Weaver Field
Lansdale, PA
Review by Gary
Weaver Field at Memorial Park in Lansdale, Pennsylvania was constructed in 1921. With an original capacity of 2,000, the ballpark was named for Joseph K. "Dobbie" Weaver, a longtime coach and counselor from the area. Weaver Field has been home mostly to semi-pro baseball in Lansdale since 1930 and today still provides friendly confines to a variety of local ballclubs of all ages and sizes. These include the Lansdale Tigers of the amateur Perkiomen Valley Twilight League, a high school squad and several teams who all carry the Cannoneers nickname, named after the vintage artillery found in Memorial Park.
As for any professional team that ever played here, that title goes to the Class D North Atlantic League’s Lansdale Dukes. The Dukes lasted just one forgettable season in 1948, when they sported an execrable record of 28-101. Attendance that year totaled 14,100, netting a game average of 219 devotees. The Dukes folded after their inaugural season, returning Weaver Field to being mainly home to amateur baseball. Lansdale has never hosted another minor league team.
The Dukes did boast one ballplayer who sipped a cup of coffee in the Big Leagues. Tony Parisse appeared in a total of 10 games over two seasons for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1943 and 1944. Parisse played 26 games for Lansdale during their only campaign, batting a respectable .286.
The main grandstand is roughly 16 feet high and was once shaded by a wooden roof. A dug-out dugout sat right in front of these stands along the first base line, but has since been covered and replaced with a long wooden bench. The clubhouse, restrooms and storage areas can be found beneath the whitewashed grandstand.
The opposing dugout is still a concreted, covered abode that runs along the third base line and sits about 40 feet from home plate. Together with the grandstand, the ballpark lights and vintage LED scoreboard in left field, Weaver Field has a pastoral setting to see the locals play the grand old game as they have for nearly 100 years in Lansdale, PA.
2023
--
--
227
