Geneva, NY
Auburn, NY
Parks # 101 & 102
What I Remember
I forgive myself for remembering less of stops #101 and #102 than I might have. It was the night after seeing legends on the diamond in the most state-of-the-art stadium of the time. Watching the All-Star game in Toronto was a true highlight of the whole trip, it would be hard for the comparatively tiny New York Penn League ballparks of Geneva and Auburn to make much of an impression.
All that said, though, it is the memories of these two that are more precious to me today. A writer from the Syracuse Post Standard came down to Auburn to interview us for the article that you can see in the gallery below. His story was almost wistful about the changing nature of the minor leagues and I only partially grasped what he was getting at. But after almost a half century in the town, we were seeing one of the last three seasons that affliliated baseball was played in Geneva and Falcon Park in Auburn would undergo an almost complete renovation before I came back in 2003. We saw the Auburn Astros on the Excellent Adventure but their descendant, the Auburn Doubledays, survived in the New York Penn League until last season when the league was dissolved as part of Major League Baseball’s contraction of the minor leagues.
The Game
Geneva Cubs 8 Welland Pirates 4
Auburn Astros 3 Hamilton Redbirds 1
In League with America 