Our old school, Met Stadium had parallels

I have previously written that our former school building in Morris, now abandoned, was like an "erector set," such was the manner in which it expanded through the years. In this respect it was just like our old outdoor major league sports venue in Minnesota: Metropolitan Stadium.
"The Met" was razed long ago. The Mall of America now sits there, an object of Minnesota pride just like Met Stadium was.
We're not so fortunate here in Morris. Our old erector set school, which is very conspicuous in the town, couldn't be more deserted or forlorn. I'm not aware of any city timetable to tear it down. Did the city get a good value when it purchased this?
The comparison of our old school and "the Met" came to mind when reading a little about the latter. Joe Soucheray once wrote that "the Met is like a solid cottage to which has been added wings as the family has grown."
I was prompted to read about the good old "Met" by the opening of our new Twins ballpark. It has become a very hyped event with nigh a discouraging word. The gushing reached a point Thursday where I felt everyone should take a deep breath.
"It's just a baseball stadium," I said to my breakfast compatriots at McDonald's. "We'll realize in a couple of months that we just have a new baseball stadium and not some kind of shrine."
Our old school was like an expanding cottage as the school age population grew here. After many years of exhaustive efforts to expand and improve, the whole works was judged hopeless and now the sprawling set of buildings is a cold, haunted embarrassment.
It still stands out on a the city's "skyline" so it's a constant reminder of obsolescence. In the scheme of things it really isn't that old. The 1914 building is the old anchor and it was a prime candidate for "reuse" possibilities. Everything to the north of that, including the rather new media center, was judged pretty unsalvageable. I don't know how to take that, because my fourth through sixth grade years were spent in that portion of the "erector set."
The anchor of the old Met Stadium was the central grandstand: three decks that wrapped around from first through third bases.
People associate construction of the Met with attracting a major league baseball team. You'd be correct if you stated that was the purpose, but you might need reminding that a fairly long wait was required. Met Stadium opened in 1956. That was a year after I was born. The Minnesota Twins were not born until 1961. Minor league baseball occupied the facility in the interim.
The Met was like the start of an erector set project in 1956, based on Soucheray's historical reflections. Not only that, the surrounding area was pretty barren and undeveloped. All of that changed pretty steadily.
Minnesota became "big league" in 1961 with the move of Calvin Griffith's Washington Senators to Minnesota. It was just in time for the baby boom generation to become enamored with big league baseball in Minnesota. And indeed this happened, especially with Minnesota's capturing of the American League pennant in 1965.
But the Met Stadium that opened in April of 1956 wasn't on a scale to accommodate the Fall Classic. It was more like a starting point, like our 1914 school building in Morris (and the accompanying auditorium). The Met had a seating capacity of about 20,000 at the start.
Modest though it was, the sense of community pride behind it was enormous. The Minneapolis Millers played before a record opening day crowd of 18,366. The best minor league teams in those days could hold their own with major league foes. But Minnesota fans were striving to attract the real big league product. It would be a while.
Soucheray called the Met "an orphan ballpark" in its early days. It wasn't a foregone conclusion that the majors were on their way here. Soucheray wrote of the prospect of achieving that: "uncertain and distant."
Met Stadium replaced a facility that was originally constructed in 1896. The Millers had made their home at Nicollet Park of that 19th Century origin. Dave Moore, a celebrity newscaster for many years, never seemed to get over the abandonment of Nicollet Park. He felt the need to remind us of its charms long after it faded into history's annals.
You could say he brought it up in much the same way as I recall East Elementary here, on the grounds of that abandoned school, a playground where (as I wrote recently) the "Johnsons" and "Goldwaters" battled in out in faux gang warfare in the fall of 1964 - activity that would surely be shunned by the powers that be today.
I recall the old Longfellow Elementary in west Morris in the same light. It was there that my third grade teacher was called out into the entry area one day, and moments later she informed us of the shooting of John Kennedy.
I approached a classmate on the East Elementary playground one day and asked him if he had seen a quite original TV show the night before: the very first airing of "Star Trek." We were captivated.
The ranks of those who can vividly remember school life in those places will get steadily thinner.
One can debate whether the new Target Field baseball facility in Minneapolis is really advantageous vs. the Metrodome. After all, the Minnesota elements never got in the way of anything at our beloved Dome.
Engineers and planners have worked exhaustively to try to blunt the effects of weather at Target Field. But this is Minnesota!
Here in Morris, one thing I'm quite certain is not debatable: our old football field, named for the late Bill Coombe (who I had as an instructor), was vastly preferable from a fan's standpoint to our new Big Cat Field. It's nice that some issues are black and white.
Our Stevens County Museum should perhaps preserve memories of Coombe Field while those memories are still fresh.
Reflecting on all this is an important reminder that building new is not always better, as tempting as it might be to think so. I'm not convinced that Target Field will be like some kind of "shrine" by season's end. There will be lousy weather days. Maybe the Twins will fade competitively. Eventually we'll realize we just have an outdoor baseball stadium - maybe rather pedestrian.
Instead of the urgency and almost religious zeal to get this built, maybe we should have invested more effort in ensuring that our bridges don't fall into the river.
Locally, will our old erector set school complex sit there indefinitely as a growing embarrassment - a display of blight that actually stands out on the skyline? I would guess it will. Our attention would certainly be diverted from that if, as many are predicting, Wal-Mart breaks ground here. That would be the equivalent of Target Field going up. It would transform the economy and culture of our whole community.
It would also be terribly divisive once it's announced. But there could be some irresistible momentum here, like the drive to bring outdoor baseball back in the Twin Cities.
"Big box" stores are undeniably a sign of economic vitality. We probably ought to welcome it regardless of the ramifications. The ramifications would affect many but we live in a world of fluid, constant change and we can't pretend that charming old Nicollet Park, or its equivalent anywhere else, can be preserved anywhere but in the mind of Dave Moore - RIP - and others of his vintage.
So I'd say "welcome" to Wal-Mart, which already has many customers from Morris, who now just drive to Alexandria (in large numbers).
But I'll be like Mr. Moore and pine apologetically for our old Coombe Field with its free-roaming fans, town square atmosphere and community-enhancing spirit in the heart of town, not on the desolate, wind-swept east edge of the community, where cold, hard bleachers are supposed to suffice.
Well, they're not sufficing. You can't just assume the fans will keep coming. Maybe ticket prices will have to be lowered. Maybe in another decade, cries will rise for Morris Area High School to have its own football field again, not shared with the University of Minnesota-Morris, and we'll be happy even if it's the most plain-jane type of high school football field.
Are cheerleaders stuck in our memory also? How about a male/female "cheer team?"
And maybe our school board could get off the schnide and do something to ensure that a pep band plays for every home game.
Such thoughts can be expected from common citizens.
-Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com