A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

minor league

Summer of Baseball: Visiting Tigers in Connecticut

When I worked in newspapers, I had the chance and fortune to cover a professional baseball team for six seasons.

The team was the Oneonta Tigers, the short-season Single-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. There was a storied history with this team, dating back to the 1960s. The same owners had run the team through the years, which included more than 30 as an affiliate with the New York Yankees.

But, in 2009, the owners sold to a group who fled Oneonta after one season and went to Norwich, Connecticut. The city had lose its AA team and now had the blessing of the New York-Penn League to bring a squad there — and that team turned out to be the Tigers.

All stamped in and ready for baseball.

All stamped in and ready for baseball.

Since that move, one in which I’m still heavily disappointed about, I’ve said I wanted to catch a game here.

Allow me to say this — though the stadium itself is better than Damaschke Field in Oneonta, it’s just not the same. Short-season A ball is something I like to be more intimate. Norwich is definitely a stadium for a larger league, though it seems the area didn’t support it well enough (thus why the AA team left).

With all that in mind, two of us made the trek to Dodd Stadium on July 4 to watch the Tigers take on the Vermont Lake Monsters.

There was a good crowd that night, one in which fireworks were to follow the game. An announced crowd of 3,776 watched the home team win, 7-6, in just under three hours.

So, let’s take a look at the stadium itself.

First, one issue I’d have is it’s not easy to get to this spot. It’s in an industrial park area and one way in is closed on game days. So after winding and weaving and such, you come to the stadium.

It’s definitely baseball here. The parking cost a few bucks, even though we got there before they started collecting. They came and asked for it when they did start collecting and then told us we also had to move elsewhere, even though the whole parking lot was … empty.

Another fan told me this was here from the AA team's days.

Another fan told me this was here from the AA team’s days.

It was a bobblehead day, so we got there early enough to snag our bobbleheads and in we went.

A couple of things to note — it’s definitely more of a stadium feel here than in the past. While Oneonta was intimate and “old school,” Dodd stadium is much like many parks in the current day. In others words, there’s a large selection of food and drink. The team store, while a tad cramped for space, is well stocked with the normal items people might want.

The food selections were pretty solid (hot dogs were good) and the beer selection, too, was good. An interesting side to it — there was one beer stand that had some “older” favorites, such as Schlitz and Schmidts. That’s a pretty cool feature and one I’ve not really seen at a park. Heck, there was even PBR, if I remember right.

Lines for ice cream that night were pretty long all night (as to be expected on July 4), but there was a small Ben and Jerry’s cart that people seemed to walk right past, so you could get some ice cream without issue.

The sight lines for the stadium were pretty good. Seats were normal, though felt a little tighter because there was a strong crowd. Therefore, one couldn’t stretch out as much.

The ambiance was decent as people seemed to be watching baseball. We were lucky to see a pretty decent game with some good action, so that helped.

People were also quite friendly here, which is always a good thing. Outside of the one or two people we dealt with in the parking lot (who seemed to be a little pushy), everybody was welcoming and friendly, which is always good in a small-league team.

In the end, I’m glad I finally had the chance to go see the Tigers in Connecticut. It made for a good end to a two-game weekend and is a place I’d likely visit again, especially with two new teams (New Britain in the independent Atlantic League) and Hartford (Eastern League) going to be in Connecticut this upcoming season.

Park Notes:  

Dodd Stadium
Norwich, Conn.
Home of the Connecticut Tigers (Short-season Single A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers)
Visited on: July 4, 2015
Opponent: Vermont Lake Monsters (Short-season Single A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics)

Ratings (out of 10)

  • Stadium: 7.5/10
  • Concessions: 8/10
  • Parking: 7.5/10
  • Ambiance: 8/10
  • Friendliness: 9/10

I am continuing the Summer of Baseball from 2014 and hope to blog about each new stadium I visit in 2015. Ones visited in the past can be viewed linked up in the 2014 version.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Summer of Baseball: Going back in time in Burlington

Centennial Field

Centennial Field

As I’ve noted before, I love me an old-school baseball park. Even if, when I get there, the experience isn’t the greatest, there’s still something to be said about an older park.

Take, for example, Centennial Field, located on the campus of the University of Vermont. Originally built in 1906, the field got its current concrete and steel main grandstand in 1922, which replaced the wooden bleachers that burned some eight or nine years before.

That’s old.

The field is home to the Vermont Lake Monsters, the short-season Single-A team of the Oakland Athletics. UVM no longer has a baseball team.

This field is throwback central, though.

There are some obstructed views, but a cold micro brew helps that out.

There are some obstructed views, but a cold micro brew helps that out.

There are no bells and whistles. The souvenir store isn’t accessible by walking in, rather it’s under the grandstands with a couple of concession-style windows where people will come and look and decide if they want to buy or not. Customer relations is housed in a trailer. The concession areas were what you would expect to see at a ballpark like this. When I say old school, folks, I mean old school.

The food selection was normal and there was a decent beer selection, which is understandable (and somewhat expected) considering how well-known Vermont is for craft beer.

Turns out, too, the Lake Monsters draw crowds. For most of this summer and these baseball trips, I picked tickets online ahead of time. However, the system Vermont uses doesn’t allow you to pick seats, so we opted to get them at the door. We were just going to get some general admission seats … and were told there weren’t two seats together.

To which I replied, “In general admission?”

He said “yes.”

Maybe it’s the lingo, but I’ve always thought GA tickets were sit wherever you want – first come, first served – in the GA section. Apparently not here.

Ready for the game.

Ready for the game.

Either way, we ended up getting a pair of seats together in the grandstand.

The sight lines aren’t all great (we were near a large beam, which holds the grandstand roof up – obstructed view?), but it’s not a bad place to watch a baseball game. There’s not a lot of glitz and glamor here.

The field layout is a little more older, too, such as where the dugouts are located and all. But, overall, it’s a nice stadium for the level of baseball it houses. The crowds are pretty energetic, too, which makes the overall experience that much better, too

Some cons? Parking. There’s pretty much none at the park and you aren’t supposed to park on the neighboring streets. So what they do is have you park at a parking garage on campus (free) and bus you (also for free) on a shuttle. In the end, it wasn’t too bad, but for out-of-town people coming to watch a game, it’s a tad frustrating. That adds to the end of the game, too, as you wait to pack into the school buses, which double as shuttles, to get back to your car.

One other con, at least for me, was not being able to get my Minor League Passport stamped. Despite being listed as a place where it could be done, nobody there seemed to know about the program or the stamp. An assistant GM did come and chat with me during the game about it and said he was going to look into it, but unfortunately that doesn’t get me the stamp. Maybe in the future if I go again.

Something I noticed about all of this though is the people here are top-notch and friendly. They really make you feel like you mean something, which is nice to see. I have always loved the New York-Penn League (it helps that I covered the Oneonta Tigers for six seasons) and this gives me hope that professional baseball can survive in some smaller

In the end, what you get here is an old-school baseball experience. It’s a nice little spot and worth visiting. On top of that, the Burlington area is really nice and I guarantee you can find places to go, which is even better.

Park Notes:  

Centennial Field
Burlington, Vermont
Home of the Vermont Lake Monsters (Short-season A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics)
Visited on: Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014
Opponent: Mahoning Valley Scrappers (Short-season A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians)

Ratings (out of 10)

  • Stadium: 7/10
  • Concessions: 7/10
  • Parking: 3/10
  • Ambiance: 9/10
  • Friendliness: 8/10

I am embarking on a summer of baseball with the plan to hit a minimum of 10 stadiums this summer. Hopefully, there will be more than that. I will report on each park that I hit on the blog.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!