Silver Stadium

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Silver Stadium was a baseball stadium located at 500 Norton Street in Rochester, New York. The park was the home stadium for the Rochester Red Wings of the International League from 1929 to 1996, and for the New York Black Yankees of the Negro National League for their final season in 1948. The final event at the stadium was a regular-season game between the Red Wings and the Ottawa Lynx on August 30, 1996.^[1] Following the 1996 season, the Red Wings moved to the newly-built Frontier Field blocks from downtown.

The stadium was named after Morrie Silver, a Rochester businessman who spearheaded an effort to purchase both then-Red Wing Stadium and the Red Wings from the Wings' major league affiliate, the St. Louis Cardinals, who were exploring removing the franchise from their minor league system. A total of 8,222 stockholders, including Silver, came together to form Rochester Community Baseball in the fall of 1956. The group purchased both assets, keeping the team in Rochester for the 1957 season and beyond. Red Wing Stadium was renamed in Silver's honor on August 19, 1968.^[2]

Outside of baseball, the ballpark briefly hosted professional football as home field for the Rochester Braves (second American Football League) in 1936 and the Rochester Tigers (second American Football League) in 1936 and 1937. The largest attendance at the stadium was 19,006 for a game on May 5, 1931.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Location

The park was built in the middle of a thriving urban residential neighborhood, which like most suffered a decline in the latter half of the century. Plentiful parking for automobiles, not a huge concern at the time it was built, became an issue as more and more fans drove their cars to the ballpark.

[edit] Replacement

Major league baseball mandated changes to minor league ballparks in the 1990s to both upgrade the field of play and the facilities that the players used. Even though it was renovated in the mid-1980s, Silver was deficient in a number of these areas. Like most old ballparks of its era, it did not have any corporate luxury suites. Also, public sentiment in Rochester was in favor of building a new ballpark somewhere closer to the downtown area, with plenty of parking and access to expressways. However, at various times, proposals were made to build the new stadium in one of Rochester's suburbs, namely Greece, Avon and Victor.^{[citation needed]}

Silver Stadium was demolished in the winter of 1997-98, and is now the site of an industrial and office park. It was replaced in 1997 by Frontier Field, located in downtown Rochester next to Eastman Kodak's world headquarters.

[edit] References

Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, editors The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball Durham (NC): Baseball America, Inc., 1997. ISBN 0963718916

[edit] External links

• Photographs of Red Wing / Silver Stadium - Rochester Area Ballparks