Dunn Field

Exterior of Dunn Field, Sep-2002.

The venerable seating bowl, including the carousel placed down the first-base line in 2001.

Some days, the view here has a Blue Ridge feel to it.

Chronological Tour: Stop 53

• Location: Luce Street at the Chemung River (½ mile east of Maple Avenue), Elmira, N.Y.
• Opened: 1938
• Home team: Elmira Pioneers, Eastern League (1938-49, 1962-70), New York-Penn League (1957-61, 1972, 1976, 1981-82, 1989-95), Northeast League (1996-2004), Can-Am League (2005); Elmira Dodgers, Eastern League (1950-55); Elmira Royals (1973), Red Sox (1974-75), Pioneer Red Sox (1977-80), Suns (1983-88), New York-Penn League
• Capacity: 4,200

Rating: 3 baseballs

The park consists of over four thousand seats, mostly covered by an expansive roof. Most of the seats are still the original wooden stadium seats from 1938, although the box seats and the seats in the lower portion of the grandstand were replaced in a 1993 renovation that also brought new clubhouses and dugouts to the facility. For 2001, the City of Elmira added a carousel to the grounds, on the end of the grandstand at first base.

When I first visited the park in 1993, the Pioneers were part of the New York-Penn League. However, the franchise was bought and shifted to Lowell, Mass., in 1996. A new Pioneers club started immediately and joined the independent Northeast League, lasting for ten seasons through 2005. In that last season, the club reportedly lost over $100,000, and with a new Can-Am League team taking up residence in northwest New Jersey, the Pioneers opted to suspend operations for 2006. Since then, Dunn Field has hosted teams in college summer ball.