 Home-plate entrance to Q U Stadium, Jul-2023. |
 The seating bowl, from down the left-field line. |
 A view from behind the plate. |
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Home-plate entrance to Q U Stadium, Jul-2023. |
The seating bowl, from down the left-field line. |
A view from behind the plate. |
In 1949, baseball was springing up everywhere, and towns across the nation were looking for showplaces they could call their own. Front Royal, a town in the Shenandoah River valley that is known as the gateway to Shenandoah National Park, was no exception. That year, someone on the town recreation board decided to send a letter to Bing Crosby, the well-known entertainer who had bought a minority interest in the Pittsburgh Pirates. (At the time, Crosby’s longtime stage and screen partner Bob Hope held a small share of the Cleveland Indians. Entertainers putting money into ball clubs was certainly not unheard-of at the time.)
Crosby responded, and things rolled along, to the point where in April 1950, not long before the National League season was about to start, Crosby rolled into Front Royal and they gave him a parade through downtown, in an effort to stir up even more donations toward the construction of a baseball stadium that would be an asset to the community and its youth ballplayers. Remarkably, Crosby opted to donate the remainder of the funds needed to complete the ballpark, and the town responded by naming the facility in his honor.
What we see today is not exactly what was built back then. The park was extensively renovated, indeed nearly completely rebuilt, in 2006. That made it more suitable for college summer ball, which has used the park since the 1980s.
I found two drawbacks to the facility. One is that the distance to the fences is awfully short: 309 feet down the lines, 349 feet to center. In the first three innings of the game I attended, four home runs were hit. The other is that access between the grandstand and the concourse, which contains concession stands, is rather inconvenient. During the renovation, ADA-compliant ramps were installed, and these lead away from the entrance and concession areas. That said, concessions are reasonable, and they are typically enhanced by outside vendors selling things like ice cream and barbecue sandwiches.
| Game # | Date | League | Level | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 95 | Mon 10-Jul-2023 | Valley | College Summer | FRONT ROYAL 15, Waynesboro 4, 7 inn |