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Professional sporting venues. Time that you spent "between the lines."
Coinstartled
Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Sports Talk
Criteria is flexible. Did you ever spend time on a professional sports field, rink, diamond, court, ring, course, etc?
I recall one former NFL player that was a coin forum contributor, but what of the non athletes that might have been in the media, streaked an MLB field, worked a grounds crew or maybe fell out of the stands reaching for a fly ball. Maybe you were invited to play a round at Augusta.
This is your moment. Let's hear the stories.
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Ok..I'll go first. I suppose that it is still the case. At the Indy 500 nearly 4 decades ago, pre race, one could stroll freely between the infield and outfield walking over the narrow part of the track that was still made of brick.
I think that is all I've got.
My son's high school football team played in an Under Armour 7 on 7 elimination tournament at Gillette stadium a few years back where we got to hangout on the field before and after all the games which was pretty cool. Not to many Pats fans can say they got to throw around a football with their kid on the same field Brady & the Patriots play on.
Eric
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Not professional but In high school we played a game in the York Revolution Stadium (independent league baseball). The left field fence is slightly higher than Fenway Park. I doubled off the wall so that was cool.
And a few years ago I stormed the field at Beaver Stadium after beating Ohio State. Will never forget that. It was awesome to be down there on the field, took lots of pictures and stayed on the field for a good half hour.
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Many years ago I walked on the field in Tempe,Az. after a USFL game between Arizona and the New Jersey Generals. Does that count?
Back in the 1970s, the San Diego Padres would have a "camera day" where they allowed fans to go on the field and take pictures of the players before that day's game. They would put barriers around the edge of the outfield grass and the infield dirt, and the players would come out and walk/pose along the barrier while the fans took pictures.
I still have many pictures my dad and I took of Padres players on those days.
They would also let people play catch and run around in the outfield.
Steve
Not once have I ever stepped foot on a professional sports field
The only foul ball I ever caught in a MLB game, a good one, was off the bat of Pete Rose when he was playing for the Reds at the Phillies ballpark...caught it on the fly, barehanded...so even though I wasn't on the field, technically the ball was on the field.
Does that count?
Sure it counts. They all do.
1972 I believe, it was Band Day at the University of Michigan. All the high school marching bands form around the state were invited each year to perform at half time. Thousands of musicians on the field at one time. To maintain some control, only two drummers were permitted per school. We had about a dozen, including myself.
Our director said that we would have tryouts and the best two would be on the field. I kind of sucked at reading music so I didn't bother. No one else did either so all the percussionists remained in the stands.
Guess I missed my chance.
I'm sure you were better than Pete Best.
In the late 70's I played in 3 college baseball games on Rickwood Field (google it- its pretty cool) in Birmingham. Willie Mays had played there 25+ years before and Michael Jordan played there several years later.
Here are four pictures I took on the field at San Diego Stadium:
1976 Willie Davis
1977 Dave Kingman
1978 Ozzie Smith
1979 Rollie Fingers (with Mickey Lolich looking over his right shoulder)
Steve
In 1978 while attending the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glenn a race patron could enter the garages for $5 there i met my hero the late Gilles Villeneuve
A few years ago, while the Kings were still playing at Arco, I won two hours of court time at a charity auction. So one Saturday afternoon myself and 20 friends ran pick up games at Arco or whatever it was called that year. Pretty fun for sure but that 3 point line is a lot different than the one we normally play on! It's a heave!