Yesterday in Philadelphia (home of the Phillies and all sorts of phunky "ph" spellings) Veterans Stadium, one of the cookie cutter baseball stadia so popular in the 70's,
bit the dust. Or rather, created a giant cloud of dust as it was brought down with 3,000 pounds of explosives.
Last year was the final season to catch a game at the Vet, and luckily Em and I, on our continuing quest to see a game at every major league park, got the chance to drive down to Philadelphia to see the Red Sox play there. Having that perspective, the first thing that comes to mind upon seeing yesterday's implosion is "good riddance."
One thing I've realized in travelling to other major league parks is just how good we have it in New England. Most people will readily admit that Fenway is one of the top places to see baseball, but you just can't appreciate how much better it is than everywhere else. The new parks are very nice, but can't compare with the palpable sense of history in Boston. And the 1970's fields, of which we've been to two, have no redeeming qualities whatsoever when compared to our lyric little bandbox.
The Phillies will open their new park next month, and it should be a real treat for Philly fans. It won't be Fenway, but then, nothing ever will. Em and I will of course make another trip down, but this time there's no rush.
Anyway, here's
a couple pics from our trip last June, you can see what Philidelphians won't be missing anymore.
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I hope you guys looked at the gallery of pics, there were some good captions on some of them. Here’s a bigger picture of the one with Nomar, Johnny Damon, Varitek and Todd Walker.
The gallery was my favorite part! That was a great trip. Next time we have to actually GO to Philadelphia (the city), though.
Bye bye, vet. No one will miss ya’…
- Garris
PS: Phily is one of my favorite cities. Oozing character with narrow streets and juxtapositioning the best of old and new architecture, it’s a great place. Their new concert hall looks fabulous (I’ve never been, unfortunately) and the stadiums should be nice as well.
PS2: While I’m a Yankee’s fan, I’ll be the first to admit that Fenway is the best ballpark I’ve ever attended. Why Bostonians can’t rush fast enough to buy it and knock it down, I’ll never understand. It’s like NYC’s old Penn Station. Once it’s gone, it’s really gone forever…
PS3: Went to Minneapolis/St.Paul this weekend for one of the last times before moving to Providence (I live 1 and 1/2 hr away from the “Twin Cities”). It’s a great, great urban area. If you all have never been, you’re missing out. And it gets light rail this year
. I wish the Metrodome would go the way of the Vet, though…
When I look back at my childhood memories I could never forget the vet. And they were fond memories indeed. I remember seeing my first game there, playing on that field, watching the phillies of the 90′s lose so many games, getting so many autographs from visiting players (because of the easy access to field level), etc etc…the vet is what i grew up with and its what im nostalgic for. so please dont tell me Philadelphians wont miss the Vet.
Aestetics may not be synonomyus with the Vet, but character sure is. The new stadium, Citizens Bank Park is like all of the other new stadiums now in San Fran, San Diego, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Cincy, etc…these stadiums are all just plain boring, expensive, and lacking of character. Tell me, what stadium could you ever go to now buy tickets for 7 dollars and have a whole row in the upper deck, in some cases section, to yourself? Nothing compared to the 700 level of the vet…nothing. Nothing compared to those 4 different level concourses. They were sooo wide. Nothing compared to walking out of the concourse through the entrance gates for each section with a hot dog, soda, and peanuts in your hands while the hot sun beat down on you and the first thing you saw were those huge out of town scoreboards over the bull pens. Now all of these new stadiums have open air concourses…and tell me, what stadium now looks like the roman coliseum?
the vet was my history, and it is history indeed. No stadium now can fulfill my nostalgia for the vet, nothing now is like it. And nothing like it is better than it. The stadiums now are all the same, except for the very uncomfortable fenway and Yankee stadium with it’s terrible sightlines.