A State of Exhilaration

Spectator entrance to Bowen Field, Aug-2012.

The new seats, installed during a 1998 renovation.

The field is framed by the Bluefield City Park.

Chronological Tour: Stop 182

• Location: Bluefield City Park, off Stadium Drive, Bluefield, Va. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1939 (renovated: 1975, 1990, 1998)
• Home team: Bluefield Blue-Grays, Mountain State League (1939-42), Appalachian League (1946-55); Bluefield Dodgers (1957), Orioles (1958-2010), Blue Jays (2011-19), Ridge Runners (2021-present), Appalachian League; Bluefield College Rams, Appalachian Athletic Conference
• Capacity: 2,250

Rating: 4 baseballs

It’s still a picturesque setting, though. The ball park is in a city park about a thousand feet from the West Virginia state line. The field has a West Virginia address but a Virginia phone number; like nearby Bristol, the Bluefields are twin cities. I used to think the park was in West Virginia but the trees were in Virginia; however, thanks to research by Matt Kerr of Pennsylvania, I’ve discovered that Bluefield City Park is administered by the City of Bluefield, W.Va., but the stadium is entirely on the Virginia side of the state line. (Bluefield, Va., the home of Bluefield College, is a town in Tazewell County – and thanks to correspondent Kurt Pickering for correcting me on the county. Bluefield, W.Va., is a city in Mercer County.) A hillside with nothing but trees sits behind the outfield, making this a great setting for baseball.

The Orioles had an affiliation with Bluefield from 1958 to 2010, the longest-standing agreement in all of the minor leagues. But all things come to an end, and for 2011, the club is the Bluefield Blue Jays.

For the 2017 season, the team and the city added the designation “at Peters Park” to Bowen Field in recognition of the efforts of board volunteer Charlie Peters, who along with his wife Dafney made significant contributions toward renovations to the facility, including upgraded clubhouses, that took effect for 2017.

With the transition of the Appalachian League from affiliated professional baseball to an MLB-sponsored college summer league for 2021, the team at Bowen Field took on an identity other than that of a major league team for the first time since 1942. The club is now known as the Ridge Runners.