Shirley Povich Field
Rockville, MD
Review by Gary
Shirley Povich Field has been the home of Bethesda Big Train of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League (CRCBL) since 1999. The Georgetown university baseball team played here 2000 to 2022. Situated in the lushly forested Cabin John Park in Rockville, Maryland, Povich Field is named for the legendary Washington DC sports columnist and reporter whose career spanned 75 years with the Washington Post.
The Bethesda Big Train are named after one of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s inaugural members, Walter “Big Train” Johnson. A resident of Rockville and Bethesda during his playing career with the Washington Senators and after he retired, Johnson was active in the community and donated the land where a high school is named after him. A plaque dedicated to him that once stood outside the Griffith Stadium is displayed nearby on the school campus walls.
With a smallish capacity of 800 seats, Shirley Povich Field boasts many MLB-quality seats close to the field and directly behind home plate, the latter of which can be irksome to sit in on a cloud-free day as the setting sun blinds these fans, batter, catcher, and umpire for the first few innings. Fans who failed to bring a welding mask can temporarily move either to the left or right of these seats to catch the action in one of two separate raised brick and mortar concourse reserved seating areas or further down the right field line in metal bleachers until Helios disappears behind the trees beyond the outfield fence.
A unique feature found at Shirley Povich Field is the two-story press box with clubhouse that houses a concession stand, bathrooms, and souvenir stand. This building is set back from the stands with a concourse in between. All fans enter the ballpark through a Doubleday Field-like arch to the concourse area.
Built primarily with the largess of scads of corporate and individual donors, Povich Field is paved with commemorative bricks and adorned with seat plaques acknowledging the hundreds of names of smaller donors who supported the stadium construction.
Additional tributes are found at this great stadium honoring players and residents alike. A great CRCBL Wall of Fame is at the back of the first base reserved seating area while a very cool M*A*S*H-esque mileage post marks every Big Train player who has made it to “The Bigs” and how far the MLB team they play for is from Povich Field. Six retired numbers hang on the fence near the right field foul pole with a poster at the entry that explains who these numbers represent and what their contributions to the game were.
Shirley Povich Field is Major League classy on a small-town field. Taking in a Big Train game while one is in the DC area is highly recommended.
2024
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