Been There, Wrote This
Proper Homage
By John Mehno

She was never much to look at, squat and sturdy in that thick Pittsburgh kind of way.

Her fashion sense never advanced much beyond polyester that was more durable than stylish.

But she was faithful and she gave us some mighty good years before our heads were turned by something new and flashy.

Thirty years should count for something but it doesn't seem that way. We've turned the page and wiped out all vestiges of a long-standing relationship with Three Rivers Stadium.

The old gray girl is gone. At last check, pieces of the structure were in a Flintstones-styled rock pile in Leetsdale. The seats and signage are scattered all over Pittsburgh-themed sports shrines built in game rooms across the country.

The North Shore has two fine new sports venues where it used to have one multi-purpose compromise.

Three Rivers wasn't ever really what we thought it was going to be, but it was ours. It was also an important part of Pittsburgh sports for a generation.

The Steelers made it their own with Franco Harris' famed deflection and memorable AFC Championship games against the Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers. The Pirates won a couple of World Series while they called Three Rivers home. Roberto Clemente got his last hit there and Willie Stargell redecorated the upper deck with baseballs.

Bob Prince had his office there and the Terrible Towel used Three Rivers for its coming out party. It was the only home the Maulers knew in their only season. Even the Penguins had a connection, throwing one of their Stanley Cup celebrations there.

All that history and there's barely a trace of the place. The Steelers left one of the Gate D towers standing, which is the only visible landmark.

The spot where Harris picked the ball off his shoe tops? Someone is probably emptying his ash tray there these days. They had a giant used car sale last summer and someone probably closed the deal on a minivan on the precise location of Clemente's 3,000th hit.

There is no suitable memorial for an important part of Pittsburgh's sports history.

In fact, more of Forbes Field remains. Part of the left-center field still stands in Oakland, along with brick tracing the rest of the left field wall. The flag pole is there. Home plate is under glass. A couple of markers help visitors visually reconstruct the park.

But with Three Rivers, a visitor is left to his own imagination with the Gate D tower serving as the only vague guidepost.

Given the region's zeal to call anything a historical landmark, how about somehow recognizing where Three Rivers Stadium once stood and showing what it looked like?

Oilers coach Bum Phillips used to talk about the road to the Super Bowl passing through Pittsburgh.

It would be nice if it there was a street sign.

In other matters:

o   The Pirates' turnaround can't happen soon enough after 10 losing seasons. Be grateful for what happened this year: Kip Wells and Josh Fogg helped the rotation, Kris Benson returned from major surgery, Pokey Reese upgraded second base and Mike Williams was re-signed and had an exceptional year as closer. If the Pirates can get better in that many spots in 2003, their mission will no longer seem impossible.

o   The Rooneys are always hot to hire Pittsburgh guys when they have job openings. The finalists to succeed Chuck Noll were Crafton's Bill Cowher and Dave Wannstedt of Baldwin. Football operations director Kevin Colbert came from the North Side to succeed another Pittsburgh guy, Tom Donahoe.

o   The Rooneys are of the belief that it takes a Pittsburgher to understand what the Steelers mean. But plenty of other places are as passionate about football, although Pittsburgh may beat them all when it comes to irrationality.

o   Being a local guy hasn't shielded Cowher from criticism. Back when the team won four Super Bowls in six years, Steelers fans didn't seem to mind that the head coach was from Cleveland.

o   One of the many disappointments of the local baseball season was Fox Sports Net's revival of "Inside Pirates Baseball." Too many weeks the 30-minute show served as an infomercial for various money-making schemes the Pirates are hustling. The people in charge are capable of better work so it must have been a case of no time or no budget. Or both.

o   The Penguins' opening offer to Alexei Kovalev was supposedly five years and $25 million. It's a good negotiating strategy: Always loosen them up with a joke.

You can reach John Mehno online at: johnmehno@lycos.com.