With the high school winter sports season in the books, I have turned my attention to the spring season and one of the first things I usually do is check out where the regional finals and state championships will be held in each sport.
I know it might be a little early to be thinking about state titles, but I guess I’m an optimistic guy and like to think that the Journal Tribune will be following some of our teams all the way to the state finals.
When I looked at the location for this year’s South regional finals and Class A and C state championships for baseball — St. Joseph’s College in Standish — it made me think back to a conversation I had with Guy Fontaine earlier this winter.
Guy is the Operations Manager for The Ballpark in Old Orchard Beach and he had told me that he would love to see The Ballpark host some high school playoff games.
I don’t know how the Maine Principals’ Association selects the sites for championship games, but I believe The Ballpark would be the perfect place to host playoff baseball.
The Ballpark is a 5,500-seat stadium which was originally home to the Triple-A Maine Guides and Phillies back in the 1980s. It currently is home to the OOB Surge, an independent minor league team, and a college summer league team.
When the Maine Phillies left in 1989 and concerts stopped being held there in the 1990s, The Ballpark suffered from years of neglect, but over the past decade a group of volunteers and people like Guy and The Ballpark’s Field Manager, Jim Doran, have once again made the facility one of New England’s best.
The Ballpark not only has the seating capacity to handle a regional final or state title game, but the parking lot has enough spots for 2,500 cars and won’t require fans to walk long distances.
I lived in Old Orchard for a couple years and I made several trips to The Ballpark to watch the Surge play — and I can say there’s not a bad seat in the place, and the concession stand serves some top-notch, traditional ballpark food.
When I told Guy that I might write a column about The Ballpark potentially hosting high school playoff games, he told me that he had emailed the MPA back in January and was told they were not looking to move games away from St. Joe’s.
The major reason why St. Joe’s gets the nod, according to this email, was the ability to host both the baseball and softball playoff games on the Standish campus. They are looking to make it easier for fans if their school is competing in both the baseball and softball championship games.
I understand that having baseball and softball fields in one location is ideal, but I also believe that if you are creative with the schedule you can make sure that fans can get to both games in separate locations.
This is not a knock on the fields at St. Joe’s. I have been to games there and it’s a great facility, and I think they should continue to host high school championship games.
I simply believe The Ballpark deserves to be in the conversation — and it seems like a rotation between St. Joe’s and the historic stadium in OOB would be a great thing for Maine’s high school baseball players.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.
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