PNC Park is, indeed, a classic ballpark.

Everybody says that, but few show up. Many say they’re excited about the Pirates current faux renaissance, but the team still ranks fourth from bottom in MLB attendance.

Maybe crowds will increase along with Oneil Cruz’s batting average. Or perhaps Cruz will keep hitting 204.

The notion of building new ballparks patterned after fields classic, old and gone started in Baltimore (1992) and Cleveland (1994). Such fields are far superior to multi-purpose monstrosities like Three Rivers Stadium, but don’t quite capture the ethos of places like Chicago’s Wrigley Field and Boston’s Fenway Park.

That’s because nothing matches the original.

PNC Park doesn’t match Forbes Field. It borrows heavily but doesn’t duplicate.

My notion is born of the bias that everything is better when you were younger. I only saw a handful of Pirates games at Forbes Field, but it left an indelible impression.

Forbes Field haunted Oakland from 1909-70. (The Pirates switched parks in mid-season in Forbes’ first year, and its last. The logistics seem crazy, but it happened. I was at the last game at Forbes, and the first game at Three Rivers.)

Forbes Field was big. Lots of grass. Launch angle and exit velocity would have been ill-served.

Dead center field was 457 feet away. Pirates first baseman Dick Stuart cleared that mark with a home run in 1959. If anybody else did, it went unrecorded.

Tribune-Review The old wall from Forbes Field in Oakland.  

That spot was so far away, the batting cage was put there. The cage was in play, but the ball rarely got there. Same goes for the adjacent flagpole.

Baseball was fun at Forbes Field. Fielders were often running after the ball and players were often running the bases. Bigger was better. (It still would be.)

Roberto Clemente reached double digits in triples eight times. Clemente was an all-time great player, but Forbes Field was the ideal place to hit triples. There was so much room for the ball to land and roll, and Clemente could fly.

The Pirates once hit eight triples in a game at Forbes Field. There was never a no-hitter pitched there.

Clemente established that Forbes Field was made for him in his second season, 1956. Clemente hit the only inside-the-park walk-off grand slam in MLB history. That might be baseball’s version of Mario Lemieux’s five goals, five ways.

Descriptions of the moment reflect vintage Clemente and vintage Forbes Field: Clemente hit the ball off the cage surrounding the left-field light tower. The ball glanced into center field and rattled around like a pinball. Clemente charged through the third-base coach’s stop sign to score the winning run.

I saw Clemente warm up at Forbes Field by standing at the base of the right-field wall and throwing several balls over the double-decker stands. He then fired a couple of strikes to third base and a few more to home plate. Best arm ever.

PNC Park is awesome. But it’s a Xerox. Even the best Xerox is a bit blurry.

It’s sad that Forbes Field was demolished. Three Rivers Stadium was horrific.

If Forbes Field still stood, it would be revered like Wrigley and Fenway. It would be old, sure, but Fenway Park has shown how what’s ancient can be made fresh through renovation that doesn’t take away from the park’s essence.

But PNC Park is nonetheless a great place for baseball.

If only the baseball played by the home team was better.

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