Opening Veterans Stadium
Future Hall of Famer Jim Bunning delivers the first pitch in the first game at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium, an occasion that takes place 53 years ago today with the Phillies beating the Montreal Expos 4-1 before a crowd of 55,352 on a raw, overcast Saturday afternoon in South Philly.
Bunning’s first pitch is delivered with a game-time temperature of 47 degrees.
Historians note that Phillies leadoff batter Larry Bowa records the new stadium’s first hit – a first-inning single to right field off Expos starter Bill Stoneman – and Don Money picks up the first home run, a solo drive to left field off Stoneman that leads off the bottom of the sixth.
Don Money (16) reaches the plate after hitting the Vet’s first homer
As for the first batter in the new $49.5 million stadium ... well, that’s Expos center fielder Boots Day, who taps Bunning’s first pitch back to the mound for an easy out.
The Phillies open their new stadium six months after closing Connie Mack Stadium, which opens in 1909 as Shibe Park and then the home of the Philadelphia Athletics.
The Phillies’ original plans call for them to open the Vet 11 months earlier on May 5, 1970.
That never happens, though, as problems with completing the Vet’s construction on time, not to mention a strike from those same construction workers, push the Vet’s new opening date to 53 years ago today.
When finished, Veterans Stadium has parking for 12,000 vehicles on site or across Pattison Avenue at the now-gone Spectrum and old JFK Stadium. At the time, only the Astrodome and Dodger Stadium have more parking.
The Vet’s opening in 1971 follows the 1970 debuts of multi-purpose, concrete ballparks in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.
“They all had Astroturf and that was the wave at the time, because you could play baseball and football there,” Money says.
No one seems to care, because sparkling new Veterans Stadium is not crumbling Connie Mack Stadium.
“We were all excited about going into a new stadium,” Money says before the Vet’s final season in 2003. “Connie Mack Stadium was a nice ballpark field-wise – one of the best fields in the league – but being 60 years old, it was outdated.”
Just as the Vet is in 1971, old Connie Mack Stadium is baseball's state-of-the-art ballpark when it opens in 1909 as Shibe Park with the cost of $315,000.
Its prestige, though, changes over time.
Crammed into a city square block, parking at Connie Mack Stadium in the ballpark’s latter years becomes a nightmare that only worsens as neighborhood kids demand 50 cents to watch your car and, essentially, keep them from flattening your tires.
“It was so different for us,” Money later says of moving to the Vet.
“We had nice, big locker rooms there compared to the little ones we had at Connie Mack Stadium,” Money says. “We had captains chairs at the Vet, compared to those little stools at Connie Mack. We were thinking, ‘We’re in the big time now.’ ”
The Phillies remain in the Vet for 33 seasons before closing down that stadium after 2003 to move into a new, $458 million stadium opening only a couple of hundred miles to the east.
Another 2,616 home games follow the Vet’s opener 53 years ago today after the Phillies spend 33 seasons from 1938-70 playing nine miles to the north at Connie Mack Stadium.
“(Veterans Stadium) was state-of-the-art,” Phillies second baseman Denny Doyle later says. “It was interesting. The architects of those days seem to think circles and concrete were a big thing.”
For the Vet’s first opener, Phillies promotional genius Bill Giles wants the ceremonial ball to drop from a helicopter to a player waiting below.
The helicopter is from the local traffic patrol fleet.
The player turns out to be Mike Ryan, a fearless backup catcher who 11 months earlier fractures his left hand – his glove hand – during a game at San Francisco.
Now, 53 years ago today, Ryan positions himself before the game near second base and waits for the ball to drop from the helicopter hovering above the stadium.
Descending through 20 mph winds, of course.
Struggling to track the ball through its twisting descent, Ryan staggers between second and third before finally catching, juggling and re-catching the ball.
Ryan then takes the ball to a seat near the first-base dugout and gives it to Frank Mastrogiovanni, a disabled Vietnam veteran who then throws the ceremonial pitch to Phillies starting catcher Tim McCarver.
“McCarver had the first shot to do it, but he didn’t want it,” Doyle says decades later with a laugh. “I don’t think I would have wanted to do it, either.
“Now, Ryan,” Doyle says, “if anybody would do something like that, he would.”
The Vet’s first Opening Day, 1971