Best Minor League Stadium You have Watched a Game

[KarlofDelaware]

The Asheville Tourist's stadium gets my vote. It is built in the side of a hill, and there is nothing but greenery beyond the outfield walls. Because of the short distance to the outfield walls, it has a very high wall in right field. Best of all, you can get seats that are actually on the the field between the dugouts and home plate. These seats are on wood planks laid on the field grass, and you are protected by a screen in front of your seat. If you get one of these seats you are really part of the action!

[Gurgi]

Best Stadium for a minor league team is Oriole Park at Camden Yards. They have this Warehouse thing in right field. I love watching Pawtucket and Columbus come to town. Great minor league baseball to be had.

[PrivateO]

Best Stadium for a minor league team is Oriole Park at Camden Yards. They have this Warehouse thing in right field. I love watching Pawtucket and Columbus come to town. Great minor league baseball to be had.

Oh I see what you did there. It's one of those jokes making a mediocre major league team sound like a minor league team.

[Triple Crown]

Watching Colby Rasmus at Autozone Park was a lot of fun. It's designed by the same architecture firm that did OPACY.

Was very surprised to see someone from this forum has actually been to AutoZone. Absolutely one of the best minor league parks around and that's the minor league park for the Cardinal's AAA team in Memphis

[DrungoHazewood]

1. Midway Stadium, St. Paul. Sat in part owner Bill Murray's seats behind the plate, apparently he used to just have his tickets released to the public for games when he wasn't there. This was 15 years ago, but they had the pig bring balls to the ump. They had a huge section of loyal rooters with chants and cheers for players. They had a nun in the stands giving massages. Some kind of contraption strapped to the beer vendors' backs so they could pour out of a tap at your seat. Train tracks ran 10 ft behind the outfield fence, and trains would really go through during the game. Lots of fun, I hope it's still like that.

2. Mulcahy Stadium, Anchorage. So, not really minor league. It's college summer league. But you can't beat baseball in Alaska with giant snow-capped peaks in the background and the sun still out almost all night.

3. Foothills Stadium, Calgary. In the middle of an epic roadtrip with 12 of my friends in an RV we happened upon 41-year-old Eddie Murray's rehab stint with the Albuquerque Dukes, on the road in Calgary, Alberta. I caught a squishy ball, too.

4. Salem Municipal Stadium, VA. Home of the old Salem Bucs, before they became the Avalanche and moved into a new park. Big brick wall in left with a Marlboro Man in play. Homers to right could cross a street and end up in somebody's front yard. My first minor league game was here, and would always look for William Pennyfeather and Pedro Castellano (he's still playing 20 years later!) in the box scores for years afterwards.

5 (tie). I have a soft spot for little threadbare indy league franchises. So I'll always remember the games I saw in Altoona (the Rail Kings) and Aberdeen (the Arsenal). Both were barely more than little municipal fields with wooden bleachers. I saw Sam Horn play in Aberdeen around '99 or 2000. And Walt "No Neck" Williams managed Altoona, and it was bingo night at the park.

Edit: I nearly forgot Memorial Stadium. In 1993 the BaySox were brand new, and PG County Stadium was unfinished, so they played at recently abandoned Memorial Stadium. It was awesome - tickets were cheap, and you could walk up the day of the game and sit behind home plate in what had been a MLB park a couple years before. They didn't have a full-time paid grounds crew, so they asked for volunteers when it started to rain. I'll never forget running around on the tarp in the infield during a rainstorm.

[fansince1988]

4. Salem Municipal Stadium, VA. Home of the old Salem Bucs, before they became the Avalanche and moved into a new park. Big brick wall in left with a Marlboro Man in play. Homers to right could cross a street and end up in somebody's front yard. My first minor league game was here, and would always look for William Pennyfeather and Pedro Castellano (he's still playing 20 years later!) in the box scores for years afterwards.

Edit: I nearly forgot Memorial Stadium. In 1993 the BaySox were brand new, and PG County Stadium was unfinished, so they played at recently abandoned Memorial Stadium. It was awesome - tickets were cheap, and you could walk up the day of the game and sit behind home plate in what had been a MLB park a couple years before. They didn't have a full-time paid grounds crew, so they asked for volunteers when it started to rain. I'll never forget running around on the tarp in the infield during a rainstorm.

The old Salem Municipal Stadium is still in use today by the local college in Salem is now named Kiawanis Field. The Salem Avalanche were re-branded the Salem Red Sox after switching back and forth between the Rockies and the Astros organizations. The "new" ballpark, (Lewis Gale Field) built in 1996 is also a great place to catch a game with an outstanding view of the blue ridge mountains in right field. It's still the best stadium in the Carolina League aside from BB&T Bank Field in Winston-Salem, NC.

Also had a chance to see the Baysox play when they were in Memorial Stadium, oddly enough I still have the ticket stub to the game.

Pictures and info on both the old and new ballparks in Salem:

http://maroons.roanoke.edu/sports/2009/7/20/athdept_0720091428.aspx?path=baseball

[TGO]

I still remember going to Memorial to see super phenom Jeffrey Hammonds. :laughlol:

I think Mussina also pitched a rehab game there IIRC.

[calhof2007]

Ripken Stadium is a great minor league ballpark but I feel a little biased naming it my favorite since I have a season plan there. My favorite stadium is probably a tie between Durham Bulls Athletic Park and Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, FL. Here's a link to some pictures of Roger Dean. http://digitalballparks.com/Florida/Jupiter.html

The worst, by far, has to be Damaschke Field in Oneonta, NY. Luckily the Oneonta Tigers moved to Connecticut so they do not have to play there anymore but the ballpark is absolutely terrible. However, I did see Joe Mahoney hit one of the farthest homeruns I have ever seen a minor leaguer hit there. The ball cleared the light stand in right field and landed in the top of the trees behind it. http://digitalballparks.com/NYPenn/Damaschke.html

[BaysoxFan39]

Fifth-Third, not ThirdFifth

For me, it's Ripken.

Thanks. I seem to always mix the name up.

[BaysoxFan39]

I'll rank them based on my experiences.

1. Harbor Park (Norfolk Tides): Something about this park almost brings in something of a true mini-Baltimore feel. Right on the water, decent size and typically a decent number of fans, solid intimate environment... yet you feel like you're at a relatively big-time event. Oh and the Fried Twinkees are delish.

2. Prince George County Stadium (Bowie Baysox): Smaller than Harbor Park.... the carousel is a nice touch. GREAT selection of food/drink for a minor league team. Free parking is also a good touch.

3. PNC Field (Scranton Yankees): Boy Scranton did a poor job keeping this field up. It has the best scenic backdrop of any stadium I've ever been to... but seriously, you can't even put up a working jumbotron? Was at my second game there all time a couple weeks ago (and I was about 10 the other time I went to a game there) and the upper deck was almost completely empty... they announced 4K in attendance... but I'd be shocked if more than 3K were actually present.

4. The Diamond (Richmond Flying Squirrels): The girlfriend actually got me tickets for the Bowie Baysox vs Richmond Flying Squirrels game this past Saturday.... at least Scranton has a jumbotron screen present... The Diamond doesn't even have that. Hard to imagine a stadium only a few years older than Harbor Park can look so much more run down. That said, the Cupid seats (as the girlfriend had bought) are a nice idea. Too bad I was the only person in the entire lower deck area rooting for the Baysox.

I should have added the "Diamond" to my list. That place is ancient. It was a "half" replica of Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta. The Braves pulled out of Richmond and the place lay dormant until the AA Conneticut Defenders moved there last year. The city and owners made a few million in improvements and it is still a nice park to watch a game minus the new park amenities. In two years there will be a new stadium built next to the Diamond if the city gets it's act together. I have been there many times to watch the Baysox play the Squirrels. They average about 6,300 a game and the ushers wear golf hats (Greg Norman Style).

[BaysoxFan39]

The old Salem Municipal Stadium is still in use today by the local college in Salem is now named Kiawanis Field. The Salem Avalanche were re-branded the Salem Red Sox after switching back and forth between the Rockies and the Astros organizations. The "new" ballpark, (Lewis Gale Field) built in 1996 is also a great place to catch a game with an outstanding view of the blue ridge mountains in right field. It's still the best stadium in the Carolina League aside from BB&T Bank Field in Winston-Salem, NC.

Also had a chance to see the Baysox play when they were in Memorial Stadium, oddly enough I still have the ticket stub to the game.

Pictures and info on both the old and new ballparks in Salem:

http://maroons.roanoke.edu/sports/2009/7/20/athdept_0720091428.aspx?path=baseball

The dimensions at Prince Georges Stadium are the same as Memorial Stadium. When the Baysox moved to PG Stadium after their first season in Memorial they brought the foul ball poles along and they remain there to this day.

[fansince1988]

The dimensions at Prince Georges Stadium are the same as Memorial Stadium. When the Baysox moved to PG Stadium after their first season in Memorial they brought the foul ball poles along and they remain there to this day.

The original RF foul pole that was used in Memorial Stadium is in RF at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-05-10/sports/1992131124_1_foul-pole-stadium-park-at-camden

[BaysoxFan39]

The original RF foul pole that was used in Memorial Stadium is in RF at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-05-10/sports/1992131124_1_foul-pole-stadium-park-at-camden

Wow. That is interesting. I will pass this information on t0 the Baysox management. The foul poles moving from Memorial to Prince Georges Stadium when it opened was pass on by them in 1994. If anyone else has information on this please share.

[BaysoxFan39]

Wow. That is interesting. I will pass this information on t0 the Baysox management. The foul poles moving from Memorial to Prince Georges Stadium when it opened was pass on by them in 1994. If anyone else has information on this please share.

I did some checking and you are correct. The foul poles are in Camden Yards. Thanks for the correction

[OFFNY]

..

Durham Bulls Stadium in 2008 and 2009. GO TIDES !!!

P.S. I got beat up by the Durham Bull himself after one of the games when he saw how I was dressed (Orioles/Tides gear).