What was it like watching games at the Coliseum/Muni?

[Triple-S]

I can't say I ever saw a game at the old stadium, and I really only got to see the Circus at the Richfield when I was little, so I have no idea what it was like in the "glory days"

I keep reading these stories about the old Dawg Pound, about how they snuck in a "doghouse" keg, and how Steeler fans were treated, ranging from someones jersey getting ripped off and getting light on fire and thrown out of the stadium, to Inbred fans getting thrown in the piss troughs.

anyone have any stories of watching Indians/Browns and Cavs games at their old places of residence?

[jb]

Muni baseball?

Cold. Cold. Cold. In June. Far away. bang seats. Crushed red brick paths.

Muni football?

Disneyland. Younger? Crowds, cigar smells, weed smells, fights, flask bourbin at 10, passing dogs, beer and dollars..... magical. If you never took the walk on the catwalks from the lower level to the upper deck, you can not know what the 8th wonder was like. What I always recall is how grey and tan and dirty it was, and then how so very green the field looked as it popped up at you for the first time. Mystical. Egalitarian.

Poles in the way and 80 % obstructed view up high lower deck. Ugh.

After I turned 21 I went to Browns games, there but memories got fuzzier. I think Oberle and a bunch of us had fun at the 95 Tampa gay game.

What I loved about the Coliseum was how there were so few loges you could actually see, and the inside the bowl concourse walk. You could circumnavigate it while watching the game. 3WE booth. Pete.

So many games and concerts at each.....

Stones, U2, Boss, Bowie, Police, Genesis...

[waborat]

Always prefered the old places for Browns & Cavs games, but I'll take the Jake anytime for baseball 'natch...

For football, there was nothing like that nasty, grungy, cavernous dirtpit for a game...God, it got loud!!! Sure you had to deal with piss up to your ankles in the johns, possibly sitting directly behind a 12" support and/or splinters in your rear end, but it was like pure pigskin heaven IMO

For baseball, what can I say? It was where I popped my pasttime cherry so I don't want to get too down on it...great looking field...definitely saw some memorable games there that I'll never forget, but the only thing you need to know is that it only sold out a few time a year: The Opener, July's fireworks vs the Yankees and in the 80's when the San Diego Chicken would perform

The Coliseum was another loud, fun place to see a game...I guess most arenas are pretty similiar, but it was different than the Q is now in that it just wasn't as "corporate"....personally, I don't miss the drive in the winters to Richfield, but I do miss the old days where after the games you could stand outside the studio and watch & listen to Pete Franklin live...also, I've got to throw a bone to all the classic concerts that were at Richfield

I'll also throw in seeing CSU play at Public Hall before the Convo was something special...hell, that's where I saw the cicus when I was a lad

Ah, good times...would have loved to seen games at the old Arena & League Park

[OSU819903]

I was only 14 when the Browns left, so memories are a bit faded, but thanks to having a very cool family I got to go to Muni probably around 25 times. I absolutely loved it; it was definitely a different experience for a young kid. I remember my father having to lift me to pee in the troughs, with a passed out Steeler fan hanging out of the garbage can.

It was different for baseball and football for sure. I got to go to 4-5 home openers in a row b/c we could just drive down there, get cheap bleacher seats and then by the 5th got down to field level.

For football, I think I got 'poled' just about every time I went. But it didn't matter. I could only see half the field when we beat the Patriots in the playoffs, but hell for a 12/13 yr old I didn't care. My aunt took me to all but the last game in '95 and made me a scrap book from that whole year. It is certainly bitter sweet now, going back and reading the articles before and after the move was announced.

[waborat]

Muni baseball?

Cold. Cold. Cold. In June. Far away. bang seats. Crushed red brick paths.

Muni football?

Disneyland. Younger? Crowds, cigar smells, weed smells, fights, flask bourbin at 10, passing dogs, beer and dollars..... magical. If you never took the walk on the catwalks from the lower level to the upper deck, you can not know what the 8th wonder was like. What I always recall is how grey and tan and dirty it was, and then how so very green the field looked as it popped up at you for the first time. Mystical. Egalitarian.

Poles in the way and 80 % obstructed view up high lower deck. Ugh.

After I turned 21 I went to Browns games, there but memories got fuzzier. I think Oberle and a bunch of us had fun at the 95 Tampa gay game.

What I loved about the Coliseum was how there were so few loges you could actually see, and the inside the bowl concourse walk. You could circumnavigate it while watching the game. 3WE booth. Pete.

So many games and concerts at each.....

Stones, U2, Boss, Bowie, Police, Genesis...

Damn JB, sounds like we have a lot of the same memories??? I forgot about the loges being up in the clouds at the Coliseum? Try getting away with that one nowadays?

I'll add this for the ol' lady by the lake: the Swingin' Chief Wahoo neon on the east side was as good as a trip to Nela Park whenever I looked at it

[BDFD]

Unfortunately I was never able to see a Browns game at the ol' Stadium. I think it was my family (namely my grandmother) not wanting to go down there and sit through a game on a Sunday afternoon. I was somewhere around 10-12 years old during their run in the 80s and obviously relied on my family to go do things like attend sporting events. I could only imagine what it must have been like. I would give anything to go back and be able to attend a Browns game down there back in the day. In the 90s I was a teenager and wanting to go to a football game took a backseat to hanging out with my friends and chasing girls. I was satisfied to watch the games on TV. I hated BB. F him. He released my childhood hero.

My grandfather and my uncle went to the championship game in 1964. 'It was cooooold that day. Very cold.' my grandfather would say every time he would reflect on that glorious December day.

I went to countless Indians games at the Stadium. The tickets were cheap, it was easy to get in and out, and thousands of drunk Browns fans weren't there. I think that was the reasoning behind why I saw so many Indians games but nary a Browns game. My grandmother took me to almost every sporting event game I ever went to and looking back I could not see her sitting through three hours of beer and swearing on an autumn Sunday afternoon.

The memories I have of attending Indians games at the Stadium include yellow poles and pinch-hitting Joe Carter in the 9th inning of the last game of the season in 1988 in an attempt to get him his 100th RBI (guys were on base). He ended the year with 98. My father once took me to a Tribe game and we got to sit in a loge. He was smoking a cigarette while leaning on the railing on the porch and his ash dropped and landed smack dab in the middle of some fat guy's gut who was wearing a wife-beater 30' below. He quickly looked up and we ran back inside the loge laughing. I'll never forget those five seconds for as long as I live.

Never saw a Cavs game at Richfield. Iron Maiden was my first time there. Metallica was the last.

Tribe '85! This is my team.

[jb]

Muni baseball?

Cold. Cold. Cold. In June. Far away. bang seats. Crushed red brick paths.

Muni football?

Disneyland. Younger? Crowds, cigar smells, weed smells, fights, flask bourbin at 10, passing dogs, beer and dollars..... magical. If you never took the walk on the catwalks from the lower level to the upper deck, you can not know what the 8th wonder was like. What I always recall is how grey and tan and dirty it was, and then how so very green the field looked as it popped up at you for the first time. Mystical. Egalitarian.

Poles in the way and 80 % obstructed view up high lower deck. Ugh.

After I turned 21 I went to Browns games, there but memories got fuzzier. I think Oberle and a bunch of us had fun at the 95 Tampa gay game.

What I loved about the Coliseum was how there were so few loges you could actually see, and the inside the bowl concourse walk. You could circumnavigate it while watching the game. 3WE booth. Pete.

So many games and concerts at each.....

Stones, U2, Boss, Bowie, Police, Genesis...

Damn JB, sounds like we have a lot of the same memories??? I forgot about the loges being up in the clouds at the Coliseum? Try getting away with that one nowadays?

I'll add this for the ol' lady by the lake: the Swingin' Chief Wahoo neon on the east side was as good as a trip to Nela Park whenever I looked at it

Yeah man, I recall driving by it on Rt 2. Seemed like you could high 5 it.

"Home of the Browns."

I think the chield is alive & well at the WR Hist Society.

[Mr. X]

I was only a youngster of probably 5 or 6, but I remember being able to run around in the upper deck during Indians games. That's how empty it was. This was around 1990.

I only made it to one Browns game there, but unfortunately I don't remember it. Fuck you Art.

[Larvell Blanks]

Football games at Muni....words cannot describe.
packing up your stuff at 12:25 for the walk from the Muni lot to Muni
Lee Greenwood, Pround to be an American over the P.A.
the smell of the concrete under the bleachers mixed w/ dogs, nachos and spilled beer
Getting a 12 pack inside stuffed in your Carharts
seeing the other season ticket holders in the Pound and talking about the previous game and what our expectations were for this game.
The aircrafts doing fly bys during Labor Day weekend home games
Our Browns warming up and running down in front of the Pound
The Marlboro ad on the scoreboard
Snowballs, dog biscuits, beer cups being thrown wherever
Halftime bathroom lines
Halftime Continental kicking challenge (guy in our group won trip to London after shanking his first attempt)
Our snuck in "drinks of the week" from the flask
The dirt from the infield at the closed end from September baseball
Ozzie, Clay, Hanford, Frank, BK, Byner, E-Rock, Felix, Web-star, Brennen
the sound after we beat the Jets in 2 OT
the noise after Brennen caught Kosars pass w/ 5:04 left against Denver
the sound of bleachers and seats getting torn apart in Dec '95

[jb]

I was only a youngster of probably 5 or 6, but I remember being able to run around in the upper deck during Indians games. That's how empty it was. This was around 1990.

I only made it to one Browns game there, but unfortunately I don't remember it. Fuck you Art.

Oberle is really, really old; like 90.

He'll make up for your youth in stories.

[hermanfontenot]

When I was a senior at Kent Roosevelt, a bunch of us left school to go to the Tribe home opener against the Yankees (this was 1993.) It was probably about 55 degrees in Kent when we left. We ended up sitting out in the bleachers at the Muni, and I've never been that cold during a sporting event in my life. It was almost unbearable. And this was the first week of April. I can't even imagine what it must have been like in the bleachers during RR88. The Tribe got killed, too. The Yankers lit up Charles Nagy.

I also remember sitting behind one of those support poles during a Tribe game. I mean literally, right behind it.

We went to the Coliseum a lot for Force games back in the mid-80s. This was when the Force was putting twice as many in the seats as the Cavs on a nightly basis. There were regularly 14-15,000 people at those games, and it got loud. We'd take Rt 303 from Terex Road, and that drive would get treacherous in the winter. You had to be really careful on those winding roads. When I was in junior high (1987-88) a couple of HS kids from Cuyahoga Falls were killed on their way back from a Cavs game; they were goofing off on one of those winding roads and drove their car off a cliff.

[oberle]

JB and Larvell shame me with their eloquence. It was all that.

Of course, I'm old enought to remember the Cavs (and before that, the Cincy Royals) playing at the Cleveland Arena. THAT's the old place.

The new places, even the Coliseum, don't have the smell. Stale beer, stale cigars, sweat, popcorn, hot dogs. the smell I'll always equate to hope, and frustration.

Part of it was being so young. I was 9 the first time I walked into the stadium, for a bat-day doubleheader. A full size bat (I got a 30 oz Louisville Slugger with Sonny Siebert's autograph stamped in it), and 18 innings of baseball.

My first Browns game was a pre-season doubleheader. (I was 15) The Packers-Vikings followed by The Browns Giants? My dad was not a big fan, he never forgave Modell for firing Paul Brown. But he got tickets as a surprise for me. Still the coolest gift I ever received.

My first Cavs game was at the Arena (I was 13). Talk about a dive. But you were right on top of the action. $4.00 to watch Chamberlain, Willis Reed, Lew Alcindor, Walt Frazier, Earl the Pearl. etc. from about 30 feet away.

The Coliseum had poor acoustics for concerts, but that place was LOUD for the playoffs. the 1985? (Dinner Bell Mel, Edgar Jones, Ben Poquette) team that took the Celtics to 6 games was the loudest place I've ever been. I was out of the country for the Miracle of Richfield, listening to the noise on Armed Forces Radio; but people who were there said the Coliseum was louder then than 1985.

When Brennan scored that TD with 5:00 left against Denver; the Stadium was ROCKING. It was as loud as the end of the Jets game (double-overtime, THANK YOU MARK GASTINEAU!!) 2nd loudest venue I've ever been at.

When Denver kicked that FG, it was as silent as I've ever hear 80,000 people, equaling the walk from the stadium after Red-right 88.

Now I'm all teary-eyed again.

[Erie Warrior]

I posted this last year. I think it fits in this tread too.

My most powerful personal memory as a Cleveland sports fan came at the tender age of 8. It was my first Browns game, at the old Municipal Stadium. My dad got the tickets for free from a guy at work, so of course they were pole seats. It was the first time I got to experience football as it should be, surrounded by 78,000 screaming, intoxicated, dyed-in-the-wool Browns fans that would step over their mothers grave to pick up a D battery so they could chuck it at John Elway's huge horse teeth. But the game itself was not the most powerful memory for this young Browns backer, nor was it the walk through the Muni lot for the first time. It was the first trip to the restrooms that changed my life. Some say you become a man the first time you have sex, or the first time you drink a beer, or even the first time you take a pinch of Skoal. But I submit the troughs at municipal stadium as the ultimate alter to manlyness, especially when your face is at penis level. There are many men to this day who have to pee in a stall every time they use a public restroom due to anxiety and "stage fright". I am not one of those men. I have stared the enemy in the face, and walked away a champion. Thank you Cleveland.

Can't remember too many Tribe games at Muni, but the Browns games will always be there, for better or worse.

[waborat]

When Denver kicked that FG, it was as silent as I've ever hear 80,000 people, equaling the walk from the stadium after Red-right 88.

The Drive & The Shot was like a light switch was flipped...

There was absolutely no "WTF", "This is BS" or "I can't belive this?" coming out of people's mouths...

It was high-decible pandemonium to dinner-with-the-monks in a split instant

[aoxo1]

I don't know. Despite the games I went to over the years, I only managed to catch about 33% of the action due to the giant beams obstructing my view and my teeth chattering so badly from the cold.


It was way better than CBS. Not being an embarrassment helped a ton, and I'm sure it's shaded since I was a kid, but the atmosphere was wonderful. The games I've been to at CBS... meh, I could just as easily watch at home.

[Larvell Blanks]

Just thinking about the Tribe games at Muni

running around as a kid banging the seats to make noise in sync w/ John Adams
Opening Day '78 - Thornton and Grubb going deep
Bat day- still have my Garry Alexander bat in the basement
I hate the Yankees hankies
soda/beer in the wax paper cups and having to peel the plastic film off the top to drink it
the uniform combos in the 70's
sitting in the players family section w/ Jeffrey Blanks and lil Andy Thornton
sitting in Modells lodge for a Tribe game
sitting in the lodge next to Modells for a Yankee game only to see George right there in Art's perch. The Tribe won and the Boss left in a huff in the 7th.
Double headers on a Saturday where you got to see both games
Eck's no-no
Big Len's perfecto
Baerga's two homer in one inning from both sides of the plate
the fog game vs the Sawx
Clemens vs Nagy in '93
having to remove the multitude of spider webs around your seats before you sat
The "I got the suds, I got the suds" beer vendor
the anticipation of the year after Carter and Snyder were on the cover of SI
Sid Monge and his late inning bonfires on the mound
Jim Bibby and Oscar Gamble's fro
da da da da...Let's go Rico!
getting Mario Mendoza's autograph on my glove as a kid. If only ESPN and Berman had been around I'd have kept it
the Alex Cole era
the final weekend against the White Sox when the paraded out past Tribe heroes and the '93 club which would start the magic of the Jacob's Field era

[TouchEmAllTime]

Always prefered the old places for Browns & Cavs games, but I'll take the Jake anytime for baseball 'natch...

For football, there was nothing like that nasty, grungy, cavernous dirtpit for a game...God, it got loud!!! Sure you had to deal with piss up to your ankles in the johns, possibly sitting directly behind a 12" support and/or splinters in your rear end, but it was like pure pigskin heaven IMO

For baseball, what can I say? It was where I popped my pasttime cherry so I don't want to get too down on it...great looking field...definitely saw some memorable games there that I'll never forget, but the only thing you need to know is that it only sold out a few time a year: The Opener, July's fireworks vs the Yankees and in the 80's when the San Diego Chicken would perform

The Coliseum was another loud, fun place to see a game...I guess most arenas are pretty similiar, but it was different than the Q is now in that it just wasn't as "corporate"....personally, I don't miss the drive in the winters to Richfield, but I do miss the old days where after the games you could stand outside the studio and watch & listen to Pete Franklin live...also, I've got to throw a bone to all the classic concerts that were at Richfield

I'll also throw in seeing CSU play at Public Hall before the Convo was something special...hell, that's where I saw the cicus when I was a lad

Ah, good times...would have loved to seen games at the old Arena & League Park

Are you referring to troughs overflowing? I'm old enough to somewhat remember those, but never actually saw them overflowing, but then again I was there for baseball games, so that would eliminate 60-65 thousand people that would have been there for football using them also.

[FUDU]

Without getting into too many specific memories all I'll say is the Muni represented a time in life when everything just seemed better (even though the Indians last 20 + years there were difficult to bear from a winning standpoint) and that place contributed to that perspective in so many countless ways.

Maybe that opinion will change over time but for now it still holds for me.

[jb]

Always prefered the old places for Browns & Cavs games, but I'll take the Jake anytime for baseball 'natch...

For football, there was nothing like that nasty, grungy, cavernous dirtpit for a game...God, it got loud!!! Sure you had to deal with piss up to your ankles in the johns, possibly sitting directly behind a 12" support and/or splinters in your rear end, but it was like pure pigskin heaven IMO

For baseball, what can I say? It was where I popped my pasttime cherry so I don't want to get too down on it...great looking field...definitely saw some memorable games there that I'll never forget, but the only thing you need to know is that it only sold out a few time a year: The Opener, July's fireworks vs the Yankees and in the 80's when the San Diego Chicken would perform

The Coliseum was another loud, fun place to see a game...I guess most arenas are pretty similiar, but it was different than the Q is now in that it just wasn't as "corporate"....personally, I don't miss the drive in the winters to Richfield, but I do miss the old days where after the games you could stand outside the studio and watch & listen to Pete Franklin live...also, I've got to throw a bone to all the classic concerts that were at Richfield

I'll also throw in seeing CSU play at Public Hall before the Convo was something special...hell, that's where I saw the cicus when I was a lad

Ah, good times...would have loved to seen games at the old Arena & League Park

Are you referring to troughs overflowing? I'm old enough to somewhat remember those, but never actually saw them overflowing, but then again I was there for baseball games, so that would eliminate 60-65 thousand people that would have been there for football using them also.

Time for JoJo's story about the passed out Nati fan.

[swerb]

For Browns games at Muni, the most impressionable memories ...

~The beams.

~Sneaking in beer.

~99% of the fans in there were Browns fans. Those who weren't, were treated like enemies.

~No one saying "Sit down! I can't see!"

~The smell of pot, everywhere.

~Grown men eating dog biscuits. And enjoying it.

~The Dawg Pound chants of "Lisa!" everytime I good looking girl strolled through the pound.

Indians ... when I was younger, would go to like 10-12 games a year from a pretty early age on. Me and my buddies would take the RTA down and sit in the same place, every time. General admission, front row, right on top of the left field foul pole. Only had to get down about an hour before 1st pitch to get front row. And we would heckle the living shit out of the opposing left fielder ALL game.

My greatest personal memory is Danny Darwin having to be restrained after trying to climb the left field wall to attack me after I told him I effed his mother. It was the 1989 opener. I was 12.

Those left field seats were also right on top the visitors bullpen. It was a hecklers dream.

Loved those old Indians games. No one was there. You could literally scream across the stadium to buddies we knew that were sitting in RF general admission. Ushers would sell you beer as long as you had any facial hair whatsoever.

So much different than today.

[jb]

~99% of the fans in there were Browns fans. Those who weren't, were treated like child molesters in the state pen and most of the time the ushers/cops looked elsewhere.

Fixed that for yah, Swerb.

[OSU819903]

"Daddy, why are they kicking that man in the trash can?"

"Because he's a Steelers fan and he should have known better than to come here and get drunk."

"Should we help him?"

"Didn't you hear me Michael, he's a Steelers fan, let's go."

Maybe not how it went down, but that's how I'll always remember it.

[swerb]

Another big one I forgot for Browns games.

~People waiting in line to piss in the garbage can in the corner.

[DrPoove]

Went to every Indians home opener from 1983-1993. Only sellout every year.
No one ever took the company tickets so my Dad would take me to 20-30 games a year for free, first row behind the Visitor's Dugout.
Remember sitting in the the last row of the upper deck on the third base side with my back against the giant louvers that would direct the wind out of the stadium for the last opener in 1993. Frigidly cold.

Only went to 3 Browns games at Muni.
First game ever, upper deck, obstructed view. I remember it all. The smell, the trough urinals, the debauchery. Priceless. Dad and I sat behind a guy who was so hammered the beer vendors refused to serve him. He offered me one of his cheese sandwiches, and the change, if I would buy him 2 beers. I replied "But I'm only 11" to which he said "They don't give a shit, you're not drunk!" My Dad laughed his balls off.
Best game I got to see the Browns/Vikings OT game that we won on a Fake FG pass from Pagel to Van Waiters.

Loved the Coliseum. Tons of Force games and it was f'n loud. Couldn't believe than many people came to the games. Love watching the Cavs there. I echo everyone else who said it was more intamite and less corporate than the Q. Just a great building but so far away.

[DrPoove]

Are you referring to troughs overflowing? I'm old enough to somewhat remember those, but never actually saw them overflowing, but then again I was there for baseball games, so that would eliminate 60-65 thousand people that would have been there for football using them also.

3/3 on seeing an overflowing trough urinal at a Browns game at Muni. Standard Operating Procedure. Remember quite a few on Opening Day for the Tribe as well.

I also remember standing in line to use the garbage can in the corner. Forgot about that! LOL.

[Larvell Blanks]

Another big one I forgot for Browns games.

~People waiting in line to piss in the garbage can in the corner.

garbage cans, sinks, an empty beer cup in the corner.

Into whatever, wherever was the motto

[hornet84]

Swerb:

~The smell of pot, everywhere.

~Grown men eating dog biscuits. And enjoying it.


I think you could call this a direct correlation

[View from 171]

- Having played varsity baseball in the Cleveland area (during the Muni days) we all got free season tickets and used to walk right in the media gate and sit wherever we wanted! We could literally go to a game for free back then (find a place to park, bring your own dogs/beer and free ticket)

- Bringing in your own hot dogs (in the thermos) and stealing tons of Stadium Mustard.

- Brining in your own beer with no/little attempt to hide it.

- People spelling "F U C K" in the empty seats in the upper deck during Indians Games

- Getting your pictures taken/autographs with Indians players on Satuday morning games (got mine with Tom Candiotti and Steve Olin among others)

- Double Headers

- Watching some guy get so pissed in the Dawg Pound that he stepped on his bleacher seat (they were wooden), snapped it off, threw it on the field and stood the rest of the game.

- Asking my family, why the smell in the air smelled like Uncle Jack's jacket?

- Parking in an alley off Lakeside for Indians' games and then having my dad yell at us after the game to hurry up and run from the Muni to the alley because we had to beat traffic (all 2000 people)

- Boiled hot dogs (and they used to put the mustard on the dogs and not just give you a packet)

- Getting free tickets to the indians game if you got A's on your report card (If I remembe right it was through the plain dealer?)

- Running like crazy for foul balls in the upper deck......

The list could go on and on.....

[OSU819903]

Went to a double header in like '90 I think. There was no one there (as always) and at the end of the second game I went down behind the plate and was asking the grounds keeper if I could get one of the foul balls that was stuck on the net (the net covered the whole lower deck behind home). I was so crushed when the bastard said "no" and meant it. I couldn't believe it and to this day I have never gotten one (ASSHOLE!). Then again there were so bad and cheap back then that they might have had to recycle every ball they could.

[jfiling]

My greatest personal memory is Danny Darwin having to be restrained after trying to climb the left field wall to attack me after I told him I effed his mother. It was the 1989 opener. I was 12.

That's an awesome story. I was going to tell you what Darwin is doing right now, but then I checked and the only Danny Darwin I can find pitched for the Astros in 1989. He's the pitching coach for the Great Lakes Loons now.

[waborat]

Just thinking about the Tribe games at Muni

running around as a kid banging the seats to make noise in sync w/ John Adams
Opening Day '78 - Thornton and Grubb going deep
Bat day- still have my Garry Alexander bat in the basement
I hate the Yankees hankies
soda/beer in the wax paper cups and having to peel the plastic film off the top to drink it
the uniform combos in the 70's
sitting in the players family section w/ Jeffrey Blanks and lil Andy Thornton
sitting in Modells lodge for a Tribe game
sitting in the lodge next to Modells for a Yankee game only to see George right there in Art's perch. The Tribe won and the Boss left in a huff in the 7th.
Double headers on a Saturday where you got to see both games
Eck's no-no
Big Len's perfecto
Baerga's two homer in one inning from both sides of the plate
the fog game vs the Sawx
Clemens vs Nagy in '93
having to remove the multitude of spider webs around your seats before you sat
The "I got the suds, I got the suds" beer vendor
the anticipation of the year after Carter and Snyder were on the cover of SI
Sid Monge and his late inning bonfires on the mound
Jim Bibby and Oscar Gamble's fro
da da da da...Let's go Rico!
getting Mario Mendoza's autograph on my glove as a kid. If only ESPN and Berman had been around I'd have kept it
the Alex Cole era
the final weekend against the White Sox when the paraded out past Tribe heroes and the '93 club which would start the magic of the Jacob's Field era

Damn, your memories good Larvell...

Plastic on the cup lids, chanting "Rico", Johnny Grubb, "I got the suds", etc...

You really hit on some good ones from the mid-70s on, my friend...

I'll add:

-Boog Powell dressed up like a huge tomato
-The bleachers being like a beach party in the summer...$1 seats, blankets, beach balls, picnic baskets and the smell of coconut oil in the air
-Gorman Thomas almost hitting one to the bleachers
-Dade & Thornton = Lightning & Thunder
-The '81 All-Star game after the strike
-Trading bats on bat day with all of the other kids in the concourse...took me about 6 trades to finally get a Kuiper (The funny thing is I started with a Larvell "Scooter" Blanks )
-Being a kid and knowing you were going to the game the night before and not being able to sleep a wink...felt like XMas morn when you woke up

[TouchEmAllTime]

A good memory I have is being at Nolan Ryan's last game/start at Municipal in 1993, the biggest baseball crowd I've seen there or anywhere (about 60,000+ if I remember correctly). I also remember being a teenager, I think it was 90-91 and seeing the bash brothers, and thinking what a physical specimen Canseco was, lol....I think he hit a couple bombs in that particular game, one was a shot to center that looked like it was gonna go out of the stadium, probably the farthest blast I've seen in person before some of Thome's bombs at the then Jake.

Another great memory from about 1991, I was waiting outside by the players lot at the time, I got Sandy Alomar's signature on a ticket stub, Baerga on a baseball card, John Hart, and Mike Hargrove on a program, and I'm pretty sure it was Mark Lewis who walked by and stiffed everyone. The signatures are worthless as far as value, but the memories are priceless.

[waborat]

Another great memory from about 1991, I was waiting outside by the players lot at the time, I got Sandy Alomar's signature on a ticket stub, Baerga on a baseball card, John Hart, and Mike Hargrove on a program, and I'm pretty sure it was Mark Lewis who walked by and stiffed everyone. The signatures are worthless as far as value, but the memories are priceless.

I used to get guys like John Lowenstein, Rick Waits & Miguel Dilone...so yours are worth more than mine

[Doc]

I don't remember specifics, but the Coliseum was awesome. Playing the pop-a-shot basketball game was always a must since I was like 7 years old. Saw Craig Ehlo beat the Jazz on that last second 3 pointer...yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and he comes from Lubbock Texas...I still get chills when I hear Joe Tait say that line on the radio. Wow, what a feeling.

The Muni was alright (never made it to a Browns game). They had the awesome red bat or blue glove giveaways. You don't miss them until you don't have them...if we had to piss in troughs now, we'd probably want Randy Lerner's head (not that we don't already). The new places certainly don't have the "character", save the Jake of course. Will always love that place.

[daddywags]

I went to baseball games, not football games at the Muni. I can recall being something like 13 years old and taking a bus from Maple Heights to downtown Cleveland with a friend to watch a doubleheader at the Muni. Walk across public square, the bridge, pay a couple of bucks (this was the early 60s) and you're in. You start out in the upper deck, but move around pretty much whenever and wherever you want to (with reason - you can walk around the lower deck box seats, but don't try to sit in them). Stuff I would never let any of my five kids do today. (Well, maybe some of them, but they are much older than I was at the time.)

The Coliseum? My main memory is 1976 playoffs. I was there for only one game but the place was unbelievably loud, like nothing I've heard before or since. The concrete on the second deck floor was literally shaking.

[jack_tors]

I love the Jake but I really miss the old gray lady for Indians games. Although I saw my last game there when I was 12 or 13, it still was a great place to see a game. I remember being there the day the ball bounced off Canseco's head for a home run. I was sitting behind home plate in the upper deck and it looked like the ball bounced off his glove because he was 10 miles away in the outfield. Wasnt until the guy behind me with an old transistor radio told us of Score laughing cause the ball bounced off his head.

I also remember being there a cold, April week night Kenny Lofton's first year when he had 2 doubles and 2 triples while driving in 3 or 4 rbi's if memory serves me right. I remember sitting half way up in the lower deck by first base just thinking: "Holy shit this guy just FLIES around the bases." I dont think I have ever seen someone so fast, in person, since that night.

At the first baseball game I ever saw, I got my first of many baseballs at Municipal too. (Thanks to Herman Fontenot posting http://www.retrosheet.org for helping me nail this one down) While sitting in the first row of behind first base, Umpire Jerry Neudecker would talk to us between innings and the Indians lost to KC. During one inning, he asked for my plastic batting helmet with the old block "C" on it. When I reluctantly gave it to him, he pulled a baseball from his pocket, put it in the helmet and handed it back.

Here is the box score from that game http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1985/B05150CLE1985.htm

I only saw one football game there, 1994's snowy Christmas Eve game versus the Seahawks. Great game sitting in the upper deck. They destroyed the Seahawks and I remember the atmosphere being just amazing. Nothing like it is in that cookie cutter, yuppie filled, spiritless hole where they play now.

The old Coliseum was cool too. Saw my first soccer game there (Force), first Cavs game there back in 1989 vs the Bucks and first concert there, Aerosmith. It had a nice old school feel to it but as a kid, it seems like driving forever from Lake County to Richfield.

[jfiling]

My most memorable day at Cleveland Municipal Stadium was a non-descript game, but leaving, the WWWE broadcast on the PA outside the stadium mentioned that Alex Cole had been traded. July 4, 1992. Almost as memorable as opening day that year, with my pregnant girlfriend, and the 19 inning hell I put her through.

[jfiling]

BTW, the 1992 Indians had this weird mix of pre-glory players and glory day guys. Baseball-Reference has the starters as:

Sandy Alomar
Paul Sorrento
Carlos Baerga
Mark Lewis
Brook Jacoby
Glenallen Hill
Kenny Lofton
Mark Whiten
Albert (Joey) Belle

And one of the starting pitchers was Jose Mesa.

[TouchEmAllTime]

My most memorable day at Cleveland Municipal Stadium was a non-descript game, but leaving, the WWWE broadcast on the PA outside the stadium mentioned that Alex Cole had been traded. July 4, 1992. Almost as memorable as opening day that year, with my pregnant girlfriend, and the 19 inning hell I put her through.

Weren't the fences moved back one year to accomodate the speed of Alex Cole?

[jfiling]

My most memorable day at Cleveland Municipal Stadium was a non-descript game, but leaving, the WWWE broadcast on the PA outside the stadium mentioned that Alex Cole had been traded. July 4, 1992. Almost as memorable as opening day that year, with my pregnant girlfriend, and the 19 inning hell I put her through.

Weren't the fences moved back one year to accomodate the speed of Alex Cole?

Yep. It was almost like Gabe Paul was still running the team.

[oberle]

Time for JoJo's story about the passed out Nati fan.

DAMN! I was at that game. I went into the john at half-time. A guy in full Bengals regalia was lying in a trough in the mens room on the north side of the bleachers; right opposite the beer stand from which I always bought rounds (proceeds went to the Boy Scouts in Medina(?))

I saw that there were lines (about 4 or five people deep, and 5 or 6 across) at that trough, while I was at the one closer to the window (I had shoes that I only wore at Browns games, I kept them in a bag in my trunk) I went up to the cop in the john as I was leaving to inform him about the Bengals dude. He said that the guy had been in there since early in the 2nd quarter, asked if the guy's head was still out of the trough. When I said yes, he said that the guy would probably wake up then, so he wouldn't spoil the fun.

Those were the days.