{"id":954,"date":"2014-02-14T11:02:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=954"},"modified":"2015-01-09T15:48:53","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T20:48:53","slug":"final-moments-of-forbes-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/02\/14\/final-moments-of-forbes-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Final moments of Forbes Field"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"March <\/a>
March 1, 1972: John J. Sullivan, 68, of Oakland, watched from the left field bleachers as the rest of Forbes Field vanished. (Albert M. Herrmann Jr.\/Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Oct. <\/a>
Oct. 15, 1971: Workmen helped to demolish Forbes Field in autumn 1971 use portable radios to listen to the World Series at Three Rivers Stadium between the Pirates and Orioles. (Photo credit: unknown) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Dec. <\/a>
Dec. 24, 1970: The team had already played its last game at Forbes six months prior to the fire. (Bill Levis\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Dec. <\/a>
Dec. 24, 1970: Clemente Corner caught fire on Christmas Eve. It became a five-alarm fire after firefighters could not get into the locked field quickly enough. (Bill Levis\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"June <\/a>
June 27, 1970: Tree climbers at Schenley Park try to get a better view of center field during one of the final games at Forbes Field. (Howard R. Moyer\/Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Nov. <\/a>
Nov. 20, 1968: The Forbes Field outfield needed to be resodded before its penultimate season. (Ross Catanza\/Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Oct. <\/a>
Oct. 15, 1958: Forbes Field employees found a garbage truck in the box seats one morning. Tire tracks indicated a vandal driving it from left field then around the bases. (Photo credit: unknown) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"An <\/a>
An undated photo of Forbes Field and Oakland during batting practice. (Photo credit: unknown) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Sept. <\/a>
Sept. 9, 1938: Pirates management opted to tear down the old press box and build a new one that would accommodate more writers \u2014 up to 550 \u2014 as the team made the playoffs. (Photo credit: ACME) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"July <\/a>
July 3, 1909: The first game at Forbes Field, which the Chicago Cubs won, 3-2. (Photo credit: The Index) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Imagine a playground in place of Posvar Hall on Pitt campus. Yes, indeed, a place for kids to play ball in the heart of Oakland. It could have happened after the demolition of Forbes Field in 1970.<\/p>\n

Jane Allon and Paul Boas, two Oakland residents in their 20s, proposed the idea to the University of Pittsburgh<\/a>, which owned the ballpark after the Pittsburgh Pirates moved to Three Rivers Stadium that year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Oakland, in particular, had very little in the way of open spaces for the kids to play in,\u201d Mr. Boas, who is now a criminal defense lawyer working in Pittsburgh, said recently in a phone interview. \u201cThe idea that this historic, wonderful place would be there for a year or more and not used at all seemed to me to be a real waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not open it up for kids to play ball?\u201d a 23-year-old Boas thought back then. Today, he realizes that even in 1970, officials were likely concerned about accidents inside the concrete and metal structure.<\/p>\n

The plan collapsed when the state told Allon and Boas they needed $3.75 million in liability insurance.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Christmas Eve that year, the right-field grandstands of \u201cClemente Corner\u201d caught fire. It became a five-alarm fire when Pitt security guards couldn\u2019t find the keys to the center-field padlocks, a fire chief told the Post-Gazette that night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis fire would only have been a two-alarmer if they could have opened those gates,\u201d chief William Maurer said. The guards arrived within 10 minutes after the emergency call.<\/p>\n

After the fire, a group called Peoples\u2019 Oakland cooked up their own battle plan for the space. The group hoped to convert the stadium into part of the nearby community, instead of only a Pitt academic space. Peoples\u2019 Oakland lost, and Pitt ended up building Posvar Hall.<\/p>\n

Demolition began quickly, aided by another fire in July 1971. Arson, inspectors concluded. Several youths had been living inside the structure, they said, and the fire damaged a locker room and storage area.<\/p>\n

Even though the Pirates won a World Series a year after moving to Three Rivers Stadium (a demolition crew at what used to be Forbes Field was listening on the radio to that October victory over the Baltimore Orioles) buyer\u2019s remorse followed. Compared to Forbes Field, wrote Pittsburgh Press sports editor Roy McHugh, Three Rivers Stadium was bland.<\/p>\n

Forbes \u201chad character. It had grass. It had a view beyond the ivy-covered walls, where shade trees grew and Sunday afternoon sun worshippers camped on a hill,\u201d he wrote in June 1975.<\/p>\n

Never again would Pittsburgh baseball fans like Paul Boas \u2014 who grew up in Squirrel Hill and took many five-minute street car rides to the park \u2014 pay $1 to watch a game from the bleachers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Instead of demolition, the question was asked \u201cWhy not open it up for kids to play ball?\u201d<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesFinal moments of Forbes Field<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[944],"tags":[975,963,977,980,990,993,996,1027,1046],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tumblr_n0yi05o5031rr5swxo7_1280.jpg?fit=1000%2C788&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1320,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/10\/09\/dreaming-of-the-world-series-too-soon-you-say\/","url_meta":{"origin":954,"position":0},"title":"Dreaming of the World Series\u2026 Too soon, you say?","date":"October 9, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"It\u2019s not done yet. 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