Tag Archives: south carolina ballparks

Fluor Field, Greenville, South Carolina

May 2, 2019 Paul Comment

greenvilleinprogress

Fluor Field, Greenville, SOUTH CAROLINA

Number of states: still 37
States to go: 13

First game: August 16, 2018 (Greenville Drive 4, Greensboro Grasshoppers 2)

Click on any photo to see a full-sized version.

First, my I file a complaint? Thank you. Here is my complaint.

The otherwise-fine folks at the Greenville Drive would not allow me to bring in a camera case. And I was lugging along a fairly pricey camera. Grrr. So we headed back to the hotel and left the case, compelling me to hang the camera around my neck all night long. We sat in our seats, right behind the dugout, and I placed the camera in front of me. I was told not to put the camera on the dugout. I get why not: they have mascots and cheerleaders running down the dugout the whole night long. But

sheesh: this meant my only choice while seated was to put the camera on the ground, on a grate. Thankfully, it was dry, but a spilled beer anywhere behind me would have endangered the camera. Dumb rules. When I asked why I wasn’t allowed a camera case, the usher said “That’s the way they’re doing it anywhere.” Really? I told her I’d been to many, many minor league ballparks all around the country and none barred camera cases.

Complaint over. Because, outside of this complaint, the night was lovely.

Fluor Field bathes in baseball. Right across the street, Shoeless Joe Jackson’s boyhood home beckons: only open briefly during the week, or I’d have walked inside. As it is, I just liked that it a foul ball with a few bounces from home plate.

. Inside the park, the Drive (nice baseball name, too!) celebrate baseball history…mostly baseball history. Typically, this annoys me in minor league ballparks, and the Drive laid on the Red Sox stuff awfully heavy: the gift shop felt more like Fenway Park than Fluor Field.

But…then again…Fenway is my favorite park. And the Drive pull off their goal nicely.

First, and most obviously, we have what I’ll call the Minor-league Monster. It’s well done. It, like in Boston, is 310 feet down the line. It, like Boston, has seating upon it. Unlike Boston, however, they would let me up onto it to take some photos (I’ve never tried that at Fenway, to be fair, since my only visit predates the Monster seats, but still, I suspect I’d need the right ticket to get up there). And if a little cloying imitation is what I require in order to get the look from up there, well, I can accept that.

The Drive were celebrating Carolina Panther night while I was there, with mascots and cheerleaders from the Panthers hanging out on the concourse and cheering during the game. Free T-shirts! I liked the locality of it all, even if the locality was football related (giant Panthers drum!).

And the locality was awfully nice on its own. I knew absolutely nothing about Greenville coming in, but found it to be a delightful town with a lovely downtown and a pretty cool sports bar to catch some afternoon games before ours.

Just something Southern about the evening: the syrupy air, the warmth, the cheerleaders, the voices around me. It was easy to slip into a fine night of baseball with an old friend and chill out. I got over my annoyance. Good job, team.

BALLPARK SCORE:

Regional Feel: 7.5/10.

A pretty high score considering how much the deep South imitated New England. But the local feel found ways to slip in, like a flood through sidewalk cracks. I was even cool with the Panther-themed duds.

Charm 4/5

Fenway gets a 5/5, so this place gets a one less than that because it’s an imitation.

Spectacle: 4.5/5

I don’t have any specific memories of promotions, etc. beyond the Panthers, but liked the feel of the whole night.

Team mascot/name: 3.5/5

Apparently this guy is named Reedy Rip’it the Frog. He’s fine. The team name, Drive, is simple and beautiful.

Aesthetics: 4/5

See “Regional Feel” above. It’s lovely, but it’s stolen (with permission) lovely.

Pavilion area: 4/5

Lots of room to roam, especially by the foul poles. Couldn’t walk around (the monster in the way), but the monster itself is cool.

Scoreability: 4/5

While the choice to put “One Carolina” instead of names on the players’ backs was noble and symbolically nice, it did slow down scoring a bit. It prevented a perfect score from the WONDERFUL and free game notes and pre-printed scorecard (never seen one of those before) they passed out. Umpire names!

Fans: 4/5

Nice people around us.

Intangibles: 3/5

Bumpy start hurt this one–but there were way more good moments than bad on this night. Fabulous ballpark.

OVERALL 38.5/50

BASEBALL STUFF I SAW HERE:

Enmanuel de Jesus with strong pitching for the Drive, striking out 10 over 7 innings and picking up the win.

Thomas Jones’ RBI single tied the game in the third for Greensboro. Zach Sterry’s 6th inning homer broke the tie and ended the scoring for the Drive.

Written May 2019.

demolished, former chicago white sox affiliates, international league, minor league, no longer in use, south carolina, triple a

Knights Stadium, Fort Mill, South Carolina

July 6, 2009 Paul Comment

Knights Stadium, Fort Mill, SOUTH CAROLINA

Number of states: 14
States to go: 36

Number of games: 1
First and last game: July 22, 2006 (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons 4, Charlotte Knights 3, 12 innings; game suspended at 3-3 after 10 innings and finished on July 23 without me)

(Knights Stadium was no longer used for baseball as of 2014, and was demolished in 2015.)
(Click on any image to see a lager version.)

After a day hiking to Ellicott Rock (the place where Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina meet), we got to Knights Stadium a little late…the gorgeous roads through

the western Carolinas take a little longer to drive across than we had anticipated. This led to an unprecedented event in my ballpark history: unexpected free parking. We were in a long, long line to get into the parking lot, worrying about whether we’d make the first pitch. We got out a

wallet to pay for parking, but when we got to the edge of the parking lot, they simply waved us in. They passed up on hundreds and perhaps thousands of dollars to make sure that the lion’s share of the huge Fireworks Night crowd could get in on time. I appreciate that.

We approached the stadium as they sang the National Anthem. It was a hot night with a foreboding storm approaching. Outside the ballpark–very active on this fireworks night–I encountered what had to be a lost, disoriented, and terribly hot Santa Claus. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him wearing shorts before, with the possible exception of the claymation Santa reclining and relaxing in Peter Cottontail. Michelle and I made it to our seats just as the first batter, Michael Bourn, was retired.

I’m afraid the ballpark had very little special about it. While I liked the grassy areas down the foul lines, on the whole, Charlotte felt too big to be charming,

but too small to be expansively impressive. It was a bizarre tweener with an identity crisis. Where many AAA ballparks try to be like small major-league ballparks–which is its own problem sometimes–Charlotte seemed to go a different direction and instead tried to be a large minor-league ballpark, at least physically. The two decks looked like something I’d see at a small park, only bigger. On the other hand, the ballpark took some of my least-favorite aspects of big-time parks and incorporated them.

Let me take one example of this and make it as clear as I possibly can, hoping that ballparks everywhere heed me: There is absolutely no reason, ever, anywhere, for any ballpark to have a carousel. I’m fine with kids running around and jumping, and I can even live with the climbing wall. But a carousel? Ridiculous. The idea of taking kids to a ballgame is to get them to like baseball, not to avoid it. From now on, if I see a carousel in a ballpark, the ballpark will be penalized. Severely.

Scoring was difficult at Knights Stadium as well. They couldn’t keep track of who was at bat very well, and were completely absent on a key wild pitch/passed ball decision. I find that these are the toughest

plays to score from the stands, but the most frequently ignored by scoreboard people, which is too bad. Beyond that, however, the Knights did a decent job putting on a show. Nothing special–not old-school reserved, not new-school fun–just serviceable.

What I’ll remember most from this night is wondering if we’d get a game in on time. A big storm was building up to our north and west, and we could see lightning off on the horizon past left field. Was the storm passing us to the north, or was it eventually going to nail us? The game chugged along, and in spite of the light show, it was rain free. But when Charlotte tied the game in the bottom of the eighth, and extra innings became imminent, well, it became unlikely we’d get to see the game end. The umpires held out through some impressive rain in the bottom of the 10th as the Knights got two on with one out…but a double-play ended the inning,

and the tarp came out immediately. We didn’t kid ourselves by trying to wait…the big storm was going to end baseball that night.

Much to my surprise, the Knights went ahead and had the fireworks show anyway while everyone ran desperately through the downpour to their cars. I wish I were a more talented photographer, because we were treated to a display of fireworks going off above lightning strikes…very impressive indeed. Also impressive was how well my wife drove through the thunderstorm to the hotel.

The Knights are building a new downtown ballpark to replace Knights Stadium, and this is a case where one is warranted. The location will be better, and the personality-free Knights Stadium will likely not be missed by any fans. But I’m thankful I got there…it enabled me to cross South Carolina off my list with only a very short jaunt across the border.

BALLPARK SCORE:

Regional feel: 5/10
Were it not for the thunderstorm, this score would be even lower–but truthfully, there was no way of telling where we were.

Charm: 3/5
Not much, but not totally impaired here either.

Spectacle: 3/5
A fair number of promotions–perhaps too many for AAA. But the fireworks in front of the lightning stay in my mind as a heck of a spectacle.

Team mascot/name: 2/5

Homer. Dumb name. And what’s up with a dragon representing the Knights? Don’t knights slay dragons?

Aesthetics: 3.5/5
Some trees. Again, the score is aided by the fireworks-with-lightning.

Pavilion area: 2/5
Nothing doing. It’s mostly cement, and where it isn’t cement, they’ve put in a carousel. Ick.

Scoreability: 2/5

Fans: 4/5
I liked the huge crowd, their enthusiasm, and the way they stuck around, even though many of them ran for cover at the first tiny sprinkle. Come on, Knights fans…in Seattle, we picnic in sprinkles.

Intangibles: 2/5
The ballpark, on the whole, did nothing for me.

TOTAL: 26.5/50

BASEBALL STUFF I’VE SEEN HERE:

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre took a 3-0 lead on a Josh Kroeger triple, but could not hold onto the lead. They win in the 12th on a Brennan King home run…but by then, I’m most of the way to Bristol.

Ruben Rivera homers for Charlotte.

(Written August 2006.)

Fluor Field, Greenville, SOUTH CAROLINA

Knights Stadium, Fort Mill, SOUTH CAROLINA

Number of states: 14 States to go: 36

Number of games: 1 First and last game: July 22, 2006 (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons 4, Charlotte Knights 3, 12 innings; game suspended at 3-3 after 10 innings and finished on July 23 without me)

Number of states: 14
States to go: 36

Number of games: 1
First and last game: July 22, 2006 (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons 4, Charlotte Knights 3, 12 innings; game suspended at 3-3 after 10 innings and finished on July 23 without me)