Bing Crosby Stadium
Front Royal, VA
Review by Gary
The town of Front Royal, Virginia is located at the confluence of two forks of the Shenandoah River and the northern entrance of Shenandoah National Park. Singer and actor Bing Crosby visited Front Royal several times and, from 1948 to 1950, helped raise money for a baseball stadium in town by appearing at several fundraising events.
Crosby initially contributed $1,000 (equal to $12,700.00 in 2024) to the effort. In 1950, when Crosby returned to Front Royal for the premiere of his new movie, Riding High, he made another contribution of $3,572.92, thus achieving the $10,000 goal to build the stadium that would bear his name.
Not much of what was built with Crosby’s donation remains since 2006, when major renovations modernized this nice stadium near Skyline Drive in the Old Dominion. Bing Crosby Stadium is home to many local baseball teams of all levels, but mainly to the collegiate Christendom Crusaders and the summer league’s Front Royal Cardinals, who have played here since 1984 and are a charter member of the Valley Baseball League, established in 1897.
A cozy ballpark, Bing Crosby’s stadium holds 1,500 swooning faithful and features short outfield fences all around, with a reachable 349’ distance to center field and 309’ to each foul pole. Except for the dark colored batter’s eye in center, the rest of the outfield wall is White Christmas white. There is no advertising to be found around “The Bing” other than logos from the various leagues that play here, which are posted on the backstop wall. Fire engine red is the ballpark’s color with the backstop fashioned from red brick while all the seating and roof are of the same hue.
Comically huge speakers hang from the rafters of the metal roof over the entire seating area. On this sleepy Wednesday afternoon, the inventoried crowd totaled all of 14 people, who were bombarded with 80’s music blasted at levels only the truly hard of hearing could tolerate. Fans could chose to sit in the dozens of fixed back individual seats behind home plate or on aluminum bleachers flanking these chairs down each baseline.
A solitary concession stand sits under the grandstand on the concourse by the park’s only entrance but was closed during the double header between the Crusaders and visiting Penn State Schuylkill. Under cloudy May skies, the Crusaders’ campaign against the opponent would lead only to sadness as Schuylkill swept the twin bill convincingly by scores of 18-5 & 15-3. Bing Crosby Stadium is worthy of a low-level minor league team in historic Front Royal, VA. Maybe someday, another “high society” star will take the “Road to Front Royal” and invest in a club here.
2024
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