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A legendary baseball park turned one hundred years old today. Truly one of the cathedrals of the game, it witnessed some of the sport’s greatest moments—many World Series and All-Star Games—and hosted legendary players like Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Lou Gehrig. From its earliest days, it was the city’s pride. Tiger Stadium opened 20 April 1912.

Unlike another ball park that opened the same day, however, Tiger Stadium is only a memory now. Its demise is one of the most unfortunate in the history of baseball, and, in a city that is a pale shadow of its former glory, it is surely missed. Its destruction must count as another shameful example of the short-sightedness, iconoclasm, and willful disrespect for tradition that has severely hurt baseball, and has seen too many great old parks fall victim to the wrecking ball. Consider this: after Fenway Park and Wrigley Field, the next oldest parks in Major League Baseball are Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Oakland Coliseum, and Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Tropicana Field is the eighth oldest ball park in the Majors. Now, Dodger Stadium is, in my opinion, a modernist masterpiece, and I appreciate Kauffman Stadium, too, but the destruction of Comiskey Park, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, and Yankee Stadium ought to be considered scandalous given the banality of their replacements.

Surely, few people miss Jack Murphy Stadium, the Metrodome, or Three Rivers Stadium. And even if I personally have fond memories of Fulton County Stadium, and even if the Astrodome was a modern marvel, they had their flaws. So did Candlestick Park (which still stands) and Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. In any event, Camden Yards and PNC Park are each striking in their own way. Rangers Ballpark is one of my favorite designs, and the view from the new Busch Stadium is vastly superior to the old, closed-in design that obstructed views of St. Louis’ most iconic landmark.

Of all cities, New York—where memories of Ebbets Field seem to send old Brooklyn fans into fits of reverie—should have been more appreciative of the majesty of Yankee Stadium, if not the style of Shea. Alas, greed proved more potent than pride and tradition, and the House that Ruth Built is lost. Ages hence, a white-haired Billy Crystal will look into some documentarian’s camera and lament the loss of his childhood.

What difference does it make, so long as the crowds want to come? Nostalgia is my answer. Red Sox fans who attended games at Fenway with their fathers, who attended games with their fathers, can give those same memories to their own sons. When I visited Wrigley Field in 2008, I could tell my wife how it looked exactly the same as it did when I saw it on television with my grandfather almost a quarter century before. And, though he never saw a game there in person, had he gone there as a boy it would have looked the same. That means something.

Fenway Park turned one hundred years old today, and tens of thousands of Bostonians turned out to wish her a happy birthday, with best wishes for another hundred years. Alas, Detroit lost that chance when Tiger Stadium disappeared in 2009. However appealing construction of Comerica Park may have seemed at the end of the last century, the new stadium will not live to see its one hundredth birthday; I’d bet money on it. But I wouldn’t bet my memories, and that’s what makes me and the iconoclasts different.

Filed under: Current Events, Nostalgia, Sports on April 20th, 2012 | 1 Comment »

The concept of before and after, or then and now, is one about which I obsess. I love seeing pictures of people and, especially, places, taken years, even decades, apart. Danielle Kay, my lovely hairdresser, takes pictures of me before and after each haircut she gives me. I go around photographing places in my life that have changed over time. And, a few years ago, I sat for a photo with my father, recreating a picture taken twenty years earlier. I love this sort of thing.

So, as you can imagine, I was thrilled to see a very special image on Flickr today: a father and son in two pictures taken thirty years apart – one at the first Space Shuttle launch, one at the last. You should definitely see it for yourself.

Filed under: Musings, Nostalgia, Photography on July 14th, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Merciless time marches on, indifferent to the wishes of men. That is a universal truth. Each year seems to bring its own reminders of my life’s emptying hourglass. I have a high school friend whose own child now attends our former high school. I recalled today that I last attended that school sixteen years ago this month. That, in itself, is insignificant. But today is the first day of summer, and, in the course of pondering the resumption of my “Summer Songs” nostalgia bacchanale, I realized that Bryan Adams’ hit song “Summer of ’69″ was released twenty-six years ago this month. That, too, is relatively insignificant. What made me feel strange was the realization that when “Summer of ’69″ was released, 1969 was sixteen years past – just as 1995 is now sixteen years past.

As I have said before, 1969 seems to me to have had the most interesting summer of the twentieth century. But in 1985, 1969 probably seemed like it took place in another world. I cannot say the same for 1995. Though the same number of grains of sand have passed through the hourglass in the intervening years, 1995 feels like yesterday. Perhaps that’s why nobody is writing hit songs about it.

Filed under: Musings, Nostalgia, Popular Music on June 21st, 2011 | 1 Comment »

The only thing better than a summer song is a nostalgic summer song.  Last April I was browsing in a store when I heard a tune playing that combined the best elements of bubblegum pop and lovesick summer reverie.  It told a story of a girl falling in love, and, as is often the case, forming close associations between her love and a catchy song, but finding that, alas, “now we are September”.  (And there is a significant difference between “we are” and “it is”.)

I conceived of this series when I heard this song in that store.  Nothing captures the essence of summer nostalgia better than the lyric, “And every time I hear it play / I think of you and those summer days / I can still remember when I heard it on the radio”:

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This song is fluffy disco, but has within it something powerful.  This contrast will soon lead me to a new series about silly songs with profound truths.  Stay tuned.

Filed under: Musings, Nostalgia, Popular Music on September 19th, 2010 | No Comments »

As a child, few occasions inspired as much dread for me as the dawning of a new school year.  August was a month-long count-down to misery, and the Sunday night before classes began–the first “school night” of the year–was undoubtedly my least favorite date on the calendar.  That date is nigh.

After a break from school that, for all intents and purposes, began last December, I am just one week from embarking on at least two grueling years of intensive study, and I am sad to see this summer pass away.  I have a great deal to look forward to, but at the same time, the uncertainties are many and the fear is strong.

Furthermore, with the commencement of autumn classes, this long, glorious summer will come to an end, and I will still not understand how it could have passed so quickly.

So, before that dreaded day arrives, I will reflect on these last few months in a series of posts that I hope will answer that age-old question: how I spent my summer vacation.

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Filed under: Musings, Nostalgia, School on August 12th, 2010 | No Comments »