Joe Martin Field
Bellingham, WA
Review by Mike
Joe Martin Field is the home of the Bellingham Bells of the summer collegiate West Coast League. Built in 1964, the ballpark hosted short-season Class A ball in the Northwest League for 24 seasons, the majority of which as a Seattle Mariners farm team. As a result, many Mariner legends spent time here, including Ken Griffey Jr and Edgar Martinez.
The main grandstand has an oddly-shaped roof that rises up from one side at an angle, flattens across the press box on top, then slopes back down to the other edge. It looks like the stand is wearing a strange hat. The other interesting thing about the roof is that it is almost completely pointless, at least so far as shading the crowd from the sun, since the field faces southwest, meaning the afternoon sun will shine right into the fan’s eyes, roof or no roof.
There are erector-set bleachers down both foul lines and a grass picnic berm down the left-field line. The playing surface is field turf. The stadium is set nicely in a park with many athletic facilities; football stadium, ice rink, aquatic center, skate park, etc, and pleasant trees are visible in all directions.
I was not able to get inside Joe Martin Field when I stopped by on a September afternoon, but this 60-year-old ballpark looks like it is well-maintained and a perfectly agreeable place to watch top college prospects during the summer season.
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2024
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N/A
