August 7, 2014
Volcanoes Stadium (Capacity: 4,252)
Keizer, OR
Salem-Keizer Volcanoes vs Boise Hawks
Final Score: 9 – 5
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After a day of exploring in the state capital of Salem, OR, we headed five miles north for a Northwest League game in Keizer. The duel city name for the team is due to the proximity and relationship between the two cities as the former Salem community of Keizer only became an independent city in 1982. Located in the Willamette Valley of NW Oregon, Keizer (pop: 35,000) really plays the role of suburb with the capital acting as the main city. Salem was a charter franchise in the Northwest League, but with no modern ballpark, baseball left to Yakima in 1990. Seven years later, the region saw the Bellingham franchise move to a new ballpark built in Keizer. As a long-time affiliate of San Francisco, the Volcanoes have been remarkably successful in their short history with five league titles. Unfortunately, Volcanoes Stadium does not match the on-field success. The ballpark fails in several aspects as it looks ten years older than its age and has a strangely horrible design.
Prestige Ranking: 1.5 out of 5
Location
Located in the northeast corner of Keizer, the ballpark is on the edge of development. Sprawling Keizer Station is on the way to Volcanoes Stadium and this mega shopping complex is full of all the big box stores and chain restaurants you could think of. With Keizer otherwise made up of housing developments, the area to spend time in before a game is 10-15 minutes away in Salem. The Cherry City features a neat downtown with plenty of beautiful old buildings in its historic district and some decent restaurants. We visited the Mission Mill Museum which was great and then toured the State Capitol and its panoramic observation deck. This would rate better if the ballpark location was in Salem.
Location Ranking: 5.5 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
The area is easy to get to right off of I-5 and after maneuvering through the shopping center’s roads, a huge parking lot fronts the stadium (to save a few bucks, fans could park at the nearby Target and then make the walk over).
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 8 out of 8
Exterior
Volcanoes Stadium features a flat, somewhat understated entrance, thanks to the two-story building behind home plate. A light gray wall is at the center with a Volcanoes logo and a welcome display in the middle of the wall. Black colored roofing and red railings/trim make up the rest of the visuals, which at least follow team colors. There are also two sloping buildings on the sides that support the seating. An odd feature with the outside is the lack of a ticket office. A cheapo tent with hand printed signs saying “Tickets” and “Will Call” set the stage for what is about to come.
Exterior Ranking: 4.5 out of 10
Concourse
This is where things start getting weird. Through the entrance, there are a couple of food stands on either side and then the seating bowl appears with what looks like a walkway behind home plate. This walkway is essentially the concourse and a few points of sale take up the side (thus cutting room). At the end, a couple more food stands are found before the third base stands begin. There is no rain/sun cover in the stadium, plus limited space makes it an awkward concourse. At least bathrooms are accessible and the walkway down the third base-line leads to a more open picnic area (albeit with wooden, splintered tables). This spot includes a plain bar in a shed-like building, known as the Lava Lounge.
Concourse Ranking: 2 out of 5
Food
For food, much of it is standard offerings, though it is nice to see a nod to their affiliates in San Francisco with Garlic Fries being offered. The Volcanoes Burger boasts a special sauce. For some variety, the three boxes near home plate suffice as they offer an item or two in Mexican, Asian and Greek. Desserts highlighted by the ice cream seemed to be a favorite around the ballpark. Local beers include Deschutes and Gilgamesh, which especially is great for beer lovers with their Mamba on tap.
Food Ranking: 6 out of 8
Interior
I was shocked to find out that Volcanoes Stadium was built in 1997 and not 1987. The overall feel is not very inviting and the layout is poor as well. The aforementioned area behind home plate only contains 8-9 rows before the walkway begins. This is backed by a brick two-story structure with suites on top. The press box is built into the wall and it does not even look to be high enough for game announcers to see over the heads of fans walking by. Each base side contains sections pointing straight ahead with the lower box seats filled with faded red (more like pink) chairbacks. The upper box above each walkway includes mostly aluminum bleachers with backs tight for a tall guy. Further down first base, a rather useless set of extra bleachers exists, however on the opposite side is a decent grassy berm which extends to part of left field. A vast amount of foul territory pushes the seating far from the field. Looking in the distance, many can hear and see the traffic hum by on I-5, which is the finishing touch on an unmemorable ballpark that again is hard to believe was built within the booming time of the late 90s.
Interior Ranking: 3.5 out of 14
Scoreboard
Out in left-center is a simple display with game information and box score. The issue is the amount of bad light bulbs as several are missing and we did not even get a run number for the visitors in the 5th inning. A small video display in right field is not much better with a grainy display. Generally, it is used for player pictures, but there will be an occasional video from a rare between-innings contest.
Scoreboard Ranking: 1 out of 4
Displays
There’s not too much in the display department, but at least Volcanoes championships are recognized with a banner along the wall near the dugout. Behind home plate and underneath the press windows, three plaques honor members of the team and community that have been instrumental to area baseball. Keeping with the general baseball theme, a statue of two little kids playing catch greets fans entering the stadium.
Displays Ranking: 2.5 out of 6
Cost
A giant boo goes to the lone staff member at the ticket tent. She informed me that the only tickets available were the $20 Diamond Club and $9 General Admission (grassy berm). I understand comp tickets, no-shows and all that, but there was no way that the upper bleachers were not available for purchase as rows of seats were either empty or at most half full. She was quite rude too. Another issue is that the majority of the lower seats are not available for single-game purchase (I’m guessing it is season-ticket only), which is quite perplexing for a low-minor league team with a small fan base. This cuts the amount of tickets available by a third. The remaining upper box seats of $12 or $14 (with a $2 discount if bought before game day) are above normal for this league and such a crappy ballpark. They really need to re-think their ticketing procedures. Parking costs $3, along with the yearbook, which was needed as the “program” was nothing more than a $2 black and white scorecard. The food actually was not too bad with a regular cheeseburger costing $5, a medium soda $3 and beer varying between $5 and $6.
Cost Ranking: 5 out of 8
Fan Support
The crowd on a Thursday Night was not terrible and I would guestimate maybe 1500 in attendance. While the Volcanoes have been a middle of the pack team in the attendance standings, the playoff draws are quite poor with the lowest crowds in the eight-team circuit. The 2008 and 2009 championship games only brought in about 800 fans.
Fan Support Ranking: 3 out of 8
Atmosphere
Despite a widely regarded reputation in league circles as having the NWL’s worst atmosphere, it actually was OK in our game. They clapped for each successful home team event and each run scored was met with full applause and a few standing up. As the team tried to hold off the opponents in the eighth inning, many in the crowd were stomping their feet.
Atmosphere Ranking: 6.5 out of 14
Other Stuff
The Volcanoes nickname comes from the nearby Cascade Range, which is full of volcanoes. Too bad that there is not more in the ballpark to play up this theme as there is a lot that can be done. When Salem-Keizer scores, smoke comes out from the small logo on top of the scoreboard…..Though the service was mostly mediocre, the stadium did have several friendly waitresses coming to each section to take orders for fans. I’ve never seen this throughout an entire seating bowl and while the feature can be good, it did get a little annoying having to say “No Thanks” to the waitress every couple innings (in case you’re wondering, I quickly moved from the outfield grass to one of the vast amount of empty seats)…..On a related note, most concessions close after the 7th inning…..Promoted throughout the game is “Roofman”, a guy who comes out to throw random stuff to the crowd from the top of the building that holds the suites/press box…..Volcanoes Stadium is home to Oregon’s state high school baseball championships
Game
Each inning featured a decent amount of action. Salem-Keizer gradually built their lead to 6-2 and all seemed good until Boise put up 2 in the 7th inning and then cut the lead to 1 as the 8th inning slowed to a crawl. The Hawks gave the Volcanoes insurance runs in the bottom half thanks to walks and wild pitches. Salem-Keizer ended up winning 9-5 in a game that was way too long (3:20). Christian Arroyo went 2 for 5 with a pair of runs and RBIs. In total, 12 pitchers were used in this contest.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
