Three Rivers Stadium; if it wasn't the most picturesque coliseum in American sports history, it was perhaps one of the most perfectly named. Players might have had a chance to enjoy the Allegheny Club after the game, but left fielders in particular didnt care for it during; the reflection of the stadiums lights off the clubs mass faade of windows made catching line drives in left an adventure. He was forced to go back to the drawing board when construction bids to realize his design were $10 million over budget. The longest unofficial home run in Three Rivers Stadium was a 519-foot drive unleashed well into the upper deck by the Chicago White Sox Frank Thomas during the 1994 Home Run Derby. Tim McGraw / Kenny Chesney / George Strait / The Chicks (US) / Jo Dee Messina / Mark Wills / Asleep At the Wheel. THREE RIVERS STADIUM Pittsburgh, PA For three decades along the banks of the Allegheny River sat Three Rivers Stadium, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Monday 00:00 - 00:00. However, the ushers' union declined the uniform change for female workers. But not everything was hauled away for disposal. Doormats would have been more appropriate; as the Steelers bounced around Pittsburgh without its own stadium, they were traditional losers who made only one postseason appearance in 37 yearslosing 21-0before moving into Three Rivers. [44] And in 1992, the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrated their second Stanley Cup victory at the Stadium. The Panthers played their full home schedule there for the 2000 season, going 74. Three Rivers Stadium was demolished on February 11th, 2001 at 8 AM. The exodus buried the Bucs into eternal losing mode, while the situation made Three Rivers Stadium outdated and an obstacle to the future just as a new generation of popular, revenue-generated retro ballparks quickly began to rise in the horizon. Terry Bradshaw was a frequent target of boosbut his successors at the quarterback spot fared far worse. Stargell came alive with a career-high 48 homers (his previous high at Forbes was a relatively mere 33), but he wasnt alone on the star chart. Approximate Location of Three Rivers Stadium Left Field Corner Looking Toward Home Plate. The formal closing ceremony centers on home plate. [29], Three Rivers Stadium was similar in design to other stadiums built in the 1960s and 1970s, such as RFK Stadium in Washington, Shea Stadium in New York, Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, the Houston Astrodome, Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, and Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, which were designed as multi-purpose facilities to maximize efficiency. Three Rivers Stadium Three Rivers Stadium and sports on the Northside of Pittsburgh Operating as usual 10/01/2022 Remembering Roberto: Home plate memorial honoring his 3,000th hit to be placed in the North Shore https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/remembering-roberto-home-plate-memorial-honoring-his-3000th-hit-to-be-placed-in-the-north-shore/ Forced to go back to the drawing board, Ritchey had no choice but to artistically cave to the tight budget, designing a fully-enclosed stadium with a symmetrical build that appealed to a more cost-effective solution. The Sports & Exhibition Authority said proceeds from the auction, minus costs and the auctioneers' cut, will be used to pay the $5.2 million demolition cost of Three Rivers Stadium, and to. [26][27] The team donned new uniform designs for the first time that day, a similar plan was for new "mini-skirts" for female ushers. The stadium opened in 1970 and was home to the Pittsburgh Steelers football team and the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. Architect Dahlen Ritcheys early, dreamy rendition of Three Rivers Stadium consisted most notably of an open view of the Allegheny River and downtown Pittsburgh beyond. Perhaps the Pirates biggest fan at Three Rivers Stadium was Steelers owner Art Rooney, who worked by day for his football team and, every night, moved up to one of the box suites to watch the Pirates. Three Dog Night. The stadium, set for use in late spring 1970, is the future home of the Pirates . Attendance, abetted by a full-blown depression in Pittsburgh with 23% unemployment at one point, dipped well below a million; in 1983, the Pirates drew their smallest-ever crowd at Three Rivers when a gathering of 1,970 showed up. Rivers Stadium Club Features Enjoy Chicago Dogs baseball from the comforts of the Rivers Stadium Club. Jun 06, 1999. It's been 20 years since the home of the Pirates and Steelers was imploded before the new stadiums were opened. [41][42] On August 11, 1985,[43] Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band hosted the largest concert in Pittsburgh history, when they performed for 65,935 on-lookers. With 59,568 in attendance, the largest crowd to ever attend a baseball game at the stadium,[33] the National League won 87 in the tenth inning. Three Rivers Stadium had a beverage contract with Coca-Cola throughout its history. It was during the Steelers' stay in Three Rivers that the now famous "Mean Joe" Greene Coke commercial aired, leading to a longstanding relationship between the two. Alas, bureaucracy won the day over beauty and urban community. Copyright20062023,Somerightsreserved. It was perched right at the confluence of the Ohio, Allegheny, and Monongahela Rivers, walking distance from downtown Pittsburgh. [65] The average attendance would peak in 1991, when the Pirates averaged 25,498per game. Site of Three Rivers Stadium in background. The Stadium at the time was home to the western Pennsylvania professional sports teams and was a very popular location for major events. The rancor became so R-rated that, by 1985, the Pirates set up a G-rated family section at Three Rivers that forbade profanity and alcohol. Roberto Clemente statue outside Three Rivers Stadium is shown on October 16, 1994 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Three months later, on New Year's Eve, this true hero died in a tragic plane crash en route to help earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Fans embraced the Steelers in a way never felt by the Pirates; blue-collar fans somehow scraped up enough cash to fill the joint over and over againfrom 1972 on, the Steelers sold out every game at Three Riversand formed rabid fan groups celebrating players from Franco Harris to placekicker Roy Gerela. The final Pittsburgh Pirates home game was on October 1st, 2000 vs. the Chicago Cubs. The statue was originally located in Schenley Park, just beyond the left-field fence of Forbes Field. The Steelers, surprisingly, were not immune to the fans bully ethic. Roughly a decade later, outfielder Andy Van Slyke had a cigarette lighter thrown in his direction; upon picking it up, Van Slyke read an attached message that said, Use this to light a fire under you. His teammate, Bobby Bonillain the midst of an All-Star season in 1988was heavily booed at Three Rivers because his home batting average was 100 points lower than on the road. Since completion, PNC Park has been hailed as one of the best ballparks in the country. Yet in the 1970s, Three Rivers Stadium was a super bowl, literally so for the Steelerswho went on to conquer four National Football League titles in their first 10 years playing at the stadium. Three Rivers Stadium, the Pirates' and Steelers ' home at the time, had been designed for functionality rather than "architecture and aesthetics". The idea came from Forbes Field, Ritchey told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2001 of his ballpark design. Mary Ann Wellener, with the help of her son Paul, places a pair of seats from Three Rivers Stadium on the grave of her husband Paul Wellener III, in Mount Lebanon Cemetery where they hope to have them permanently mounted, Jan. 6, 2001. Wehner went into detail as to just how he got that baseball back. Pittsburgh Pirates Team History A decade-by-decade history of the Pirates, the ballparks theyve played in, and the four people who are on the franchises Mount Rushmore. Doug Harvey hands Roberto Clemente the ball after he doubled off the Mets' Jon Matlack for his 3,000th career hit on September 30, 1972. But the debt needed to be paid and the crowds, as misbehaved as they often were, were massive. You could even throw in the University of Pittsburgh football team, which abandoned their own stadium on campus and borrowed Three Rivers for big games, most notably in a 1976 championship campaign featuring Heisman Trophy running back Tony Dorsett. [14] A design was presented in 1958 which featured an open centerfield designthrough which fans could view Pittsburgh's "Golden Triangle". Three Rivers Stadium Fun Facts: Opened in 1971 with a seating capacity of 59,000 for football. So the idea was to open it up and see the city.. The National League won the game 72 and the Pirates' Ken Brett was the winning pitcher. Heartbreak segued to an even more depressing reality. [11] The stadium was located in a hard-to-access portion of downtown, making it hard in later years to get in before games and leave after games. It was a cold Sunday, Feb. 11 20 years ago that a demolition crew reduced Three Rivers Stadium to a heap of rubble and twisted steel. Even after its implosion, Three Rivers Stadium continued to live on in the bills of taxpayers, who still had to help pay off $40 million of debt on the facility. [56] In 2015, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette moved into a new office building also built on a portion on the site after 53 years in the former Pittsburgh Press building and more than two centuries in Downtown. Not even their rousing World Series season of 1960, capped by Bill Mazeroskis legendary walk-off homer in the seventh game against the New York Yankees, sped up the clock on any timetable. (The story is disputed, but its a good one.). three rivers stadium home plate location three rivers stadium home plate location. An 8-by-12-foot area of the 406 marker section of the Forbes Field brick wall, 12 Romanesque window frames, and the Babe Ruth plaque showing where his 714th home run landed were in the Allegheny Club at Three Rivers. [22] The stadium was named in February 1969 for its location at the confluence of the Allegheny River and Monongahela River, which forms the Ohio River. Due to lack of support, however, the arguments faded. Hardware included. Stadium was still under construction due to labor disputes and later opened on 7.16.70 against the Reds. Have a comment, question or request? On October 1, 2000, the Pirates played their final game at Three Rivers. While Three Rivers was receiving its late prepping up as the fight over whether to build a new ballpark continued, the area surrounding the stadium remained dormant, a head-shaking lack of mixed-use development promised by the stadium authority decades earlier. Dave Parker, who had the most hits at Three Rivers with 781, also had the longest hit streak in the stadiums history at 22 gameswhich he did twice, in 1977 and 1979. Ritchey was vetoed on the twin-stadium concept but, for the moment, was able to retain his open-air design for the multi-purpose concept. "No matter what happens, when they tear Three Rivers down, a monument ought to be built there. [14], Bobby Bonilla hit one of the only 13 home runs ever hit into the upper deck of Three Rivers Stadium, and one of the six to the right-field side. [9] The Pittsburgh Pirates played their home games at Forbes Field, which opened in 1909,[10] and was the second oldest venue in the National League (Philadelphia's Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium was oldest, having opened only two months prior to Forbes). Three Rivers Stadium. The Steelers moved a few yards away to their new home at Heinz Field, while the Pirates took a short walk upriver to PNC Park. But topping all of the above has to be, by all accounts, the most bizarre incident in the history of Three Rivers Stadium. But postwar America had moved on from baseballs Gilded Age; decaying relics of yesteryear had no place in a society focused on suburbia, interstates and 707s. King and Charles Mingus. Pittsburgh Jazz Festival Aretha Franklin, the Staple Singers, Walt Harper, Roland Kirk, David Newman, and Herbie Mann. The only Pirate who wore a jersey for the very first game and this, the very last, was bench coach Richie Hebner, who started at third base in Three Rivers inaugural game, attracted ladies with his good looks and boos from everyone else for his subpar defense, and later criticized the stadium by stating, My fathers cemetery has more life in it than this ballpark. A crowd of 55,351, the largest ever to see a baseball game at Three Rivers, watched as the Bucs blew a late lead and bowed to the Chicago Cubs, 10-9. As for the game itself, the Cincinnati Redswho just 17 days earlier debuted in Riverfront Stadium, the appearance and name of which would confuse many with Three Riversedged out the Bucs, 3-2. [18] In the aftermath of his death, fans and reporters alike lobbied to have Three Rivers renamed after Clemente, but the effort never gained enough traction. On August 9, 1970less than a month after Three Rivers openingStargell deposited his first of four home runs he would launch into the stadiums upper deck. [40], Due to Three Rivers Stadium's multi-purpose design, bands including Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, and The Who hosted concerts at the venue. Tuesday 00:00 . After its closing, Three Rivers Stadium was imploded in 2001, and the Pirates and Steelers each moved into newly built stadiums. No-nonsense manager Jim Leyland presided over a young and highly talented outfield that included Bonilla, Van Slyke, and a tantalizing five-tool legacy named Barry Bonds, who omitted occasional raw flashes of greatness before ascending to more consistent MVP levels. Yes, Three Rivers Stadium was another one of those venues people now love to hate: A perfectly circular hunk of concrete largely adorned with slightly angled spectator ramps perfectly spaced between four large welcoming gates.
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