Good Bye to AstroTurf

Well, maybe only in the National League. With the moving of the Expos to D.C. and RFK's grass, the NL is now a grass only league. The AL still has Minnesota, Toronto and Tampa Bay with plastic carpets.

With all the new ballpark construction the past few years, most of the NL's fake fields have disappeared, and with Opening Day 2005, it's all gone. With the elimination of Olympic Stadium it is now gone, but when Stade Olympique was built it put the NL over the top with a majority 7 of 12 parks with AstroTurf. The others were Candlestick Park (replaced with grass in '79), Busch Stadium (replaced with grass in about '95), the Astrodome (replaced with Enron Field in '00), Three Rivers Stadium (replaced with PNC Park in '01), Riverfront Stadium (replaced with Great America Park in '03), and Veterans Stadium (replaced with Citizens Bank Park in '04).

In the AL, Royals Stadium had grass put in in '95, and Old Comiskey had some funky combo of infield AstroTurf and outfield grass for a while back in the 70's, Safeco field replaced the Kingdome in '99. Things have come a long way in this regard.