Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Pittsburgh Pirates captain Willie Stargell bids farewell to Pittsburgh Pirates fans during a ceremony Sept. 6, 1982 before a game against the New York Mets at Three Rivers Stadium. Stargell was retiring after 20 years. Click photo for larger image. Return to index

On the surface it had all the charm of a cement ashtray, and indeed it looked that way, but a mention of the memories that transpired in cold, concrete, cookie-cutter Three Rivers Stadium will warm the heart of any seamhead.

The first night World Series game was played there on Oct. 13, 1971; a 4-3 Pirates victory over Baltimore. The Bucs won all three games played at Three Rivers and would go on to clinch the title in seven games. Roberto Clemente was named the series MVP, finishing with a .414 batting average.

A year later, Clemente would give the defining image of baseball at Three Rivers -- standing regal at second base, waving his cap to a modest crowd of less than 14,000 after doubling to left field off the Mets' Jon Matlack for the 3,000th and final hit of his career. The Great One would die in a plane crash three months and a day later.

	Morris Berman, Post-Gazette TEXT. Click photo for larger image. Related coverage Last baseball game at Three Rivers Three Rivers implosion

Though nothing to this day could completely salve the wound of Clemente's death, the run of the 1979 "We Are Family" Pirates did go a long way to help the healing of Pittsburgh baseball fans. Stargell's Stars and Sister Sledge ruled the season, and the Bucs took the series in seven games against the Baltimore Orioles, though they won only one game at Three Rivers.

In August 1976, John Candeleria threw the first Pirate no-hitter since 1907, a 2-0 win over the Dodgers. It would be more than two decades before another no-no was thrown at Three Rivers, when Francisco Cordova and Ricardo Rincon combined to baffle the Houston Astros in the first multiple-pitcher, extra-inning no-hitter in baseball history. Pinch hitter Mark Smith hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the 10th inning to seal history before a sellout crowd.

Not all of the memories are Pirates-based: Hall-of-Fame St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson threw a no-hitter against the Bucs in 1971 and fellow Cooperstown inductee Mike Schmidt of the Philadelphia Phillies hit his 500th career home run off of the Pirates' Don Robinson in 1987. Three Rivers hosted the 1974 All-Star Game and the Midsummer Classic returned to the confluence in 1994; that installment of the would go down as one of the best ever when the National League rallied to beat the American League, 8-7, in 10 innings.

Fittingly, Pirate and Pittsburgh native John Wehner hit the last home run in the last baseball game played in the stadium against the Cubs, on Oct. 1, 2000.

Three Rivers was reduced to rubble at 7:59 a.m. on Feb. 11, 2001 when it was imploded. It took 4,800 pounds of dynamite to bring down 180,000 tons of concrete, 6,000 tons of structural steel and 4,000 tons of rebar -- but the majesty of Clemente, Stargell and myriad other baseball memories had already brought the house down innumerable times before that.