George Taylor Field
St. Catherines, ON
Review by Gary
St. Catherines, Ontario is located on an isthmus of Canadian land between the Great Lakes of Erie and Ontario. It is in this sleepy hamlet just northwest of Niagara Falls that George Taylor Field hosts a senior men's baseball league and Brock Badgers University Baseball. The ballpark was once home field to the NY-Penn League’s St. Catherines Blue Jays and St. Catherines Stompers, both Toronto Blue Jays affiliates.
On the pleasant warm September Saturday afternoon we visited, the home team Badgers were battling Toronto Metropolitan University. With a capacity of about 2,000, George Taylor Field opened in 1986 during the first seasons for the Blue Jays’ club. The stadium was reconfigured from a former baseball field on the site that dated back to the 1960s.
Plastic individual bucket seats make up the reserved section for fans wishing to sit close to the field while metal benches abound behind them. All of the seating rests on a metal grandstand that wraps from base to base with the restrooms and concessions underneath.
The nondescript playing field features a short centerfield fence just 117 meters (384’) away while both foul poles are a more conventional 97 meters (318’) from the home dish. With no advertising on the fences nor any team-colored adornments on the concourse behind the grandstand, George Taylor looks more like a very nice softball complex than home to a minor league or college team. Still, it is a quaint local spot to catch some baseball.
2022
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