Say what you want about Three Rivers Stadium…we know it was old and valued capacity and efficiency over fan comfort. But I have some ridiculous memories from that place, all from calling a rare Tony Pena home run to watching the Steelers lose to the Eagles after a nonsense onside kick call gave Philly the opportunity to tie the game at the end of regulation and win it in OT (THIS!).
Aside from the memories though, the critiques are the other most associated part of the late stadium. Sure, there were a lot of seats for baseball games, but the dimensions were weird and the team usually tarped some of the upper levels anyway. I’m sure all of those quirks would’ve gone away had the team BUILT IT ON THE MONONGAHELA RIVER LIKE THIS SKETCH SUGGESTS!
I had heard rumors of the bizarre initial plan to make the then-forthcoming Three Rivers Stadium span one of the rivers, but had never seen the actual sketch until now. Thanks to Dan for sending it over. Even after I saw it, I thought it was just some piece of art until I remembered those old Three Rivers rumors. After I put 2 and 2 together, my next thought was “why didn’t they end up doing this?” I would’ve watched so much football and baseball from the middle of the Mon. And it would’ve been way cooler than MSG’s proposed skybridge renovation. Yeah.
This sketch was also from a postcard. Back in college I used to do work for the Lincoln Highway cataloguing the original highway postcards like this one of the old Ship Hotel at Grand View Point where you could see 3 states and 7 counties, and this one of the Seven Mile Stretch just west of Bedford. This Three Rivers sketch reminds me of those…cool and old.
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