Opened: April 21, 1949
Capacity: 4,100
Affiliated with the Texas Rangers
Grainger Stadium
What can I say here. This seems like it was one of those we need a stadium in this league’s footprint to balance everything out and this one was available so they put a team back here when the California League lost 2 teams to the Carolina League. It’s not a bad place and I suspect that there was a lot of work put into modernizing the park from the previous iteration from back in the 90s and early 2000s when minor league baseball was not as profitable.
How did I get there?
Spent a day in eastern North Carolina visiting New Bern and them making my way into Kinston. Outside of a thunderstorm as I was leaving New Bern it was an easy drive and came into town via the main street. Kinston is not that big of a town about the size of Hanover/McSherrystown here for me. Stopped to see the CSS Neuse Museum and at Mother Earth Brewing before the game. Parking was free in a large lot.
Ticket prices
Ticket prices are about standard. I paid $11. They did offer a promotion where if you brought a beer can you would get $3 off. The website though said just a can and I found two cans on the street before coming but it had to be a beer can. It may have been better to simply go back to my car and chug one of the cans there but I decided not to.
Finding my seat and amenities
This is an old stadium so there isn’t a lot here. Seats are easy to find, there is either the grandstand down the left field line or 6 reserved sections. Well there is also the Mother Earth Pavillion (Mother Earth also owns the motel that the visiting team stays in too) for groups. How do I know that? I drove by it on my way out of town and the team bus was parked there. Food was the usual fare but a local BBQ joint had a food truck so that was where I went for some good southern cooking. Gotta have some good Carolina BBQ.
In game experience
I wound up getting to see parts of two games since the game the previous night was suspended in the 4th inning. As such there were not a lot of people there for the first game. The mascot, Dewd, didn’t even make an appearance until the 6th inning. The second game was a bit more lively but the skies were getting quite ominous so I wound up leaving after only 2 innings. They did play the entire game but the radio man noticed that the pitchers in the bullpen were staring at something in the distance and wondered if it was a tornado.
Getting out
There is one problem with Kinston and that it is not really located near anywhere. I was heading south to Wilmington and that is straight forward enough, it just is on two lane roads. There was also a lot of roadwork being done downtown that closed off entire streets making it more difficult for a non-local, but then Kinston is not a big town.
Wrap
This is a nice step back in time and proof that you don’t need all of the bells and whistles that come with modern parks. Kinston did lose their team before so it can happen again and I know that the town leaders in Wilmington want to attract a minor league team so this would be the logical option. It did seem like there was enough public support so we’ll see. They may be in Wilmington the next time I’m down this way.