Final respect: not everyone will be happy to see Veterans Stadium blown up - Know It All - Philadelphia Phillies stadium

Back in 1985, when I was a cub reporter for a small daily paper in suburban Philadelphia, I took a trip through the upper Midwest with some friends to watch baseball in the old grass-and-dirt shrines and drink beer just about anywhere we could. Upon returning, I wrote a travelogue that began with the following line: "Even if it's Rolls-Royce giveaway day, I'll never be excited about going to Veterans Stadium again."

Somehow, that pearl failed to sway the Pulitzer committee. Funny, but now, with Veterans Stadium headed for an early 2004 implosion, I have my doubts about what I wrote as well.

The sporting nation is all too familiar with The Vet's horror stories of miscreant spectators, abominable playing conditions and a rotting, rat- and cat-infested infrastructure. There were the peepholes in the cheerleaders' locker room and all the celebrated incidents--the booing of Santa Claus, the pelting of the Cowboys with snowballs, the Army-Navy railing collapse--that made The Vet one of the most infamous arenas of athletic combat in U.S. history.

But you know what? I'm going to miss it. I'll miss it all, the good-yes, there was some--and the bad.

The Vet and I grew up together. I was 9 in 1971 when it opened on a gusty April day with a Phillies win--a rare occurrence in those days--over the Expos. I didn't get to that game, but I have attended hundreds of Phillies game since, not to mention Eagles tilts, an Army-Navy game and even a Rolling Stones concert. For 32 years, Veterans Stadium and I have hung out. I know the seating layout by heart. I remember seeing the Phillies lose there in the '76, '77 and '78 playoffs. I watched three games in the '83 Series. Three losing games. I was there in 1993 for the 15-14 Series loss to Toronto, which a local columnist dubbed, "The greatest game that ever sucked." During the 1980 World Series, the only time the Phils took it all, I was away at college.

The first professional baseball game I ever attended was in the Bronx. Though a Philadelphian, my father was a front-running Yankees fan, but my youthful eyes never looked at Veterans Stadium as inferior to its more storied counterpart to the north. I couldn't wait to get a view of the field every time I went there, even if it was fake grass, with those nasty base cutouts that terrorized many an NFL knee and ankle.

Back in the 1970s, The Vet was considered state-of-the-art, with wide concourses, no support poles obscuring vision, an easily accessible upper deck and ample parking. It also had more concession stands and more comfortable seating than the older parks. With creaking Comiskey Park and ancient Municipal Stadium in Cleveland still in use, Veterans Stadium and its multipurpose brethren--Riverfront, Three Rivers and Busch--were new and improved. Yet within 20 years, they became outdated in a nostalgia-driven culture that had begun to worship everything old and a sports economy that led teams to demand freedom from leases that favored municipal owners.

Fans had begun to believe stadiums such as The Vet lacked charm and character, so cities around the country started paying outrageous stuns to finance steel, brick and concrete cash registers for their teams. Soon Philadelphia began to suffer from stadium envy. If Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Cleveland each were getting two new palaces apiece, Philadelphia needed to move on up, too. At least, that's what the owners told us.

The Phillies actually convinced many locals that Philadelphia was a small market, even though it's the nation's fifth-largest city, because Veterans Stadium did not afford the owners a chance to make enough money to have a large payroll. So the fans demanded new digs, not realizing they were lining the owners' wallets and robbing their city of a stadium with a true identity.

Yep, Lincoln Financial Field, the new home of the Eagles, is impressive, but it's cut from the same mold as the new homes of a dozen NFL teams. Citizens Bank Park will he an intimate new Phillies address, but it, too, will resemble many of the other old-new diamonds around the country. When the nationwide stadium frenzy is over, we may be back to square one. Except for the occasional pool, ferris wheel or pirate ship, everybody's stadiums will look about the same--the same criticism folks had of the multipurpose sites.

Yeah, The Vet doesn't have cupholders with every seat, and if you're in the upper deck in the outfield, you can't see all of the action. The turf stinks, but I'm going to miss it. The new places won't be as loud. They can't be, not with all those well-heeled club-seat patrons and luxury-box denizens talking business instead of sports. But they'll sure look nice. Philadelphia sports fans finally have their Rolls-Royces.

Give me a '71 Chevy any day.

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