Prince George’s Stadium

Entrance to Prince George’s Stadium, Jul-2008.

A fairly typical seating bowl for mid-1990s construction.

The pleasant but unspectacular view from behind the plate.

Chronological Tour: Stop 58

• Location: Ballpark Road at Crain Highway (US 301) just off US 50, Bowie, Md. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1994
• Home team: Bowie Baysox, Eastern League (1994-present)
• Capacity: 10,000

Rating: 3 baseballs

The exterior looks pristine, and the concourse is sufficient, but there just isn’t anything terribly outstanding about this park. Like several built in this time, there is no roof, although the luxury boxes do provide shelter on the concourse. At least the park faces the northeast, so that the stadium structure itself will start providing shade fairly early. Even at that, 1:00 Sunday games are brutal.

Bowie is 18 miles west of the Chesapeake Bay, but that doesn’t stop the team from tapping into the region’s heritage and calling the club the Baysox. There is even a miniature orange and white lighthouse down the first-base line, near the kids’ play area which includes a carousel as well as other activities.

On the flip side, Bowie is less than 20 miles from Washington, and the region’s affluence enables the Baysox to charge the highest ticket prices in the Eastern League. Offsetting that is the availability of free parking in both the main lot and an overflow lot, the free half-size program, and copies of rosters, statistics, and starting lineups available for free at the customer service desk.

With the stadium complete and functional, I raised my rating from two baseballs to three. If it were cheaper to get into the place, I might like it better.