The New Hen House

Front entrance to Toledo’s Fifth Third Field, Jul-2002.

The seating bowl, as seen from The Roost.

The downtown park incorporates a few Toledo historic buildings.

Chronological Tour: Stop 221

• Location: Washington and Huron streets, Toledo, Ohio (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 2002
• Home team: Toledo Mud Hens, International League (2002-present)
• Capacity: 10,000

Rating: 4 baseballs

For all but a few years in the 1940s and ’50s, teams in Toledo have been known as the Mud Hens. They played in downtown Toledo until 1955 but then left town. When they returned in 1965, they moved into a park in nearby Maumee that was hastily pressed into service for baseball. It was always inadequate, and in 2002 the Mud Hens returned to downtown Toledo, landing at this new park.

The Roost in right field.

My biggest complaint is that the second deck isn’t quite high enough. The deck overhangs the last 5 or 6 rows of the lower deck, taking away perspective for those spectators. This is the only shortcoming I could find to an otherwise excellent effort that should serve Toledoans for years to come.

I do have a fairly meaningless complaint: the park shares a name with another facility in the Buckeye State. The park in Dayton is also called Fifth Third Field. In addition, Old Kent Park in Comstock Park, Mich., was renamed Fifth Third Park when Fifth Third Bank bought Old Kent Bank.