Illinois Chicago

Saturday, April 7th, 2012

Made the trip into the city today to go and see my eighth college ballpark. This time I got to Les Miller park home of the University of Illinois at Chicago Flames. The day that I saw them they played the Valparaiso Crusaders of Valparaiso, Indiana. The game was a pretty good game with a great pitched 3-2 win for the Flames.

The park itself is just south of campus and of I-290. It was fairly easy to get to the park, parking though wasn't much fun to find. The guest parking for events is 9.00. You can park a little over a quarter mile from the ballpark. The field being only blocks away from the loop is fairly in a older neighborhood.

Les Miller park itself, isn't really much. It looks like a glorified generic high school ball park. The stands are metal and only sit around 1,000. The seats are ok, with chair backs. The field is field turf and looking a little warn. With dark spots in the infield around the bases and the mound. The outfield fence is blue with no ads, and the scoreboard is a little basic board. The park is only 16 years old and named for their old baseball coach. One part of the park I did like was the bricks being used as the backstop.

There is an admission price of 7.00. Programs are a scorecard with rosters printed on them. They do not have that many pocket schedules or any other type of stuff. The concession stand is behind the park. The whole place has soccer field and a softball diamond behind the park. The concession stand is in between all of this.

I suggest taking the train to the ball park since it is near the loop, as parking isn't that much fun to be had. I will be back at the park for the Horizon League championships on May 26th. The best part of the whole park is the view over the outfield wall of the Sears Tower and downtown Chicago.