his farm where ballplayer heroes from the past came to play.

While the premise in the movie is far-fetched, the words in those lines certainly could be applied to what has happened in major league baseball in the past two decades.  It could be argued that teams adopted the notion from the movie that if you build it, they will come.  From the teams’ perspective, the “they” of course would be the fans.  Since the 1992 opening of Camden Yards, the home of the Baltimore Orioles, over half of the major league baseball teams have opened new stadiums.   I picked Camden Yards as my starting point since that is the ballpark that most observers credit as being the one that set the design standard for future parks to follow.  It was replacing Memorial Stadium, a rather bland stadium that lacked any identifiable character.  Camden Yards was considered to be the first stadium design that tried to incorporate features of some of the old, classic ballparks of the past while implementing modern architectural design elements that provided outstanding sightlines, wide and open concourses and other fan-friendly amenities. I have been to three of the newest stadiums – Camden Yards, Nationals Park and PNC Park in Pittsburgh.  All three are outstanding places to watch a ballgame.  But my focus in this blog is not to discuss the new, but rather to talk about the old.

My fondest memories growing up as a young boy in Western Pennsylvania in the late 1950′s and through the 1960′s are of playing baseball and watching the game be played.  Pro football had not quite yet claimed the title of being America’s favorite spectator sport.  So watching the Pittsburgh Pirates was what excited me the most.  Back in those days, teams didn’t televise all their games like they do today.  The Buccos would only televise about 20-25 games a year and only away games would be televised.  Fortunately, I got my love for baseball from my dad and despite our limited economic means, I could always count on him to be willing to take in a few Pirate games every season down at old Forbes Field.  Additionally, his brother was a season ticket holder and he occasionally would send tickets our way.  So I got to attend my share of games at Forbes Field.

Forbes Field was opened in 1909 and was considered the Camden Yards of it’s day – a state-of-the-art facility.  But 50-some years later when I was taking in games there, I remember thinking that it was just old.  Like many Pirate fans, I wished that a new stadium could be built for the Bucs.  Other cities were building these neat multi-purpose stadiums that could accommodate both baseball and football.  Ahhh…beware of what you wish for!  We got our Three Rivers Stadium relatively around the same time that Cincinnati got Riverfront Stadium and Philadelphia got Veterans Stadium.  Not much difference among them with their enclosed circular footprint and symmetrical  field dimensions.  I remember thinking the first time I set foot in Three Rivers – this is it?  I’m sitting on plastic seats surrounded by concrete with a green carpet in front of me.  Yeah, there weren’t any girders holding up the upper deck that blocked my view, but it sure lacked the coziness of Forbes.  Don’t get me wrong.  Three Rivers was new and exciting and the Pirates had two World Series-winning seasons there in 1971 and 1979 and a bunch of other very successful seasons there.  But it made me appreciate the character, intimacy and even quirkiness of Forbes.

One of the most obvious, interesting characteristics of Forbes Field was the playing field itself.  It measured 365 feet down the left field line and 300 feet down the right field line.  But there was a tall 28-foot high screen running from the right field foul pole toward right center.  A 12-foot high, ivy-covered brick wall ran out for several feet from the left field foul pole to the 27-foot high manually-operated scoreboard.  The ivy-covered brick wall picked up on the other side of the scoreboard and ran out to a point just to the left of straightaway center field where it then angled back toward the right field  grandstand.  The distance from home plate where the wall changed direction was 457 feet!  The distance to straightaway center was 435 feet and to right center it was 416 feet.  Forbes was certainly not a homerun hitter’s paradise.  Because of the vastness of the outfield however, you had a better chance of seeing more doubles and triples than normal and experiencing the excitement that comes with those kinds of plays.  I do recall seeing Bill Mazeroski hit a homer in the first game of the 1960 World Series that just cleared the wall between the left field foul pole and the scoreboard.  Of course forever etched in my memory is the highlight replay showing his more dramatic Game 7 walk-off homer (unfortunately, I wasn’t at that one) where the ball disappears over the head of Yogi Berra and the left center field wall at the 406 mark.   Both would be considered significant clouts in today’s more homer-friendly ballparks.

On top of the left field scoreboard was a 14-foot high Longines clock that was considered out of play – if you hit it, it was a home run.  There were three massive light towers on the field in left center, center and right center, the bases of which were enclosed by wire cages that were in play.  If a batted ball went into the cage, it was a ground rule double I believe.  Also in play out around the 457 mark was the flagpole – I don’t recall that it was even padded.  Neither was a granite monument to Barney Dreyfuss, the owner of the Pirates who built Forbes Field, that was located in right center field in the field of play.  Could you imagine stuff like that in today’s parks?

Another interesting feature at Forbes was the huge roll-up metal gate in the right center field wall that would be opened after the game to allow fans to walk across the field to exit the ballpark directly into Schenley Park.  Even the grounds crew had a unique feature at their disposal.  Along the third base line in foul territory was an underground vault (for lack of a better term) that housed the tarpaulin.  It was covered by a long, narrow plywood door, painted green to match the grass and it was mechanically operated.  When activated, the cover would raise, the tarp would rise out of the ground and then automatically roll the tarp forward to cover the infield.  I do believe that there were a few game delays over the years when the automated device would get stuck.

The seats at Forbes, although very close to the field, were not all that comfortable.  They were wooden slatted seats that I remember being covered with numerous coats of paint.  Of course if you were out in the left field bleachers, that was bench-type seating with lines painted on the benches delineating the seat area.  If you had the misfortune of sitting next to a hefty fan, you would spend the whole game struggling to maintain a reasonable seating area.  So maybe the plastic seats at Three Rivers weren’t so bad after all!  I do remember my dad and I sitting out there for a twi-night doubleheader in 1965 against the Dodgers and watching the Bucs beat Koufax in the first game and Drysdale in the second game.  The battle for seat space that night was well worth it.

These are just some of the things that made going to games at Forbes memorable.  But I know from watching some of those televised away games as a kid that some of the other National League ballparks. had their own unique characteristics.  I remember watching games coming from Crosley Field in Cincinatti which legendary Pirates radio & TV announcer, Bob Prince, used to call the “bandbox” because it’s field dimensions were just the opposite of Forbes.  The distance from home plate to the center field wall was just 387 feet!  Out in right field they had a uniquely-shaped bleacher section called the “sun porch” (I think at night they may have called it the “moon porch”??)  The really interesting thing about Crosley Field was that in the outfield, they didn’t have a warning track approaching the wall.  Instead, the field was inclined at about a 20 degree angle and that served as the warning to outfielders that they were nearing the wall.  The relatively new ballpark in Houston employs that same design in center field as a way of trying to incorporate something old into that facility.

One other away ballpark that sticks in my memory is Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.  While I think that ballpark had generous outfield dimensions in right and center, there was a “short porch” in left field.  It had a two-tiered, roofed  grandstand in left.  What I remember most about that was that the Phillies’ third baseman, Dick Allen seemed to hit a couple of homers over the roof every year against the Pirates.

There is no question that the newer ballparks offer so much more to ensure a wonderful fan experience.  Certainly, they are head and shoulders above the multi-purpose stadiums of the 60′s and 70′s.  But I wouldn’t trade my memories of Forbes Field for anything.   Paraphrasing the words of Terrance Mann – that field, that game, they’re part of my past and they remind me of all that was once good!

Nothing like it ever happened to me before and nothing has come close to it since!  And I hold out no hope that the future will provide anything comparable.  What am I talking about?  Just the most unbelievable, exciting and exhilarating fan experience that anyone could wish for.  The feeling was immaculate – and indeed the event came to be known as “The Immaculate Reception Game”.  It was December 23, 1972 – a Divisional Playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders.

To really appreciate the enormity of what transpired that day, you have to look at it from the standpoint of the diehard Steelers fan, which is what I was back in those days.  In it’s previous 39 years of existence, the Steelers franchise had only ever been involved in ONE playoff game!  That was in 1947 when they finished the regular season tied with the Philadelphia Eagles as the Eastern Conference leaders and a playoff was needed to determine who would represent the conference in the Championship Game against the Western Conference winners, the Chicago Cardinals.  The Steelers lost that playoff game with the Eagles.  So for Steelers fans back in 1972, especially for a whole generation like me that never even got a whiff of playoff excitement, the playoff game against the Raiders was a really big deal. 

The game itself was not very remarkable as far as explosive, exciting plays (until the end of course).  It was a classic defensive struggle that was scoreless at halftime.  In the third quarter, the Steelers Roy Gerela (ahh, remember Gerela’s Gorillas?) kicked an 18 yard field goal for the first points of the game.  Later in the fourth quarter he added a 29 yarder and you could feel the excitement building.  But with the Steelers clinging to just a 6-0 lead, you could also feel a definite sense of uneasiness rippling through the crowd as the Raiders drove into Steelers territory late in the fourth quarter.  And then disaster struck when, with 1:13 left in the game, Oakland quarterback Kenny Stabler faded back to pass.  Scrambling to his left, he wasn’t able to find a receiver, so he took off and ran for a 30 yard touchdown.  And just like that, with the extra point conversion, the Raiders had the lead. 

I still vividly remember how it seemed like all of the air got sucked out of Three Rivers Stadium.  The silence was eerie – we were stunned.  But as the Steelers took possession at their own 20 yard line after the ensuing kickoff the crowd started to stir and when Terry Bradshaw completed a short pass on first down, you started to wonder if they could move into range for a game winning field goal.  He then completed another pass for a first down at the Steelers 40 yard line.  But after three straight incompletions it was fourth down with 22 seconds left.  And the rest of course, as they say, is history. 

I just remember the extreme shift in emotions in a matter of seconds when Jack Tatum deflected (no question in my mind that he deflected it!)  Bradshaw’s pass intended for Frenchy Fuqua and then Franco Harris snagged the ball at his shoe tops and ran it in for the go ahead touchdown.  When you saw the ball deflected you had enough time for your brain to process that the Steelers lost but then there was Franco running down the sideline and just as quickly you realized that they were gonna win.  The stadium erupted – literally erupted.  There was bedlam in the stands.  A friend of mine who was sitting in one of the first few rows of the upper deck swears that when Franco caught the ball and was running for the touchdown, the guy sitting in front of him jumped up and threw his binoculars in the air and they fell down into the stands in the lower level.  Certainly if someone down there was hit by those binoculars they could have been seriously injured.  But then again, Steelers fans were so delirious, anyone who might have been hit by the binoculars likely wouldn’t have even felt it.   As Franco crossed the goal line, fans ran onto the field.  People were jumping and screaming.  I remember jumping up and down and pounding on the back of the guy sitting to my right.  And then I stopped with this frozen look on my face when I realized that this rather frail gentleman, wearing a trench coat and an old fedora, was probably 75 years old if he was a day.  I feared that I might have hurt him and I leaned over and began to apologize profusely.  He just looked at me with this huge smile and he began to pound on  my back with all the enthusiasm and energy of a kid. 

Then there was the controversy over whether it was a legal pass.  Back then, it was illegal for a forward pass to be touched by two offensive players without there being an intervening touch of the ball by a defensive player.  The question was whether Tatum actually hit the ball or did it bounce off of Fuqua right to Harris.  Anyway, it took about 15 minutes for the officials to figure out what the call should be.  I remember seeing the referee go over to the baseball dugout near the endzone where Franco scored and he got on a phone.  He had called up to the press box and spoke with a supervisory official who was observing the game and I think he looked at instant replays. (the first ever use of instant replay by an official, notwithstanding the fact that there was nothing in the official rules that actually authorized such use!)   During that whole time while we were waiting for the officials to decide what they were going to do, the euphoria in the stands never faded.  On the field, the police and security were trying to restore some semblance of order.  Players were just milling about around the goal line.  I remember one Raider player just sitting on the ground back around the 50 yard line seemingly in utter disbelief.  And then the referee came out and signaled that it was indeed a touchdown.  I remember thinking he couldn’t call it any other way if he had any hope of his officiating crew making it off the field alive.  When he signaled touchdown, the place erupted again.  The teams lined up for the extra point.  I don’t think the Raiders even bothered to rush and I have this vague recollection that the Raider player sitting at the 50 yard line was still sitting there when Gerela booted it through.  But that just may be my fading memory wanting to embellish the story.  The last 15 seconds were played – the game ended – the Steelers won a playoff game! 

The fans reaction after the game was memorable.  It seemed like no one wanted to leave.  All the way out to the parking lot strangers would come up to you and give you a hug, or shake your hand, or pat you on the back.  At that moment, everyone was your friend.  And the buzzing – I’ll always remember the buzzing.  People just had to let out their emotions – to share their joy.  Before that day, even as just a 19-year old, I had seen a fair share of sporting events.  I even saw Mazeroski’s home run in the 1960 World Series (OK it was his homer in Game 1 not the much more dramatic Game 7 walk-off homer).  But until that day in December of 1972 I had never had a fan experience where I felt such an emotional attachment to each and every other fan in that stadium.  And since that day, I’ve not experienced anything close to that feeling at any of the hundreds of sporting events I have attended.  It may be called “The Immaculate Reception Game”, but from the fan standpoint, I think the Whitney Houston song describes it best.

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