Price Cutter Park

Entrance to Price Cutter Park, Aug-2005.

The seating bowl, as seen from down the first-base line.

• Location: North 19 Street south of Highway J, Ozark, Mo.
• Opened: 1999
• Home team: Ozark/Springfield-Ozark Mountain Ducks, Texas-Louisiana/Central League (1999-2003); Springfield-Ozark Mountain Ducks, Frontier League (2004)
• Capacity: 4,500 (approx.)

The best-known landmark near the field is Lambert’s Café, known throughout the area as the “home of the throwed rolls”. (That restaurant has its original location in Sikeston, well to the east.) Visitors to the ballpark leave Route 65, pass the restaurant, and then turn right to get to the stadium.

The owners of the original franchise sold out to a group from Pensacola, Fla. after the 2003 season. For 2004, the Frontier League relocated from Simmons Field in Kenosha to the now-vacant park and took over the Mountain Ducks name. However, with affiliated ball moving into Hammons Field in nearby Springfield in 2005, the Frontier League Ducks hit the road and returned to their roots as the Ohio Valley Redcoats.

Recently, the park has been seen hosting a team in the MINK League, a college summer league. For 2015, a new outfit called the Heartland of America Baseball League was set to play two games a day (four teams) on the field over the course of a 14-week season. The ten-team independent loop would also play three games a day at other fields in the Springfield-Ozark area. However, that ill-funded league folded before ever playing a game here.

I was unable to get into Price Cutter Park on my 2005 visit.