As sad as I am to say it, I think you are right. When the American colonies were considering independence, John Adams wrote, "If we finally fail in this great and glorious Contest, it will be by bewildering ourselves in groping for the middle way." I see a rebuild in the same way. Trying to rebuild while holding on to two or three vets just probably won't work. It will just make them and us all sad. Tear it down and start again. Baseball is the one sport where you can truly do it.
As you may have guessed, I teach American History haha