Waldorf, MD

Memorable Moment:

• 2009 Liberty Division Pennant

Baseball in Charles County, Maryland, dates back to 1985, when they had a plan to lure the Class A Carolina League's Kinston Indians. Contracts were signed and land was cleared, but the County balked and decided to pour money into infrastructure projects instead. Since that time, Southern Maryland's population has boomed thanks to suburban explosion in the Capitol Area. In 2004, Opening Day Partners, the owner of other Atlantic League clubs, decided they wanted a park in Charles County. The park was originally supposed to be in Hughesville, but the town decided they wanted to keep their "rural charm". The development was shifted to Waldorf. Charles County contributed $19 million to the project and Regency Furniture bought the naming rights for ten years for close to $3 million.

The team is co-owned by Opening Day Partners and former Oriole's star, Brooks Robinson. The park's concession stands are all named in honor of Robinson, such as "Gold Glove Grill" and "Five's Fare". The park has a lot of seafood options, such as crab filled soft pretzels and fried rock fish. The park also contains "Crabby Cove" which is a 54,000 gallon artificial pond with bumper boats. The stadium has red sloping roofs which are supposed to be similar to the area's tobacco barns. The clubhouses are in left field, so players enter and leave through the wall with a "mini green monster" that is reminiscent of Fenway Park (pictured below).

This is one of the nicer, newer ballparks I have been in. A rarity in minor league parks, you can walk all the way around this park. The outfield contains a seating berm and picnic area. There is also a bar ("club") with seating down the left field line. In addition to Crabby Cove, there is also a kids theme park on site. The seats fold down with cup holders. There are plenty of concessions stands and a team store. The only bad thing is that the luxury boxes are double decked with the first level on the same level as the concourse, which limits the amount of seating behind home and blocks the view from the concourse. I sat originally behind home, but found that the netting was too dark colored (see below) and moved off to the side, so limited seating isn't bad, but the lack of view is. Anyway, the great thing about this park is that it is like a big league park, just on a smaller scale. In my opinion, if you can't preserve something historical, you might as well make the new construction as fancy and well run as possible, and the Blue Crabs have done a great job of this.

© 2010-17 Paul Healey.