Limeport Stadium is called, "The Field of Dreams" by locals, and it is packed with history! The flyer notes that it has changed little since being built over 75 years ago. It was built to resemble the old Connie Mack Stadium of the Phillies, and it is in Lehigh County (a GREAT area for a baseball road trip!).
The green fold down seats at this facility are original, installed the night before it's first game!
Few updates have been added other than a PA system, an electronic score board, and lights.
The flyer claims that the park has the deepest outfield in all of baseball (pro or am) standing 485 feet from home plate! Alex Sabo is the only player to have hit the ball over that fence. He would go on to play with the Senators.
Over 100 games are still played here each year.
I am going to have to visit this park next time I see the Iron Pigs! Seriously, this will be a great baseball pilgrimage this year! You have the Phillies and Iron Pigs in the area... and this great over looked field!
http://limeportstadium.org/
Limeport Stadium is the 2nd oldest operational stadium in existence today! It was built in 1933 during the height of the depression.
ReplyDeleteThe distance to the centerfield fence is a whopping 485 feet! Only one player (Alex Sabo) has ever hit home run over center and he went on to play in the Majors.
I have been the Stadium Announcer for the last 8 years, when you walk in the place you sense you are on hallowed grounds.
Come live baseball history at Limeport Stadium! (www.limeportstadium.org)
Hey, thanks for the post! I bet, after 8 years of announcing, you have some great stories! Please feel free to share them here!!!
ReplyDeleteWow, just found my way back here...Cyber-Joe I am not! Would love to share some insights from Limeport. Since we were talking about size, let me say we GOTTA BIG FIELD! Although the tape measures 485' what it doesn't measure is the 16' vertical rise in elevation between home plate and center field! About two flights of steps! After announcing over 500 games there I have only ever called two Grand Slam Home Runs! So the "PA Field of Dreams" is also known as the "PA Matterhorn" to many outfielders/Sherpa's? Why the "Green Monster" or the hill in center field at Limeport? A huge boulder of granite that lay beneath that was too costly to remove when the ball field was built in 1933.
ReplyDeleteThe outfield is expansive enough to accomodate a flag pole & five arborvitae bushes, all of which are IN THE FIELD OF PLAY! I have actually seen center fielders duck behind the bushes to field live balls!
Hey, thanks for stopping back by!
ReplyDeleteWOW! Only 2 grand slams?!?!? That is kind of crazy!
I love parks with such obstructions! It makes them more real!
It only took three years to get back here but thanks!
ReplyDeleteI concur, obstructions (when not too OD'd) give a place personality. They challenge the players too.
It's kinda fun watching new comers figure out how to play the hillside in Center field at Limeport. Here is a link to a photo of the bushes in question (http://i61.tinypic.com/vrc136.jpg ). You can also see the eight foot fence. If we take the elevation from home to ctr. (16 vertical feet), the distance to the fence (485 feet) and fence height (8 feet) all into affect that means that Alex Sabo's "home run over center field" would have been like hitting the ball 520' + !?!? That would be one heck of an accomplishment in a day when the balls weren't juiced, but nonetheless it's the stuff baseball legends thrive on! Sabo went onto play with Washington Senators in 1936 and 1937.
That is a great photo! AND, I just went and looked at the park again on googlemaps..... Beautiful and unique.
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