Abner Who?

The exterior of the renovated Falcon Park, Aug-2003.

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

Auburn’s stadium looks out over undeveloped areas of the city.

Chronological Tour: Stop 102

• Location: Division Street at Allen Street, 1 mile north of Columbus Street and NY 5, Auburn, N.Y. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1927 (stadium rebuilt 1995)
• Home team: Auburn Doubledays, New York-Penn League (1995-2019)
• Capacity: 2,800

Rating: 3 baseballs

However, the Civil War general who ordered the first shot fired in defense of Fort Sumter, S.C., and later led a unit of Union troops at Gettysburg grew up in Auburn, a bucolic crossroads on Owasco Lake, at the east end of New York’s Finger Lakes region.

Combine the Doubleday heritage in town with the baseball myth, and you get the Auburn Doubledays, who changed their name from the Astros when the renovation of old Falcon Park was complete. They came complete with a mascot called Abner, who looked like an 1840s character and pranced around this nicely restyled ballyard.

The new Falcon Park served as a template for the reconstruction of Dwyer Stadium in Batavia, 90 miles west. Both parks found themselves without pro ball after the restructuring of the Minor Leagues for the 2021 season.