OT: Minor League Parks

[blackandgold]

Originally Posted by blackandgold

Altoona
Harrisburg
State College
Reading (mid 1970's)
Toledo (with a pre-game stop at Tony Packo's)
Columbus
Williamsport

Need to add to my list :
Allentown
Erie
Washington, PA
Bradenton
South Bend
Durham
Greensboro
Winston-Salem

[Vintagedeputy]

I've only seen games at two:

The Diamond here in Richmond
Skylands Park (NJ)

Also have visited Jackie Robinson Park in Daytona Beach, Fl.

[Bobbycee]

Originally Posted by mybuddyinc

Just bored with the Winter, and I know a lot of members are having cabin fever, with all the snow around. So, I decided to "warm" everyone up with a "hope Springs eternal" OT thread.

How many, and which, minor league parks have you been to ??

I'm at 23, which I'm sure is a drop in the bucket to many, but I enjoy thinking about them (North to South):


Lowell
Norwich
Pawtucket / Old, pre-renovation
New Haven / Yale Field
Staten Island / Old Staten Island University Field
North Jersey / Late 1990's NYP, Augusta, NJ
Lakewood
Trenton / Ticket guy for five years
Reading / Greatest minor league organization, imo
Harrisburg / Island Park, in use sine 1880's
Columbus, OH
Memphis / spent a lifetime there one season
Wilmington, DE
Bowie
Greensboro / Old, old, old stadium
Winston-Salem
Hickory
Kannapolis
Charlotte
Columbia / worst stadium ever
Charleston, SC
Columbus, GA
Savannah / can't wait until season starts, Go Gnats !!!


Fun, Fun, Scott

Great post Scott! I love when these old threads get revived.
I worked as an intern for the New Britain Red Sox in the summer of 1991. The year after Bagwell left. Team was operated by Joe Buzas, who also owned Reading Phillies and Utah Buzz. I loved working for him. I only saw the home games at Beehive Field that year.

In 1992, I worked for the Auburn Astros of the NY Penn League. Falcon Park was THE worst ballpark in the Minors. The visitors clubhouse had a dirt floor, and many teams refused to set foot in that dungeon. As GM of the team, I was able to ride the bus with the team to other ballparks: Niagara Falls, Pittsfield, Geneva, Elmira, and a couple of others. Back in the early 90's, Major League Baseball hadn't put in the tough ballpark improvements yet, and many small town ballparks were iffy.

In 1995, I worked for the NJ Cardinals for 12 years at Skylands Park. I see a few people on this thread who listed attending games there. Thanks for going. I hope it was a good experience!

[Butch7999]

Here enjoying the little anecdotes and vignettes about some of the stadiums even more than we're being impressed
by some of the lengthy lists of stadiums visited. Embarrassing, then, to have such a short list of our own to offer, but
we'll bet we have one or two to which no one else on board can lay claim...

Buffalo NY
Civic Stadium / War Memorial Stadium
All-High Stadium
Pilot Field / Dunn Tire Park / NorthAmericare Park / Coca-Cola Field / Sahlen Field

Niagara Falls NY
Hyde Park Stadium

Allentown PA
Coca-Cola Park

The ballfield at War Memorial -- "The Rockpile" -- was laid out inside a football stadium, so it was about 500 feet
down the leftfield line, 600 to center, and maybe 95 feet to the rightfield foul pole.
The Bisons played night games in Niagara Falls after the East Side riot of 1967 because middle-class white folks
became too scared to go to that part of town. Ironically, a couple of us wound up living for many years within
walking distance of War Memorial about twenty years later.
We remember Hyde Park as being basically a high-school ballpark with poor lighting and lots of chain-link fence.
We might be mistaken about All-High, but we all have a fuzzy recollection of attending when the Bisons played
exactly one game there in the late '60s.
Pilot Field ... > Sahlen Field has been a top-notch facility since the day it was built, the inspiration for Camden Field
and all the other retro-style MLB stadia ever since, and a key element in Buffalo's downtown revival.

We've been at (but not inside) Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, so the only "out-of-town" park at which we've actually
attended a game is the Allentown facility. Small but very nice, great atmosphere, great fans.

[jerseygary]

Louisville Slugger Field in Louisville, KY is a great ballpark to visit. To sweeten the pot, on September 2 the Louisville Bats are doing their Negro League tribute and are giving away a special baseball card I did of Louisville native and Negro Leaguer star third baseman/manager Felton Snow. Here's a pre-production look at the card (I still have to add the logos of the sponsors):

snow_actual_size.jpg

[tedzan]

1949....Ruppert Stadium....Newark Bears
----


1995....Trenton Thunder


2002....Reading Phillies


TED Z

T206 Reference
.