Utica, NY

Park # 103

What I Remember

I remember thinking that the park-like setting outside gave away little of what people saw inside Donovan Stadium in Utica. The official name of the place is Donovan Stadium at Murnane Field and the multiple names were reflected in the reality of the place. The stadium is located in a large city park and there were lots of people walking around outside the stadium that were not going to the Utica Blue Sox game that day. Inside, though, the field looked out on a factory and residential neighborhood and had a classic, in the middle of the community, feel that made it feel older than it’s 15 years when we saw it.

But orofessional baseball had been played in Utica since 1978 and affiliated baseball, courtesy of an affiliation with the Boston Braves, arrived in 1939. The last affiliated team moved to Aberdeen, MD in 2002, though and minor league baseball has not returned. Today the park is one of several former New York Penn League parks that hosts a team in a wooden college bat league.

The Game

Erie Sailors 5 Utica Blue Sox 4

The Box: (Click the arrows below for more images)

Given its location between Auburn and Utica we were able to stay with some old college friends in Syracuse for two nights during this stretch, it was a nice reminder that our normal worlds were still going on outside the realm of the Excellent Adventure.