How many times have you heard “2020 is a year unlike any other”? It’s true in the world of ballparks, too.
Text and photos by Joe Mock, BaseballParks.com
All rights reserved
Heading into 2020, a really big year for ballpark enthusiasts was in the offing. A new $1.2 billion retractable-roof stadium was set to open in Arlington on March 31. Four gorgeous new Minor League parks were completed and ready to welcome fans. An ingenious idea to play a MLB game in a cornfield in Iowa was about to come to fruition. A renovated Dodger Stadium was set to host the All Star Game.
Then you know what happened.
The pandemic shut down all of sports in March. By the time MLB and the Players Union could agree on the circumstances to start the regular season, it was July. This meant the opener for the Rangers’ new stadium was pushed back until July 24. We were there at Globe Life Field that evening, but only we media members were allowed to attend. This is the first pitch, as photographed from the press box. We did an article for USA TODAY on the eerie atmosphere at the opener, and then added additional material for BaseballParks.com here. The retractable-roof park was beautifully designed by HKS. |
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Heading into 2020, the city of Buffalo had no expectation that they would be hosting Major League Baseball, but that’s what happened when the Blue Jays were prevented from playing home games in Toronto. They moved into Sahlen Field (normally the home of the Buffalo Bisons) and played their home games there. |
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Four new parks in the Minors were completed and were just waiting for opening day to host sell-out crowds. Now their delayed openers will be early in the 2021 season. Here’s Toyota Field in Madison, Alabama, home of the Rocket City Trash Pandas. They did an exceptional job scheduling events there in this baseball-less year, though. PHOTO BY POPULOUS & MASON FISCHER |
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Aside from Madison, the other new MiLB parks are in Wichita, Fredericksburg and Kannapolis, NC, which is seen here. Atrium Health Ballpark is the new home of the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers. Like Toyota Field, it was designed by Populous. Don’t worry, we’ll be reviewing all four of these new parks — as well as Worcester and Beloit — whenever they open in 2021. PHOTO BY POPULOUS & PATRICK SCHNEIDER |
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Pawtucket was expecting to host one last season of International League baseball at McCoy Stadium (see left) in 2020. That’s because the PawSox are scheduled to move into shiny new Polar Park in Worcester in 2021. Well, Rhode Island fans were cheated of the swan-song season by the China virus, so McCoy sat empty, just like all of the other parks in the Minors. |
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We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that a lot of parks that we’ve grown to know and love won’t be hosting affiliated Minor League Baseball any longer. Through MLB’s “One Baseball” initiative, the number of teams and leagues is being reduced. Some affiliated teams will be shifted to summer-wood-bat or independent leagues that carry a “partnership” designation with MLB. Others, like the Kane County Cougars, weren’t invited to be part of any sort of league associated with MLB. Their home since 1991 is Northwestern Medicine Field, shown here. |
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The first game in which fans were allowed in 2020 (not counting early spring-training contests) was Game 1 of the NLCS. It was held in Globe Life Field on October 12, as the Braves beat the eventual World Series Champion Dodgers. It was wonderful seeing fans — at least some of them — in the stands of a ballpark again! |
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We were all ready to travel to Iowa to cover The Field Of Dreams game in August. In fact, we’d already written the preview article on the event (you can read it here). But once again, COVID wiped out another event. Thankfully, it’s been rescheduled for August 12, 2021, and I hope to be there to cover it. PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIGHTVIEW |
Visit our Ballpark Year In Review page here.
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