Ticket To the Game » road trip

Ballpark Review: Calfee Park, Pulaski, VA

kings33 — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:05:08 +0000

Original entrance beyond LF

Calfee Park, Pulaski, Va (photo gallery)
700 South Washington Ave Pulaski VA, 24301 (map)
Pulaski Mariners, Appalachian League

I’m not sure I could have picked a better start to a 3 day ballpark road trip than Calfee Park in Pulaski, Virginia. Here’s an historic baseball stadium in the tiny town of Pulaski (pronounced pyuh-lah-ski). It doesn’t have the amenities of a new baseball palace, or even the High A park I visited later in the week. Despite that, this may have been the most enjoyable day at the game I’ve had in a long while.

The Appalachian League experience is about atmosphere and people, not amenities. In this regard, Calfee Park is outstanding. The park has a beautiful historic stone entrance dating back to 1935 you can reach from the left-field parking area, that harkens back to the original Pulaski Counts (the town is named after Count Casimir Pulaski, a Polish soldier regarded as the “father of the American Cavalry”.) Walking in from that vantage, the left field seats beyond the infield aren’t even really seats at all, but large concrete steps. Fans bring their own bag chairs, like they were watching a little league game in the park.

One of the first things I noticed at this game was that despite a decent crowd, the park was nearly silent… almost reverentially quiet. our seats behind home plate were incredibly close to the catcher, as there was not a lot of foul ground behind him, so every pop of the glove was the loudest noise we heard most of the night. Although the seats were only $6 each, they were nearly empty, except for our group, some scouts, players charting pitches, and a couple of die-hards.

Official Scorer - Pulaski, VA

A group like this will remind you why the low minors can be so much fun. There was a 10 year old boy sitting next to me, with a gentleman on the other side that I incorrectly assumed was his father. Nope… this kid comes to almost every game and keeps a detailed scorebook. When the President of the Appy League came to town, this kid recognized him! When the Astros GM came through, he gave the kid a military challenge coin with an Astros logo on the obverse. The man on the other side only knew him because they were both always there. The boy had to find different relatives to take him to the game each night, and his grandfather was happier in the bleachers, 30 yards away. Even the official scorer knew this kid, and would stick his head out the window to help him score a couple of tough plays.

As for the park itself, it’s mountain setting provides a beautiful backdrop for a game, and the large stands of trees may also add to the quiet factor. There are only a few dozen box seats behind home plate, and in front of the press box. The “Luxury Boxes” are a group of seats with picnic tables that run along the 1st base line. These boxes have no TV’s, no carpeting… no roofs or doors. they are merely reserved patio areas with the names of the local businesses that sponsor and rent those spaces. Very cool setup.

To fit in with the terrain, the park is much deeper in left field than in right, and the right field fence is twice as high with a berm behind it to compensate. bullpens are along the sidelines and are unprotected. there’s not a lot of foul ground, so the backstop netting extends a long way down each baseline.

Concessions are split into two stands. There’s the main stand that’s built into the back of the ticket booths along the 1st base promenade. The stand sells the hot dogs, candy, drinks, popcorn, etc. However, only the “grill” tucked back out of sight from the playing field does hamburgers and fries. So if you want a dog and some fries, you have to go to 2 different stands. If this were a larger park it would be inexcusable, but when total attendance is 829, it’s only a minor inconvenience.

Most of the food choices were straightforward, but the quality of the burgers was outstanding, and the prices were fantastic. Two burgers, fries and drinks was less than $20 – an unheard of price, even in high A ball. In addition to the standard fries, they also sold Mariner Fries, which were more like potato chips cut 1/4″ thick. These were fairly unique, and very hot and tasty.

Calfee Park is a gem, and my experience there this year is easily in the top 5 of all games I’ve ever attended. The park is historic, unique, and the cool mountain breezes are welcome on a hot August night in the South. While they only host a few dozen games a year, and they market to a low-cost crowd, the park is immaculately clean and you have easy access to everything you may want or need. It never feels contrived or cheap. This is a must-see park.

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

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Amanda from “Baseball Stadium Reviews” chimes in with her ballpark tales

Amanda — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:39:23 +0000

Hello, ballpark fans! This is Amanda Lippert of www.baseballstadiumreviews.com writing a guest blog entry. Recently, Ticket to the Game posted an entry about women who make stadium road trips, so I was asked to describe my experiences with stadium road trips. Being a Yankee fan, my first baseball game was back in 1986 at Yankee Stadium. It wasn’t until 2002 that I really got interested in visiting ballparks other than Yankee Stadium. Now, in 2009, I have visited 20 Major League Stadiums and 91 Minor League Stadiums.

Generally, when taking a stadium road trip, my rule of thumb is to attend a game every night. The day is usually dedicated to traveling to the next city for a game. Prior to last year, I did some of my road trips alone. Then last year, I met someone online through a personal ad and began dating him. After we had exchanged a few e-mails, he told me he also had an interest in baseball stadiums and also maintained a stadium website (www.ballparkreviews.com) Talk about a coincidence! After that, my stadium road trips were taken with him. This past February, we got engaged in Cooperstown and we will now be continuing our stadium journeys together, but maintaining separate websites, of course! We even occasionally take separate stadium road trips since he is a little bit further along (actually, A LOT further long) than I am as far as the number of parks visited.

Last Summer, we took a 7 day trip out to Southern California and went to 7 stadiums. One of my favorite parks out in southern California is Sam Lynn Ballpark in Bakersfield. Sam Lynn Ballpark is the only park that faces the setting sun, which means evening game times need to be moved until after the sun sets. The game I attended had 808 fans in attendance with a game time temperature of 106 degrees, which made the team name of the “Blaze” seem very appropriate. Sam Lynn Ballpark is one of those types of parks which has dedicated season ticket holders and fans that are really into the game. The fans who go to a “Blaze” game are going for one reason….to watch baseball. They aren’t going for silly on-field contests, promotions, or just to eat concessions. They are going because they have a love for minor league baseball at its purest. I have found that some minor league parks can get way too carried away with their wacky promotions and contests, thus taking the focus away from the game. These types of parks tend to have atmospheres which are not conducive to actually paying attention to the game. While these parks might be nice places for families, they are not the types of parks I would prefer to watch a game, unless I enjoy the constant barrage of sound effects, kids who can’t sit still, and annoying advertisements in between each pitch. I recently wrote an entry on these types of parks in my blog which can be accessed through my site, www.baseballstadiumreviews.com.

Speaking of minor league baseball at its purest, Damaschke Field in Oneonta, NY is another park that I enjoy very much. Just like Sam Lynn Ballpark, Damaschke Field offers a relaxed atmosphere to watch a game. Instead of fans tackling each other for t-shirts being thrown into the crowd, you might actually see fans keeping score. Instead of kids jumping around on inflatables in a play area, kids are actually watching the game. Damaschke Field doesn’t even have a liquor license, that’s how pure the place is! You go there for one thing….baseball.

I tend to enjoy the parks that have some kind of distinguishing characteristic which sets them apart from the other parks I have visited. For example, Greer Stadium, home of the Nashville Sounds, has the best scoreboard ever! The guitar shaped scoreboard is definitely the most unique scoreboard I have seen in my travels. I also find it interesting to see the architecture of stadiums when other structures are assimilated into the design of the stadium. For example, the Western Metal Supply Co. building in Petco Park in San Diego and the B&O Warehouse at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

Sometimes it’s not what’s inside the ballpark that makes it a unique, but it’s what is around the park. For example, the bridges in the background of PNC Park in Pittsburgh have to be the best backdrop in Major League baseball. Also, I love the mountains in the background at The Diamond in Lake Elsinore, California and the Gateway Arch beyond the outfield wall in Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

This week, Brian and I will be heading out on a 10 day trip to visit 10 stadiums. The trips will include visits to US Cellular Field, Miller Park, Comerica Park, Wrigley Field, and a few minor league parks. Stay tuned to my website, www.baseballstadiumreviews.com for photos and reviews. I also maintain a Facebook page, so become a fan of my site using Facebook.

Thanks to Ticket to the Game for allowing me to post a guest entry!

Chicks dig the baseball stadium road trip

kings33 — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:55:51 +0000

As I’ve done research about what drives people to visit multiple ballparks, what surprises me more and more are the women who go out on their own to visit parks. As I’ve built a small fan group on facebook, it’s almost entirely male dominated, yet the road trip blogs I find are primarily written by women.

Is this because women are just more likely to write diaries of their trips? Perhaps, but let’s feature a couple of good ones:

The Traveling Baseball Babes: They are out on the road as we speak… making their most recent stop at New Yankee Stadium just this past week. They take lots of photos, sample the local cuisines, and generally hit all the high and low lights of the area. they stuck it out through a 4 hour rain delay, they know their baseball, and they aren’t bad to look at… why aren’t you reading their blog?

Cait, Casey and Sarah are the Oh it’s Those Girls baseball blog. they love their Twins, and their frozen cotton candy confections. A fun breezy read, but not necessarily stadium centric.

Heather Nixon planned not one baseball road trip this summer, but two! Her blog details her first 20 day trip with a girlfriend, and now she’s back on the road for trip #2 with her dad.

Here’s to more women who appreciate a good stadium. know of any other great stadium blogs. Leave a comment and maybe your blog will be featured here as well!

EDIT: I missed a great site, and a true friend of Ticket To the Game. Amanda Lippert’s Baseball Stadium Reviews documents her visits to over 115 different stadiums. Lots of pics, and a great sense of what it means to be a baseball stadium traveller.

Altoona game meetup

kings33 — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:11:33 +0000

UniWatch is one of my favorite sites. Paul Lukas has taken his concept, and made a site that is regularly entertaining and provides a fresh perspective on baseball that few others have even dared to tackle.

His passion for uniform aesthetics is not unlike how I feel about stadiums. Seeing how I believe my readers also “Get It” (nudge, nudge, wink wink Paul!), I saw a post on there today that may interest my readers.
A UniWatcher is organizing an outing to see the Altoona Curve on August 1. If you’re in the area, you may find some like-minded baseball obsessives to hang with. Details here.

Long 4th of July Weekend? Time to Road Trip!

kings33 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:19:32 +0000

View July 4th Road Trip in a larger map

One of the great benefits of being a ballpark hound is the road trip… How much baseball can you pack into a long weekend? For those of you looking for a great 4 day getaway in the Northeast, here’s an Independence Day bonanza of baseball activity.

Start your journey with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. They’ve got a doubleheader on Friday against the Syracuse Chiefs, starting at 12:30. Game 1 is peanut free, for those of you with allergies, plus they’re giving away foam Statue of Liberty crowns, and having a fireworks show.
Saturday, spend the day in the “cradle of liberty”, Philadelphia, PA. Liberty Bell, South Street, and a 7:05 start against the Mets at Citizen’s Bank Park.
Sunday, head down to Delaware and go see the Wilmington Blue Rocks face off against the Kinston Indians at 1:35. It’s Jetsons tribute day, plus you can have a catch with your kids on the field before the game, and kids run the bases afterwards.
The Trenton Thunder! You might be an inning or two late, but stay late for yet more fireworks after the 6:05 game
Sleep in, because you have until 1:05 to make it to Reading for a AA Phillies game against the Connecticut Defenders.
Wrap it all up in Scranton at 7:05 for the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees at 7:05 against the Pawtucket Red Sox. What better way to cap a road trip than a Yanks/Sawx matchup. Wouldn’t you know it? More Fireworks too!

7 Games, 6 Parks, 4 days. that’s a road trip to remember.