- August 7th, 2006, 5:38 pm
#23899
Tiny, but full of charmhttp://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/my ... 215927.htm
City Stadium has unique characteristics
By Sean Horgan
The Sun News
LYNCHBURG - The ball jumps here at City Stadium, home of the Lynchburg Hillcats. Especially to left and left-center field.
One of the first things you notice when you step inside the Carolina League's oldest ballpark is the supplemental netting - not unlike the screen that used to sit above The Wall at Fenway Park - above the wall in left center to make it harder for balls to leave the yard.
Those screens usually signify a short poke to left field, never a good sign if you're a pitcher.
As an example, we offer this batting practice session by Kala Ka'aihue of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.
Ka'aihue had just joined the Pelicans when last they traveled here in late June to play the Hillcats in a weekend series after the opening of the second half, right after taking two of three from the Avalanche in Salem.
The Pelicans, freshly installed in first place in the Carolina League's Southern Division, won on Friday night.
Before Saturday night's game, Ka'aihue stepped into the batting cage.
With his last swing, Ka'aihue caught the ball a little north of the sweet spot and hit a high fly ball to left. Slightly disgusted at missing the pitch, Ka'aihue didn't even watch the flight of the ball.
From the other side of the batting cage came the universal batting practice question from one of his BP buddies: "Did you?"
That's what players ask the hitter when the ball leaves the bat in BP. Did you hit it hard enough to get it out of the yard?
Ka'aihue didn't even answer. Then the question came again, this time with an inflection that made the Hawaiian basher look up, just in time to miss seeing the ball go over the fence.
"Nah," Ka'aihue said. "That didn't go."
But it did, easily clearing the wall.
Like we said, the ball carries here.Beware of the crown
You also have to watch out for the extreme crown of the infield, which provides for a most precipitous drop from the infield to the outfield grass or off into foul territory.
"That's what's known as 1940s drainage," said head groundskeeper Darren Johnson. "Back in those days, that was the best way to get the water off the field. This field hasn't been changed a bit since the day it was built."
It can take a toll on a coaching staff. In the third inning Friday night, Ka'aihue singled and went to go to third on Carl Loadenthal's double to left.
As Ka'aihue chugged into third, manager Rocket Wheeler started running backwards so he could keep Ka'aihue and the left fielder in view.
But he forgot about the crown. As Ka'aihue hit the bag and made a threatening turn toward home, Wheeler went backside-over-tea-kettle into foul territory.
"As I was going down, I told myself to do a flip, land on my feet, raise my hands and hold him," Wheeler said.
Too late. The throw came in behind Ka'aihue and he was tagged out at third.
Like we said, watch the crown.
A closer look
Saturday started wet and the rains, torrential at times, never really let up as the counter-point to the lightning strikes that scratched across the hills that ring this city.
There are a couple ways to get to the ballpark from the concentration of hotels near Liberty University.
You can take a quick route along the freeway.
But the best route is down Fort Street to Wythe. It brings you through a leafy neighborhood filled with houses of brick and stone that glisten in the rain.
You take a right into a city park and drive along the outfield wall. As you come around the right field foul line, the hills off to the southeast rise into view.
It is an appearance not uncommon to Vermont; green and rolling, impossibly old, the product of an age when the plates were rumbling within the earth.
Between the ballpark and hills, the land rises down and then back up, forming little inclines and valleys.
These are dotted with businesses, some industrial, some warehousing. There are rows of greenhouses closest to the back of the ballpark.
The ballpark is tiny, but full of charm.
From the field, the grandstand, renovated in 2004 to add 14 skyboxes and a concourse, looks like an Elizabethan theater, cramped and curving.
The suites may offer the best view in the league, as they stick out out over home plate.
There is good reason the backstop screen cover them like a mosquito net, deadening the foul balls that come back with warp speed.
Still, no matter where you are in the ballpark, you feel close to the field.
The seating bowl offers great low sight lines that help bring the game back into focus from the steeply ascending pews of the modern baseball cathedral. The result is the game seems played on a more human level.
The outfield is ringed with the double deck of wall-splattered advertising. The scoreboard is in left and there is a small video board in right-center.
The crowds, perhaps because of the weather, are small throughout the series. And while there is marginal interest in the usual in-game activities on the field, there is very little buzz in the stands.
The Pelicans and Hillcats outlasted the weather Saturday night, with the first-place Pelicans winning 3-1 behind Charlie Morton to run their record to 39-36.
On Sunday, the teams were tied at 3 when the rains arrived in the seventh inning to wash away the game.
That really didn't seem to bother any of the Pelicans, who were anxious to get on the road back to Myrtle Beach and three days off for the All-Star break.
And so they trooped into their clubhouse off the left field line, their road grays sodden from the romp across the infield.
The rain continued and off in the distance, the mist snaked through the canopy of trees along the ridge. The sky turned gun-metal gray, leaving the little ballpark looking wet and more than a little forlorn.
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