McDonough Park
Geneva, NY
Review by Gary
McDonough Park rests on hallowed grounds that have entertained baseball since 1921. Built originally as Stoco Park at the northern tip of Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York, this ballfield was built by a manufacturer of eyeglasses and optical equipment for the entertainment of employees and their families. A company merger renamed the stadium Shuron Park. This cozy locale began hosting affiliated minor league pro baseball in 1947 with the arrival of the Geneva Red Birds of the Class B Border League.
The current facility was constructed on this site in 1958 and was home to minor league baseball from that year through 1993. The most famous big leaguer to play here was the Geneva Redlegs Pete Rose in 1960. Other notable players to get their uniforms dirty on this field include Mike Hargrove, Bill Madlock, Dave Martinez, Kent Tekulve, and Tony Perez, to name a few.
In addition to Negro League players competing on this diamond, Bernice Gera became professional baseball’s first female umpire, officiating a NY-Penn League game in 1972. Sadly, NONE of this history is noted anywhere inside or outside McDonough Park, thus resulting in the loss of half a ballpark hot dog in my rating. Only the local elders of Geneva or baseball historians would know of the ballpark history.
Today, the Geneva, New York ballpark hosts the Geneva Red Wings of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League and the NCAA Hobart Statesmen. The entryway is painted a crisp battleship gray and leads you through to a covered grandstand of wooden bleachers and two rows of fixed seats. The metal roof extends straight out to cover all of the seating in this area. A classic press box is nested on top of the roof, surveying the Red Wings domain on the natural grass field below.
A double tiered, open-air wooden party deck sits right up on the fence by the first base dugout. Further down the line are small metal bleachers followed by a huge, covered picnic area. Down the third base line, bleachers with seatbacks offer more options with yet another smaller raised wood deck with picnic tables to see the action over the visitor dugout. All of the seats are shielded by either netting in front of the covered home plate seats or by a tall chain link fence down each line.
The concourse behind the action is vast and offers room to walk, grab some snacks or Red Wings souvenirs in the buildings whose blank walls are primed and ready to display at least some of the history that has passed by them, whether it be photos, plaques, perhaps a mural or anything! Still, McDonough Park is a pleasant locale to see quality collegiate baseball and perhaps the next big star.
2024
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