The wrecking ball crashed down with a sickening thud on the top of the concrete dugout along the first-base line at Cooper Stadium yesterday, collapsing the roof. Swiftly, the excavator operator released the wrecking ball from the machine's claw and grabbed a chunk of debris, placing it in a pile in the grandstand, where 10-year-olds once chased foul balls on warm June nights.

The wrecking ball crashed down with a sickening thud on the top of the concrete dugout along the first-base line at Cooper Stadium yesterday, collapsing the roof. Swiftly, the excavator operator released the wrecking ball from the machine's claw and grabbed a chunk of debris, placing it in a pile in the grandstand, where 10-year-olds once chased foul balls on warm June nights.

Demolition work finally began on Cooper Stadium this week, the start of the transformation of Columbus' venerable home of minor-league baseball into a racetrack.

Crews yesterday continued tearing down the indoor batting cage behind the grandstand along the first base line. A pile of concrete blocks and other rubble sat behind the stadium, exposing what had been a men's restroom. Piles of metal from the roof lay across the seats behind home plate.

Plans call for the grandstand along the first-base line to be torn down as Arshot Investment Corp. converts the stadium into a half-mile racetrack, part of the $40 million Sports Pavilion and Automotive Research Complex, or SPARC. The track will seat 8,500.

Demolition will go on for 10 to 12 weeks, said Chris Hoff, vice president of construction for Lion Real Estate Services, which is overseeing the work.

Work then will begin on the track and adjacent automotive research and technology building. The project is scheduled to open by fall 2015, said Arshot spokeswoman Lisa Griffin.

Michael Waltrip Racing is working with Arshot on the SPARC project. Also, Midwestern Auto Group and Clean Fuels Ohio will be tenants in the research center. Ohio State University and Columbus State Community College are in talks about their involvement in the research center.

Ken Schnacke, president and general manager for the Columbus Clippers, has many fond memories of Cooper Stadium, including the team's first game there in April 1977, drawing 15,721 despite a drizzle.

The Clippers are playing their sixth season at Huntington Park, and it was time the wrecking ball found its way to Cooper Stadium, he said.

"One of the things I dreaded was that park sitting there and decaying and becoming an eyesore," Schnacke said.

For many longtime Columbus residents and baseball fans, though, it might be hard to look past memories of the long ball, cowbells and budding talent that was Cooper Stadium.

The site was Columbus' home of minor-league baseball beginning on June 3, 1932, when Red Bird Stadium was dedicated.

The Red Birds moved after the 1954 season and a group led by Harold Cooper brought in an International League team from Ottawa for 1955, renaming it the Columbus Jets.

The stadium sat empty after the 1970 season when the Jets moved to Charleston, W.Va. Franklin County bought Jet Stadium from the Columbus Youth Foundation for $600,000 in 1975.

Cooper, then a Franklin County commissioner, led the charge to bring baseball back. The Clippers began play there in 1977 as a Pirates affiliate. In 1979, they became a Yankees farm team. The stadium was named for Cooper in 1984.

The final game at Cooper Stadium was played on Sept. 1, 2008. Clippers historian Joe Santry said more people saw a minor-league baseball game at that park than any other park in the country.

"When the Clippers started in '77, we were there, and we've been here ever since," said Ron Rosen, who sat with his wife, Jenny, at Huntington Park last night.

"We loved (Cooper Stadium). It was all 60- or 70-year-olds there and 3,000 or 4,000 at the most," he said.

Heidi Foster, a barmaid at Charley's Place, less than a half-mile from Cooper Stadium, said the bar was not a regular stop for Clippers fans.

She believes they'll have better luck with race fans once the SPARC complex opens.

"I wish they'd hurry up, bring us new business," she said. "I think all the bars are looking forward to that."

Dispatch Reporter Jim Massie contributed to this story.

@MarkFerenchik