portobob
08-22-2006, 03:30 PM
Sportsmans Park had a totally manual scoreboard. Im not sure who controlled the balls and strike lights but the runs were posted by a guy who climbed up and down the inside of the board on a scaffold arrangement. The metal plates that showed the scores were pretty heavy. They slid into some brackets and were updated inning by inning. The attendant got the scores off of a ticker tape found the correct run plate and slid it in place. In the late '50's and early '60's a buddy of ours ran the scoreboard for baseball and football...the old football Cardinal games. If we couldnt get a seat for the football games we would go up to the scoreboard and watch the games there. Because the football games were televised you couldnt take a plate out of the scoreboard so you had to bend down to squint under a plate, thru about a quarter inch gap. By the time the game was over your neck and back were cramping and in severe pain. This didnt apply to the Brownie games.....for those you could sit anywhere you wanted after about the fourth inning (except for the Brownie Dugout ha ha)