Busy on the Waterfront

The main entrance to Harbor Yard, Jun-1999.

The left-field half of the seating bowl, with the Connecticut Turnpike in the distance.

Outfield features also include the Port Jefferson Ferry, Metro-North Railroad, and an old steam plant.

Chronological Tour: Stop 151

• Location: Main Street at the Connecticut Turpike, Bridgeport, Conn.
• Opened: 1998
• Closed: 2017
• Demolished: 2019
• Home team: Bridgeport Bluefish, Atlantic League (1998-2017); Newark Bears, Atlantic League (1998); Sacred Heart University Pioneers, Northeast Conference (through 2017)
• Capacity: 5,300 (approx.)

Rating: 4 baseballs

The Fish won both halves of the 1998 season schedule (but dropped the championship series to Atlantic City) playing in this cozy new park at the mouth of the Pequonnock River, a stone’s throw from the Metro-North and Amtrak station in Connecticut’s largest city.

Seating was a little tight, thanks to space constraints, but this was a very handsome and convenient park. If the game got boring, there were plenty of moving objects just outside the fence, including cars, trains, and the occasional Port Jefferson (L.I.) ferry.

By 2005, the view in left field was dominated by the Arena at Harbor Yard, which hosts an American Hockey League team as well as college basketball.

With attendance fading, the governing body of the city of Bridgeport accepted an offer from Live Nation (the concert arm of Ticketmaster) in 2017 to repurpose the stadium as a concert amphitheater. This spelled the end of the Bluefish after 20 seasons.