The Epicenter

Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, California League

7/10

The entrance on my visit in 2016.

A clear sunny day saw Bakersfield in town for School Day in 2016.

Most of the fans retreated into the shade, even with the temperature in the mid 60s.

                                         

Bonus: Still, my favourite sign, anywhere, ever. HEADS UP!

"The Epicenter" (LoanMart Field for the 2013 season) was my 2nd game in one day on my 2009 trip, having watched the A's and Angels at the Big A in the afternoon. I headed up I-15 to Rancho Cucamonga to watch the local nine, the Angel affiliated Quakes, take on the Stockton Ports. This park was part of the trend along with Lake Elsinore towards disproving the notion that minor-league parks have to be minor league. Don’t get me wrong, places like Eugene's Civic Stadium and Quebec's Stade Municipale are what it’s all about, but there are plenty of pre-1990 parks that are just horrible, isn’t that right? 

The Epicenter was a successful experiment in placing a relatively large, well-built stadium within driving distance of the Major leagues. Every season since has from an attendance standpoint, gone very, very well. The park is a concrete and plastic seat structure, with the electronic scoreboard in left and the video board in right. But, it didn’t do a lot for me. Maybe the 110 degree heat at the Big A that afternoon took a big chunk out of me, but after reading about this park in books and online, it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be, but it was ok. A big knock for me was the seating, which was confusing, I never did find my seat, I mean I thought I had, with other people sitting in it, but I guess not. The mascot, Tremor and a female accomplice are both dinosaurs. They are pretty active.

Rancho Cucamonga is a blooming suburb of Los Angeles, up the I-15. The area right next to the park is a rec complex(keep an eye out for a “Watch for Foul Balls” sign) and beyond that it’s commercial, with a couple of decent restaurants. I opted to forgo the concession at the park and return to Anaheim for a late night trip to Carl's Jr. It's in the eastern part of the Southland area, so easily 15 parks are within a day's drive, or like me, you can make it part of a multiple night stay in the LA area. I went to Angel games the night before and afternoon of, and a Dodger game on the way out of the city.

It was an evening game, the last home game of the season, so the crowd was around 4,500 or so, but awfully quiet. Still, there were some quirks. When a Rancho player hit a homerun, the booster club had a guy walk the seats with a helmet collecting money. During one of the intervals, one of the mascots courted the base umpire, who eventually got down on one knee and offered a bouquet. I expected, like in another gag involving an “umpire” in Tacoma that the real umpire would trot back onto the field and this guy would leave, but that didn’t happen, as he just went out to first base to get going.

Looking back on this review in 2014, I think I was a bit hard on this one. I think I caught it on a bad day or something. At any rate, I upped the score from 6 to 7. This one could very well be on my list for a second trip this year.

Update 2014: The Quakes are now affiliated with the other team in metro LA, the Dodgers, as of 2011, with the Angels entry now being in San Bernardino. Re-scoring this place was easy, it's a very average place, so it still gets a 7.

Update 2026: I made it back here as part of my 2016 California trip(still one of my best trips), so all new pictures. This was a "school day", so an early start meant I could get this in, then make it over to San Bernardino for a night game there. I'd still rate this as a 7. I still don't remember much about the concession, except for the school kids all being in line. A Quakes win did get me a free "Jumbo Jack" later. It was another atypical day, not really fair to judge the park on. But 7 still seems fine. The entire California League dropped into Low A for 2021. The park is now Morongo Field at the Epicenter. See why I don't change the post names?

For this season, the affiliation has fallen back to the Angels, after the Dodgers moved their affiliation to a new park in Ontario, east of Downtown LA and the Angels elected to come back here. It looks a lot like a Populous designed park, but it actually isn't. I wouldn't turn down a return visit here, but there are some others I need to get in first.  

Linescore
2009-08-30
                                                            123    456   789    R H E
Stockton Ports(OAK)                           000    001   020   3 10 2
Rancho Cucamonga Quakes(LAA)     003    001   00X   4  7 1 
Temp:102F   Time: 2:45    Att: 3,951

2016-05-04

                                                          123   456  789  R  H E

Bakersfield Blaze(SEA)                     150   002  020  10 10 0  

Rancho Cucamonga Quakes(LAD)   002  301   60X  12 19 3

Temp: 61F Time: 3:14 Att: 4,106