Lake Elsinore Diamond, Lake Elsinore, Calif.

A Diamond in the Desert

The Lake Elsinore Diamond from the parking lot, Aug-1994.

Like many of the parks in the California League, hills are visible in the distance.

The mascot is Hamlet. The sumo wrestlers are nuts.

Chronological Tour: Stop 67

Quick Facts:

Location: Diamond Way between Pete Lehr Drive and Malaga Road (off I-15 exit 73), Lake Elsinore, Calif. (map it using Google Maps)
Opened: 1994
Home team: Lake Elsinore Storm, California League (1994-present)
Capacity: 7,866

Rating: 4 baseballs

People laughed when it was announced that Lake Elsinore, a failing resort town a distance down the freeway from Riverside, Calif., was getting its own ballpark. The park, however, is no laugh. Instead, it’s one of the more attractive facilities in the California League, and it has received some minor upgrades in recent years, such as a whole new club section in left field that replaces some seats that were seldom sold.

I’ve visited here twice, three years apart to the day, and I was impressed both times. The facility is immaculate and very well kept, and it affords a nice view of nearby hills. On my first two visits, they even had a good mascot, appropriately named Hamlet, but he has since been replaced by someone else called Thunder.

The field itself is still rather short to right field (310 feet), with a tall fence making up for it. Built into that fence is a post-up line score board. There are also two video boards in use, and the count is updated using a Daktronics display above the line score.

More photos from 2018 in this Facebook album (public, no account required)

Game	Date	League	Level	Result
149	Sun 28-Aug-1994	California	A+	LAKE ELSINORE 10, High Desert 8
285	Thu 28-Aug-1997	California	A+	Bakersfield 3, LAKE ELSINORE 1
1696	Fri 17-Aug-2018	California	A+	Rancho Cucamonga 8, LAKE ELSINORE 6

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