The card is a 1965 Topps' Phil Gagliano, number 503.   At first glance, you see a guy in a Cardinals cap posing in a right-handed hitting stance. Then when you look again, you see the Bayfront Concourse Hotel in the background. No Bayfront Hilton, no modern-day St. Petersburg skyline. Just Gagliano, the hotel and the right field fence at Al Lang Stadium.   Just looking at that card, it hits you. It's what St.

Pete used to be, in fact what baseball used to be here.

The Bayfront Concourse Hotel is no more and if some people have their way, Al Lang Stadium will be as well. Another classic piece of history will be gone.

Progress may be a benefit to some, but it can be cruel as well.

The Rays game program from April has on page 62 a photo of Al Lang taken from the right field fence. There is a chalk representation of where home plate is expected to be in 2012 when the proposed stadium will open. With that little gesture, the Rays are saying. "to hell with history," thinking the planned referendum will pass.

Never mind what people actually think.

Driving around the neighborhoods near Tropicana Field you see the red and white signs, "Say NO to a Waterfront $tadium." It's as if the old-style houses in those neighborhoods are also saying they don't want an old friend go.

It seems now that there's a trend to build new stadiums, just for the sake of building them and tradition be damned.

A case in point is the new Yankee Stadium.

As much as I personally wouldn't be caught dead there, the original stadium to me is a piece of baseball history and (may Red Sox Nation forgive me for what I am about to say) I do regard it as a shrine of sorts, as I do Wrigley Field in Chicago.

I know many Yankee fans were angry when during the 1974-75 renovation when they moved the famous façade to the outfield. I give the Yankees credit though, they plan to have the façade where it originally was, just like it is at the field formerly known as Legends. But it is a slap to history as The House That Ruth Built will be replaced by the House That Steinbrenner Built.

I know that people in Detroit felt the same way when Tiger Stadium was replaced with Comerica Park.

About 10 years ago the Red Sox floated the idea of building a new park, but they had the common sense to propose that Fenway be made into a literal park, with the Green Monster still standing. Luckily, they discovered they were able to expand Fenway and the old girl is still standing.

But getting back to Al Lang. Let tradition stay. Keep the Rays in The Trop. Keep Al Lang. Why not have the Rays play a few games there in the spring, like they play a few regular season games in Lake Buena Vista?

Put the FSL team back at Al Lang. They WILL draw there and it would make logistical sense as well. Rays player injured? Easier to monitor rehab a few blocks away. More importantly, it makes monetary sense, or is that asking too much for any type of common sense to be used here?

The Bayfront Concourse Hotel on the 1965 Phil Gagliano card is gone. Let's hope that Al Lang does not meet the same fate.