April 19, 2024
Disharoon Park (Capacity: 5,919)
Charlottesville, VA
Virginia Cavaliers vs Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Final Score: 2 – 13
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In the shadows of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Central Virginia is Charlottesville, a city of 46,000 steeped in history and beautiful architecture inspired by Thomas Jefferson. C’Ville is the former home to two other presidents and it has a decent array of dining, shopping and entertainment. The area is also near several wineries and not too far from Shenandoah National Park. While Charlottesville makes for a great weekend stop, it’s important to understand that this was a place with an awful history of segregation and racism. Like much of the south, it was even more stark here and recently brought to light when white supremacist groups infiltrated the city in 2017 after a vote to take a confederate statue down. On the west side of the city is The University of Virginia, a prestigious and historic school with 25,000 students. Jefferson’s University is well designed with a program and campus experience that is highly regarded. Their athletics program is pretty good too as the school has won the Capital One Cup a few times for most successful athletic program in a season. You can now count baseball in that category too. After the Cavaliers made the NCAA Tournament only 3 times during the 1900s, they have become a mainstay during this century. Hosting a Regional during the NCAA Tournament is the pinnacle for a college baseball program (that means you are Top 16 in the country) and they have done that several times. Virginia also has made it to the College World Series 6 times (including last season) and they won it all in 2015. Manager Brian O’Connor has turned UVA into a perennial contender in the college baseball world and they have a quality facility to go with it. The ballpark was remade in 2002 and a notable renovation in 2018 led to the official name of Disharoon Park at Davenport Field that honors financial contributors.
Prestige Ranking: 3 out of 5
Location
There are 3 places that are “Must See” when coming to Charlottesville. Not in order, the first is the actual campus at the University of Virginia. It is fascinating to consider that Thomas Jefferson designed the campus and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are guided tours or you can just walk the grounds yourself and check out The Lawn, the Rotunda and Old Cabell Hall. Sticking with history, Jefferson’s former home just southeast of the city is another famous site as Monticello is one of the most popular attractions in the state and well worth an afternoon spent. Finally, the Downtown Mall is the lifeblood of Charlottesville, though I don’t know if locals would call it “beloved”. This space is closed off for traffic and the historic buildings contain a plethora of restaurants, shops and music venues. There’s also a cast of characters around (security is present) and the whiff of a particular substance can be off-putting for some. As for Disharoon Park, it is on the outer edge of the city, around 2 miles from downtown and 1 mile from the center of UVA. This section of sporting venues is in an area featuring plenty of apartments and a mix of commerce along Ivy Road. It’s not an eye-catching area, but you can find a few restaurants around if you’re looking to eat close-by before the game.
Location Ranking: 7 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
C’ville is near I-64, the interstate that runs east-west between Richmond and the Blue Ridge Mountains. To reach this interstate, many will come via I-95 (about an hour away) or the closer I-81 which runs up and down the mountains. For Ivy Road and stadium parking, a few local highways are used and they are easy to navigate. Surface parking in front of the complex containing the ballpark features tight spaces and lanes that require some careful maneuvering. Further out, the presence of the basketball arena means that there is plenty of surface parking, however, during the rare time that the baseball game coincides with an arena event, it can be a nightmare. Traffic on this side of campus isn’t horrible, while city congestion can be busy, but with little delay. Once out of the car, the walk to the entry gate is just half the travel by foot as a lengthy walk around a path awaits.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 6 out of 8
Exterior
It’s a tepid introduction to the stadium as the main entry is placed well away from Disharoon Park. The metal detectors, bag check and ticket scanners are located next to the Track Stadium at ground level. You then wind your way along sidewalks between other sports facilities before reaching the ballpark set furthest in the back. The path leads you to the outfield seating and you don’t really get a good look at the structure of the stadium from this vantage point as there is almost no access behind home plate. In fact, if you were to try and peek from this direction via Old Ivy Rd, scores of trees will mostly block the exterior view. At least the back of the scoreboard is well decorated and where other building elements can be seen, it is brick.
Exterior Ranking: 3 out of 10
Concourse
The concourse is really well done as the wide sidewalk behind and above the seating bowl offers a view of the infield throughout the entirety. Behind home plate are food stands, a team store and bathroom, all under the cover a roof. Another building down the first base side necessarily added more bathroom space so that isn’t an issue, plus an overhang gives extra protection if it’s raining. The right field corner has a roomy standing area and then if you want to go around the outfield, you can via a ground-level path. This is the only spot where the ranking gets dinged a bit as it is behind walls and you are secluded from the ballfield. FWIW, this is where most people will enter the facility as they branch off to either the left corner or right corner of the stadium.
Concourse Ranking: 4.5 out of 5
Food
Varieties of hot dogs and burgers along with upscale looking concession stands make the menu seem better than it really is. There are still decent finds in here, including BBQ Mac and Cheese. Nothing truly appealed to me and I opted to fill up with the Chicken Tenders basket (but no Honey Mustard or BBQ sauce!). I will say the portable cart selling Nuts provided an intoxicating smell and the sight of Ben & Jerry’s made me struggle with picking one of eight flavors. Plus, every once in a while, there will be a Food Truck in attendance. The beer selection at The Dish is also enticing thanks to the vast array of Orange and Blue cans. Starr Hill Brewery has specialty team drinks including “Wahoowa Pale Ale” and “Sabre Lager”. Coyote Hole Ciderworks did the same thing with their “Granny Hoo” hard apple cider.
Food Ranking: 6 out of 8
Interior
This is a nice college ballpark and it features one level of imbalanced seating around the infield. Limited foul territory puts the seats pretty close to the action and another nice feature is the initial brick wall that leads to the first row starting 6 feet or so above ground level. Sections curve around home plate and the blue chairs themselves are wide and comfortable. They do sit on aluminum base, as opposed to concrete and that cheapens the experience a bit. Down the first base side, seating sections extend much further (with poor viewpoints as chairs face straight ahead) and then in the corner are levels of counter tops and swivel seating. The opposite corner features hillside seating and then in left-field are decrepit wooden bleachers that are badly worn and in need of replacing. There is a variety of club/luxury seating reserved for donors. Most of it is unobtrusive, but I found the traditional luxury seats to be in an odd position below the roof and set further back in the concourse. The set-up made it feel like those watching from there were looking down on you when walking the concourse.
Interior Ranking: 9 out of 14
Scoreboard
No scoreboard has ever fooled me as much as this one. With such a large set-up and a nice layout with the field name and logo at the top, it looked like it was going to be good. Then I saw the screen. Yikes, this thing was an embarrassment to the school and conference as it was pixelated and fuzzy. Good luck trying to see anything when it came to game footage. You at least could make out the presentation information and I did enjoy “HooVision” when they had some fun player interactions. At the bottom is a traditional line score. For anyone sitting on the 1st base side, it would’ve been nice to see a balls/strikes count on an infield display instead of having to strain a neck.
Scoreboard Ranking: 2.5 out of 4
Displays
There will be a few places to see championships, CWS appearances and the numbers are complimented by a pair of dogpile pictures at the top end of the suite level. The blue and orange color scheme is great for character and I thought the honors of the team were eloquently displayed. A few plaques are around as well, separate from the Team Hall of Fame. Created in 2017, UVA has decorative home plates that feature detailed descriptions of each member.
Displays Ranking: 4 out of 6
Cost
Most weekend games feature tickets that cost $20 for the Infield Grandstand, $16 – $12 for seats further away in the grandstand and $8 for a bleacher/lawn/standing seat. If you’re going alone or with one person, most times you could buy an $8 seat and then move to an open row on the infield. Prices do go up $2 – $4 on gameday, however for weekday games, it is a cheaper cost $6 – $12. Another really good deal is those that are 18 and under can get in free for General Admission with the purchase of another ticket. Overall, tickets are a bit higher than you’re typical ACC Baseball team, however UVA has decent deals. Parking is also free.
Cost Ranking: 7 out of 8
Fan Support
For a team and stadium of this caliber within the context of all college baseball, Virginia is where you would expect. Last season, they were 13th in NCAA attendance and 3rd within the ACC, which is typical of prior years. With that said, the turnout for the Friday Night game I attended wasn’t great. Yeah, the weather was cool, but a dry 60-degree evening in April is just fine for coming out to a game. Lots of empty rows as you can see below and I guesstimated a turnstile attendance of 1,500 at best (compared with a ridiculous announced number of 4,601) with student turnout non-existent. At least they were a dedicated group as many hung in ’til the end despite the lopsided score throughout much of the event. When UVA hosts a Regional, games are sold out as the Hoos play in front of a full house each game.
Fan Support Ranking: 5 out of 8
Atmosphere
The crowd didn’t have much to cheer for in this game, but they stayed involved and engaged. Periodically, you’ll hear someone give a shout “C’mon Hoos” or “Let’s go Hoos” and when the team scored, the cheering for a run was pretty good. In fact, with the team down 7-0 late in the game, I was impressed with some of the noise generated as they scored a couple with two outs. They stuck with the team. Come Regional time, UVA as hosts has a decent atmosphere as well, not top-SEC level, but a very solid one with an occasionally loud crowd. One thing I was not impressed with was the game production side, particularly whoever was running the sound system. After every single pitch when UVA was batting, music was played for 5-10 seconds. These weren’t just sound effects, but they were snippets of unnecessary music and it was annoying. Just let the game breathe.
Atmosphere Ranking: 9 out of 14
Other Stuff
Besides the “Cavaliers”, UVA’s sports teams have the nickname “Hoos”. That is an abbreviation for “Wahoos”, a term Virginia players were given by an opposing team over a century ago…..The primary rival for the school is Virginia Tech…..Lawn chairs are allowed to be brought in and used along the side grassy slope…..Netting doesn’t extend down to cover the seating sections beyond the dugout and the older I get, the more I get concerned with a screaming foul ball into the stands.
Game
This was one of the more surprising contests that I’ve seen here at Stadium and Arena Visits. The potent UVA offense came in averaging over 10 runs per game, yet it was not until the 7th inning when they got on the board. In fact, they had 12 hits before seeing one of the Hoos cross the plate. Georgia Tech jumped all over the home side with a 6-run 2nd inning and then when the bats on the other side started coming alive late, the Jackets responded with another six runs in the 8th inning. They run-ruled Virginia as the 13-2 final came after 8 innings. Cam Jones had 4 RBI for GT and Aeden Finateri went 6 innings with 8 strikeouts.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
