Taking the Game to School

Brooks Field, on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Things are kept simple on the college campus.

Chronological Tour: Stop 212

• Location: University of North Carolina campus, Wilmington, N.C.
• Opened: Before 1989
• Home team: Port City Roosters, Southern League (1995-96); Wilmington Waves, South Atlantic League (2001); UNC-Wilmington Seahawks, Colonial Athletic Association
• Capacity: 3,000

Rating: 1 baseball

The seating configuration here is strange. From the general admission seats (benches along the base lines), you can walk down into the premium seating area, directly behind the plate – but you can’t easily walk into the reserved seats, behind the plate. There is also no permanent concession facility; concessions, at inflated prices, are provided by independent contractors. The sale of alcoholic beverages is forbidden on campus, too, which is what eventually killed the Riverside (Calif.) Pilots.

The club offered a limited souvenir stand, there was no whiteboard for the lineups, and you couldn’t get the printed stats anywhere – not even in the $3 program (although they did have a free scorecard handout that listed the rosters).

The good news was that, on the day I attended the game, I witnessed a combined no-hitter by Waves pitchers Ben Diggins and Nial Hughes.

On 18-Mar-2002, the new owners of the Waves announced plans to move the team to Albany, Ga., for the 2002 season, leaving Brooks Field unused by professional baseball once again. The Waves’ owners hoped to move back into Wilmington if they could get their own stadium, but the team has since relocated twice, first to Columbus, Ga., and now to Bowling Green, Ky.