The Tacoma Rainiers play in a ballpark that was originally built in 100 days prior to the 1960 season. Fifty years later Cheney Stadium underwent a major renovation and stands as a South Sound staple. The ballpark also affords fans the opportunity to see the highest mountain in Washington state, Mount Rainier. Arriving at the ballpark Cheney Stadium is approximately six miles from downtown Tacoma. It is close to the I-5 and Washington State Route 16 interchange, which makes it easy to access from several nearby cities. Parking in an adjoining lot to the stadium costs $5. Pierce Transit Route #2 runs from downtown to 19th Street and South Stevens…
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Pacific Northwest baseball road trip preview
With my wife Katie enrolled in a graduate certificate program, we knew that our summer travels would take us to the Pacific Northwest. Naturally this meant I got to plan a Pacific Northwest baseball road trip! Katie will spend a month in Portland, Oregon, before I meet her there. We will spend a week together in Portland before traveling to Seattle, Washington. In Seattle, we will work together at a sports camp, and she will do more work to complete her certification. So our Pacific Northwest baseball road trip will span two states and four weeks. Baseball games Our travels in Oregon and Washington are built around my wife’s academic/work…
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My night with the Oklahoma City Dodgers – July 4, 2017
There are a lot of pluses and minuses to regularly visiting Minor League Baseball stadiums. The biggest minus for me is that I only starting blogging about my ballpark visits consistently five years ago. So I haven’t blogged about all the stadiums I’ve visited over the years. However, that is also a plus because it gives me incentive to re-visit and blog about those parks. Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark is one that I originally visited in 2009 while in graduate school at Oklahoma State University, but I hadn’t started blogging about my stadium visits at that time. So when planning my summer road trip to visit my wife’s family in Oklahoma,…
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My night with the Nashville Sounds – Aug. 6, 2015
For the second year in a row I was in Nashville for a baseball game, but this season the Sounds were playing in a brand new ballpark instead of 36-year-old Herschel Greer Stadium (read about last season’s visit here). Although I was visiting a brand new stadium in First Tennessee Park, my visit was quite different because I attended the game with my girlfriend and two of her friends. Another wrinkle to my visit was that the previous day’s game had been suspended due to rain in the bottom of the first inning, so instead of a single game starting at 7 p.m. the Sounds hosted the completion of the…
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My night with the Nashville Sounds – June 10, 2014
The first baseball game I attended at Herschel Greer Stadium was in March 2002, when the Georgia State Panthers visited the Belmont Bruins in a three-game Atlantic Sun Conference series. The first minor league game I attended was in July 2006 between the Round Rock Express and the Sounds, when I was attending the CoSIDA Convention in Nashville. Both events were long before I started blogging about my visits to MLB and MiLB stadiums, so when the Nashville Sounds announced that 2014 would be the last season at Greer Stadium I wanted to be sure to visit for “the last cheer at Greer.” Unlike MiLB.com’s Ben Hill, nobody had my…
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My night with the Memphis Redbirds – Aug. 10, 2012
After two games in two nights on my way to Stillwater, Okla., I capped my road trip with a stop in Memphis, Tenn., to take in a game at AutoZone Park. I got to see the Memphis Redbirds host the Tacoma Rainiers at the start of the 35th anniversary of Elvis Week. Beyond attending a game at a great ballpark and enjoying some delicious food, I went to the Friday night game because I wanted an Elvis bobblehead. Not surprisingly, there was a large crowd waiting outside the gates to claim their own mini Elvis. The Redbirds run a block party on Friday nights, which featured a band performing covers…
