Minor League Ballparks
For fans of all the great parks in the smaller cities around the country.
Flour Field-Greenville
Just came back from Greenville to see a Drive/GreenJackets game.
I went with my dad who loves Minor League ballgames. Greenville didn't start off too great. We had a small challenge trying to find a quality parking spot, but ultimately found out we went to a "municipal district" five minutes away from the park where the employees and fans were parking for free so problem averted there. We went to Greenville, hoping to get there early to see the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum. It was closed. Then we tried to get in, but two employees treated us like garbage saying how gates weren't opened unless we were a part of a certain company to watch a baseball game. That soured me a bit.
However, behind left field is apartments and a grill under them so we went in there. It was a little more upscale than we had imagined but we went in, sat and had arguably the best tasting burger around. I would do that all over again. We went in the team store and while they had shirts galore and more than reasonable prices for t-shirts, anything that wasn't a sweatshirt was expensive. Also, they didn't have a normal pennant and it is a tradition of mine to get one whereever I went (along with a team ballcap and a tshirt). So they had a baseball pennant (which I didn't care for) or a standard pennant that was pink. I chose the pink one. Hah.
We got into the park and got to our seats. Ushers were very friendly and gave me a pat on the back to tell me to enjoy the game. Never had that but I liked it okay. We sat about 12 rows behind home plate and the place took a lot of Fenway Park's characteristics into it (Green Monster in LF, Pesky Pole in RF, the triangle out in CF, Sweet Caroline being played, etc.) The fans were very friendly supportive and followed the game and didn't care to get sidetracked by all the little nooks of the mascots goofing off or the kids playing in the small playground by the corner of LF.
The concourses were fairly wide and clean with old pictures of Greenville baseball history on the beams (notably Shoeless Joe) and everything was labeled in the sections that were appropriate.
The outside exterior was entirely of brick and it had a classic old-time feel to it. When you went into the park from the RF gates, you could see Greenville's "Wall of Fame" with former players who made their mark or came by there (Nolan Ryan, Tommy Lasorda, John Smoltz, and yes, Mr. Shoeless himself). One ironic moment was out in right field they had the 500 club and a list of guys who have hit 500 or more HR in the Majors. And one column had 3 players currently in the Majors...one being Manny Ramirez...the day after he retired.
Overall, Greenville is an AWESOME place to watch a game. The sightlines are overall decent (you do lose a small portion of the foul poles given the layout), but the seats are very comfortable, the stadium is neat, clean, and just flat-out screams BASEBALL, and it is a nice nod to Fenway Park. The scoreboard was top notch as well. My ONLY complaints about it was the food didn't taste great (I ordered a pizza and the cheese tasted slightly sour and my dad had an ice cream which he said the waffle cone was stale). Their prices for food save for the pizza and a regular dog was bordering on the MLB stadium prices. I don't think that's right.
But overall, it is the best ballpark I've been to, Minors or Majors.
In terms of Minor Leagues, obviously it beats them all so I have Greenville #1, Rome #2, Savannah #3, Chattanooga #4, and Gwinnett #5.
Since my wife is pregnant with our second kid and is due in mid June while adding the fact this kid is probably going to be early, I probably won't get to a Memorial Day game in Montgomery unless things are going fine. But July I'll be heading to Birmingham at Regions Park (it is their final season at the park). Used to go there as a teen when I lived in Alabama but I didn't pay much attention to the park really.
I went with my dad who loves Minor League ballgames. Greenville didn't start off too great. We had a small challenge trying to find a quality parking spot, but ultimately found out we went to a "municipal district" five minutes away from the park where the employees and fans were parking for free so problem averted there. We went to Greenville, hoping to get there early to see the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum. It was closed. Then we tried to get in, but two employees treated us like garbage saying how gates weren't opened unless we were a part of a certain company to watch a baseball game. That soured me a bit.
However, behind left field is apartments and a grill under them so we went in there. It was a little more upscale than we had imagined but we went in, sat and had arguably the best tasting burger around. I would do that all over again. We went in the team store and while they had shirts galore and more than reasonable prices for t-shirts, anything that wasn't a sweatshirt was expensive. Also, they didn't have a normal pennant and it is a tradition of mine to get one whereever I went (along with a team ballcap and a tshirt). So they had a baseball pennant (which I didn't care for) or a standard pennant that was pink. I chose the pink one. Hah.
We got into the park and got to our seats. Ushers were very friendly and gave me a pat on the back to tell me to enjoy the game. Never had that but I liked it okay. We sat about 12 rows behind home plate and the place took a lot of Fenway Park's characteristics into it (Green Monster in LF, Pesky Pole in RF, the triangle out in CF, Sweet Caroline being played, etc.) The fans were very friendly supportive and followed the game and didn't care to get sidetracked by all the little nooks of the mascots goofing off or the kids playing in the small playground by the corner of LF.
The concourses were fairly wide and clean with old pictures of Greenville baseball history on the beams (notably Shoeless Joe) and everything was labeled in the sections that were appropriate.
The outside exterior was entirely of brick and it had a classic old-time feel to it. When you went into the park from the RF gates, you could see Greenville's "Wall of Fame" with former players who made their mark or came by there (Nolan Ryan, Tommy Lasorda, John Smoltz, and yes, Mr. Shoeless himself). One ironic moment was out in right field they had the 500 club and a list of guys who have hit 500 or more HR in the Majors. And one column had 3 players currently in the Majors...one being Manny Ramirez...the day after he retired.
Overall, Greenville is an AWESOME place to watch a game. The sightlines are overall decent (you do lose a small portion of the foul poles given the layout), but the seats are very comfortable, the stadium is neat, clean, and just flat-out screams BASEBALL, and it is a nice nod to Fenway Park. The scoreboard was top notch as well. My ONLY complaints about it was the food didn't taste great (I ordered a pizza and the cheese tasted slightly sour and my dad had an ice cream which he said the waffle cone was stale). Their prices for food save for the pizza and a regular dog was bordering on the MLB stadium prices. I don't think that's right.
But overall, it is the best ballpark I've been to, Minors or Majors.
In terms of Minor Leagues, obviously it beats them all so I have Greenville #1, Rome #2, Savannah #3, Chattanooga #4, and Gwinnett #5.
Since my wife is pregnant with our second kid and is due in mid June while adding the fact this kid is probably going to be early, I probably won't get to a Memorial Day game in Montgomery unless things are going fine. But July I'll be heading to Birmingham at Regions Park (it is their final season at the park). Used to go there as a teen when I lived in Alabama but I didn't pay much attention to the park really.
Nick DiColandrea
Apr 10, 2011