Heritage Park
Colonie, NY
Review by Mike
Heritage Park was the home of the Albany-Colonie Diamond Dogs of the independent Northern League. I stopped by Heritage Park while passing through Albany in 2001. It was a game day, but I was there and gone long before the game was played. Luckily, though, the park was open and the very friendly staff allowed me free access to walk around the stands and even into the outfield to snap these photographs.
Heritage Park was once the home of the Yankees AA affiliate, which seems odd considering that today most AA teams play in 15+ million dollar minor league palaces. Heritage was an unpretentious place of metal bleachers and gravel parking lots. There was one covered section of fixed-back seating behind home plate and it is this area, with its large roof, that defines the stadium visually.
The view from the seats was a pleasant, if unremarkable one, with trees and open spaces. There was plenty of parking and concessions appeared to be handled by booths and windows behind the 3rd base grandstand.
Of the two grandstands, the 1st base side was far more substantial, sitting atop a building structure that housed team offices and clubhouses. The 3rd base line was home to an erector set-style structure that had a far more temporary feel. There were a few rows of fixed back seating in front of each these right down by field level.
Heritage Park was utterly unspectacular, but at the same time quite pleasant. It was very clean and well maintained, looking like it might have been built last week. The people were very friendly and I would have liked to have gone back there and actually seen a game, but alas, there would be only one more season of baseball after my visit. The Diamond Dogs folded, the stadium decayed for seven years, and it was finally demolished in 2009.
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2001
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