Built in 1999, Eastwood Field is the home of the Cleveland Indians’ rookie level club, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers.

The ballpark itself looks great from the outside with brick pillars that come down to give it sort of an old school feel. The entire stadium is well done with brick, mainly light red and grey, and the architecture is extremely nice for a minor league stadium.

The biggest drawback of the ballpark is the location. It is located in the parking lot of a mall, which shares the first part of its name, which is a real drawback to a mostly well built ballpark. The parking situation also isn’t great as even though the stadium owns the parking lot, they still make people pay to park. If patrons think they are going to get away with not paying by walking to the stadium from the mall or the near by neighborhood, they would be mistaken because it actually costs more to pay for two walk-ups than it does to pay for one car.

With the capacity to sit more than 6,000 fans, the stadium is actually larger than many in class A, let alone rookie level ball. Due to the short season that rookie level teams possess, the stadium is often used for other events such as concerts or celebrity appearances. For these other events, the stadium claims to be able to hold about 9,000 people.

The stadium does feature individual seats for its patrons at almost all locations throughout the ballpark, something many stadiums at this level do not have. There is an autograph booth and a fun zone for kids on the first base side and most games feature a player who autographs for a half hour before the game starts.

Somehow, due to the situation of the stands, it creates one of the best atmospheres for foul ball catching. Even though there are a good number of seats, they are not bunched together, giving pursuers of foul balls enough room to make their own play on a ball in their area of the stands.

The team shop areas are not very large at this ballpark, and perhaps because of this, the selection of items available is not very large. If one visits the stadium looking to visit a team store, they will find themselves in a small cubby hole with merchandise stacked wherever it can fit.

Since it is a minor league stadium, they do have various fan activities throughout the game, and they actually have a fan signup center, which many ballparks lack, so that fans have the opportunity to enter themselves in for the on field promotions.

Despite being in the parking lot of a mall, the outfield wall is not overdone with advertisements and does have a pretty good view of a forest that sits beyond the stadium.

Overall, the stadium is definitely above average for the level of baseball it is hosting. It is also in such close proximity to so many of the other teams in the Indians’ farm system that fans have the ability to relate to players throughout their entire careers in professional baseball. Even though it is a bit hard to find at its remote location, it is still worth a look for those die hard minor league baseball fans.

Minor League Stadium Grade: 3.5/5

Overall Stadium Grade: 3.25/5

Bill Jordan is a contributor to BaseballReflections.com. He can be reached by e-mail at BillJordaniv@yahoo.com.

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