Stadium Review: Municipal Stadium of the Hagerstown Suns

By Bill Jordan
Updated: February 11, 2009

municipalstadium municipalstadium2 Municipal Stadium is on record as being the third oldest baseball stadium in the world, and one can certainly tell that when they visit the park. The ballpark is in no way showing age by falling apart or being unsafe, it just looks exactly like the old parks seen in documentaries about the history of baseball.

The Suns do not have a digital scoreboard in the entire ballpark and the numbers are still changed by hand just as they were when the stadium was first built.

The Suns are the single A affiliate of the Washington Nationals and usually draw decent crowds from the town of Hagerstown and the surrounding areas.

As an astute baseball fan might imagine, due to the fact that it is a class A ballpark, it is not very large, but this does not mean that it doesn’t have any quirks that make it unique. While the majority of the seating in the park are bleachers, some are equipped with a back for fans to be able to rest on. There is a VIP section where the seats mirror the individual ones seen in most ballparks around America, but it is very small.

There are also two couches that sit practically on top of both of the dugouts for fans to sit on if they either pay a certain price or win a drawing for the chairs.

The team is not directly attached to the stadium, but it is within the grounds of the ballpark. As its own separate building, it is not very large, but probably does hold an above average amount of merchandise for a class A stadium. While some even modern class A stadiums simply have a cove for their merchandise, they do actually have an entire store.

Most of the concession stands are located underneath the main bleachers for the stadium. They offer the usual array of baseball treats at decently reasonable prices.

There is a bar down the third base line that serves a good variety of alcoholic beverages. While there is not a lot of seating at the bar itself, there are various tall tables provided with a good view of the game for fans to be able to utilize while they are enjoying their adult drink.

The radio play by play man is also down the third base line with no cover so fans can literally stand right next to them while they call the game. The radio personalities frequently pick people from the stadium (usually children) to talk on the broadcast with them for a few minutes during the game.

Since there are no seats in the outfield, the view is extremely picturesque and even the advertisements on the wall in the outfield show their age.

The stadium is truly steeped in tradition as it has had many players grace its base paths that eventually made a name for themselves at the big league level. With a ticket to the game tending to be less than those even across class A, turning down a chance to see a game at this stadium would be a hard thing for a true baseball fan to do.

Minor League Stadium Grade: 4.5/5

Overall Stadium Grade: 4.25/5

Bill Jordan is a contributor to BaseballReflections.com. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] .