Stadia create fans
By Tom McMorrow
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Think the Coliseum in Rome , Yankee Stadium, Ebbets Field, Fenway, Wrigley Field, Soldier Field – or the new Jets Stadium in Manhattan .
Think of the magic of Madison Square Garden . When the original was built in the 19th century, it was of course in Madison Square . But two Gardens later, that name has nothing to do with a street address: it's known the world over as the premier indoor arena.
When I was a sports editor in the 1940's-1960's, I remember so well the experience of covering an event at Yankee Stadium. I was constantly impressed, at Yankee games, at the fact that, unlike what you would find at other ballparks across America , there was great cheering for the opposing team, for whose accomplishments you would find a dead silence at other ballparks. These were tourists, delighted to cheer for their team in the most famous baseball stadium of them all.
The House That Ruth Built had a magic attraction from its first day of business in 1923, when the Babe hit a homer to win the first game, and to attend a game in the 1974-renovated stadium is enjoyable for the sightlines, the comfortable seats and the accessible refreshment stands and other spectator facilities it offers alone, even for me, a dedicated Yankee-hater.
The 21st-century Jets' stadium will be able to offer amenities and creature comforts such as were unthinkable when the great old stadia were created, like TV wherever you are, if you went to get a hot dog or to make a pressing trip to the Men's or Ladies', so that you are never out of touch with the game.
Once the Jets' stadium is established, it will take a place in the life of the Manhattan community such as the unforgettable Ebbets Field held with the people of Brooklyn – anyone who has lived that long knows how devastated Brooklyn was by the loss of that team and that beloved ballpark.
That team, with its idols from Dazzy Vance to Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider, established them as an icon to be admired across America , and when it betrayed its adoring fans by absconding to California , torn from its roots by the avaricious Walter O'Malley, damage was done to the hearts of baseball fans that will never heal. When the wreckers' ball started smashing the upper stand of their beloved Ebbets Field, Brooklyn people wanted to shoot the wrecker.
In New York there was also the Polo Grounds, an open space high on Coogan's Bluff in uptown Manhattan where polo had been played in the 19 th century and around which an oval football stadium had been wrapped. (American football had been established in 1869 in a game between Princeton and Rutgers.) Though it was obviously not ideally suited for baseball, with its short foul lines, it became the home of the New York Giants, who won the first World Series, with the immortal Christy Mathewson pitching three shutouts against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics (whose great Indian pitcher Chief Bender pitched another one) as the Giants won the Series 4-1.) The Giants' Iron Man Joe McGinnity (so-named because he would pitch both games of double-headers) won the other one.
Soldier Field in Chicago , which has been renovated, is not just another ballpark, it's a classic reminiscent of the Coliseum, with its Graeco-Roman architecture. Wrigley Field is a cozy little park just to sit in, with its people across the street watching from the roof of their apartment houses, as is Fenway in Boston, with the people sitting on top of its Green Monster left-field wall and the feeling of intimacy with the game they give you as opposed to the far-away feeling of sitting in an overpriced Shea Stadim seat half a mile away from the action on the field.
Sportsmans' Park in St. Louis and Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia are sadly gone (the Athletics' park was originally Shibe, and when the A's had a relief pitcher called Carl Scheib, and Connie wanted him brought into the game, before the days of electronic communication, he would signal the bullpen by pounding on the edge of the dugout, meaning, Bring In Sheib! – they also had a reliever called Fowler, whose name Connie thought was Flowers, and if he pantomimed picking flowers, the bullpen coaches would know he wanted Fowler.)
Those quaint days of innocence are gone, but with the proper approach to the football public the Jets can evoke that mystique and create fans who will have the same passionate love for their team.
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