Melaleuca Field

Idaho Falls Chukars, Pioneer League

8/10

The stadium's redbrick exterior, complete with a statue of a Chukar player.

A decent crowd watches the Chukars and Voyagers in 2010.

The Chukars wave home another runner.

The field is prepped for a key September game against Ogden in 2015.

This was our second stop on our 1st Pioneer League loop in 2010. We drove in from Missoula, taking the long way, but arriving with plenty of time to spare for the Great Falls Voyagers and Idaho Falls Chukars. I ended up parking for free on the street about three blocks from the park. The park was built in 2007, replacing McDermott Field on the same site. The field orientation and it appears, the outfield wall, is retained, but everything else is new.

The park has a redbrick exterior, which includes a statue of a Chukar player on top of the ticket office. The park is clean, with good sightlines, but isn't overly spectacular in any way. The Chuarks needed a new park and certainly if they'd kept their old park for much longer, it could have threatened the franchise, but now Idaho Falls will have pro baseball for decades to come.

The atmosphere at this park was slightly above average. The crowd was interested in the game. a 17 year old Nicaraguan named Cheslor Cuthbert hit a home run in his 1st at bat since being promoted. The crowd ended up sitting mostly in the cheaper general admission seats down the left field line, with less people in the supposedly better seats. During a change at one point, ushers threw candy into the seats. I got hit in the head by a tootsie roll. I haven't seen this done anywhere else.

I'd recommend staying in town for the night, as we tried to make headway to the north after the game and discovered that there isn't a whole lot in that direction for several hours.

On the whole, Melaleuca Field is an entirely adequate facility for the Pioneer League, (although it's nothing unique) and ensures the league will continue it's long history in the area. It's a bit of an outpost however and makes a good stopping point either coming or going to Montana.

Update 2016: I returned here in 2015, on my way back from points south. This was one of many parks on the 2015 summer roadie that I had seen before, but not for 5 or more years. I had a better impression for the 2nd game here though. It was a key pennant matchup between these two, so a small but fiery crowd turned up. I sat in the 6th row or so, which meant a Dodger scout with an off pitcher were in front of me, with Charlie the Chukar present and occasionally razzing them, just because. I heard on the radio in the concession line the 2nd time that Cheslor Cuthbert, the aforementioned home run batter, hit his first MLB homerun for Kansas City as a September callup.

The ballpark still comes across as a bit lacking, with tons of aluminum disguised in a redbrick facade. I almost took a half point off for this, but did not. The atmosphere is a little above average, I'd give it a half and the concessions here, which had been kind of lacking before, are really good. Service is much better and the variety is pretty good, especially considering this is still a Rookie park. I'd up the score to an 8, rounded down from 8.5. I admit, I was surprised I enjoyed this one that much more the 2nd time around.

Linescores 
2010-07-19
                                               123     456  789  10   RHE
Great Falls Voyagers(CWS)        001  100  100   0     382
Idaho Falls Chukars(KC)             100  020   000  1    492
Temp: 84F  Time: 2:51   Att: 3,720


2015-09-02
                                          123   456   789   RHE
Ogden Raptors(LAD)             200 000  200  492
Idaho Falls Chukars(KC)        040  000   001  591
Temp: 85F Time: 2:51  Att:  2,299

Avista Stadium

Spokane Indians, Northwest League

10/10

A nice summer evening sees Spokane host Yakima. This is the only picture from my original trip deemed worthy of staying.

The exterior before the first Saturday home game of the season vs. Eugene.

A great crowd was on hand considering the weather was overcast with occasional showers.

Pre-game vs. Eugene in 2014, you can literally see the moisture.

We attended Avista Stadium in Spokane on night 1 of a 3 game tour of Washington and Oregon, which was my first trip specifically to go to new ballparks. This explains why my pictures were somewhat lacking, and all generally of the same thing. The park is the top draw for attendance in the Northwest League every year. The park may have something to do with it, but Spokane has approximately 650 thousand people in the area surrounding and into Idaho, so there are more than a few people to market the team to.

I don't have many photos of this one and don't remember much about it, so this will be brief(I realized this after and took many more photos of the other two parks, both in Eugene and Yakima). But it is a relatively run of the mill minor-league stadium. There is the mascot a "Spokanasaurus." We were grilled mercilessly by our border guard on the way down, even being told "What you wanna go to Spokane for? I been there. There's nothin' there. Nothin'."

As far as I remember, the park was very average. The game was an eyelash over 5 hours, not wrapping up until around quarter after 11. Writing this, I realize that Spokane may end up on my list for this summer, possibly even as a long weekend road trip. For now, it will be remembered as an average park, with an average score.

Update 2016: I was typing this in early 2014 and mentioned it to my then girlfriend and alluded to needing to go back at some point. She just said "Let's go!" I checked and seeing  it was around 12 or 13 hours from the house, I knew it was possible. So we went down in June 2014 and I am now engaged to the same girl. The next year, on a trip to California, I was looking for an NWL game for night 2. When it was only the all star game, I hoped that it would be in Spokane and sure enough it was, with a new format featuring the Pioneer League all-stars vs. the Northwest.

Having a bit more to work with as far as sample size, I realized this place is great. The stadium was built in the 1950's, but I originally thought it was from the 80's, it's so modern(ish). There's both box seating further back and decent seats closer to the action, if you can get them. I've never had my pick of seats here, it's usually what's left. The smallest crowd in 3 games here was still 4,500, with for Short Season A is really good. This leads into a good atmosphere here, baseball first, random stuff second. Lastly, is the food, with stand names like "Intentional Wok" for a Chinese food booth, you know you're doing ok. While the dollar hot dogs in 2014 had gotten quite cold, I still think the concessions here are good as well and while I can only remember so much about them, the variety of items was some of the best I've seen anywhere. Overall, this place was vastly underappreciated under my old review and a few more visits have put me up to a 10/10. There's not a thing wrong with this park, which is why it's a perennial attendance leader(2nd of 8 in 2015) in the NWL.


Linescores
2007-07-17
                                        123   456    789   R  H  E
Yakima Bears(ARI)             200  120   050   10 13 3
Spokane Indians(TEX)        100   600   100  8   7   7
Temp: 90F  Time: 3:38  Att: 4,518

2014-06-14
                                      123   456    789   R H  E
Eugene Emeralds(SD)      010   000   200   3  9   1
Spokane Indians(TEX)      202  100    00x   5 12 0
Temp: 65F  Time: 2:25  Att: 6,709

2015-08-04
                                                123   456    789  10  R H E
Pioneer League All-Stars            011  001    020   0   5 9  0
Northwest League All-Stars        100  010    021   1    6 10 1
Temp: 88F  Time: 3:28  Att: 7,083

U.S. Steel Yard

Gary SouthShore RailCats, American Association

7/10

This is yet another park that is a victim of the great camera disaster of 2012. Never forget.

I drove straight here from Wrigleyville after an afternoon game for a night game here, with plenty of time to spare. Chicago traffic turned an allegedly 45 minute drive into something....a little longer. A Friday night matchup saw the Gary SouthShore RailCats taking on the Fargo-Moorehead Red Hawks(this game would have needed a bigger poster).

The first thing that struck me rolling into Gary and probably my biggest problem with the park is the city itself. Gary is very economically depressed, and has seen the population fall by over 100,000 people in the last 20 years. The result is a city with numerous abandoned buildings. The area around the ballpark is not much different. I don't mean to complain about it too much, but the surrounding neighbourhood is a particularly important part of any ballpark to me. When it's neutral, fair enough, but when it's a minus, that's a problem. I can't think of a similar example in my travels. Still, the area was well patrolled by local police and it likely attracts whole crowds of people from the numerous other cities and towns in Indiana's chunk of the metro Chicago area. I didn't even consider staying here and ended up around 25 minutes away.

Now, enough urban geography. The park itself is pretty good. It has the concourse at the back, with full view of the field and all stadium seating. Concessions were around average. The atmosphere was relatively pleasant. Mine was a bit different, as small children and empty seats resulted in a crowd swarming the section like bees most of the game. Still, I did almost see one of them break another's hand, which was entertaining and I did get a forced apology from one of their minders. I enjoyed things a bit more from the section over. I ended up seeing a relatively entertaining game though, but 18 innings was enough for one day. The whole experience was acceptable, but I didn't really have anything about it stick out. I would go back if it was good for my schedule, but won't go out of my way.

Update 2016:  I have nothing new to offer about this one, so it'll be a 5 minute update. Food, atmosphere and the park are all pretty average, with the park being the closest to an upgrade. I will get back here with my camera at some point, but am in no hurry.

Linescores
2012-07-27
                                                  123    456   789   R  H E
Fargo-Moorhead Red Hawks         002   401   004   11 14 2
Gary Southshore Railcats             000   030   000    3  6 3
Temp: 75F  Time: 3:12  Att:  4,343

Everett Memorial Stadium

Everett AquaSox, Northwest League

9/10

A wonderful August evening sees the AquaSox battle Eugene.

A relatively modest crowd for the relatively modest park.

How can you not like a hand-operated scoreboard that says"Hit the sign, win a suit" ?

                                

The relatively benign exterior prior to a game in 2014.

I went to Everett Memorial Stadium in 2009, on the first night of my trip to Dodger Stadium. It was more or less just a throw in that fit the schedule that I wanted, but it turned into a little more than that. The game was a late August match featuring the Eugene Emeralds(As of 2014, I've seen this team play 5 times, it's always them!) taking on Everett's entry in the Northwest League, which in 2014, will be marking their 30th season.

The stadium is a pretty straightforward entry owned by the local school board, of all people. There is a large parking lot in the area around the stadium, which is free, if you show up early enough(The Old Yakima Special). The ballpark exterior is relatively plain and the seating area is aluminum and stadium seats, although I thought it looked substantially better than it's counterpart in Yakima. I was around 10 rows back and was right on top of the action. There is a hand-operated scoreboard in the right field alley and a video board in center, just off to the left side. The video board looks substantially better than it's counterpart in Salem and is clearly visible. I didn't sample any food here.

The only thing I didn't like was the mascot, Webley, an anthropomorphic tree frog, who insisted on repeatedly sticking his finger into my ear. Really. What does one do when someone in a tree frog costume keeps pushing the envelope? I ignored him until he went away. Still, I wonder if I wasn't justified in a once in a lifetime act of mascot abuse.

Overall, Everett might just be my favourite NWL park. It's a relatively simple, but clean and modern park, that looks newer than it actually is. It doesn't have much old-style charm, but I don't feel it should, given it was built in the 1980s. The fans seem to love it to, as only league stalwarts Spokane and Vancouver, plus brand-new Hillsboro draw better. I would absolutely consider heading back if I was in the Seattle area without the Mariners in town and would take it over a return visit to Tacoma in a heartbeat. One to put on your list.

Update 2016: Since I typed this back in early 2014, I've been here two more times to see the Frogs play Vancouver and have a pretty good read on it. The park is still a favourite of mine, even if it does feature a great deal of aluminum. The atmosphere is strictly baseball first, considering the saturated baseball market around here. My most recent night was the same day as a Mariner home game, so attendance was limited to locals. I like the food here and would give it a half point, but it's not quite enough to get the 10/10. Still, besides Vancouver, this is my favourite NWL park, I'd go here anytime.


Linescores 

2009-08-25
                                              123   456   789  R H E
Eugene Emeralds(SD)              001   021  000  4 9 0
Everett AquaSox(SEA)             000  101   100  3 12 0
Temp: 67F  Time: 2:18  Att: 1,850  
                                           

2014-08-18
                                                123  456   789  RHE
Vancouver Canadians(TOR)         000   220   020  671
Everett AquaSox(SEA)                010  031   30x   851
Temp: 81F  Time: 2:31   Att: 1,284

2015-07-27
                                                123  456   789  R H E
Vancouver Canadians(TOR)         000   000  000  0 4 0
Everett AquaSox(SEA)                401   010  00x  6 10 0
Temp:69F   Time: 2:10  Att: 1,625

Peoria Sports Complex

San Deigo Padres, Seattle Mariners, Spring Training

8/10

A crowd takes in the Padres and Mariners in 2010.

The grounds crew prepares for AFL action in October 2011.

The Padres and Mariners head towards a nice sunset in 2013.

Peoria was the 2nd Cactus League park I went to in 2010, watching a night game between the Mariners and Padres, with San Diego as home team. I went back in 2011 for another night game, this time with the Arizona Fall League, where an Indians prospect named Jesus Aguilar hit two homeruns that went so far, I had my head on a swivel walking to the car, just in case they hadn't come down yet. I went in 2012 for a Cactus League game where a Mariner squad of largely AA players with Kevin Milwood pitching showed the Padres that the gap between AA and the Majors isn't so big, winning handily. In 2013, I finally saw this place during the day, as the Royals and Mariners squared off.

My opinon of Peoria changed drastically from after my first visit, where I found it underwhelming, to my other three, where I loved it. I'd have to say that besides Maryvale Ballpark, Peoria is the most underrated in the Cactus League.

The park itself a relatively unassuming complex located in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria, northwest of downtown. The ballpark is accessible via Loop 101, but be ready for traffic prior to game time. Showing up overly early here isn't a bad idea, especially if you aren't familiar with the park, or the area. The main stadium is located between the Mariner and Padre training areas and is a subdued Tan, concrete park, with little in the way of an exterior façade. Food is around average at around average prices. I've been here 4 times and cannot remember one unique offering from either team. Prices are below average for the area.

The main concourse out of view of the field, but a wide walkway between the lower and upper seating sections acts as another concourse as well, although there aren't any kiosks or anything blocking it. My big plusses for Peoria are sightlines and an atmosphere that is less like a carnival and more about baseball. The Mariners and Padres organizations, to their credit, seem to think this is a plus to and recently extended their leases in Peoria until 2034, which means that fans of both the M's and the Fighting Friars have 20 more springs to look forward to. The Mariners bring several vendors and the like down from Seattle, to add to the local experience. This is a conversation from 2010:

A longtime Mariner Vendor, on the long gone Kingdome:
Fan: Do you miss the dome?
Vendor sits down.
“People ask me:do you miss the dome? I tell them: Only in April.”

Now that I've seen them all, I realize how special Peoria is. It was the first park in Arizona to house two teams well, which became a model for others to follow. It also isn't well attended compared to some of it's counterparts. It isn't going to blow you away, but my suggestion is to cut away from the herd and catch a game here, especially at night. I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Update 2016: I have now been here a total of 6 times, for four spring training games and two fall league. When I last went back for a Fall League game in 2015, the park was being renovated, the front entrance had an actual sign (really!) and the concessions that weren't open had new signage giving them Seattle and San Diego themed names. The left field corner was closed as it appeared that new suites were going in in that area. Both teams are committed here for the long term, so it's not surprising that the almost 25 year old park was up for some renos. Under the new rating system, I'd still keep an 8, giving half points for atmosphere and facility, but I will make a stop here for sure the next March I go to Phoenix, as the renovations could make this score higher.

 Linescores
2010-03-24
                        123    456   789   R H E
Seattle              000    100    000  1  4  3
San Diego         000     000   20x  2 10 1
Temp: 66F  Time: 2:34  Att: 7,173

2011-10-06
                                   123   456  789    R  H  E
Phoenix Desert Dogs     010  122  013   10  11  1
Peoria Javelinas            000   011  200    4   7   0
Temp: 65F  Time: 2:49  Att: 269

2012-03-31
                         123   456   789   R H E
San Diego           000  010   000   1 5  2
Seattle               002  002   11x   6  12  0
Temp: 90F  Time: 2:27  Att: 5,773

2013-03-26
                      123   456   789   R  H   E
Kansas City     001   060  022  11 18  0
Seattle             003  100  200    6  11  0
Temp: 81F  Time: 2:58  Att: 6,098

2014-03-26
                          123    456    789   R H E
Chicago Cubs      001   000    013   5 11 3
San Diego           012   000   200    5  6  2
Temp: 85F  Time: 3:16  Att: 5,407

2015-11-19
                                123   456   789  RHE
Surprise Saguaros      001  003   030   791
Peoria Javelinas         300  100   000   492
Temp: 74F   Time: 2:46  Att: 603 

Petco Park

San Diego Padres, National League

9/10

I remembered to grab a quick snap of the outside before heading in.

This show shows both "the park in the park" as well as how Petco is nestled right in the middle of Downtown San Diego.

                          

The scoreboard, but also a shot of the Western Metal Supply Co. Building.

Bonus Shot: We returned in 2014 to watch the Padres take on the Dodgers.

I went to Petco Park for my first visit in 2011, to see the 2nd last game of the season, between the Chicago Cubs and the Padres. I drove out earlier that day from Phoenix. It was a relatively easy cruise down I-8. The park itself is located in downtown San Diego, right on the edge of the Gaslamp Quarter, the center of local nightlife.

I enjoyed Petco on the whole. Firstly, the park is seamlessly woven into downtown, to the point where it was constructed around the "Western Metal Supply Co." building in left field, which now houses some team offices. It's resourceful how a potential nuisance was turned into arguably the most distinctive feature of this park.

This is a pitcher's park, probably at one point the most-pitcher friendly park in baseball. But recently, the fences were moved in and the Padres, not very surprisingly, began hitting more home runs. Still, the moist sea air blowing in means not many balls are hit out of this one.

I remember food being somewhat expensive and getting cash at the park turned out to be a bit of a chore, but it was of good quality.

The atmosphere was baseball first, San Diego seems to be a football town first, especially since LA is only an hour and a half up the road, without a team, so, it's really only baseball sort of people that show up. There were lots of rooters for the visiting Cubs and it put a bit more life into the 2nd last game of the season between 2 teams long eliminated from post-season contention. I originally gave Petco an 8, but now feel that was a little harsh and have put it up to a 9, as it really is a fine ballpark.

Other than that, I don't remember a whole lot about Petco. The good news is that I am headed back in 2014 and will spruce this review up a little bit then.

Update 2016: I did get back here in 2014 for an Opening Day game against the LA Dodgers. This place has a pleasant atmosphere. It isn't rabid by any stretch, but people who come to watch the Padres seem to like it. The park itself is very well laid out, has the metal supply building as it's calling card, plus the "park in a park" in center. Further to that, it's smack dab in the middle of the Gaslamp quarter, which we explored a lot more than my first game here and it was great, I'd recommend finding a hitching post here if you're able, just an all around nice city to visit. Under the new ratings, I'd give Petco a 9, with the pluses being the building and atmosphere.

Linescores:
2011-09-27
                          123   456    789   R H E
Chicago Cubs      000    100   032  6 11 0
San Diego             020  000   000  2  6   0
Temp: 66F   Time: 3:28  Att: 39,058


2014-04-01
                                      123     456    789   RHE
Los Angeles Dodgers        200    100    000    371
San Diego                        000     110    000   262
Temp: 62F  Time: 3:38   Att: 35,033