Thestory of Forbes Field

Ball i es: THE STORY OF FORBES FIELD bv Daniel L.Bonk Pirates baseball fans, between the 1991 and 1992 seasons, were subjected to a tease. The administration of Mayor PITTSBURGHSophie Masloff proposed building a new publicly financed baseball-only stadium to be called Roberto Clcmente Field, inhonor of the late Pirates Hall of Fame outfielder. The proposal came as a shock to media and citizenry alike and was quickly embraced, surely, by every true baseball fan who ever bought a ticket at Three Rivers Stadium farther from the field than a box seat. Due to a variety of reasons, including a lukewarm reception from the general public asked to finance it,Masloff'quietly but quickly withdrew the proposal. Nevertheless, the city, 22 years after the opening ofThree Riv- ers, effectively admitted that itinadequately serves its most rou- tine function as the baseball home of the Pirates Clemente Field would have been both a step forward and backward — forward because itwas conceived along lines pioneered inBuffalo in 1988 with the opening ofPilot Field, home of the Pirates's minor league franchise, and backward because such neo- classic design tries to recreate the ambiance, intimacy, and reduced scale of baseball's classic old parks in Chicago, Detroit, Boston and New York. Most ironic ofall,Clemente Field would invari- — ably have been compared to the Pirates's home for five decades Forbes Field, thought by many to have been the most classic of all. It was demolished in 1972 in the Oakland neighborhood, to bring Dan Bonk is acivilengineer at the Michael Baker Corp. inCoraopolis, Pa. He grew up in the Morningside section of Pittsburgh and graduated from the University ofPittsburgh in1978. Bonk serves on the Ballparks Committee of the Society ofAmerican Baseball Research. His interest inForbes Field's past grew out ofcasual research whichresulted inthe discover)' inCityofPittsburgh files ofthe only known set ofdesign blueprints ofForbes Field. The effort to restore the drawings, with the help of computers, required additional research and culminated in this article. Photos at left: Among the two most beloved Pirates to play at Forbes Field were outfielders KikiCuyler (top, 1921-27 as a Pirate) and Max Carey (1910-1926) 52 Pittsburgh History Summer 1993 — professional sports downtown a general national concrete, the stadium, like many of its era, has a con- trend which has contributed greatly to baseball's trived and sterile feel. Finally, many people have corn- modern condition as a corporate, upscale entertain- plained since shortly after its opening that Three Riv- ment of $40 million players and $100 family eve- ers is not easy to get to or away from, nings. Pittsburgh, in the future not too far away, may Many cities are like Pittsburgh, with 25-year-old reach a stadium crossroad. When approaching— any round, "multipurpose" stadiums. The new generation crossroad, it is appropriate tolook back in this case, of outdoor stadiums going up around the continent way back. Forbes Field was the second of the so-called now suggests that designers are heading away from "classic" ballparks. The first was Shibe Park in Phila- the massive concrete facilities of the late 1960s and delphia, which opened in April1909, three months early '70s. Realizing that attempts to build large ca ahead of Forbes Field. Others were League Park pacify structures to accommodate many diverse activi (Cleveland, 1910), Comiskey Park (Chicago, 1910), ties resulted ingenerally mediocre accommodations GriffithStadium (Washington, D.C., 1911),the Polo for most everyone, the trend is toward smaller, sepa- Grounds (New York, 1911), Crosley Field (Cincin- rate parks for baseball and football. nati, 1912), Fenway Park (Boston, 1912), Tiger Sta- Three Rivers is widely criticized as "unfriendly," dium (Detroit, 1912), Ebbetts Field (Brooklyn, although stadium aesthetics is admittedly a highly 1913), Wrigley Field (Chicago, 1914), Braves Field subjective field. Three Rivers's circular design places (Boston, 1915) and Yankee Stadium (New York, the majority of ticket-holders, including those in 1923). Only Fenway, Tiger Stadium, Wrigley and popular but increasingly expensive field box seats Yankee Stadium remain. ($14 in 1993 for baseball), far from the field ofplay The short articles which appear here with this main and cut offfrom other sights and sounds of the city. story speak to Forbes Field's importance inOakland's Although occupying perhaps the most dramatic stadi- neighborhood life. This article, however, focuses on um site in America, a historian noted in Pittsburgh the engineering and architectural features which made History in 1992 (page 32), Three Risers "might as Forbes Field famous for its functional beautv. well be situated in the Mojave Desert" as in a city defined by historic rivers with a spectacular down- Organized baseball was played for roughly 25 years town skyline and picturesque bluffs. Due to the en- before the turn of the century, when a loyal following closed design but also because ofits Astro-turf and of fans developed. The game was troubled by cut- throat competition and a lack of trust between owners and players; cities where teams played,— — — played— on i who 1 . 1 j those teams, and what leagues they played in were constantly changing. Some owners recog- nized that their survival depended on coopera- tion, which came in the spring of 1903 in the form of an agreement between the competing National and American leagues. The agreement provided for common playing rules for each circuit, harmonious schedules, player con- tracts which prevented them from moving as free agents between teams, and a minor league draft system. Forbes Field,c. 1924. This viewshows —the park's prime location,bordering anoldresidential area What followed was a near Oakland's educational complex also easily reached from growing Hast End suburbs. spectacular increase iin 54 Ballpark Figures interest inbaseball in the first quarter of the 20th Oakland. The area was dominated by an expansive century. estate owned by Mary Schenley, heir to one of the One owner inthese formative years was Barney area's oldest family fortunes. As a young woman she Dreyfuss. A German immigrant who had settled in married an officer in the Britishmilitary and left Pitts- Kentucky at age 17, Dreyfuss first worked as a book- burgh permanently, but in 1889, she generously keeper and dabbled inthe stock market. He came to donated 300 acres ofSchenley Farms to the city as a Pittsburgh after his baseball franchise inLouisville, public park. Prompted by Schenley's gift,Pittsburgh Ky. folded when the league withdrew its support. The industrialist Andrew Carnegie one year later funded 32-year-old Dreyfuss bought into Pittsburgh's base- the securing of land and the building and endowing ball franchise in 1900 on the promise that he could of his Carnegie Institute. Itultimately included a deliver his best players from Louisville. This roster library, museum, and concert hall. included the great Fred Clarke and Carnegie, Pa. Upon Schenley 's death in 1903, Carnegie was native Honus Wagner. named one of three executors ofher estate. Ashe had Dreyfuss's impact was immediate: Pittsburgh won with steel decades before, he now held a virtual mo- the league championship in1901 and 1902. He also nopoly on influence as tohow Oakland would devel- bought out his partners and became majority owner op. Carnegie continued toinvest heavily inOakland of the franchise. In1903, his team was onits way to a and his involvement spurred the philanthropy ofoth- third straight title when the owners negotiated their er Pittsburgh millionaires with names likeMellon, peace agreement; this made possible the first "World Frick, Phipps, and Heinz. In 1905, he began building Series," in which the American League champs, the Carnegie Technical Institute, which evolved into the Boston Pilgrims, defeated the Pirates. The large internationally known Carnegie Mellon University. crowds and media coverage of the first Fall classic Dreyfuss watched Oakland grow. One acquain- convinced a few owners, including Dreyfuss, that the tance was Franklin F. Nicola, who next to Carnegie time was right to invest heavily in the game's future. and Schenley was arguably the person most influential High onhis listof priorities was better accommo- inOakland's changing face. His development firm dations for fans, a step which would also project a was called the Schenley Farms Co. In 1907 % Nicola professional image. This meant getting his club out of lured the Western University ofPennsylvania to move Exposition Park, the Pirates's home since 1891. Ex- three miles from downtown Pittsburgh to a 48 -acre position Park, so-named because circuses and other tract in the heart of Oakland. (The school was also big tent shows camped there when in town, occupied renamed the University ofPittsburgh.) Nicola also ground less than 50 yards from the Allegheny River, was responsible for a variety ofOakland residential near present-day Three Rivers Stadium. Dreyfuss tracts and buildings: the Schenley Hotel (1898), remarked, "The game was growing up, and patrons Pittsburgh Athletic Association (1909), Masonic no longer were willingto put up with nineteenth Temple (1914), Syria Mosque (1915), and Schenley century conditions." Symbolizing baseball's instability Apartments (1922). His offices were in the Farmers before 1903, stadiums like Exposition Park were also Bank Building (still at 301 Fifth Ave.), from which typical homes for franchises inother cities. Such Dreyfuss ran the Pirates. parks' wooden grandstands were susceptible to fire, Dreyfuss reasoned that Oakland would be ideal for collapse, and rot. AtExposition Park, frequent floods baseball. Although a large, ethnically diverse working hurt attendance and disrupted schedules. class residential district developed there in the twenti- Perhaps as important as floods and rotting bleach- eth century, by 1908 the community also was estab- ers, however, was Exposition Park's location in what lished as both the cultural and entertainment center Dreyfuss considered the wrong neighborhood.

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