Another one of those things that as a kid I figured would be around forever (like the USSR) is thankfully dying away. This year, for the first time since 1966 there is no stadium with an artificial surface in the National League. Of course, all baseball fans pray that soon this monstrosity will be gone from baseball for good. Those three hold-outs in the American Leauge (all domed stadiums - another terrible development in baseball) have got to get rid of it and I don't care how 'natural looking' your turf is. (What? Are they in the grass club for men?)
I remember when I first traveled to London from NY I was talking to some guy in a pub and his biggest complaint about America was 'plastic grass'. He was afraid it was going to be installed in all of England's soccer stadiums. (I think one, Luton, had turf at the time.)
I couldn't have agreed more with the guy and told him that I hoped that one day American baseball teams would realize that Astroturf ruined the game as a spectale. I recounted my tale from 1979 when I watched the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Montreal Expos on a freak bounce of the ball off the seam in the outfield carpet. He was horrified. I hope today he finds the article linked above from the New York Times and he pauses and thinks to himself, "Well, that kid's prayers are being answered".
