A Home Away from Home

Home plate entrance and ticket windows at Estadio Hiram Bithorn, Sep-2003.

A good view of the seating bowl and unusual roof, from the third-base grandstand.

The field during the national anthem ceremony.

Chronological Tour: Stop 266

• Location: Avenida Franklin D. Roosevelt (PR 23), between Expreso Las Américas (PR 18) and Calle Juan Calaf, Hato Rey, San Juan, P.R. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1964
• Home team: Santurce Cangrejeros, Liga del Béisbol Profesional de Puerto Rico (1962-2004), Liga del Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (2012-present); San Juan Senadores (1962-83, 1994-2004, 2010-11), Metros (1984-93), Liga del Béisbol Profesional de Puerto Rico; Montréal Expos, Major League Baseball (partial seasons, 2003-04); RA12, Liga del Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (2021-present)
• Capacity: 18,264

Rating: 3 baseballs

While both storied winter league teams have struggled financially and los Senadores went out of business after 2011, los Cangrejeros (named for crabbing in the Condado barrio several miles away) have continued. In recent seasons, they have been joined as a home team by a club known simply as RA12, backed by the Puerto Rican baseball star Roberto Alomar (who wore #12).

Major League Baseball has had its eyes on the possibility of placing a team on the island of Puerto Rico for quite some time. Puerto Rico has been a U.S. possession since the Spanish-American War of 1898 and has enjoyed the status of a freely associated independent state since 1952. With the number of professional players who come from the Greater Antilles and the passion the islands have for the game, San Juan would be a logical place to go.

The 2001 season opened with a game between the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays here in San Juan. When the Montréal Expos found themselves without an owner in 2002, the commissioner agreed to allow the Expos to play 22 games of their 2003 and 2004 home schedules at the Bithorn. MLB returned here for three Florida Marlins games during the 2010 season, and has occasionally come back for contests since. The park has also hosted rounds of the MLB-organized World Baseball Classic.

Architecturally, the Bithorn is unusual. The first thing a fan might notice will be the zigzag roof, which is even more zigzagged once you’re in the seating bowl, as the inside diameter is shorter. The second may well be the light towers, which are tilted inward. The seating bowl itself is not that different: ten rows of palcos (box seats), followed by a cross aisle and general admission seating above it. For the Expos’ series, about two-thirds of the seats above the cross aisle were sold as reserved seating.

The biggest trouble I observed with the park during the Expos games was that certain of its facilities appear inferior. The numbers on the main scoreboard are a bit too small to see, with the exception of the ones for the count, outs, batter, and average – and often the numbers for the batter’s average wee inaccurate. The video board was erratic, and a matrix board under the main scoreboard was completely inactive. The sound system was muffled, which makes it very difficult to understand the names of players entering the game – important when their names often don’t appear on the matrix board. Finally, the announcement of starting lineups is a very low priority; in fact, the Expos’ starters were announced in defensive order, not in batting order.

By my 2022 visit for a doubleheader in what had become known as the Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente, a dedicated scoreboard had been installed, but it was out of use, perhaps because of damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017. They had installed a new video board, half of which was used as a scoreboard.

Another complaint I had about the Expos games was that ticket sales were being handled by an independent contractor called Ticketpop, who imposed a $3 service charge on each ticket even if it was purchased at the box office. And the ticket prices were high enough; the minimum price for a seat in the seating bowl rather than in the bleachers was $25 ($28 including the service charge). Fortunately, parking was free, and plentiful if one included the Plaza de los Americas shopping mall across the street. In addition, concession prices were quite reasonable, with bottled water going for $2, for example. While the concession prices had not changed significantly between 2003 and 2022, they were collecting a $3 parking fee for the Cangrejeros games. General admission, at $12, was also the highest in the league.

In all, this is a functional minor league park that needs a lot of work, or needs to be completely abandoned in favor of a new facility, if Major League Baseball is to move in permanently. Ironically, even the Puerto Rico winter league found itself without a team at the Bithorn for five seasons; the 2007 Serie del Caribe was held at Clemente Stadium in Carolina, about 10 miles to the east.