May 28, 2011
Arthur W. Perdue Stadium (Capacity: 5,200)
Salisbury, MD
Delmarva Shorebirds vs West Virginia Power
Final Score: 3 – 5
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On a Memorial Day Weekend trip, our first stop was to the Delmarva, which stands for DElaware, MARyland, VirginiA. The city of Salisbury is the largest of this region and it’s located in the southeast corner of Maryland, not too far from the ocean. The population is 23,000, but with a two-county metro population of at least 120,000, it is the main hub of the Eastern Shore. Since 1996, minor league baseball has been played here, however Salisbury fielded occasional teams in the Eastern Shore League during the 1920s, 30s and 40s. The Shorebirds debuted in ’96 and became an Orioles affiliate a year later. The team has won two South Atlantic Championships (1997 and 2000) and play in Arthur W. Perdue Stadium, a ballpark that features a terrific hall of fame museum.
Prestige Ranking: 2.5 out of 5
Location
There is not much reason to go out of the way for Salisbury, but we made the most of our time here. After visiting the free zoo, we went downtown and ate at the Market Street Inn before driving to a Shorebirds game. The ballpark is located on the outskirts of this small city and there really isn’t much around it. Approaching from US-13, you’ll pass a Denny’s, along with a small shopping center. The resort town of Ocean City is 40 minutes away.
Location Ranking: 4 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
Getting to the stadium is simple enough once you’re on the Eastern Shore, however anyone coming from the I-95 corridor (west of the Chesapeake Bay) will find that travel takes awhile to reach this region. Once at the ballpark, parking is fine except on nights where the place is packed as that leads to many (including us) having to go beyond the main lot to park in the nearby fields. Not sure why they just couldn’t keep paving as the land is there. Beware, that you can’t come out the way you came in, so it takes a few roads to get back to US-50 and US-13, which is well signed.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 6.5 out of 8
Exterior
Perdue Stadium features a brick layout that has soft angles as it rounds the shape of the field. A green roof is barely visible as well. At the center of the exterior is a lighter brick structure that juts forward a bit and has “Arthur W. Perdue Stadium” written out on three lines at the top. This section is also one of the more unique entrances as it brings fans through a hallway (where they can visit the Eastern Shore Hall of Fame, more on that later) and right behind home plate in the lower walkway. Otherwise, more traditional stairs on the outside brings fans to the main concourse.
Exterior Ranking: 5.5 out of 10
Concourse
A now classic, one-level open concourse allows fans to watch the game while walking or buying food. It is wide enough for the capacity of the park and adorned with white brimmed ceilings, while the walls on the side are brick. The “Flock Shop” team store is near home plate. At the end of the concourse on the third-base side is an open-air kids section complete with basketball court, trampoline and a merry-go-round. This section is visible throughout the park and gives the stadium a kind of “shore” feel. There’s also an arcade further into the main concourse.
Concourse Ranking: 4 out of 5
Food
There were a lot of concession stands, but the only truly unique food item was a Fudge Puppy. A Belgian Waffle dipped in chocolate sounded pretty good and I couldn’t pass it up (it was good). On the other end of the spectrum, thumbs down to exclude seafood options as the Delmarva is known for having really good crab and crab cakes. Beer was fine, plenty to choose from, yet nothing that stood out. By the way, the Shorebirds must make a ton on concessions, because from the first through the ninth, everywhere we turned, somebody was eating.
Food Ranking: 5 out of 8
Interior
The split-level bowl extends to the edge of the outfield and the chair-back green seats that were in the smaller, lower-half sections were tight for a tall guy. The majority of the seats in the stadium came in the upper general admission sections, which unfortunately had hard bleachers with red backs. Not only were these uncomfortable, but because there is no assigned seat number, it led to a lot of fans standing in the aisles deliberating where to sit. Incredibly annoying when trying to watch the game. Perdue Stadium differed a bit from most parks built in this era as the area behind home plate features only a few rows of seats followed by a concession section and then a “picnic area” known as the Hardball Café. Normally, I’m against luxury seating in these spots, but it was nice to see something different. A ticket and buffet for this section goes for $29.50. Above the seats is a club and luxury suite level, along with the press box, which is named after Franklin P. Perdue and written on the reddish-brown wall beneath. At the end of the seating bowl are grassy seating areas, with the first base one smaller because of a picnic area. The outfield view is rather boring with three rows of ads stacked up and well beyond that are some clusters of trees.
Interior Ranking: 6 out of 14
Scoreboard
In left field, is a digital line score with text underneath for the batter and their game stats. It was interesting in that during daylight, the lights were in red, while at night, it became gold. Neat little touch. Meanwhile, in right field is a small graphics board that has grainy video but was only used for commercials.
Scoreboard Ranking: 1.5 out of 4
Displays
In the lower part of the stadium (and accessible behind home plate) is the terrific Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame. Inside is a shrine to all types of Delmarva baseball. Most of the focus is on the Eastern Shore League in the early part of the 1900s, a league that compared to today’s “A” ball. A wonderful collection of memorabilia from this era is displayed, including newspapers from when Salisbury won the ’37 league title. Displays from recent Shorebirds teams were also featured. The man working there was also very knowledgeable and great to talk to as I learned that those Salisbury Indians were one of the greatest minor league teams ever. Also displayed was the actual Hall of Fame and plaques for area players who played in the majors. Inside the stadium, only some player banners within the concourse were seen.
Displays Ranking: 5 out of 6
Cost
The game was very reasonable thanks to the tickets, which were only $6 when purchased before the day of the game. Chairs with backs in the front were only $10. You could even sit in the top “luxury level” (sans suite) for $13. Parking cost $3 and the programs here were free. A few of the concessions were a bit above average, like $4.50 for a regular fry and $3.50 for water, but the baskets that included chips for a reasonable price was worth it.
Cost Ranking: 7.5 out of 8
Fan Support
On this night, the Shorebirds announced an absurdly high attendance of 8,373. I of course know these attendance figures are inflated because they are tickets “sold”, but there’s no way that ballpark can fit another 3,173 people in their grassy areas, picnic spots and standing room only zones. Regardless, it was still an excellent crowd that had the stands nearly full on a perfect-weather Saturday Night that had fireworks. Their next home game (a hot Wednesday Night) had 1,731. Attendance seems very dependent on the night and promotion. This season, they average 2,729 thus far, good for middle-of the pack in the South Atlantic League. That is consistent with prior seasons. Keeping in mind the size of the market, Salisbury does well for themselves.
Fan Support Ranking: 5 out of 8
Atmosphere
The atmosphere did not stray from the minor-league formula as it was mainly families, whose focus and care in the game was limited. Pleasant applause greeted good plays and runs, while home runs produced a few folks standing up and cheering. When West Virginia took the lead in the 9th, there was a slight, brief grown as people returned to their side conversations. Besides, this means fireworks could start on time!
Atmosphere Ranking: 7 out of 14
Other Stuff
The ballpark is named after THE Perdue chicken guy as the family helped fund the stadium and provide the land……The fireworks show we saw after the game was one of the best that I’ve ever seen. Well worth the price of admission.
Game
This was a decent game as it started by West Virginia jumping out to a 1-0 lead and then the Shorebirds answering in the bottom half of the first with a Michael Flacco (yes, brother of QB Joe) two-run homer. West Virginia answered a 3rd inning Shorebirds home run by scoring in the fifth. Then Delmarva flirted with disaster in each of the final three innings. They featured the Power getting the leadoff runner on first and then sacrificing him over to second with a bunt. Delmarva escaped the 7th and 8th, but in the 9th, three hits including a double and triple gave West Virginia the lead for good as they won 5-3.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
