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59-631: The facility opened May 2, 1929, as Red Wing Stadium . It was renamed Silver Stadium on August 19, 1968, for Morrie Silver , then the president of Rochester Community Baseball, Inc. Silver Stadium hosted its final event, a Governors' Cup playoff game between the Columbus Clippers and the Red Wings, on September 10, 1996, and was demolished in late 1997 and early 1998. The site is now an industrial and office park. Silver Stadium cost $ 415,000 to construct and opened on May 2, 1929, as Red Wing Stadium. At

118-527: A crowd 12,756. Rochester also lost the final game ever at Silver Stadium, game two of the Governors' Cup Finals on September 10, 1996, by a margin of 4–0 to the Columbus Clippers . The Red Wings moved to Frontier Field for the 1997 season. The New York Black Yankees of the Negro National League played at Red Wing Stadium in 1948. The season was the last in the team's history. Outside of baseball,

177-834: A domestic tire plant, which gave it a virtual monopoly. This included both general price and foreign exchange controls . When the ten-year period came to an end in 1979, Firestone retaliated by increasing production, making entry less attractive. Headquarters eventually canceled expansion and failed negotiations led to no further investments. Bridgestone Americas, which has served as the American branch of Japan-based Bridgestone since 1992, moved their corporate office to downtown Nashville in October 2017. In April 2012, Bridgestone Americas opened up its new Bridgestone Americas Technical Center in Akron, Ohio. The $ 100 million facility, located near

236-880: A month of waiting, the delegation was brought to meet Taylor, and after a further six months of negotiations the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Patriotic Reconstruction Assembly Government's Ministry of Finance in January 1992. This MOU provided for taxes to be paid by Firestone to the Taylor government, and for the Taylor government to provide protection to Firestone's employees and assets in Liberia. Firestone resumed operations in March 1992, but once again had to halt in October that same year as hostilities escalated. Over this period,

295-537: A music store, the Columbia Music Store, located at 77 Clinton Avenue South, which was very successful during the post- war recorded music boom. The store, at one time, became the highest-grossing record store in the United States, and a young singer named Lu Ann Simms was hired as a saleswoman in the early 1950s. He sold the store and started the appliance distributorship M. E. Silver Corporation. In 1956,

354-644: A reduction from $ 28.8 million–$ 38.5 million to $ 2.4 million .) Shortly afterward, Firestone extended this to a complete withdrawal by the end of the 1974 season. The manufacturer returned in 1995 to the CART Series with technical assistance from Bridgestone. Firestone has been the sole supplier of tires for the IndyCar Series since 2000 and will run until the 2030 season. In 1950, Firestone along with General Motors and Standard Oil , were charged and convicted of criminal conspiracy for their part in

413-443: A small community southeast of downtown Los Angeles that at the time was mostly farmland. There Firestone identified 40 acres (16 ha) of beanfields for the site of his new manufacturing plant. Architects Curlett and Beelman designed a spectacular four-story Italianate -style complex, with its own power plant and decorated with polychrome murals by Gladding, McBean depicting the tire and rubber-making process. A year after

472-455: A tread separation than any other SUV. Labour economists Alan Krueger and Alexandre Mas concluded that one of the main reasons for the high defect rate of Firestone tires was linked to a dispute between the unions and Firestone at the Decatur plant 1994–1996. They find that the tires manufactured at the plant in question around this time featured substantially increased defect rates, rising with

531-515: A “ Billy Graham Crusade” in September 1988 which featured Christian artist Steve Green. Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, ed. (1997). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball . Durham, North Carolina : Baseball America , Inc. ISBN   0-9637189-1-6 . Morrie Silver Morrie E. Silver (July 28, 1909–April 26, 1974) was an American businessman based in Rochester, New York . He

590-609: Is best known for his work with the Rochester Red Wings minor league baseball team. A native of Rochester, Silver attended East High School and was set to attend Cornell University , but had to change plans when his father became ill. He sold newspapers for the Rochester Times-Union , advancing to the circulation department. In 1937, Silver founded a school, the Columbia Institute for Music. He later opened

649-624: Is home of the company's racing tire production for the NTT IndyCar Series . The plant manufactures all Firestone Firehawk racing tires. It is the first new tire plant in the city of Akron in more than 70 years. Bridgestone also opened up a $ 6 million test track adjacent to the Advanced Tire Production Center to support passenger tire testing and development. The test track opened in autumn 2022. Bridgestone has invested more than $ 125 million in its Akron operations since 2012, when

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708-499: The Great American streetcar scandal . The scandal included purchasing streetcar systems throughout the United States and dismantling and replacing them with buses. Radial tires were introduced to the U.S. market by rivals B.F. Goodrich and Michelin in the late 1960s, and Firestone lacked their own radial tire. The first radial tire developed and produced by Firestone was the ill-fated Firestone 500 radial. Manufacturing of

767-684: The International League moved from the Bay Street Ball Grounds to Red Wing Stadium following the 1928 season. Red Wing Stadium opened May 2, 1929, with a regular season game between the Red Wings and the Reading Keystones . Rochester lost, 3–0. The Wings continued to play at the facility until the 1996 season. On August 31, 1996, the Red Wings lost, 8–5, to the Ottawa Lynx in the final regular season game at Silver Stadium in front of

826-523: The St. Louis Cardinals announced that they would no longer field a farm team in Rochester, where the minor league team, the Red Wings, was one of the oldest in baseball. A group spearheaded by Silver quickly attempted to raise funds to keep the team in Rochester. The resulting stock drive, which gathered 8,222 stockholders, was nicknamed "The 72-Day Miracle." In 1957, Rochester Community Baseball, Inc. , with Silver

885-592: The University of Pennsylvania taught classes and wrote papers on the issues of misjudgments and poor decision-making by the management of Firestone. After years of bad publicity and millions paid out in compensation to victims, Firestone was losing vast amounts of money, and its name was severely damaged. Firestone established the Firestone Natural Rubber plantation in Harbel, Liberia in 1926. From 1926 until

944-855: The 1940s, Firestone was given a defense contract to produce plastic helmet liners; while outproduced by Westinghouse Electric , they still made a fair amount for the M1 Helmet . On September 2, 1940, William Hoppmann, the General Manager of Firestone's Havana office was discharged from his position under the suspicion of being a Nazi agent. On October 11, 1941, a fire at the Firestone Rubber and Latex plant in Fall River, Massachusetts destroyed 5 out of its 8 buildings and destroyed at least 15,000 tons of rubber. The fire caused $ 12 million in damage (equivalent to $ 192 million in 2023 ). In 1951, Firestone

1003-426: The 500's debut, Thomas A. Robertson, Firestone's director of development, wrote an internal memo stating "We are making an inferior quality radial tire which will subject us to belt–edge separation at high mileage". Firestone introduced strict quality control measures in an attempt to fix the inherent problems, however they were not successful in eliminating the basic faults. In 1977 a recall of 400,000 tires produced at

1062-548: The 500, a recall, involving seven million tires. The report went on to indicate that Ford also had been complicit, stating that The Ford Motor Company had instructed Firestone to add a nylon ply to the tires it manufactured in Venezuela for additional strength and that Ford had made suspension changes to the Explorer model available in Venezuela. Ford did not specify adding the nylon ply for U.S.-made Firestone tires nor did it change

1121-463: The Explorer suspension on U.S. models at this time. An abnormally high failure rate in Firestone's Wilderness AT, Firestone ATX, and ATX II tires resulted in multiple lawsuits, as well as an eventual mandatory recall. In 2001 Bridgestone/Firestone severed its ties to Ford citing a lack of trust. The lack of trust stemmed from concerns that Ford had not heeded warnings by Bridgestone/Firestone relating to

1180-635: The South Gate plant was closed in 1980 and 1,300 workers were laid off. East Los Angeles College has proposed a new satellite campus at the site. In 1928, the company built a factory in Brentford, England , a longtime Art Deco landmark on a major route into the city; this closed in 1979. After its purchase by Trafalgar House , the building was demolished during the August 1980 bank holiday weekend, reportedly in anticipation of its becoming listed . In 1936,

1239-603: The address of the Red Wing's new park, Frontier Field , was named One Morrie Silver Way. A statue near Frontier Field was dedicated to Silver in 2007. The Morrie Silver Family Scholarship awards $ 5000 annually to young Red Wings employees who are attending school. Silver was elected to the Rochester Red Wings Hall of Fame in 1989, and to the International League Hall of Fame in 2008. The Red Wings retired

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1298-605: The ballpark briefly hosted professional football as Red Wing Stadium was the home field for the Rochester Braves ( second American Football League ) in 1936 and the Rochester Tigers (second American Football League) in 1936 and 1937. Johnny Antonelli , a Rochester native who won the 1954 World Series as part of the New York Giants , ran a local Firestone business which sponsored "Johnny Antonelli Night" each year at

1357-460: The ballpark. As part of the festivities, the company would give away tires and televisions during the games. Jim Kelly held his fourth-annual StarGaze charity event at the stadium in June 1995. The largest attendance at the stadium was 31,000, for a concert by The Grateful Dead on June 30, 1988, eclipsing their previous record of 30,100, on July 2, 1987. The second largest attendance corresponded to

1416-535: The company also opened its first Firestone Tire and Service Center (later renamed Firestone Complete Auto Care). Firestone Complete Auto Care is the division of Firestone that offers automotive maintenance and repair, including tires. In 1927, Henry Ford and Harvey S. Firestone visited Southern California to select locations for new factories. His friends said Ford wanted to be near the ocean and picked Long Beach and suggested Firestone locate in South Gate, California

1475-583: The company had paid $ 2.3 million in taxes to the Taylor government (equivalent to $ 4.49 million in 2023 ), which some say helped legitimize Taylor's Greater Liberia government and finance and enable its attack on ECOMOG controlled Monrovia. Operations did not fully restart until 2003 at the conclusion of the Second Liberian Civil War . Since the end of the war, Firestone has invested over $ 100 million in restoring and rebuilding its facilities in Liberia. The company's ventures in Liberia have been

1534-513: The company opened a plant in Memphis, Tennessee . With a work force exceeding 3,000 employees, the Memphis plant was the largest tire manufacturer in the company's worldwide operation. On July 1, 1963, the company celebrated the production of 100 million tires in Memphis. The Memphis plant closed in 1982, and most of the plant buildings were demolished. The EPA considers the tract a brownfield site , and

1593-661: The company opened the Bridgestone Americas Technology Center. Firestone Complete Auto Care is an chain of automotive maintenance shops founded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1926. There are over 2,300 Complete Auto Care locations in the United States, all of them independently owned by Firestone, with about 20 million customers each year as of 2002. At the start of 2022 Bridgestone, parent company of Firestone, announced that it will expand its hybrid and electric vehicular services The Indianapolis 500 auto race

1652-537: The company to the Japanese company Bridgestone , which was able to buy the company for much less than it had been worth a decade and a half earlier. The companies celebrated the 20th anniversary of the merger in 2008, and changed the name of the tire division to Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC. In 1972, Firestone received a ten-year import "concession" by the Kenyan government to secure Firestone's investment in

1711-515: The company's seventeen manufacturing plants, including six in one day, and relocated the company from its ancestral home in Akron, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois . He spun off non-tire related businesses, including the Firestone Country Club ; it was considered a deliberate plan to boost the stock price, and it paid off. In 1988, after discussions with Pirelli , Nevin negotiated the sale of

1770-418: The complaints, tested the tires and tried to assert that the tires had been abused or under-inflated. On September 6, 2000, in a statement before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Transportation subcommittee the president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen , Joan Claybrook , stated: ...There are a number of parallels between this recall in 2000 and the 1978 recall of the Firestone 500...there

1829-661: The design of the Ford Explorer. In 2006, Firestone announced renewed efforts to recall tires of the same model recalled in 2000 after the tires were linked to recent deaths and injuries. According to Firestone's last filing with the National Highway Transportation Administration, only 90,259 of more than 2.5 million recalled tires were confirmed as removed from service. In November 2013, two recalled Wilderness AT tires were found in Atlanta, Georgia. One of

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1888-510: The era. Firestone soon saw the huge potential for marketing tires for automobiles , and the company was a pioneer in the mass production of tires. Harvey S. Firestone had a friendship with Henry Ford , and used this to become the original equipment supplier of Ford Motor Company automobiles, and was also active in the replacement market. In 1988, the company was sold to the Japanese Bridgestone Corporation. Firestone

1947-651: The event of Cold War hostilities in Eastern Europe. Built in southern California, this missile was replaced in 1962 by the MGM-29 Sergeant system. In 1961, Firestone acquired the Dayton Tire division from the Dayco Corporation. Dayco later sued both Firestone and Goodyear , alleging that the two companies conspired to monopolize the tire industry in the United States. The United States District Court dismissed

2006-447: The fanciful jersey number 8222 in his honor, using the number of initial Red Wings shareholders from 1956. Firestone Tire and Rubber Company Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is an American tire company founded by Harvey S. Firestone (1868–1938) in 1900 initially to supply solid rubber side-wire tires for fire apparatus , and later, pneumatic tires for wagons, buggies , and other forms of wheeled transportation common in

2065-487: The former headquarters, tire plant, and technical center, houses 450 employees whose jobs are to develop innovative and advanced tire technologies for the company. In June 2022, Bridgestone opened up its $ 21 million Advanced Tire Production Center which replaced the Firestone Advance Tire Works Plant at the original Firestone Tire and Rubber Company headquarters which opened in 1910. The new building

2124-539: The lawsuit. In 1965 Firestone acquired the Seiberling Rubber Company . In late 1979, Firestone brought in John Nevin, the ex-head of Zenith Electronics , as president to save the hemorrhaging company from total collapse. It was more than a billion dollars in debt at the time and losing $ 250 million a year (equivalent respectively to $ 3.39 billion and $ 847 million in 2023 ). Nevin closed nine of

2183-499: The major league affiliate of the Rochester Red Wings and also the owners of Red Wing Stadium and the Red Wings, were exploring the possibility of removing the franchise from their minor league system. In response, Morrie Silver, a Rochester businessman, spearheaded an effort to purchase both assets from the Cardinals. A total of 8,222 stockholders, including Silver, came together to form Rochester Community Baseball, Inc. (RCB) The effort

2242-550: The majority stockholder, purchased the Red Wings from the Cardinals, with Silver presenting the MLB team with a $ 500,000 check. Silver said, "I just couldn't imagine youngsters growing up in years to come not being able to see professional baseball in Rochester." Silver periodically worked in the front office of the Red Wings, serving as president in 1957, 1962, 1963, and 1965, and as general manager from 1966 to 1968. Silver moved to Miami Beach in 1968, but continued to be involved in

2301-463: The new stadium in one of Rochester's suburbs , namely Greece , Avon and Victor . Ground was broken on Frontier Field , a new stadium located in downtown Rochester next to Eastman Kodak 's world headquarters, in 1995. Frontier Field opened on July 11, 1996, allowing Silver Stadium to close on September 10, 1996. Silver Stadium was demolished in late 1997 and early 1998, and the site is now an industrial and office park. The Rochester Red Wings of

2360-403: The new tire was performed on equipment designed to manufacture bias-ply tires. During the 1970s, Firestone experienced major problems with the Firestone 500 radial. The Firestone 500 steel-belted radials began to show signs of separation of the tread at high speeds. While the cause was never proved, it is believed that the failure of bonding cements, used by Firestone to hold the tread to

2419-542: The onset of the dispute and subsiding when the dispute was finally settled at the end of 1996. Other similar plants of Firestone did not report similar increases in the defect rate in this period. Where the Rubber Meets the Road is an advertisement jingle that was frequently used in the 1960s and 1970s, especially on televised sporting events. The jingle was sung by Don Rondo . Bridgestone/Firestone also produces tires under

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2478-468: The operation of the Red Wings. Silver died of complications of a heart attack in Miami, Florida on April 26, 1974. He was survived by his wife, Anna, and a daughter, Naomi. Naomi Silver remains as president and chief executive of the Red Wings. Red Wing Stadium, the home of the Red Wings, was renamed Silver Stadium upon Silver's retirement in 1968. The Red Wings played at Silver Stadium until 1996, after which

2537-692: The outbreak of the First Liberian Civil War in 1990, the Firestone Natural Rubber Company was the largest plantation of its kind in the world. It was originally envisioned for 350,000 people to be employed on the newly created plantations. However this was more than the number of able-bodied men in the entire nation at the time, which created intense pressure for labor. In the period between 1926 and 1946 Christine Whyte concluded that: The collusion between Firestone and government officials to keep wages low and coerce workers onto

2596-488: The plant opened in 1928, it expanded to double the initial size, and by 1954 grew to nearly one million square feet (23 acres; 9.3 ha). The town grew around Firestone, its main boulevard was named after Harvey, and Los Angeles became the number one tire market in the country. By the mid-1970s, Ford and General Motors had massive layoffs as Firestone and other manufacturers opened new plants in non-union locales like Wilson, North Carolina . After considerable downsizing,

2655-526: The plantations was at best substantially overlooked, at worst regarded as a form of "development" in itself. In September 1990, rebel NPFL forces (led by Charles Taylor , who would later be convicted of war crimes ) executed sitting Liberian president Samuel Doe and seized the Harbel plantation. Firestone had to evacuate its American workers as a result. In June 1991, Firestone sent a delegation to Monrovia in an attempt to restart operations in Harbel. After

2714-427: The possible presence of hazardous substances or contaminants have deterred its redevelopment . During World War II , the company was called on by the U.S. Government to make artillery shells , aluminum kegs for food transport, and rubberized military products. Barrage balloons were produced at Akron. Firestone ranked 55th among U.S. corporations in the value of wartime military production contracts. In

2773-427: The problematic Decatur, Illinois plant was initiated. Firestone blamed the problems on the consumer, stating underinflation and poor maintenance. On October 20, 1978, Firestone recalled over 7 million Firestone 500 tires, the largest tire recall to date. Congressional hearings into the 500 also took place in 1978. The tire was found to be defective and the cause of 250 deaths. In May 1980 after finding that they knew

2832-755: The subject of considerable scrutiny and criticism, including a 2005 Alien Tort Claims Act case brought in California by the International Labor Rights Fund and a 2014 investigative report by ProPublica entitled "Firestone and the Warlord", and a PBS Frontline documentary by the same name. In 1996, several state agencies in Arizona began experiencing major issues with Firestone tires on Ford Explorers. According to news reports, various agencies demanded new tires, and Firestone conducted an investigation of

2891-404: The time, the stadium had a maximum capacity of 15,000. The park was built in the middle of a thriving urban residential neighborhood, which like most suffered a decline in the latter half of the century. Plentiful parking for automobiles, not a huge concern at the time it was built, became an issue as more and more fans drove their cars to the ballpark. In late 1956, the St. Louis Cardinals , then

2950-448: The tire carcass, may have allowed water to penetrate the tire, which in turn may have caused the internal steel wire to corrode. In March 1978, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced publicly a formal investigation into defects of the Firestone 500. The NHTSA investigation found that the tread separation problem was most probably a design defect affecting all Firestone 500s. In 1973, only two years after

3009-572: The tires was offered for sale as new at a used tire retail shop. Some outside observers have speculated about the blame worthiness of both parties. Firestone tires being prone to tread separation and failure, and the SUVs being especially prone to rolling over if a tire fails at speed compared to other vehicles. A subsequent NHTSA investigation of real world accident data showed that the Ford Explorer SUVs in question were no more likely to roll over after

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3068-508: The tires were defective, the NHTSA fined Firestone $ 500,000 (equivalent to $ 1.55 million in 2023 ), which at that time was the largest fine imposed on any U.S. corporation and the largest civil penalty imposed since passage of the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Act. Multiple lawsuits were settled out of court and the constant negative publicity crippled the company's sales and share price. Harvard Business School and Wharton School of

3127-405: Was a documented coverup by Firestone of the 500 defect, spurred by the lack of a Firestone replacement tire. When the coverup was disclosed, the top management of the company was replaced as Firestone was severely damaged in reputation and economically. But a key difference is that the Firestone 500 was used on passenger cars, which rarely rolled over with tire failure. NHTSA documented 41 deaths with

3186-531: Was given the defense contract for the MGM-5 Corporal missile . Firestone was given a total of US$ 6,888,796 (equivalent to $ 64.8 million in 2023 ) for the first 200 units. Known as the "Embryo of the Army," it was a surface-to-surface guided missile which could deliver a high-explosive warhead up to 75 nautical miles (140 km). It was later modified to be able to carry a nuclear payload for use in

3245-559: Was incorporated in Hamilton, Ontario , and the first Canadian-made tire rolled off the line on September 15, 1922. During the 1920s, Firestone produced the Oldfield tire, named for racing driver Barney Oldfield . In 1926, the company opened one of the world's largest rubber plantations , extending over one million acres (1,560 sq mi; 4,050 km ), in Liberia, West Africa . That year

3304-590: Was originally based in Akron, Ohio , also the hometown of its archrival, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company , and two other midsized competitors, General Tire and Rubber Company and B.F. Goodrich Company . Founded on August 3, 1900, the company initiated operations with 12 employees. Together, Firestone and Goodyear were the largest suppliers of automotive tires in North America for over 75 years. In 1906, Henry Ford chose Firestone to supply tires for its car models. In 1918, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Canada

3363-403: Was renovated in the mid-1980s, Silver was deficient in a number of these areas. Like most old ballparks of its era, it did not have any corporate luxury suites. The official story is that public sentiment in Rochester was in favor of building a new ballpark somewhere closer to the downtown area, with plenty of parking and access to expressways. However, at various times, proposals were made to build

3422-461: Was ultimately successful as RCB purchased both assets on February 27, 1957, ensuring that the team would remain in Rochester for the 1957 season and beyond. Red Wing Stadium was renamed Silver Stadium in Silver's honor on August 19, 1968. Major League Baseball mandated changes to minor league ballparks in the 1990s to both upgrade the field of play and the facilities that the players used. Even though it

3481-532: Was won in 1911 by a car running Firestone tires, as did all winners of the race from 1920 to 1966 . The company also provided tires to NASCAR from 1948 to 1974, and to Formula One from 1950 to 1974. Citing rising costs as the cause, Firestone announced its withdrawal from professional motorsports in August 1974 with the exception of Formula 5000 and Formula One. The change was forecast to reduce Firestone's annual race testing budget from between $ 6 and $ 8 million to around $ 500,000 (in 2023, roughly equivalent to

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