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When Bill Reed, Bears Stadium ruled Denver's sporting world
Denver was ready for professional baseball when the Denver Bears came out of the past and started playing at Merchants' Park on South Broadway. It soon became clear that the old ballpark wouldn't hold all the fans who wanted to see the games.
The postwar popularity of baseball in Denver was due in large part to Bill Reed's radio broadcasts of the games on KMYR. Reed and I attended North High, where he was a star shortstop. He also played Legion ball under Cobe Jones, whom he adored. Bill was scouted by major league teams and had a promising career ahead of him in professional baseball.
At least he did until he was stricken with polio and was unable to ever play again. I helped break him in as a nonsports announcer at KMYR. But he wanted to do sports, and on his own, he persuaded the local Canada Dry distributor to buy advertising on home broadcasts and on the re-created broadcasts of road games.
The broadcasts were so successful you could walk down neighborhood streets and hear Bill's voice calling the games from almost every house. Remember, there was no television in Denver until 1952.
The next summer, Coors became the sponsor of the Bears games, and Bill's knowledge helped educate fans who had never seen a baseball game. He sold a lot of Coors with his, "Snap the cap from a bottle of Coors, America's fine, light beer."
Merchants' Park became almost instantly obsolete, and Empire Sports, which owned the team, built what became Bears Stadium. Imagine that — a sports franchise that actually built its own ballpark!
I loved Bears Stadium because it was near where I lived in north Denver. My father and I could hear the cheering from our side porch under the grape arbor. When it got to be the fourth inning and the game was tied, my father, mother and I would get in the car and go down to Bears Stadium to watch the rest of the game.
Later, after I moved away from the north side, I always gave box seat tickets to my parents for Christmas. They rarely missed a game. My mother got acquainted with many of the players and their wives. They were all wonderfully kind. Tim Raines was a special favorite of hers.
She didn't like it at all when the Broncos moved in, and she was really upset when taxpayers footed the bill for a $25 million expansion of the field to accommodate football fans. The east stand seats shortened the left field fence. Mom really didn't like that.
"They can call it Mile High Stadium if they want to, but it will always be Bears Stadium to me," she said. After my father died, I loved taking her to the games. Sometimes it would rain and almost everyone would leave except Mom and me. We'd huddle together in the downpour, and she would say, "Let's wait a little longer to see if they will finish the game. I don't want to miss anything."
It's probably just as well the stadium is being torn down. My mother and Bill Reed are no longer here. They may be gone, but I still have my memories.
Gene Amole's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. (gamole@aol.com)
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