OT: On this day in 2001...
- Thread starter Noah Bonner
- Start date
I can't help but think about what a wasteful society we live in, when 30 years is an acceptable shelf life for something so expensive to build. That wasn't even paid for.
The rubble sat off Ohio River Blvd in Leetsdale for years afterwards.
It wasn't pretty but I had a lot of good times and great memories there too, like the Civic Arena. My dad took me to my very first pro sports game at Three Rivers, a Pirates game vs LA in 1974. Two hour drive, got lost in the North Side, long rain delay. Still a great memory.
Most hilarious, during the low point in the 80s, bunch of buds and I went to a game, sat in the out field, maybe a thousand people in the joint to start and less than half that near the end. The Pirate parrot, not the one busted for drugs I don't believe, but maybe the guy who got busted for skinny dipping at the South Side swimming pool, came out and hung out with us for a whole inning. We slipped him a beer. He was a student at Slippery Rock or something and this was his gig in the summer. Funny dude. Johnny Ray hit a homer about 10 rows away, we got the ball because, well, nobody else was there to get it.
Most hilarious, during the low point in the 80s, bunch of buds and I went to a game, sat in the out field, maybe a thousand people in the joint to start and less than half that near the end. The Pirate parrot, not the one busted for drugs I don't believe, but maybe the guy who got busted for skinny dipping at the South Side swimming pool, came out and hung out with us for a whole inning. We slipped him a beer. He was a student at Slippery Rock or something and this was his gig in the summer. Funny dude. Johnny Ray hit a homer about 10 rows away, we got the ball because, well, nobody else was there to get it.
The best sporting event I saw there was the one and only Supercross race in Pittsburgh in 1978.
I was a big fan of Bob Hannah, and it was great to see him win the race from our front seats over the start / finish line. My parents took me as an early birthday gift.
I think riding my motocross bikes as a kid was the most enjoyable thing I did. Playing football was a close second, but still second.
I was a big fan of Bob Hannah, and it was great to see him win the race from our front seats over the start / finish line. My parents took me as an early birthday gift.
I think riding my motocross bikes as a kid was the most enjoyable thing I did. Playing football was a close second, but still second.
In the summer of '78 I saw the Steve Miller Band, Beach Boys, Jan and Dean (Jan partially paralyzed from Dead Man's Curve) and who knows what other acts in one of those bake your brains out sit on the hot Tartan Turf all day music fests they used to have.
I still recall Steve Miller signing "I went from Phoenix Arizona all the way to Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, LA: Pittsburgh City where the girls are pretty" as though it were yesterday.
Drank a lot of beer as I was from Ohio and could legally get all I wanted and more driving through Weirton.
Memories.
3 Rivers was an awful venue for baseball but still to this day my favorite place to watch football. Heinz can't hold a candle to it for atmosphere and home field advantage.
It wasn't terrible for baseball. At least they didn't pack the rows together and turn the seats at strange angles so you have to turn your back to the plate to talk to the person sitting next to you.
I'm probably one of the few people that loved Three Rivers. I really don't know what could have been done with it but what we ended up with were two stadiums that weren't nearly what they should have been.
I know, you baseball guys get excitable over any criticism of PNC but it's done more to hurt the Pirates need to put a winning franchise together than it has to help it. People think it's fun to just show up and winning isn't requisite to the experience. But since it's February, and having kept track of the "Pirate fan boy calendar" for years, I'd be willing to bet the stats guys are thinking 90 wins and can't be told any differently right now.
My two best memories of 3 rivers.
1) the night Greg Luzinski hit one in the UPPER end of the UPPER deck in left field.
When he touched home plate, there was silence among the remaining 4500 fans.... and after he went in the dugout people finally started cheering.
An absolute moon shot.
2) i was there when Darnell Coles hit 3 homers in one game.
Interesting side note about Coles.
The guy only hit 75 homers in his career.....but he is one of only 4 or 5 guys in baseball history to hit 3 homers in a game.......twice...
1) the night Greg Luzinski hit one in the UPPER end of the UPPER deck in left field.
When he touched home plate, there was silence among the remaining 4500 fans.... and after he went in the dugout people finally started cheering.
An absolute moon shot.
2) i was there when Darnell Coles hit 3 homers in one game.
Interesting side note about Coles.
The guy only hit 75 homers in his career.....but he is one of only 4 or 5 guys in baseball history to hit 3 homers in a game.......twice...
Coles looked like he could be a legend when first brought on. Frustrating player.
Jose DeLeon was another. Initially it looked like this guy could someday be the greatest Pirates pitcher ever. Ended up totally destroyed. I believe 2-19 in his last season.
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