Eugene lost a part of its history yesterday. Civic Stadium, an old wooden grandstand that was a fabulous place to watch baseball, burned completely in about 2 hours yesterday. Our local baseball team (the Emeralds, a short-season class A team) has been playing their games at the new, modern, U of O stadium (PK Park, named for Pat Kilkenny, the former AD who donated all the $$ used to build the park. Oregon did not have a baseball team until Oregon State won a national title about 10 years ago, which did not sit well with the UO athletic department...). I have been to one baseball game at PK, whereas I attended about a game a week at Civic.
Admittedly, Civic had problems. The restrooms were ghastly, the locker rooms weren't much better, and there was no ADA access. To renovate would have been cost prohibitive, and when the UO built PK Park, they offered it up (for a handsome fee) for the Emeralds to use. It was everything that a modern baseball park has become; big screen, loud music between every inning, a parking nightmare, and very impersonal. Civic Stadium had just been purchased by a local "Save Civic" group within the last year; the Eugene School District (which owns the property) had not sold it to a firm wishing to build a grocery store on the site. Much small town politics there.
I have missed baseball at Civic. I guess I am a dinosaur.
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