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 January 6, 2009

Northwest Stadiums - Day 1: Everett Memorial Stadium


Everett, Washington - Everett AquaSox - Northwest League


Thursday, June 26, 2008

I will be spending the next four days on my first of two trips to the Pacific Northwest to visit the professional baseball stadiums of Washington, Oregon, and Vancouver, B.C.  The trip will be reported on in a daily log to be posted at the blog site at CaProParks.com.  Trip #1 will take me to Everett, Vancouver, Tacoma, and Portland.

Day 1 starts in Everett, Washington at Everett Memorial Stadium, home of the AquaSox.  The Everett AquaSox (sometimes known as “The Frogs” for their unique logo of a frog catching a baseball with its tongue) are part of the Single A short season Northwest League.  The short season leagues run from mid June to September.  Why, might you ask, do professional baseball teams need affiliations with teams that run a shorter season?  The answer is to have a place to put players obtained in the June draft.  While many of the drafted players end up in one the rookie leagues, many of the more experienced draftees, i.e. former college players, will begin their professional careers in one of these short season leagues.  A quick run down of the Boise Hawks, in town to play the AquaSox, shows 16 players that were in college just a few weeks ago.  The leagues aren’t exclusive to recent draftees.  Many players not quite ready to make the jump to a higher league, spend additional time in Spring Training until the season begins.  The Northwest League is one of two leagues that fill this role.

Not being too familiar with the Northwest League, I decided to make why way up to the press box to see if I couldn’t get a little inside information.  There I met one of the owners of the AquaSox, Tom Hoban, who turned me own to one of the great charms of the Northwest League, the newness of it all to players.  Imaging getting your first job as a professional, for a sport you’ve played most of your life.  To many, it must feel like that first year in college were you it takes you a while to sort out whose who in your dorm, who’ll be friends with, and just what do you have any common with any of them.  I later realized that the downside for the fans is that they really don’t know many of these players.  With most of the team featuring a new batch of kids ever season, young players just learning to get used to the crack of the bat rather than the ping of the aluminum,   even season ticket holders must feel a bit of out of touch until they start to learn these players.

At first glance, Everett Memorial Stadium seems like a hitter’s paradise.  Right centerfield seems especially homer friendly, coming in from a depth at center of 380 to just around 340, and that’s about two thirds the way from center to the right field pole.  A fence that ranges from 17 feet to 23 feet helps counter the smallness of this field.  Still, first time visiting batters get excited to see the dimension.  I learned from insiders, however, that despite the hitter friendly nature of the park, it is not quite the home run haven it would appear, primarily because baseballs don’t seem to carry in the park.  I had a hard time believing that the moist, sea level air could really have that much of an effect, yet there I sat in the stands watching well hit ball after well hit ball seem to die mid-air and drop well short of the fence.

It was a fireworks game, which helped explain the crowd of 3000 on a weeknight.  Still, the AquaSox have a good following for this level.  That may be because of the family nature of the park, its facilities, and its entertainment.  Of the 3000 fans, perhaps half were children, free to roam in the grassy field behind the grandstands.  Children where even invited down onto the field to lead “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”  One drawback to this bundle of activity was that it was hard to concentrate on the game.  It didn’t take much to notice not many in the stands were actually watching the game.  Of course, The Frogs were getting demolished by the Hawks, eventually losing 10-1 with only two hits in the game, so I guess you can’t blame fans for losing interest.  More importantly, everyone seemed to be having a good time, despite of the score.


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