Red Sox Nation Meets Dixie

West End Field entrance off Main Street, Aug-2006.

The roof extends beyond the suite level to provide some shelter to the fans.

Field dimensions, including the left-field wall, are similar to those at Fenway Park.

Chronological Tour: Stop 329

• Location: Main and Markley streets, Greenville, S.C. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 2006 as West End Field
• Additional names: Fluor Field at the West End (2008)
• Home team: Greenville Drive, South Atlantic League (2006-present)
• Capacity: 4,200

Rating: 4 baseballs

By building this new park, the club has bridged old and new and helped give downtown Greenville a shot in the arm. Attendance for the first full season of play here exceeded 300,000, placing the club in the top tier among Sally League franchises.

Fans enter either from the left-field side near Main Street or along the right-field side on Field Street, near Vardry Street. There is no home-plate entrance, as in the new park in Greensboro, N.C. Once inside, the main seating bowl is in one level, with no cross aisle and a relatively steep pitch for better viewing, as at Staten Island.

The outfield dimensions are very similar to those at the Red Sox’ home, Fenway Park. The field even includes a post-up scoreboard built into a left-field wall painted green and almost as high as Fenway’s “Green Monster”. There is also some berm seating in the outfield, and a patio area called the “500 Club” in right field. About all they didn’t have here is Monster Seats. That’s because condos are going in beyond left field; construction was in progress the day I first arrived, and by 2007 fans were watching the game from balconies, as they do at Wrigley Field. However, the club did manage to squeeze in some Monster Seats a few years later; I saw folks watching from there in 2017.

The other things I found missing were a white board for the starting lineups, and stands offering those classic Southern staples, lemonade and sweet tea. I went back in 2007, since my first try in 2006 was rained out after 2½ innings, and they had not introduced these amenities yet. But these are minor drawbacks to a very nice park.