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In the
spring of 1988, Pilot Field, a new baseball stadium built in downtown
Buffalo, became the home of the AAA Buffalo Bisons baseball team,
leaving War Memorial Stadium vacant, without a major tenant, once
again. Soon afterward, the Rockpile had one more visitor, the wrecking
ball. A new amateur athletic facility was built on the site of the
demolished stadium. All that would remain of the once dominating
structure at Jefferson Avenue and Best Street would be the huge,
concrete entrances at the north and south ends of the site, at
Jefferson Avenue.
The entrances to the stadium are all that remain to trigger
memories of the Old Rockpile. Not too many people were sad to see her
go.
She had more than outlived her use as a sporting arena,
as her better days were way behind her. Even though she was outdated
long before she had ceased to operate as a functioning stadium, the Old
Rockpile still brought us who were lucky enough to attend an event
inside her old, brown, concrete walls, some lasting and fond memories.
Hollywood
came to Buffalo and the Rockpile in 1983 as the movie, The Natural,
was filmed on location there.
Professional baseball returned to Buffalo and the Old Rockpile in 1979,
after a nine year absence.
