In our disposable society, even our monuments to sport are here today and gone tomorrow.
We throw away stadiums like we do our cell phones. The homes of our loudest cheers and some of our deepest groans, the places where parents imprint a lifetime of fandom upon their children, have become temporary shelters. Mere lean-tos until something fancier comes along.
Look at Atlanta. It is weighed down in new stadium construction, with both Turner Field and the Georgia Dome facing extinction in 2017. And it seems as if both just opened their doors yesterday.
A few vintage stadiums hold out against the raging tide of change.
Just 150 miles from Atlanta stands one of the rarest of these relics, Birmingham’s Rickwood Field - which claims to be oldest surviving professional baseball park in the United States.
The seats are weathered, but not original. Still, no cup holders on any chairback. Hold your own drinks. The scoreboard is hand-turned, as quaint as a butter churn. And image, no video board.
And they play baseball, just baseball. No tool races between innings. No playgrounds beyond the outfield. No chicken dances nor trivia contests nor trifling distractions of any kind.
Just baseball. It’s still possible, you know.
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