July 31, 2003
NYSEG Stadium (Capacity: 6,012)
Binghamton, NY
Binghamton Mets vs Portland Sea Dogs
Final Score: 2 – 1 (13)
* The stadium was re-visited for a game on August 19, 2007
* NYSEG Stadium has been renamed Mirabito Stadium
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My second trip to Binghamton brought me to the baseball diamond for a visit to NYSEG Stadium and the B-Mets. The city of 47,000 is located in the Southern Tier region of New York, sitting at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers. The ballpark was built in 1992 and opened as Binghamton Municipal Stadium with the Williamsport franchise in the AA Eastern League moving in and the team becoming affiliated with the Mets. This was not the first run at professional ball in the city, but it marked the return of baseball after a long hiatus. The B-Mets were successful early as they won a couple titles in 1992 and 1994, however they have not returned to the league championship since. Though I like simple ballparks, NYSEG Stadium just didn’t do it for me and comes up short in many aspects.
Prestige Ranking: 2 out of 5
Location
Aside from a few museums and historical houses, there’s not much that Binghamton has to offer. Despite its close proximity to downtown (half a mile), NYSEG Stadium may be described as a neighborhood ballpark with housing developments across the street. The other three sides of the stadium feature a postal building, a rail yard and a parking lot. There are also a few bars nearby. The area isn’t the greatest and even feels a little sketchy.
Location Ranking: 3.5 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
Getting to Binghamton’s stadium is easy as exiting onto Route 7 from I-81/I-86 brings you in the vicinity. Follow the signs for Route 11 and go straight thru the intersection as that will lead right to the ballpark parking. The parking lot was sufficient for the game I attended, but it is quite small and anything near seating capacity will like force people to park on the street. Traffic was non-existent for both games I attended.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 7 out of 8
Exterior
The entranceway to the ballpark features a flat, concrete wall in a design of light gray squares. NYSEG Stadium’s logo is at the top center along with smaller icons for the B-Mets and NY Mets. It’s somewhat of a boring entrance, only livened up slightly by the logos. The box office and two other gates are also located here. Ballpark shape follows the roads as the building lines the sidewalk on Henry Street and Fayette Street.
Exterior Ranking: 7 out of 10
Concourse
Once inside, the concourse leaves a lot to be desired with its location below the seating bowl. The area is kind of buried away and not near the diamond . Gray, brick walls set the stage for a generally drab walk through as it is also dark and somewhat cramped.
Concourse Ranking: 1 out of 5
Food
Food was not good either as the only specialty, a “Spiedie” (grilled chicken or pork on an Italian roll in a special sauce) was dry. On my second visit to the ballpark, I decided to give it another shot. I’ve had a spiedie in Binghamton from a local place and it was still much better than the one I had here. It’s a shame too because the area is known for this food and it is a bad representation of the city to have a bad one here. Other common offerings were available.
Food Ranking: 4 out of 8
Interior
The seating bowl is set up with a walkway in the middle and most of the blue seats come in the level higher up. Slope in the seating bowl is decent as I liked the height over the field. Blue seats extend out to near the end of the dirt in the infield. Behind home plate are a modest six suites and the press box, with a short roof covering about the first few rows in the second level. With the exception of the boxes behind home plate, there is nothing but a chain-link fence in back of the seating bowl. This makes the ballpark feel that something is missing and appear somewhat older than it really is. A pleasant outfield view greets you here with a railyard in leftfield and many rolling hills far in the distance. Unfortunately, none of the trains were passing by in the railyard. There are no areas for larger groups or berm seating, both unusual omissions.
Interior Ranking: 6.5 out of 14
Scoreboard
My return visit in 2007 featured a new scoreboard which is in the same spot as the old one in right-center. The biggest update is a video screen, but disappointingly, much of the time they used this for advertising. The box score is below and at the top is a classy looking wrought-iron look with the stadium logo.
Scoreboard Ranking: 2.5 out of 4
Displays
A wall in the concourse provides the setting for a nice section of plaques dedicated to those who have had an impact on Binghamton baseball throughout its history. That’s about it in this department.
Displays Ranking: 1 out of 6
Cost
Prices for attending a B-Mets game were very reasonable all the way around. My ticket was less than $10 and the parking was $3.
Cost Ranking: 7.5 out of 8
Fan Support and Atmosphere
The atmosphere at NYSEG Stadium was rather poor with fans quiet and most of them not really paying attention to the game. Even the mascot kind of sulked along. The one nice part that struck a high note in front of me, was seeing a father teaching his young daughter how to keep score. Those little things make you realize why baseball is great. Average attendance fills about half the stadium and the team ranks in the bottom third of the EL attendance standings. The in-stadium crowd for both games I attended (a Thursday Night and a Sunday Afternoon) were around 1,000 people.
Fan Support Ranking: 2.5 out of 8
Atmosphere Ranking: 4 out of 14
Other Stuff
Two nights after my first visit here, the B-Mets had a rare minor league no-hitter as Bob Keppel went the distance….It’s interesting trying to find the bullpens and where those pitchers sit. There is such limited space, home pitchers are looking through a window in right field at the action.
Game (Initial Visit)
The game turned out to be a thriller after a dull start. Through nine innings, the score stayed 0-0 with all 11 hits coming in the form of singles. Then in the tenth inning, Portland loaded the bases with no out. They preceded to have a strange interference call to force one out and then the B-Mets turned an insane, diving 6-4-3 double play to get out of the inning 0-0. They went on to inning 13, where a solo home run gave the Sea Dogs a 1-0 lead, but Binghamton ended up scoring two in the bottom of the inning to get the win.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
