Morgan Park Loses Its Diamond

It is not exactly as nostalgic as WP Kinsela opening Chapter 2 of Shoeless Joe with "They Tore Down the Polo Grounds in 1964," but I bring news that subcontractors of Metro Parks have started tearing down the 58-year-old Morgan Park Memorial Field, which Public Works Director Billy Lynch told me recently was the nicest ballfield in Nashville when he was growing up in our neighborhood.

I understand the plan to be to install a "multi-purpose field" in the diamond's place. That idea is sterile, unromantic, and unappealing to me, kind of like the idea of building multi-purpose, astro-turfed stadiums in the Major Leagues in the 1960s. I know the field had run-down in recent years, but this transition seems sad to me.