Originally written May 23, 2011

I will be the first to admit that when the news broke at the end of 2010 that the Myrtle Beach Pelicans were discontinuing their relationship with the Atlanta Braves organization, I was disappointed.  One, its because it kind of ruins my fung shui on this project, with having to reorganize and reconfigure my Braves affiliates section, to add one more park to the defuncts, and add one more park in general.  But two, I really like Coastal Field out of every Minor League park I've been to, and it's disappointing to see that it will no longer be home to a Braves affiliate any longer.But as life moves on, the Braves shifted their High-A squad to the mountains of Virginia, affiliating themselves with the Lynchburg Hillcats, also of the Carolina League.  With the acquisition of a new team, that meant the necessity to visit another park, to rightfully continue to claim that I've been to all the minor league parks in the organization.  Any excuse to travel for baseball is a good excuse, and within the first year as the Hillcats, did I make time to visit their new home in Lynchburg.

Quaintly located on the outskirts of Downtown Lynchburg, Calvin Falwell Field was fairly easy to get to, as long as you have a car.  In order for me to make the trip happen, I flew into Roanoke and picked up a rental car, and made the 70-minute drive into Lynchburg.  It's very much in the old, central part of the commonwealth, and anyone can see just by driving around the area to get a feel for the old, rustic atmosphere of the small valley town.Falwell Field has to be one of the smaller ballparks I've been to.  Before I made my trip up there, the overall small seating capacity made me actually purchase a ticket in advance, which for someone who's travel habits rely on the last-minute and sometimes necessitating cancellation depending on traveling capacity, there was the off-chance that I would have had to have eaten the cost for a ticket if I failed to make it out there.  But from the small capacity of the parking lot, to the low overall capacity of seats, it's exactly that – small.

There's no space in foul territory for any bern or standing area seating; the park really is packed into a very small space, overall.  Behind the ballpark itself is what appeared to be shared parking space with a church, and another building of some sort.  So any homers and deep foul balls do have the potential to be railing cars in the parking behind, and possibly traffic of the adjacent street intersection just outside the outfield walls.But overall, I can't really complain about Falwell Field.  It's kind of vanilla, but it's definitely not a bad place to go watch some baseball.  The staff was all friendly, and there were no Nazi-ushers that genuinely cared if you decided to go sit in some vacant seats in the shade.  There was plenty of space to walk around, and there were plenty of food and drink options.  It also doesn't hurt that the cost of beer at Falwell was graciuosly on the lower-side of the spectrum.

One thing I feel the need to comment on is the sheer volume of outfield wall advertising that is done in Lynchburg.  Now it's nothing out of the ordinary for minor league ballparks to advertise for the numerous local businesses nearby that are willing to pay for advertising, but Lynchburg appears to do it on a scale much greater to any other ballpark I've been to.  They not only have a normal-height outfield wall that's covered in ads, but they extend on that to add even more advertising even higher.  Out of the entire outfield wall, the only space that isn't covered in ads was the requisite dark space mandatory for the batter's eye.

Falwell Field is certainly a stark difference from the previous home in Myrtle Beach.  I can't imagine what it's like for the players for some of them to have repeated High-A in 2011, only to recall the occasional pleasantries of playing at Myrtle Beach, in comparison to playing in the sleepy mountains of Virgnina.  But in the end, me as a fan, I can't really complain, because Falwell Field was still a pleasant place to watch some baseball.  Located where it is, I can't say that it'll be a place that I'll get to visit repeatedly, but let the record show that I once again can say that I've been to all four levels of the Braves' minor league affiliates again.

Noteable performance(s):   There were no home runs hit by the Hillcats on this day, but a lot of base hits led to runs regardless, with SS Andrelton Simmons and 2B Phil Goesslin both going 3-for-5 on the day.  I was very impressed with Eliecer Cardenas who came out to close the 9th inning for the Hillcats, protecting the slim 1-run lead.  Utilizing a fiercely biting slider, he struck out the side to slam the door on the P-Nats.

Game Result:   It shouldn't have been this close, but the Hillcats manage to pull out the victory Lynchburg Hillcats over the Potomac Nationals, 7-6.  At one point the score was 5-0, but pitcher Cory Rasmus played with fire a little too often on the day, consistently allowing the lead batter to reach in every inning except the first.  But a victory is a victory, and I'll gladly take it.

Additional Photos:

Back to Home

Part of Real Men Don't Wear Small.
All photos, graphics, text, and other miscellaneous content copyright © D. Hong.
Except for all MLB club logos which are copyright © to Major League Baseball.