WellSpan
Park
York, PA
WellSpan Park is the home of the York Revolution. The Revolution play in the independent Atlantic League. I liked this ballpark before I ever went inside. First, you had to walk over a canal to get there from the parking lot and then I found a whole bunch of train tracks and an old depot on the other side! Baseball and trains, in one place... two great obsessions that go great together!
Review by Mike
The stadium itself is really nice. It's built on the standard modern template for a minor league ballpark of this size; the seating bowl close to the field, the concourse with concessions above that and the luxury boxes standing over the concourse. There were some nice touches, though, that give York's take on the now-classic model a unique flavor. The seating bowl does not include a cross-aisle midway down, which I really like because it prevents the non-stop pedestrian traffic that can be so distracting at other parks. There's a party deck in right field that's covered with festive tents in a jaunty yellow. The ice cream was fantastic; hand-scooped and massive. I got about five scoops for three bucks. Deal of the season.
And here's the cool thing about York's version of the Monster... you can go behind it! I followed the walkway that allows you to walk all the way around the park and when I got behind the wall, there was a smiling fellow operating the scoreboard. He invited me inside his little compound and I passed a very pleasant inning and a half chatting with "Doc", watching him work the scoreboard. The photo to the right was shot THROUGH the scoreboard. A great experience.
The biggest and most obvious feature is, of course, the BIG GREEN FENCE in left field. Okay, so this is quite clearly a copy of Fenway Park's famed Green Monster, all the way down to the manually operated scoreboard, but I say, so what? If they were going to completely rip off a feature from another ballpark, at least they chose a really cool feature!
Another thing I liked about this park was the variety of seating options. We sat in the basic grandstand and that was fine, then we moved down the line and the seats angled sharply towards the infield and that was cool, then I watched from the scoreboard for a while... awesome! Finally, we sat on high stools just in front of the left field foul pole, looking pretty much right down the line, but about twenty feet above the field. There was a counter there, so Gary and I chose this spot to happily work our way through our mountains of ice cream while enjoying a great view of the action. We were perfectly placed to watch the game-tying home run sail over the York Monster just to our left. Great park, great night.
2011
57
2011
95
