Isotopes Park

Albuquerque Isotopes (Pacific Coast League)

10/10

The crowds file in for a Saturday Night Fireworks game v. Colorado Springs.

A very nice night was the scene for this PCL matchup. Check out the small hill way out there in Center Field.

The seating bowl has only just begun to fill up, as most people are still coming in, or waiting for food.

I first rolled into Albuquerque in 2015, after a long drive from the Salt Lake City area, having seen a game in Ogden the night before. This place opened in 2003, after the old Albuquerque Sports Stadium was knocked down after the PCL's Albuquerque Dukes moved north to Portland. This park sprung up and the Calgary Cannons moved here to become the Albuquerque Isotopes, as a homage to The Simpsons, when the hometown Springfield Isotopes threaten a move to Albuquerque.

The park is located on an intersection with features the University of New Mexico's Football stadium on one corner and their basketball arena "The Pit" (which features the name of local pizza chain)across the street. You can park in the University's lot for 5 dollars, which is what most people seemed to do. It's built in a southwestern sort of style, with lots of different colours on the exterior. There is a large lower bowl, with a fair number of club seats and a large berm. There is an elevated portion in the very deep center field, with goes to 428 feet. I thought this was a unique design, with the larger than average field owing its existence to the hot, dry climate for baseball here. There is a large upper deck that wouldn't be out of place as the middle level at a major league game, as far as design goes.

The concessions are pretty impressive, with lots of southwestern dishes that I couldn't get anywhere near. Green chiles and beans were in everything I think. I settled on the hot dog cart, as it was slightly less crazy. My neighbours had a donut about the size of a small pizza, which was modelled after the stereotypical Simpsons donut. There seemed to be a good mix of southwestern and baseball favourites and the lines were very long, which given the game not selling out, I took as a sign of quality.

The atmosphere here was incredible as well. A close game saw the Isotopes lose the lead in the later innings, only to come back and get a few hits out of the bottom 3 of their order, with the winner being driven into the left field gap to bring in 2 runs. The crowd went home happy, or those that left when I did, as it was fireworks night. The park has numerous tie ins with The Simpsons, including the aforementioned donut, as well as large decals of characters from the show on doors around the stadium and some life sized statues of them for people to have their picture taken with.

Overall, the facility, concessions and atmosphere here are amazing and I rate it all very highly. The only thing I'm not sure about is when I'll be back, as it's not on the way to anything I plan on doing for awhile, hopefully, it isn't too long.

Update 2021: I still really enjoyed my game here, hard to beleive it was over 5 years ago. Albuquerque was a shoo-in to survive the reduction in minor league teams, as this place is still amazing. They're still affiliated with Colorado. The prospect who hit the game winner? Trevor Story, who went 2 for 5 and would make the Rockies out of Spring Training the following year. The only reason I haven't been here since is that it's not on the way to much else, but with a trip to Texas being my main baseball priority in '21 or '22, Isotopes Park might make it onto the list. 

I will adjust the league on the post and the label, once the minor leagues receive their new names.

Linescore

2015-08-29          

                                          123    456   789  R H E

Colorado Springs(MIL)      010   010    030  5 8 1

Albuquerque(COL)            100   111    002  6 11 2

Temp: 84F  Time: 2:43  Att: 14,299