Chronological Tour: Stop 317

Home of the Osprey

Entrance portal to Ogren Park Allegiance Field, Aug-2013.

Fans watch the game as smoke from a nearby forest fire encroaches.

A large net protects spectators behind the plate so they can enjoy the mountain view.

• Location: Cregg Lane off Orange Street near McCormick Park, Missoula, Mont. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 2004 as Missoula Civic Stadium
• Additional names: Ogren Park Allegiance Field (2006)
• Home team: Missoula Osprey (2004-19), PaddleHeads (2020-present), Pioneer League
• Capacity: 2,600

Rating: 2 baseballs

While the sponsorship was complete, the ballpark still was not as of my 2006 visit. The entrance portal was barren, the parking lot was unpaved, the press box was unfinished, and several sections down the line that would feature either stadium seats or a grass berm were still filled with rocks and barricaded with Cyclone fencing.

I got back to the park in August 2013. While I wasn’t overwhelmed by the facility, I did find it suitable for the level of ball being played. I noticed that the right field porch is short because of a train track that couldn’t be moved. The home-run line rises to compensate.

One nice feature is an actual osprey nest (right), although I didn’t see any ospreys coming in and out during the game I attended. That said, the Osprey name is out the window one year after the team was purchased by new owners. For 2020, the team became the PaddleHeads, a reference to both moose antlers (often called paddles) and the ability to paddle down nearby rivers like the Clark Fork.