So long, Spectrum
PHILADELPHIA -- After heading into the lot at Citizens Bank Park for tonight's World Series game, I snapped this shot of the old Spectrum next door (left). The final event in the 42-year-old building is tonight, a concert from Pearl Jam. After that, the former home of the Flyers and 76ers -- and the Sabres' former house of horrors from their early seasons -- is getting demolished for a series of shops and restaurants that's been dubbed Philly Live.
Comcast Spectator, the building's owners, has a fabulous Web site at Rememberthespectrum.com. It includes all kinds of trivia, notes, photos and the like. Worth a look. There was also a "Final Stroll" through the Spectrum last week for fans. The Sabres, you may recall, didn't win a single game in the building until November of 1976, their seventh season in the league. They lost all three games of the 1975 Stanley Cup finals there -- and the great team featuring the French Connection scored just one goal in all three of those games!
Here's a video from the stroll featuring a chat with Flyers goaltender Bernie Parent, the Conn Smythe winner who stoned the Sabres in those games. Here's another one that includes a chat with Bob "The Hound" Kelly, who scored the Cup-winning goal at the Aud in '75.
As for this year's Flyers, Daniel Briere is sitting out today's game against Carolina with another groin injury. The Sabres will see the Flyers three times in November as their schedule gets dramatically tougher.
At 8-1-1 heading into tonight's game on Long Island, the Sabres have picked up 17 of their first 20 possible points. Don't mean to gloat but perhaps you recall that I pegged them for 19 of their first 24 in our preview section story on how they can make the playoffs. So if they merely split this home-and-home with the Islanders, which you would think would be the worst they would do, I'll be right on.
Then, of course, it gets a little more serious. The November schedule includes the Flyers (three times), Bruins (twice) and single games against the Capitals, Flames, Oilers and Senators.
OK. Back to baseball for me. And while you're watching the Sabres and Islanders -- and especially after the final buzzer -- stop on over to the Inside Pitch blog to check in what's going on with the Yankees and Phillies before, during and after Game Three. Time for another cheesesteak run.
---Mike Harrington
If Ed Snider needed a volunteer to detonate that dump, I'd be the first in line.
Wasn't much fun for the Sabres in the '70s and especially in the '75 Cup finals that's for sure. But Bernie Parent's play had a lot to do with that.
Posted by: Greg | November 01, 2009 at 10:27 AM
Blow up that G**damn building right now!
Posted by: timmer923 | October 31, 2009 at 11:25 PM
Cliff: Too much baseball on my mind. Of course I should have known the Kellys. Watched another clip where a fan called him Battleship. Made the same mistake I did. Fixed as noted.
Posted by: Mike Harrington | October 31, 2009 at 07:34 PM
Wrong Kelly. Battleship played for the Pens among others. It was the Hound who killed the Sabres in the Cup. Unfortunately, I am old enough to remember, vividly.
Posted by: cliff | October 31, 2009 at 05:27 PM
Briere is officially injury prone. It's too bad. Lost in all the complaining about how much he and Drury meant to the Sabres is how much the Sabres meant to them. They were both in the perfect situations and they've never been the same since they left.
Anyways, Flyers/Hurricanes game today, Pearl Jam concert and Game 3 tonight, and Giants/Eagles and Game 4 tomorrow....pretty good weekend to be in that armpit.
Posted by: Greg B. | October 31, 2009 at 05:16 PM
Glad to see that building disappear! No good memories for those of us who were Sabres fans in the 1970s.
Posted by: CalgarySabre2 | October 31, 2009 at 03:54 PM