The Joe

Exterior of Bruno Stadium, Jul-2005.

Here, the press and luxury boxes are located in a building completely behind the concourse.

The field is in an otherwise undeveloped corner of a junior college campus.

Chronological Tour: Stop 219

• Location: Hudson Valley Community College, US 4, North Greenbush, N.Y. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 2002
• Home team: Tri-City ValleyCats, New York-Penn League (2002-19), Frontier League (2021-present)
• Capacity: 4,500

Rating: 3 baseballs

By the spring of 2001, ground had been broken for the park that would bring baseball back to Troy. The park was dedicated to Senator Bruno in the spring of 2002, and opened that summer for the short-season Tri-City ValleyCats, who had relocated from historic Wahconah Park in Pittsfield. The stadium is on the campus of Hudson Valley Community College, which straddles the line between the City of Troy and the Town of North Greenbush; the baseball stadium is actually in North Greenbush, although a sliver of left field is in Troy.

The park is the latest to feature a scoreboard with red light-emitting diodes forming the numbers; LEDs, which are also used in modern traffic signal lights, burn brighter and last longer than conventional bulbs.

Otherwise, the park is conventional for its era, featuring 14 rows of seats stretching well along each base line, below a wide main concourse. This produces a comfortable effect which is admired by the locals. There is a picnic area located down the right-field line; in left field, fans of legal age can sit under the scoreboard at the Up the Hill Bar and Grill.

The future of the Joe for other than HVCC games was briefly in doubt, as the park was omitted in the Major League Baseball restructuring of the minors for the 2021 season. After negotiations with several MLB Partner leagues, the ValleyCats opted to join the Frontier League, thus preserving pro ball in the Capital Region.