
City - Pittsburgh, PA - Forbes field - Opening Day 1912

by Mike Savad
Title
City - Pittsburgh, PA - Forbes field - Opening Day 1912
Artist
Mike Savad
Medium
Photograph - Colorized Photo
Description
Hand colored photo from 1912
Original Title: Entrance to Forbe's Field
Photographer: Detroit Publishing
Location: Roughly near 232 S Bouquet St, Pittsburgh, PA
This is Forbe's Field, started construction in 1903 in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. It officially opened on June 30 1910. The ballpark was named after John Forbe's, a British general during the French and Indian War. Forbes is known for capturing Fort Duquesne which was held by the French, and named the city "Pittsburgh".
This stadium had quite a few firsts, it was the first stadium to be made of concrete and steel. Bill Mazeroski's game-winning had a home run in the 1960 World Series, Babe Ruth's final home runs, and the first baseball game broadcast on the radio, along with others.
The building saw a number of changes over the years, its quite open looking right now. Safety wasn't invented yet, you can see people in the red section, with no wall or barrier to keep them from falling backwards onto the sidewalk below. One fly ball in their direction and its the last one they would have tried catching. I do wonder if these were the first box seats.
The stadium survived till about 1970, it was torn down in 1971 so they can expand the University of Pittsburgh. However they left some of it intact, there center field wall was kept, you can find it just off Roberto Clemente Dr, it still has its numbers on it, they use it as a wall for I think a ball park. And there is also home plate, which I think they have in the other stadium, under glass.
Its also hard to know what day this is, from the info I gathered it was either:
May 31, 1912, Decoration Day, later known as Memorial Day, The Pirates played the Cincinnati Reds at home with a 6-2 win.
Fourth of July 1912, Pittsburgh played The Cincinnati Reds again at Forbes Field and won the game 3-2.
Uploaded
June 3rd, 2023
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