FIELDS OF DREAMS: Recreation Park, Visalia, California

Recreation Park is the home of the Rawhide. They are the single A minor league team affiliated with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The team, under one name or another, has played here for 65 years.  Currently, they sit in the cellar of the northern division of the California League.  Players that have gone on to the majors from the team include Barry Zito, Juan Uribe, Nick Swisher, Evan Longoria, Randy Johnson, and Aubrey Huff. Former player Kirby Puckett is in the Hall of Fame.

Here are the stats…

Year opened: 1946

Surface: Grass

Construction cost: ? (2009 renovation: $11 million)

Capacity:  1,888 seated, 2, 468 including grassy areas

Field dimensions: Left field – 320 ft.; left center – 365 ft.; Center field – 410 ft.; right center – 365 ft.;  Right field – 320 ft.

Home teams: Visalia Cubs (1946-1952, 1954-1956), Visalia Stars 1953, Visalia Redlegs (1957-1959), Visalia Athletics (1960-1961), Visalia White Sox 1962, Visalia Mets (1968-1975), Visalia Oaks (1977-1992, 1995-2008), Central Valley Rockies (1993-1994), Visalia Rawhide (2009-present)

Events attended: one game

Recreation Park sits south of downtown Visalia. Free parking is available in the small lot behind home plate and the larger lot across the street. Handicapped parking is just 4 or 5 spots.

The grandstand behind home plate is the oldest part of the park, dating back to the 1960’s when dirt from nearby freeway construction was used to create the present berm and grandstand.  The newer looking building going down the first base side was constructed in 2009.

Calling ahead, we had no problem getting a wheelchair ticket and two companion seats. Will Call is not located near home plate like it is at most parks, you need to walk half a block down the right field line to find the ticket offices and Will Call.

There is wheelchair accessible seating in this new area (where our tickets were located – right at first base), also in the group areas along the third base line, and just a couple of locations behind home plate. The seats behind home plate are also behind an aisle so people will be walking in front of you the entire game, not a desirable location and the accessible tickets the team will sell last.

According to the team, the best wheelchair accessible seats were where we were, about 15 feet behind first base. It’s positively Rube Goldbergian in how this accessible area was designed.  To get to the level where the seats are, you need to take a lift…one of those really slow, metal, one person lifts that you see as an afterthought at many businesses.  Tim could barely fit in it with his chair and then it wouldn’t work.  Maintenance had to be called to repair it before we could go up.

Once at our seats, we noticed that there were no restrooms or snack bars on this level. You would need to go back down that balky lift, go inside the adjacent building to take another lift to the concession level where the accessible bathrooms are located.

We did notice a nice ramp going up into the older grandstand area and a level bridge across from there to our seats but access was blocked there by a snack bar set up with a permanent fence between our seats and the ramp.  Mind you, this was all built just two years ago…someone really needs to school that architect in Universal Design.

Ticket prices run from $7 to $30, about a buck more than average for single A but it works out cheaper when you consider the free parking. You can also get a range of discounts by buying your ticket at leat 20 days in advance. Food ranged from an inedible Italian sausage, to decent hot dogs, to incredibly delicious bratwursts cooked at that snack bar that blocked our way to the ramp.  Beer selection is good, with large local microbrews (22 oz.) going for $7. 

Once in our seats, the view was excellent. We could hear every word the first base coach said to his runners and the interplay between players, coaches, and umpires. The entire seating bowl is behind a screen, usually something you only see behind home plate.  This is due to the fact that the seats here are among the closest to the action in any professional ball park…you are right in the middle of the action here.

Other unique features here include a barn where one of the walls is incorporated into the outfield wall.  The side of the barn is a double, the roof a home run.  We didn’t see any players who could hit the broadside of the barn during our visit, however.

The mascot is a cow named Tipper (cow tipping, get it?). If you watch the video from our Tulare County report, you can see where a batter let go of his bat and it came within an inch or so of hitting Tipper’s head.

The team pennants are painted on the concrete on the right field side of the original grandstand and the Major League teams that the team has been affiliated with are on the left field side.

All in all, not a bad stadium but, while the access is there and easy to get, the design of it is terrible.

-Darryl

Copyright 2011 – Darryl Musick
Updated for 2013

FIELDS OF DREAMS: LoanMart Field, Rancho Cucamonga, California

LoanMart Field is the home of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, the single A minor league affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.   Opened in 1993, it’s a suburban ballpark located on the southern edge of Rancho Cucamonga, California…close to the Ontario city limit.  The name of the team comes from the frequent earthquakes that hit the area.

You’ve probably seen it…as the closest minor league ballpark to Los Angeles, it sees a great deal of filming from Hollywood.

Here are the stats…

Year opened: 1993

Surface: Grass

Construction cost: $20 million

Capacity: 6,588

Field dimensions: Left field – 326 ft.; Center field – 373 ft.; Right field – 297 ft.

Home teams: Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 1993-present

Events attended: dozens of games

The first big change for 2013 is the name. An awful naming rights name, you see it up above but it had such a cool original name that I will from this point on only refer to it by that name. The Epicenter fit the entire theme of the team. It is a very nice stadium that just misses being a top-tier single A stadium by a couple of flaws in design.  It’s situated with some very good views of the nearby San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges but also has the ugly backside of an adjacent shopping center beyond the outfield wall.

The seating bowl consists of one deck bisected with an aisle that separates the lower field level seats from the upper view section just above them.  There are also about a dozen enclosed suites on the top level surrounding the press box that is separate from the main seating area.  Bleachers are added to the area along the left field foul line and a restaurant with its own seating area is near the right field foul pole.  There is no outfield seating.

The design flaws are a closed concourse…you can’t see the game action when you go to the snack bar…and the long route wheelchair users must take to their seats. 

The park entrance is directly behind home plate, with another separate entrance around first base for season ticket holders.  Wheelchair users enter the seating area at either end of the seats in right or left field.  If you have tickets behind home plate, that is a fairly long route to get there.  Ticket prices run from $6 to $13 or you can rent a suite for $400 (works out to about $35 a person for 12 people). 

Buying tickets here pose no problems for wheelchair users.  The games rarely sell out, so feel free to go to the box office before the game.  Otherwise, call (909) 481-5000 and ask for accessible tickets.  They keep your preferences on file so the next time you call and give your phone number, they’ll usually respond with “you want the same seats you had last time and would you like to use the same credit card?” saving you a huge amount of time buying the tickets.

There are no bad seats here and the game views are excellent.  At only $13, the most expensive seats, very close to home plate, come with waiter service and free backrubs from Tremor, the Quakes’ mascot.

Food choices are mostly the regular ballpark fare consisting of hot dogs, pizza, and burgers.  There is also a good dessert bar across from the gift shop behind home plate.  Beer selection is excellent on weekend games with a couple of very good microbrew bars on the concourse with excellent bartenders.  On lighter attended games, these stands are left closed and the selection of brews drops dramatically.  Beer prices are good here.

Public transit is almost non-existent with the closest bus service about a half mile away and train service over a mile away.  Parking is tight but manageable and relatively inexpensive.

A good park, excellent staff (one of the best), great fans, the best mascots in minor league baseball, highly entertaining, and great game action.  Over all, a very good place to watch a baseball game even if you do have to go a ways to get to your seats.

Darryl

Copyright 2011 – Darryl Musick

All Rights Reserved
Updated for 2013

FIELDS OF DREAMS - Lake Elsinore Diamond, Lake Elsinore, California

The home of the single A Storm is a true "diamond in the rough." Here is an updated look.

Lake Elsinore Diamond is the home of the single-A, minor league Lake Elsinore Storm baseball team, an affiliate of the San Diego Padres.  As such, current (and former) Padres stars such as Jake Peavy and Ben Johnson have done time here.  Before the Padres, they were afiliated with the Angels, so if you were here at a certain time, you'd have seen future Halos like Darin Erstad, John Lackey, and Frankie Rodriguez.  Here are the stats:

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia

Dirk Hansen under CC-BY license

Lake Elsinore Diamond

Opened: 1994
Surface: Grass
Construction cost: $22 million
Capacity: 6,066
Field Dimensions: Left Field-330 ft., Centerfield-400 ft., Right Field-310 ft.
Home teams: Lake Elsinore Storm (California League) 1994-present
Events Attended: 3 games

This is one of the best accessible stadiums I've seen.  Wheelchairs can enter through any gate, which will deposit you right onto the field level concourse.  Chairs sit at the top of the field level, like many stadiums.  There are no obstructions at all.  The councourse is open, so if you go to the snack bar you can still see the game.

No one, and I mean no one, has a better ticket purchasing system for wheelchair users.  Online ticketing is available on their site.  First you pick which level of ticket you want.  Next, a seating chart is presented and you just click on the seats you want...some of which are labeled as accessible.  It's easy to arrange your group with this system.  Last time we went, the seating chart option made it easy to see that our group would be better arranged with the wheelchair and three companions in the top row with the four people who made up the rest of our group directly in front instead of spread out down the row.

It can get very hot here but a roof has been built over the seats giving you shade.  A generous amount of handicapped parking spots are available right at the gate.  Ticket prices range from $10 to $14.  Another feature I like are their promotions.  Margarita Mondays feature $2 margaritas. Wednesday is Wacky Weenie day with free hot dogs. Thursdays are Thirsty Thursdays with $1 beer.  Every Friday home game has a fireworks show afterward.

The only knock I has was that there are not many lodging options in Lake Elsinore.  It's a 90-minute drive in good traffic from my house and I'd like to have the option to spend the night, but new hotels are opening.  There's now a Holiday Inn Express, a Quality Inn, and a Best Western in town. 


All in all, a great place to see a game.

-Darryl
Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved
Updated for 2013

Travel Tunes - Week 30

A tip for those of you from other lands that are visiting the United States.  If you'd really like to see what we're like, and to get to know us, I can think of no better way to do it in a couple of hours than taking in a ball game.  Baseball is very American and you'll get a big dose of us and our ways when you go to a game.

In those couple of hours you'll see us celebrate, argue, be nice and polite, be profane, drink and eat to excess, and at the end of it all (usually), end up friends and looking forward to the next time.

When we're on the road, sometimes we'll find ourselves in a small town with nothing much to do (Columbia, South Carolina...I'm looking at you).  One thing we can always count on if there's a minor league team nearby is to take in a game.  It's a lot of fun, it gets us out of the room, exercises our passions, and it's cheap!

Since we're in the middle of a big baseball themed trip, this week's Travel Tune is explicitly about this, the joys of watching great minor league baseball.  As the lyrics say, "beer as flat as can be, we like our dogs with mustard and relish.  We've got a great pitcher...what's his name?"  (actually, I like some fizz in my beer - Ed) We may be minor league but at least we're AAA.   Enjoy this week's tune, Alabama's ode to the fun of minor league ball with a video set to scenes from some of the best baseball movies ever...there's nothing like a beer in The Cheap Seats.

-Darryl