Pittsfield Suns (Futures League) @ Wahconah Park (Pittsfield, MA)
A historic stadium in multiple ways - and the tragedy of that fact means for the present
SUMMER OF BASEBALL 2023: STOP 16
Wahconah Park is a very historic park - it boasts that it has hosted “professional baseball since 1892” (20 years before the opening of Fenway Park). A host of minor league and independent teams have come through far western Massachusetts, with the last one leaving town as recently as 2011.
A year after that team left, the Futures League came to town with the Pittsfield Suns - named after Wahconah’s most unusual feature: the fact that the batter faces WEST. This means that for a brief period of time during evening games, the sun is directly in the batter's eyes, and “sun delays” are common during games (to avoid this causing any advantages/disadvantages).
The main feature here was a wooden grandstand built in 1919 (making it one of the oldest wooden grandstands in the United States); it was almost torn down some time ago, but local community efforts saved it (in fact, the guy who wrote Ball Four wrote a book about this campaign). Behind this grandstand, you've got a "plaza" area that's fairly similar to a bunch of other New England summer league parks, but one of my favorite parts of the park has to be this old-timey (and mildly horrifying now that I see it again) "ad" in the outfield:
Unfortunately, with a lot of history comes a lot of wear and tear...and Wahconah was no exception.
I was only able to visit once in 2022 and 2023, and both years, the wooden grandstand was inaccessible to fans (though the concession stands were open, and some staff were allowed inside). Metal bleachers were set up around the field for seating, and I distinctly recall being REAL close to the dugouts, which made for an...interesting viewing experience.
MERCH
Unlike the concession stands, merch is sold in a small shed across from the grandstand. While I don't FULLY remember everything they had (i.e. they MIGHT have had a jersey available, but I can't remember), Pittsfield was unique amongst Futures League teams in that they sold exclusively fitted player hats (as opposed to the other teams in the league which sell flexfit hats).
The first time I came here, I bought the team’s two fitted hats (one red, one black) in the size I’ve been getting New Era hats in (having recently gotten back into collecting fitteds). However, I felt that they were kinda big, so the second, I got the hats again in a smaller size - and they fit quite well!
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Now, if you've been following my series of baseball posts over the past few weeks, you probably noticed that the numbers indicate me skipping this one when it was supposed to come up. That's because...
The problems with Wahconah Park got so bad that the Suns went dormant in 2024, and while it does seem like they’re TRYING to come back eventually, it’ll have to wait a bit, as the grandstand was (supposedly) demolished in 2026 (this according to the local news). I don’t know if/when I’ll be able to come back (or if the Suns will come back, as there's no timeline on a new grandstand due to - what else? - funding), but I’m sure it’ll be quite different (and whether or not it will still face west is definitely a good question). With that in mind, I decided to "postpone" this to the end of this series, as there's a chance that the Suns are, in fact, going the way of the Winnipesaukee Muskrats and have played their final game.
But with this...I've FULLY caught up with the things I did back in 2023...mostly. I'm not done with my "catching up" just yet, however, as there are a few venues I've been to in the last few years that I haven't posted about yet. I actually didn't write about, but I've decided to at least talk briefly - but I'm going to wait on those posts for a bit.
ON DECK
I'm not exactly sure. It'll probably involve Rutgers, but there's NO WAY it can go worse than the UMass game...right?