Silver Seasons and a New Frontier: The Story of the Rochester Red Wings, Second Edition

3 A Diamond in the Bushes

3 A Diamond in the Bushes /t was like going from a bam to a palace. -Spectator Jack Lustik on the Red Wings move from Baseball rark on Bay Street to Red Wing St;ldium in 1929 The anticipation had been building for weeks. After several years of grumbling about the deteriorating conditions at rickety Baseball Park on Bay Street, Rochesrerians were finally getting a new ballpark. And what a park it was! Constructed of steel and concrete, Red Wing Stadium was state of the art, of quality equal to most major-league parks. The price tag for the new "baseball plant," as sportswriters fondly referred to it, was roughly $415,000. The bill was footed entirely by the Wings parent dub and owner, the Sr. Louis Cardinals. There had been some haggling initially over the location of the ballpark, but the Cardinals, Red Wings, and city officials eventually agreed upon a tract of land on Norton Street near where the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus pitched its big top during its annual visit to town. In the days leading up to the stadium christening on May 2,1929, demand for tickets became so great that thousands of bleacher seats were added, boosting capacity to approximately nineteen thousand, about double that of the Bay Street park and nearly eight thousand more than the Norton Street park would hold after its renovation in the late 1980s. The new ballpark was designed by George W. Thompson, one of the nation's foremost stadium architects. Thompson, who hailed from Syra29 30 SILVER SEASONS euse, also had designed the Cardinals' minor-league park in Houstonafter which Red Wing Stadium was modded-and the new football stadium at the University of Florida. For weeks leading up to the Red Wings home opcner, there was concern about whether the project would be completed on time. April had been rainier than normal, delaying certain aspects of the construction, including painting. Bur thanks to the indefatigable cEEans of project superintendent Harrison Dann and his workers, the ballpark was completed just in the nick of time. The day before the opener, Dann shook hands with Red Wings president Warren Giles at home plate and told him: "It's yours, take it. I've completed my job. It's in your hands from now on." Dann couldn't Stop worrying about the House the Cardinals Built, however. "He was as nervous as a race-horse at the post all day even though his job was finished," wrote Democrat and Chronicle spans editor Joseph T. Adams. "He walked a short marathon as he nied to find something that needed his attention." The players from (he Wings and the visiting Reading Keystones who practiced on the field that day were impressed with the ballpark. One of them referted to it as "the Taj Mahal of the minor leagues." The three or four hundred kids who had played hooky from school to take a peek also were in awe. "Wow!" was the word most of them used when asked their impressions by reporters. The night before the opener, the American Legion of Monroe County held its annual banquet to honor the ball club at Rochester's Seneca Hotel. Branch Rickey, the Cardinals vice president, served as the guest speaker, and he proved once again that he was a master at ingratiating himself to an audience. "I believe {the Cardinals purchase of the Red Wings] is the best investment the organization has ever made," Rickey said, evoking a rousing ovation from several hundred attendees. Rochester baseball fans were primed to christen (heir new ballpark the following afternoon. Now, if only the weather would cooperate. In those days, a "game today" flag on top of the Powers Hotel in downtown Rochester informed fans whether Red Wings home games would be played or postponed because of the weather. Hours before Rochester's 1929 home opener, the flag flapped, in the words of venerable Democrat and Chronicle columnist Henry Clune, "soggily and dispiritedly from its newly painted staff." In an interview 66 years later, spectator George Christoff said, "I remember being really scared that the game was going to be called off. 1 wore a green raincoat that day and walked two miles in the pouring rain to get there. I kept my fingers crossed all (he way." Christoff had plenty of company on his way to the ballpark. The sneets in and around the stadium were jammed with thousands of peo- [3.145.93.210...