25 AAA ballparks visited, 5 to go!

A snapshot of the current AAA venues where I've seen a game.

The funny thing about AAA ballparks is I can't think of a single one I didn't really like. Well, at least not after a renovation gave me a second chance to form a first impression. Nor until attendance at unseasonably cold or damp April and May games in some of the northeast stadiums was remedied with second and third games at them in the summer months, rectifying any lukewarm perceptions I may have previously had. Yes, it may have taken a couple of ballgames at them, but each AAA ballpark left me with a very favorable impression.

Unlike MLB ballparks, where my journey to see them all started 20 years earlier, my AAA chase is a more recent undertaking. With 5/6 of the AAA ballparks now under my belt, I thought I'd take a look back at the journey so far.

Not long after moving up to the Hudson Valley in the mid 2000s, my MiLB ballpark chasing got underway, much like a ballplayer's journey might progress, from single-A rookie league ball with my local Hudson Valley Renegades, to AA via the Trenton Thunder who were the affiliate of the Yankees. Then, finally after hearing about Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on so many Yankee broadcasts, I realized it was just two hours from me, a straight shot west on I-84. And on May 15, 2010, I made the drive and reached AAA. I liked that ballpark plenty, and was a bit surprised when they rebuilt it just a couple years later. But I'm not fickle, I like the new PNC Field plenty too. In fact, for a number of years, I was alternating visits to Trenton and SWB, and now sort of do that with Somerset and SWB. 

My second AAA venue was Coca Cola Park for some Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs action. If memory serves, I hit this stadium on the way down to the office outside of DC. What I recall most is a blustery April afternoon in 2011. Next was Syracuse the following year, again in April. After a morning here on the Appalachian Trail of all things, I drove up to Syracuse to see the Empire Brewery and go to a Chiefs game. This was my first AAA asterisk in that I saw a game, but this was the year the SWB ballpark was being rebuilt, and the Syracuse game had the Yankees as the home team. So, technically, had I been to a Chiefs home game? Not really. But had I been to the ballpark? Well, yeah. Either way, it was another cold game. And it was drizzly too. The other thing that stood out in this game was seeing players I knew—including Bryce Harper, who was soon to be called up.

For the rest of 2012 and into 2013, I got into high gear with completing my final five needed MLB ballparks. 

Things got interesting in 2013 for another reason, for on that trip designed for finishing off the Bigs with stops in Cincinnati and Detroit, I added a day to visit Louisville. Its being so close to Cincy seemed too much to pass up: the Bat Museum had been highly recommended, and the Louisville Bats were home too. The extra day was a no-brainer. And that I was using air travel to reach a Minor League ballpark wasn't lost on me. What a fun evening it was in that ballpark. I continued north to Cincy the next morning, but I would never have reservations about including a Minor League venue in an itinerary. 

In fact, 2014 had me make another road trip through the Midwest, a bit farther west than the Louisville-to-Detroit adventure of 2013. This was my "road trip up the Heartland" excursion, from Oklahoma City to Wichita to Omaha to Des Moines, with an itinerary centered around ballparks. Three more AAA venues were visited on that adventure. The idea of "A ballpark and brewery in all 50 states" took root in my head. (And really, an activity in all 50 states was the goal, and a ballgame certainly qualifies as an activity, no?)

In 2015, it was a road trip through the south, with that same idea of a ballpark in each state. Memphis's was the lone AAA venue on that trip. But that road trip stands out for me thinking about NPS travel again, and adding an NPS site to my to-do list for all 50 states. Now we were talking—it felt like I could throw three darts at a map and have an itinerary made up of MiLB ballparks, breweries and NPS sites. But let's stay on those AAA ballparks, shall we?

I could share 10-year-old links from this very blog stating I didn't have plans to see all 30 of them, but I've very steadily added at least one new AAA stadium every year since but one (yeah, that year). In fact, three of my big trips the second half of the previous decade were National Park focused with at least two AAA venues on the itinerary, including many of those west of the Mississippi. The funny thing is, though, it wasn't until this year that I got to the two I knew about the longest—Columbus and Durham.

So, there were actually three AAA gems seen this year—Huntington Park (Columbus), DBAP (Durham), and Truist Field (Charlotte)—two I was eager to see for historic interest purposes, and the third I was eager to see because of its famed downtown skyline which seems to rival El Paso's for top spot in fans' estimations. Then thinking back to far better revisits to Oklahoma City, Rochester, Syracuse and Lehigh Valley, and, well, there are no duds at all among the 25 I've visited. They all have great amenities, they all have that walk-around  concourse I always appreciate, and they've all been worth the journey.

Let's have a closer look at those 25 thumbnails from the top of this post. The venues are arranged mostly in order of my visit, with a number of the pictures used from later visits.

PNC Field, SWB RailRiders, my first AAA venue (photo from a 2021 game).

Coca Cola Park, Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, from my 2023 revisit.

NBC Field, Syracuse Mets, from my 2023 revisit.

Louisville Slugger Field, Louisville Bats, 2013.

Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, Oklahoma City Dodgers, from my 2021 revisit.

Werner Park, Omaha Storm Chasers, 2014.

Principal Park, Iowa Cubs (Des Moines), 2014.

AutoZone Park, Memphis Redbirds, 2015.

Frontier Field, Rochester Red Wings, from a 2022 revisit.

The Dell Diamond, Round Rock Express, 2016.

Isotopes Park, Albuquerque Isotopes, 2016.
Loved the mountains in the distance

Sahlen Field, Buffalo Bison, 2017.

Cheney Stadium, Tacoma Rainiers, 2018.

Smith's Ballpark, Salt Lake City Bees, 2018.
Perhaps my favorite backdrop--those mountains!

Harbor Park, Norfolk Tides, 2018.

Fifth Third Field, Toledo Mud Hens, 2019.

Victory Field, Indianapolis Indians, 2019.
Another great downtown skyline.

Greater Nevada Field, Reno Aces, 2019.
(That's a walkoff homerun from a July game.)

Las Vegas Ballpark, Las Vegas Aviators, 2019.

Polar Park, Worcester Red Sox, 2021.

CHS Field, Saint Paul Saints, 2022.

Southwest University Park, El Paso Chihuahuas, 2023.
A fine downtown setting indeed. I wasn't disappointed.

Huntington Park, Columbus Clippers, 2024.

Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Durham Bulls, 2024.

Truist Field, Charlotte Knights, 2024.
Yeah, helluva downtown skyline here.

Next, I suppose hat tips to Pawtucket and Fresno are in order. The Boston AAA affiliate relocated to Massachusetts, but had a nice old ballpark when in Rhode Island. Fresno was dropped to Single-A a few years after my game there, where I was treated to an unexpected double header in the middle of that road trip where I saw Vegas and Reno. Neither stadium counts toward my totals, but I did enjoy both venues.

McCoy Stadium, Pawtucket Red Sox, 2013.

Chukchansi Park, Fresno Grizzlies, 2019.

Anyway, now let's look forward to hitting a game at those remaining five venues of mine: Gwinnett, Jacksonville, Nashville, Sacramento and of course Sugar Land, who just won the AAA title this weekend. Doing  the two more westerly ones first—perhaps Sugar Land first, in fact—might be my move. Then doing a road trip to knock off the three in the southeast together with the idea of finishing in Jacksonville or Nashville could work nicely. We shall see.

Hopefully a stadium chaser or two will join me at some of these games, or any of my questing friends for the 30th.