RIP War Memorial Stadium, 25 years ago today

A couple weeks ago I found an old promo film from the Pacific Coast League. Today's Buffalo News has some video from the last game at War Memorial Stadium, AKA the Rockpile, on 8/30/1987. It's pretty neat, especially for someone who grew up attending Bisons' and Bills' games there, starting in the early 1960s.

After the video plays through there are links to other Buffalo-centric videos on the Natural, the Bills, etc., that are also pretty cool.

The neighborhood was definitely sketchy and the stadium was falling apart at the end. But it had a lot of character and I saw Ted Williams, Johnny Bench, Lee May, Bobby Murcer, Ed Kranpool, Luke Easter, Choo Choo Coleman, Jesse Gonder, OJ Simpson, Jack Kemp, John Hadl, Lance Allworth, Joe Namath, the Broncos in their striped socks and a ton of others there.

I got Bobby Murcer's autograph there when he was a Toledo Mud Hen. He looped his "M" like Mickey Mantle did.

 

I remember watching games from War Memorial on TV in the early 1970s and it looked like it was 100 years old then.

 

It's also where Wyoming plays in Laramie. Pretty common name. But there was only one Rockpile.

 

I know at least two War Memorial Stadiums (Stadia?)

 

I thought this about the Johnstown Chiefs.

 

Buffalo News link

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/insidepitch/2012/08/bisons-rockpile-finale.html

 

Nice writeup. The place was a little before my time, but my dad used to tell me about going to Bills games there.

And of course, I smile every time I see the home-run scene from "The Natural" on the big board at the new joint ...