Ashford University Field, Clinton, Iowa

The park was built in the 1930s along the Mississippi river. The outside of the park and the bleachers are original. The boxseats are from Wrigley Field from the 1940s.

The complex is a city park along the river. There is a bike path outside the fense along the shoreline. Clintons old river boat casino is outside the centerfield fence. It is now a performing arts hall. 

The field is a ton better than it once was. There used to be a sink hole in the outfield behind second base. The Lumberkings did a huge renovation project a few years ago to give the park a much needed facelift. They built a new souvenior and main office building outside the walls of the old ballpark. The locker rooms were improved and moved to right field building. They installed a nice picnic area in left field along with a pavillon.

The food, well it was ok I guess. Nothing really special, my brat was average. My beer was a 32 ounce for 7 bucks. Programs were still one dollar though. They were not the big ones of a few years ago.

Stanley Coveleski stadium, South Bend, Indiana

The stadium dates back to 1987, but the new renovations were last winters project. Well some are nice others are a step backwards.

The part I hate is their installasation of field turf. I hate field turf. It has been half a year and it already looks like shit.  The infield is turf with sliding pits around the bases.

From the bleachers in is basically the same. The outfield is really nice, the scoreboard was moved from left center to right center. It is also a nice big video board. You can walk all the way around the outfield now.

The biggest change is that they moved most of their sovienior stuff to a renovated senigod just beyond the left field foul pole. It is a whole lot better than their whole in the wall spot behind the plate, which is still there.

They yook a lawn section out of left field and it is now a group picnic area.  From the left fielf pole to left center is now a nice bleacher section.  After that is a lawn area, behind that is a huge kiddie play area. There also is a great new entrance to the ballpark from centerfield. It has some pictures of former players and a pic of Stanley Coveleski.

The other new thing is they added a level of suites behind home plate. I reaaly really like what they did with the scoreboard. It gives a ton of info and is constantly updated.

Boomers Stadium, Schaumburg, Illinois

Dow Diamond, Midland, Michigan

The Great Lakes Loons play at Dow Diamond in Midland, Michigan. In Midland most things are called Dow, since it is the home to the Dow Chemical company. The team itself is only a few years old as it is the old Battle Creek team in the Midwest League.

It is a very nice stadium, with many fan friendly parts. Two parts that I dont like are, paying for parking (4.00) plus having to park in their big lot behind the stadium. Plus I dont like having to climb stairs to get into the park.

The park itself has stadium seats from just beyond the dugouts. There is a picnic area down the left field line. Around the outfield is a lawn area that goes from foul pole to foul pole. The scoreboard is huge, it is in right center. Plus the scoreboard is powered by solar energy from panels just behind the board.

One bad thing is that they only have Budweiser products. The pulled pork sandwich is pretty good. The jumbo hot dog is also good.

It was raining the game against the West Michigan (Grand Rapids) Whitecaps that I went to.