Three Rivers Stadium

Three Rivers Stadium stood almost on top of Exposition Park, near where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers form the Ohio. It opened on July 16, 1970, replacing Forbes Field, which had been the Pirates' home since 1909, and it was the first stadium in either the NFL or MLB to feature 3M's Tartan Turf, later replaced by AstroTurf before the 1983 season.

Around a circular bowl, five tiers of red and yellow seats enclosed the field. The original center-field scoreboard cost $1.5 million; a $5 million video board replaced it in 1984. Over the years, numbers were painted on right-field seats to mark where Willie Stargell's home runs landed.

What Was Built

Plans from 1958 had imagined adjoining hotels and shops on the north shore. They were never built. Cost constraints delivered a functional but unadorned stadium, and fans often considered Three Rivers an antiseptic, manufactured environment — far from the cozy confines of Forbes Field, right down to the plastic turf underfoot.

The park carried the moments that mattered anyway. On September 30, 1972, Roberto Clemente lashed a double to left-center off Mets left-hander Jon Matlack for his 3,000th career hit, becoming the 11th player to reach the milestone. Umpire Doug Harvey handed him the ball. Willie Mays came down to the dugout to offer congratulations.

Three Rivers held the first World Series game ever played at night during the 1971 Fall Classic, when the Pirates defeated the Orioles in seven games to win their fourth championship on October 17. It hosted the All-Star Game in 1974 and again in 1994, when the National League broke a six-game losing streak on a Tony Gwynn walk-off score.

The final game in the stadium was won by the Steelers on December 16, 2000.

Reporting: SABR, Wikipedia, MLB.com, Ballparks (Sporting News archive). Park data: MLB StatsAPI and Retrosheet, via the Fever engine.