O’Neill: This home plate marks the spot of Pittsburgh’s Exposition Park
From Brian O’Neill at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on October 19, 2016, with mention of SABR members Len Martin, Bob Sproule, Jim Haller, and Craig Britcher:
More than other sports fans, baseball aficionados steep themselves in the game’s history, so I can’t say I’m shocked that five guys are chipping in 250 bucks to make sure a home plate gets stuck in a parking lot.
Still I had to ask why.
“Honus Wagner faced down Cy Young in the very first World Series,” Len Martin, leader of this horsehide cause, said when I asked why this was important. “What more do you need to say?”
Well, since I write this column to pay the mortgage, someone needs to say at least 600 more words. So I had Mr. Martin and his friends keep talking.
The laminated vinyl home plate will replace one painted by them decades ago on the blacktop sea between PNC Park and Heinz Field. You can still find it prestigiously located near the corner of General Robinson Street and Tony Dorsett Way, five spaces in from a green trash bin, which itself stands just over the guardrail from a handsome row of portable toilets.
That fading, yellow home plate tells you nothing. The new one will say “Site of Exposition Park and the 1st World Series; Pittsburgh vs. Boston, 1903.”
Read the full article here: http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/brian-oneill/2016/10/20/Brian-O-Neill-This-home-plate-marks-the-spot/stories/201610200095
Originally published: October 20, 2016. Last Updated: October 20, 2016.