Joseph L. Bruno Stadium

All photos of Troy and Joseph L. Bruno Stadium available on Flickr.

My 7th and final new ballpark of the year brought me to the Capital region of New York state to see the Tri-City ValleyCats of the NY-Penn League.  This was 5th ballpark visited in this short-season-A league and my 135th ballpark overall.  My good friend Josh and his family keep moving to different cities with ballparks I've never been to, so it works out pretty nice for me and my ballpark chasing.  When they moved to the Albany area about a year ago, I made sure to check the 2017 ValleyCats schedule as soon as it came out and plan for a visit.  Megan and I had a nice long holiday weekend relaxing with Josh, Kara, and their 2-yr old and newborn, but for purposes of this blog I'll just skip to the ballpark part.

We went to the game on Saturday night, which ended up being the last home game of the season due to a stretch of bad weather this week.  Joseph L. Bruno Stadium opened in 2002 and seats about 4,500 people, a good amount for a short-season league.  The ballpark has been hosting the Tri-City ValleyCats since their move from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and are so named because of the three city area of Troy, Albany, and Schenectady, which are all situated about 3 hours north of NYC along the Hudson River.  The park also hosts Hudson Valley Community College and both teams draw very well.  The ValleyCats have broken their franchise attendance record just about every year since their inception, and it was a near sellout even on a cool gloomy night in September.  We got seats about halfway up the 1st baseline behind the dugout for only $10 apiece.

Even though there was nothing very memorable about this ballpark, I was impressed with the overall size, concessions, and amenities for just a short-season ballpark.  For a league that is about the same schedule length as the Northwoods League, they had a lot to offer, certainly more than I was expecting after my visits to some of the other NY teams in the circuit.  There is a good selection of local beers and at least 3 bar seating areas, one of which was tiki-themed.  They had a spacious kids area and a lot of food offerings, including a wood-fired pizza area with an actual stone pizza oven, which I've never seen at any ballpark.  Megan and I found the pizza stand during a stroll around the concourse kind of tucked away, and I wish it would have been more prominent as it was the star of the park.  The main part of the building had your usual 2nd level with suites and press boxes and gave the park the presence of a larger scale.  A nice architectural touch was a masonry block and glass tower staircase leading up to the 2nd level.  A twin tower is mirrored on the other side and servs as the ticket office, and both together form a nice gateway entry.  I think baseball purists would complain about the extensive netting and between-innings buffoonery, but on the other hand they would appreciate how well-supported the team is and how seriously people take their baseball in New York, even for a parent franchise in the Astros that is halfway across the country.  I got a glimpse into my future as I totally used Josh's young son as bait to get a souvenir ball thrown to us by one of the mascots (I was nice and let him keep it).  I fully intend to exploit this as a father and add to my duffel bag full of game balls.

The ValleyCats defeated the Aberdeen IronBirds 6-1 despite an outrageous effort by Aberdeen starter Zac Lowther.  He gave up only 2 runs over 6 and struck out 12.  Carlos Hiraldo went only 4 frames but allowed one run fewer, and that was all it took for the win.  3 relievers shut the door with a combined 7 strikeouts.  We left after the 7th inning because, well, when a toddler does not nap during the day it is a disaster.  Little Simon was a trooper and certainly paid more attention than I did when I was that age.  We missed a 4-run 8th inning by the home team which included a homerun by Miguelangel Sierra.  One interesting tidbit of the game was that Ryan Ripken started for the IronBirds, who I can only assume is the son or nephew of Cal Ripken, Jr.  Cal and his brother Billy actually own the IronBirds and they are of course an affiliate of the Orioles.  Ryan being drafted by the family franchise is probably a case of nepotism, but he is hitting cleanup for Aberdeen and was a .287 average on the season as of this game, so he is at least holding his own so far.

That's probably it for ballpark visits for the season, other than Miller Park of course.  Hopefully I will have a fun playoff story to share in about a month.

park rankings and statistics:
aesthetics - 5

views from park - 2
view to field - 5
surrounding area - 4
food variety - 7
nachos - 3 (bag of chips)
beer - 9 (local brews, affordable)
vendor price - 8
ticket price - 8
atmosphere - 6
walk to park - 3 (parking situation is pretty weird)
parking price/proximity - 4 (free but an odd walk to stadium)
concourses - 6
team shop - 6

best food - wood-fired pizza
most unique stadium feature - Top of the Hill Bar & Grill
best jumbotron feature - there was a jumbotron but nothing of note occurred on it
best between-inning feature - local legends race (fun fact: apparently Uncle Sam is a real person and is from Troy)

field dimensions - 325/400/325
starters - Zac Lowther (ABD) v. Carlos Hiraldo (TC)
opponent - Aberdeen IronBirds
time of game - 3:02
attendance - 3633
score - 6-1 W
Brewers score that day - 3-2 L

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 09.08:
Brewers 72-68, -5.0, -3.0 WC (3 @ Cubs, 3 v. Pirates, 3 @ Marlins)
Reds 61-80, -16.5, -14.5 WC (4 @ Mets, 3 @ Cardinals, 3 v. Pirates)
Twins 73-67, -11.0, +1.0 WC (4 @ Royals, 2 v. Padres, 4 v. Blue Jays)

2017 GAMES ATTENDED:
Erik - 12 (+31 worked)
Peter - 33