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Ballpark Review: Fieldcrest-Cannon Stadium, Kannapolis, NC

kings33 — Mon, 30 May 2011 16:45:24 +0000

When you go to as lot of minor league games, it’s not uncommon for the buzz in the crowd to be about someone on the visiting team. this was the case today, as Bryce Harper, the most heralded prospect in the minor leagues played for the Hagerstown Suns. We arrived 15 minutes before the gates opened, and were in line behind 40 autograph dealers, lining up to get their shot at Bryce.

Sad for them, but my seats were front row, right next to the Hagerstown dugouts, and the ushers did a great job of making them move away from actual seat-holders. We were surrounded by these dealers until game-time, and then they disappeared. More about his later, or on a facebook post – but it’s really disgusting what these guys do.

On to the park… Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium ( or, “The Cannon”) is the home of the Kannapolis Intimidators of the South Atlantic League. When the park was built in 1995, they imported

Whisler's Sidearm delivery

the former Spartanburg Phillies and became the Piedmont Boll Weevils. the thought at the time was to play upon the rich textile heritage of the region. The main entrance is reminiscent of a textile mill, to play against that heritage.

However, the rebranding of the team as the Intimidators pays homage to Dale “The Intimidator” Earnhardt. So now the park walks a line between NASCAR and textiles, and it sometimes feels a little disjointed.

The park itself is nicely set. Our seats along the dugout were extremely close to the action, and literally sat at field level. It’s a great view, but it can be difficult to always track the ball from that height, and an errant throw to 1st can add a level of excitement to a routine grounder. not a great seat for kids… I’d move back a bit next time for better game watching.

Bryce Harper deposits Whisler's delivery over the RCF wall

The luxury boxes are built into the “mill” building, and sit back a good ways from the action, but it’s a small park, so I don’t imagine that’s much of a detractor for those who might need a party suite. There’s a picnic pavilion down the left field line that allows them to do some catering, and provides one of the few shady spots in the ballpark. There is no escape from the sun if you want to watch the game, however. There ought to be an awning sponsor somewhere who wants to create a shady zone. In late May, it was 92 degreees, and a woman in our section got dehydrated and nearly passed out going up the steps.

Concessions were unremarkable. There’s a very nice fresh-squeezed lemonade stand down the RF line, as well as a stand for a local vendor, Whatswaterice.com. The main concession stands stick to the basics – hamburgers, hotdogs, pretzels, beer. Soda was plastic bottles only, no souvenir cups of overpriced fountain sugar.

There were 2 desserts that were unique. the first was called Apple Ugly. This is basically an apple fritter, based on some local varieties. The 2nd was a Cheerwine cake. Cheerwine is a local cherry soda (that’s a cousin to the local Mountain Dew known as Sun Drop.

The Intimidator's Ride parked out front

Here in early Summer, I’d recommend sitting on the home 3B side, to keep the sun out of your eyes in the early evening. Front row seats were $9, so bargains abound, and they’re not a huge draw, so walkup tickets are no problem.

It’s good pure low-minors ball, and a nice way to watch a game. Check it out on your next NC baseball trip.

McCormick Field, Asheville, NC – A Step Back In Time

kings33 — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:52:15 +0000

Historic McCormick Field is a step back in time, literally. Built originally in 1924, it is one of the oldest active ballparks

Right field wall

in affiliated baseball. It did have a major rebuilding in the early 90′s replacing wooden structures with concrete, but the general facade and infrastructure remain the same. The park’s dimensions are very small less than 300 feet down the lines and only 390 to dead center. Right field has a 40 foot high wall with an integrated scoreboard due to it’s extremely short distance.

Stadium parking is almost non-existent. There are about 100 on-site spaces, and those are reserved for premium ticket packages. Many folks park in a grassy lot to the left of the paved parking for about $5 a car. Beyond that, it’s likely you can find free or very cheap street parking a little further out. With a capacity of about 4,000, I don’t think the crowds are overwhelming to the point where anywhere would be a long walk.

My understanding is that the team has some new owners, and they are trying to make some changes to modernize the experience. They are taking advantage of the size of their market in an effort to create some unique experiences and special ticket packages. These were really unique, so they are worth mentioning below, but the park is so small, that there really isn’t a bad seat in the place.

The Tyson Dream Seats offer a unique experience I’ve never seen in another ballpark. With a Dream Ticket, you’re on-field for batting practice, you get to shag a fly ball in the outfield, and meet & greet a few players before the game. Then, at game time, you head up into the club seating for an upscale buffet and one of the few elevated views of the game. Only 4 of these are available per game, so you need to book well in advance. The price is high for a minor league game, but at $35 a ticket, including food, beverages and parking, it may be one of the most accessible on-field experiences anywhere in baseball, and not exclusively for the sponsor/high-roller.

The Bojangles Dugout Suites feature the closest seats to home plate in all of minor league baseball. The section is actually carved out behind the batter’s boxes and make an indentation in the usual backstop netting to accomodate the distance. Tickets here include high backed seats, a Bojangles combo meal, and included beer wine and soda/water, as well as free parking.

RF Stands and roof

The remainder of the seating is almost all behind some protective netting, but even that wasn’t enough to protect some fans at our game. Hard foul balls ricochet off the cantilevered roofing very hard, and provided a sneak attack to more than one fan on this night. As always, stay aware until you know where the ball has landed. The roof also traps a lot of heat. We were sitting in the “Press Row” seats – premium tickets behind the plate, and directly below the actual press box. The view was great, but on a late-July night, these seats were also the warmest place in the entire facility. Although we had waitress service, walking out to the concession stands was a welcome break from the heat.

Concessions here were a little disappointing. The best I can say is that if you’re a beer lover, there were to separate local microbrews in the park, offering a variety of unique beer choices. The French Broad Brewing Company‘s Rye Hopper was an enjoyable cool choice on a muggy night.

The food was pedestrian at best. The brats had a nice spice, but were a bit mushy. The Pulled Pork BBQ nachos also had a nice sweet flavor for western Carolina barbecue, but it certainly wasn’t on par with a Boog’s barbecue in terms of meat quality. Also, bottled water late in the game was tepid, and the concessionaires were unable to offer cups with ice. We were told that they used to have a signature dessert – chocolate dipped frozen cheesecake on a stick – would have liked to have seen that. There just wasn’t much that made this stand out.

One last minor quibble: If there’s one modernization I expect at all affiliated ballparks in this day and age, it’s the ability to take debit/credit cards throughout the ballpark. Like the commercial says, cash is slow and inconvenient, and your one off-brand ATM machine is not serving the will of the people at $2.50 surcharges. Centerplate handles the food: there’s no reason not to modernize your payment systems.

First, in NC style, there was a high end Fireworks Friday display. Fans were even allowed on the field (in foul territory) to sit on the grass and watch the fireworks… a very nice touch. Secondly, the local fans brought tennis balls with them. While the park was setting up for fireworks, fans had the opportunity to throw their tennis balls on the field. If they landed in designated circles, they could win tickets and prizes up to $2,000 in cash. This really added to local flavor and small town feel. Great promotion for the locals.

McCormick Field in Asheville is a great place to see a game, the way it used to be played. The park is so small that everything feels more intimate, and you get the feel of town ball that you can’t get in even a 10,000 seat AAA park. Come and see it while you can. It’s definitely worth the visit.

McCormick Field
30 Buchanan Place
Asheville, NC 28801 (map)
website

More Photos on Ticket To The Game’s fan page on Facebook!

Ballpark Review: BB&T Ballpark – Winston-Salem, NC

David B — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:58:22 +0000

BB&T Ballpark logo

This morning, when I woke up, I realized I saw the wrong game in Winston-Salem yesterday. I caught the 12:00 noon game of a day/night doubleheader. While we had a great time even though the home team lost 5-0 in just over 2 hours, the second game was a contest for the ages. The Dash won game 2 in 20 innings over the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. I hate to think I missed a game by “that much” where the second baseman spent 7 innings in left field before he came in to pitch in the 20th and ended up with the win after 5 hours and 30 minutes. (Box Score / Recap)

The morning action was uneventful, as Myrtle Beach jumped on top in the first, and held the Dash to just 3 singles. As expected for a weekday afternoon game, the crowd was sparse as well. However, that really gave us more freedom to explore the park and take it all in.

BBT Ballpark - view from beyond LF

This is a GREAT new park. It’s a retro-style park – brickwork and girders, wide open concourses, and great sightlines from most seats. The seating is very vertical, in that the 20th row still remains very close to the field, as opposed to being pitched way back. However, in such a small park (capacity is around 7,100, including lawn seating) it doesn’t give you any sense of vertigo.

We purchased field box seats for $11 a ticket, the second tier of price points, but our location was ideal. in Section 106, we were at the end of the home dugout and right on top of the action at 1st base. Had we pulled a kid out of school, we would have ended up with a couple of baseballs without much effort from this vantage.

Section 106 also gave us another great vantage point… the bullpens are right there in foul territory, and there’s really not enough foul ground to do this in. The two plates for the bullpen catchers are probably no more than 10 feet from the stands and 15 feet from foul territory. We saw an errant throw end up in fair territory after it glanced off the catcher’s glove. Fortunately they were between pitches. I’m not sure if these are temporary bullpens or not (there’s an empty concrete area in left center that might be the eventual bullpen), but I like where they are, it really adds to the intimacy of the park, as you’re that much more on top of the players.

The field was in gorgeous condition. I have to claim a mea culpa here. I was very skeptical that the grass wouldn’t hold up as I thought it was installed way too close to the beginning of the season to take root. However, despite of the heavy rains NC has seen over the last few days, the grass was immaculate. My bad. Great job Dash Grounds Crew.

BB&T Ballpark - RF anomaly and pedestrian bridge

Park dimensions are fair, if not a little short down the lines (315 to the left field corner). The most interesting artifact is a “nook” in dead right field an area where the fence just juts back into a grotto that reminded me of center field in the Polo Grounds. It didn’t come in to play in our game, but a ball where the right-fielder is beaten deep could create some very interesting bounces. Also note the cool pedestrian bridge above the area that helps bring people around the park. (Park entrance was in right center field, so everyone has to cross this bridge to reach the main concourse.

The way the park is built into the hill also adds to the intimacy of the setting, again without feeling claustrophobic. Despite all the struggles to build this place, their efforts paid off. This is a great place to see the game. For the most part, this is a model of what a Carolina League game should feel like. Beautiful park, nice people, weird (really weird) between innings promotions… the works.

Where this park is lacking right now is in a concession identity. The temporary Team store is sparse, and built into the back half of the Press Box, as an example. Where identity really lacked was in the ballpark fare. Food options were really basic and didn’t have any local flavor. As luck would have it, the best stand in the park was right behind our section. They had a carving station with a BBQ sandwich and a nice brisket hoagie. It’s also the only stand that sells a premium hotdog, including a Carolina Dog with chili and slaw, and a very nice representation of a Chicago dog with all the fixings… the peppers and celery salt really stood out, but all in all a very solid dog. I’m not a big drinker, but the Natty Greene’s Amber Ale was a nice local compliment as well.

But the place needs identity in this area. You’re in Winston-Salem NC – the heart of barbecue country and all you offer is a little generic sandwich? You need a Boog’s of Baltimore level barbecue pit, and maybe a Krispy Kreme stand (Krispy Kreme founded not all that far away). The only local vendor we saw was Kernel Kustard… a popcorn and ice cream vendor, where the popcorn was reasonably priced but somewhat unremarkable.

For now, this is nitpicking. Due to delays and snafus, getting the doors open was a bit rushed, so to that extent, I’ll give them a pass on some details. The bones are here for a fantastic ballpark, and the window dressing will come with time. Sprinkle in a few more unforgettable moments like last night’s 20 inning marathon, and you’ve got the makings of an instant classic.

The Lansing Lugnuts Know What It’s All About

David B — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:02:51 +0000

The Minor Leagues know they have to be different to stand out in a crowded entertainment market. The need to appeal to families, sure, but they also need to continue to surprise and delight us, and give us new reasons to come out to the ballpark for another season of fun and frivolity.

On Facebook, the Lugnuts have spent the winter trying to inject some of that fun spirit, while teasing out what will be new and different at Co0ley Law School Stadium (formerly Oldsmobile Park). They have a team page, and they also have a very active mascot page that fans can interact with.

While some may scoff at the gluttony of an All-You-Can-Eat-Night, here at Ticket to the game, we embrace it, because it usually comes with some great unique food options. The Lugnuts have been slowly leaking some of those new food options on their fan page for the last 2 months are so, in anticiaption of Opening Night Eat-A-Palooza. $15 gets you a ticket and a smorgasbord. Let’s Take a Look at some of the new fare they’re rolling out:

George Costanza's Ice Cream at the US Open

Philly Cheesesteak Nachos: Sure, anybody can have regular nachos, or even super Nachos… but how about dropping a cheesesteak on top of the whole thing? Sounds good to me.
Sweet Station family size Ice Cream Sundae: I get the idea that ice cream is grweat on a hot summer day, but a family size sundae is sure to make ther whole clan look like George Costanza at the US Open… Pass.
Buffalo Chicken Pizza: I’ve got a kid, so I’ve been to CiCi’s. No it’s not great pizza, as I am classically trained in NY pizza, but it’s edible if you stick to what they do well and it’s cheap. The buffalo chicken, and the white spinach pizza are the best CiCi’s has to offer, so I’m interested to see if the Lugnuts can make a good one.
Big Bone Smoked Turkey Legs: Smoked Turkey Legs are the bastion of state fairs and the Renaissance Faire. Never been a big fan… never gonna be a big fan.
The “Spare Tire” Giant Pork Tenderloin Sandwich: How do you argue with that? Not a word wasted in that name. Serve it up!

If you get out to Lansing this year, make sure you try some of these, and let us all know what your favorites were.

Ballpark Review: Fluor Field – Greenville, SC

kings33 — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:04:57 +0000

Fluor Field Green monster

Paid a visit to Fluor Field – home of the Greenville, SC Drive – yesterday. the park is just 3 years old, and looks absolutely beautiful. It’s nestled into a revitalization of Main Street, and it’s really been well integrated into the city.

The park houses a single-A team for the Red Sox, and they do everything they can to capitalize on that relationship. the park has a 30foot high “Green Monster” in left, including a manual scoreboard, and all the OF dimensions are said to replicate what you’d find at Fenway Park – even the Pesky Pole in right, where the outfield continues on behind it another 30 feet. Beyond the Monster is the New York Life building, which appears to still be half-commercial, and now half residential, as they attempt to create a bit of a Wrigleyville atmosphere with some balcony viewing from a limited number of upscale apartments.

If you love Fenway, but don’t love some of the vagaries of the old ballpark, this is the place. At any point, there are no more than about 21 rows of seating throughout the park, and the 2nd deck is entirely used for private suites and club seating. A fair extent of the infield seats are shaded by the 2nd deck, which can be helpful on a hot summer day in South Carolina. Concourses have a wide open view of the game, and during a brief afternoon shower, most of the bleacher seating was under the overhang, and there were plenty of good opportunities to see, despite the near capacity crowd. No matter where you are, you’re right on top of the action.

One of my first questions to an usher was, “So, what’s your signature ballpark concession here?” to which he claimed the hot dogs. the dogs, however, are not Fenway Franks, and nothing to write home about. Good, but not great, and the bread for the footlong stadium dog was a bit stale. Towards the end of our visit, though, we did find what should be the signature stand. they have a specialty stand with Fenway Favorites… A Jim Rice Bowl, and a Dice-K Rice Bowl, as well as a Luis Tiant Cuban Sandwich and a few other choices, trying to bring in some outside flavors. the quality of the rice bowls were sub-par; sort of like shopping mall level chinese food. But, the rice bowl was an economical meal, and an interesting twist beyond what was otherwise pedestrian ballpark fare.

Sightlines were excellent from around the park. the bleachers in rightfield pointed a little too much towards centerfield, which is particularly weird when the field juts in the way it does. Would be great if it were pointed more towards home plate. There’s a steep grassy area in left field that makes for a great family zone, complete with moon bounce and playground on the plaza just behind it. It’s also a great place to pick up foul balls, as we did this night. If you have bleacher seats, the family zone is your best option for game watching.

This is a great new park, and well worth the visit. Now just about 3 years old, it’s the gem of the South Atlantic League. Just be sure to bring some bug spray! When the air gets still, the Upstate’s got a special brand of biting flies that will take a chunk out of you if you’re not careful.