I never felt great about how I laid out this ballpark trip and while there were certainly some issues, it’s impossible for me to say that any time at a stadium is a bad one. The plan was to see a new ballpark in Lynn, MA and then revisit one in Manchester, NH the previous night. One thing I learned is to never leave in the afternoon for New England. Usually, I’ll leave right after the morning rush hour and then do something touristy in the town before going to a Friday Night game. This go around, I worked in the morning and then left at Noon. Big mistake. What should have been a 4 hour and 30 minute journey took 6 hours. Every interstate had at least a 10 minute slowdown, with the worst culprit being the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut. Stop and Go traffic for that long wears you down and I wasn’t in the best of moods upon arrival.
Before seeing the New Hampshire Fisher Cats once again, I planned a stop in Nashua, which is 20 minutes to the south. The Silver Knights are part of the Futures League (Summer-Collegiate Wood Bat) and this would be the 5th (out of 8) stadium I’ve seen in the league. Despite Holman Stadium being too small to make The List, it is an attainable goal to see all of that League’s ballparks. Traffic meant that I missed dinner before the game, so I headed right to Holman, getting their 10 minutes before first pitch. I found a jammed parking lot, which was ok because I wasn’t planning to go there thanks to it being a target for foul balls. I parked along Sargants Ave and felt like I was in a sort of Field of Dreams sequence. Making a strange walk through school grounds, I came out through a pathway to a wonderful ballpark beaming in the late-day sunlight. She was calling me after such a rotten drive. Even the long line for tickets couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm for this classic that opened in 1937. Holman Stadium has seen a lot and it was the first place to host a racially integrated team as they were Dodger affiliates. Displays recognize a lot of the ballpark history and while the concourse behind the stands was very crowded, it had a classic vibe that in no way appeared rundown. Inside the 2,825-seat stadium was a perfect example of how you can keep a historic ballpark modern. The seating bowl was very comfortable and seats are pitched steeply making for excellent sightlines. Such an enjoyable place to watch baseball with the spruce trees beyond the outfield and the small planes approaching Nashua Airport.
I likely saw the biggest crowd of the season as many in the ticket line said this was abnormal. They filled up about 2/3rds of the stadium and I was astounded at how the team could report the official attendance as 4,409. Just do the math and look at the ballpark to see how ridiculous that is. Regardless, it was indeed a great crowd as they really were into the team and made for an enjoyable sports atmosphere (much better than your typical experience at a minor league park). Cowbells rang after each hit, along with a nice vocal pop. They were invested in the game and made great noise. I also happened to be at a game that featured the return of Monkey Boy, which may have helped draw more people. I was just as confused. Because I was late to the ballpark, I was touring in the left field corner when the PA announced his return to the field as the crowd went bananas for his break dancing routine. He made occasional appearances and it wasn’t until I got home did I realize the legend of this mascot. I was also fortunate enough to see a grand slam and the fans loved that with many of them standing. That was the beginning of an onslaught by the Silver Knights as they won 22-2!
I really didn’t want to leave Holman Stadium given how great it was to watch a game there, especially because I was making a re-visit to horribly named Delta Dental Stadium, a place I was not fond of in 2009. I returned to see if things (or my mood) from last visit got better. The Silver Knights started at 6:00 PM and the Fisher Cats’ first pitch was 7:05 PM. By the time I arrived, it was the third inning and I’m not joking when I think that just as many people were in this Double A ballpark. That’s saying something given the level of play and that Manchester is a bigger city. The one thing that got better at this stadium was the parking situation as the completion of a huge parking garage nearby solved that problem. Otherwise, Delta Dentist Stadium is as I remember with a terrible seating design that consists of small sections around the stadium on an aluminum base. The outfield entrance has a bad nearby river stank to it and “Keep 6 feet of distance” Covid stickers remain faded on the floor. The videoboard is pretty solid though (save for the blank panel at the bottom) and they certainly loved to use it for random movie and music videos. The revisit and reranking still puts New Hampshire 10th in the rankings.
I was treated to a heckuva game as the Fisher Cats jumped out to an 8-2 lead. Hartford chipped at it and the culmination of their comeback occurred in the 8th inning when they turned a 3-run deficit to a 3-run lead. In that inning, the game was stopped for a random guy who decided to sit over the wall beyond centerfield. Yup. The Yard Goats tacked on a couple more in the 9th inning and during this onslaught, I felt really bad for Fisher Cats pitcher T.J. Brock. He was getting annihilated as every ball was hit hard and there was no one warming up in the bullpen. Finally, enough was enough and someone quickly came in, leaving him with a statline of 0.2 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO. On the other side, Drew Romo had 3 home runs! Impressive that there were a few people in the home crowd that noticed and even stood to applaud that performance.
The next day featured a decision thanks to the weather. It was apparent for days that storms would be in the area and that put the North Shore Navigators game in question. After I forecasted early in the morning, the decision was…do I stay in the area hoping for the best or do I look to go elsewhere. My other choices were Worcester, 45 minutes away or a drive for the Vermont Lake Monsters, 3 hours away in Burlington. That’s a long round trip to the already booked hotel and with it not guaranteed to stay dry there, I decided to stick with the plan for seeing Fraser Field. My best hope was that they miss early pop-up storms and the main area of rain/thunder holds off until the later end of the 5-8 PM timeframe, that way we’re able to at least get a few innings in.
In the meantime, I went to go check out the town of Salem. I’m not into the witch or sorcery stuff, so I just walked their terrific downtown and also the wharf at the Maritime National Historic Site. It was a neat walk in spite of the humidity with plenty to look at. Great place for anyone that wants to take a daytrip here (though I can’t help but become really sad when I think about the Witch Trials that took place here). Really, if you have a lot of time, don’t just keep it all in Boston…doing Salem and Gloucester with some whale watching is worthwhile. I went to Salem because Lynn (where Fraser Field is) doesn’t offer much. While I try to avoid stereotypes like this one, it was tough to find the desire to spend an afternoon here. I did want to get a feel of the city that I was reviewing their stadium, so I planned on spending an hour or so and regretted that when I went to the High Rock Tower. Beautiful surrounding view, but super sketch. After going past the couple making out and another dude drinking beers in a parked car, I snapped a few pictures of the tower. It was 4:30 PM at this point and I was happy that we still were missing the storms, Before getting back on Lynn’s raggedy and confusing roads, on a whim, I checked Twitter before going to dinner. And I saw this. Why!?!?! Arrrgghh. Cancelling even before a drop of rain infuriates me, but in the end they would have needed to anyway as storms came in around 6 PM and the rain was on/off for a few hours. If you’re wondering why this post is way longer than normal, it’s because I had a lot of evening time in the hotel.
There was still hope though because in some convoluted way, the Navigators MIGHT be playing a doubleheader on Sunday. They already had a 5 PM game scheduled against Newport (might be stretching it for me to stay given a 4.5 hours drive back with no traffic). Because the Futures League doesn’t feature games scheduled in a series since travel is so short, the Saturday opponent was North Adams. That game would be rescheduled for 2 PM ONLY if North Shore (the team/ballpark I’m trying to see) was still in the playoff race. If you are still following….the way that would happen would be if on Saturday, Martha’s Vineyard and Ocean State split their scheduled doubleheader. Ocean took the first game and then I followed along as they squeaked out an 8-7 win in game that rain ended in the 8th. Not only would North Shore not have a doubleheader, but they also cancelled their already scheduled game on Sunday….why, I don’t know! Not a fan of this team.
I was ready to head home Sunday Morning when I kept thinking about the game in Burlington. Their 5 PM game got moved to 4 PM for a doubleheader and I thought, what the heck, let’s go for it. I drove 3 hours to get there and spent some time on a packed Church Street, which is one of the first pedestrian malls in the country (and still great). Centennial Field dates back 100 years and this was another historic refurbished ballpark that is right up my alley. Just a beautiful wooden grandstand with seats pitched at a high level and even though there is a TON of foul territory, the view is pretty good. The team has decent concessions and some great group/social spaces down each line making it an awesome ballpark all-around. It was a solid crowd and beautiful weather with temperatures in the 70s made for a perfect afternoon of baseball. The teams cooperated as well, with Vermont beating the same Nashua team I saw a few nights earlier by the score of 2-1 in just 1 hour and 48 minutes. That allowed me to get on the road at a reasonable time and drive through the Vermont countryside lit up by the evening sun before completing the long venture back to Jersey. 909 miles of driving, 16+ hours in the car, 3 games, 1 new stadium checked off The List….thanks Lake Monsters for saving the weekend. I’ll be back in a week with the official review of their stadium.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
