Opened: 1969
Capacity: 2,000
Affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates
Boyce Cox Field
About the only level of baseball I can’t find near my house is Rookie level. So, when I was on my way down to Atlanta in 2016 a stop in the Appalachian League only made too much sense. Seeing that the Bristol Pirates were home I decided to stop there. Not only did I want to walk across State Street from Virginia into Tennessee (I am easily entertained after all), being a Pirates fan it would be nice to see some of the lower level players.
How did I get there?
I-81 to Bristol and into town on I-381 and then down Euclid Avenue to the park. Parking was free.
Ticket prices
As with seemingly everything else here this was cheap. $5 got me in and I could sit just about anywhere or stand in the park.
Finding my seat and amenities
Outside of a few actual stadium seats that were reserved I could sit on concrete seats or small bleachers. From what I have read this is a renovated football stadium and this is left over from the old bleachers. Since I had never been here I tried it all. The team shares this with the local high school and this is a no-frills experience. The concession stand had only a few items (cash only) and the team store was limited.
In game experience
Not much of an experience. I didn’t know they were playing a double header so I walked in in the second inning. After the fifth inning the heavens opened up and the grounds crew could not get the tarp on the field. My stay here was brief.
Getting out
Fairly easy. Euclid runs parallel to I-81 so it was easy to connect back and be on my way south.
Wrap
The Appalachian League is unexplored territory for me. I probably won’t be down this way in the near future but it was nice to make a stop in. Some of the stadiums it looks like are pretty nice while others look like this. Since the parent club owns the team it seems that they are not motivated by putting butts in seats.