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McCormick Field / Asheville Tourists

 

Year Opened	1924; rebuilt 1992
Capacity	4,000
Architects	Bowers, Ellis, and Watson
Construction	Leader Construction
Dimensions	326L, 386LC, 373C, 297R
Last Visit	2007
Web Site	www.theashevilletourists.com
Online Broadcasts	No
Online Ticket Sales	Yes
Phone	828/258-0428
League	South Atlantic League
Affiliation	Colorado Rockies
Ticket Prices	Box Seats, $8 adults, $7 children and seniors; General Admission, $6 adults, $5 children and seniors
Parking	Street parking adjacent to the ballpark and in a small adjoining parking lot.
Address/Directions	30 Buchanan Place, Asheville. The ballpark is located on the eastern edge of downtown Asheville. From I-240, take the Charlotte Street South exit, go south one mile on Charlotte, and turn left on McCormick Place (AAMCO Transmission on the corner). McCormick Field is on the left. From I-40, take Exit 50 (Biltmore Avenue), go north on Biltmore Av. past Mission St. Joe's Hospital, past the Ford dealer, through one traffic light and right at the next street, McCormick Place (gas station on the corner). McCormick Field is on the right.
Rating

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McCormick Field, the longtime home of the Asheville Tourists, is both a classic ballpark of the Sally League and an example of a ballpark reconstruction done right. Located on the edge of downtown Asheville, McCormick Field has been the psychic center of baseball in Asheville since opening in 1924.

It's a cozy ballpark: McCormick seats only 4,000 (all between the foul lines), and the right-field wall (shown below) is only 300 feet down the line (the same as the original McCormick Field) and 35 feet high, just two feet shorter than the Green Monster at Fenway Park. It does change the dynamics of a game: during my visit Tourists 1B Simon Ferrer was thrown out at second by Augusta GreenJackets RF Brandon Moss after hitting one off the top of the fence.

UPDATE: The outfield fence has been changed since our initial visit, with the 35-foot-tall fence gone. A new scoreboard in right is 42 feet high by 94 feet wide, and the team estimates that more than 40 homeruns is 2006 stayed in the field compared to the earlier configuration.

(click on the image for a larger photo)

The pregame entertainment consisted of kids trying to score autographs (which wasn't difficult; Tourists players aren't that much older than some of the kids and seemed tickled to be asked for their signatures) and the onfield antics of Ted E. Tourist, surely the best and hardest-working mascot in the minors. How hard-working? Ted E. worked the crowd from a unicycle before the game (you try riding a unicycle for 30 minutes on a soft field), did pushups during the course of the game (you try doing 30 or 40 pushups in a mascot uniform) and still had the energy to dance with fans and generally entertain the crowd.

There is a certain sense of timelessness at a Tourists game. McCormick Field is set on the side of a hill, with the background mostly trees and an obstructed view of a football field. There are no views of the city, nothing to intrude in the essential timelessness of an Asheville baseball game. The emphasis at Tourists game is on the baseball: there are some between-inning activities, but when watching the crowd I got the sense that a baseball game was a true community activity: folks were continually running into old and new friends. Ron McKee has been the team's GM since 1980 and is widely credited with creating the family-friendly environment that exists to this day at McCormick; Woody Kern has owned the team since 1981. Despite the threat of rain (play would be interrupted more than once), most fans stuck around for the entire game.

The ballpark occupies a pretty small footprint, which makes for some interesting design decisions. There's nothing beyond the outfield wall, and in back of the grandstand is a multi-story covered concession area with columns that are reminiscent more of a football stadium than a baseball ballpark. (The columns support the roof that covers most of the grandstand.) There are six rows of box seats and 10 rows of seat-back bleachers, with two sections at the ends of the grandstand with no seats at all. (Refreshingly, there are no luxury boxes.) The back of the grandstand leads over to a separate souvenir building and box office next to the main entrance. (The original McCormick Field also features small buildings in the same locations.) The buildings and the grandstand all feature of plenty of brickwork, making the ballpark feel older than its 1992 birthdate.

Upon leaving the ballpark, I was treated to a ballet of fireflies flickering over a sea of clover besides the ballpark. It doesn't get any better than that.

History
Baseball has been played in Asheville since 1866, when troops returning from the Civil War brought home the game. By 1893 large crowds were showing up for baseball exhibitions at Carrier's Track, watching the "We-Un’s" take on the "You-Un’s."

Professional baseball arrived in 1897 when the Asheville Moonshiners played at Allendale Park. The Moonshiners played for only part of the season before disbanding; pro baseball returned in 1909 with the arrival of the Asheville Redbirds. The Redbirds became the Asheville Mountaineers in 1910 and then the Asheville Tourists in 1915.

These teams were noteworthy for many reasons. First, the Tourists were part of the fastest professional game on record, a 31-minute "speed-up" game on Aug. 31, 1916. (Why so fast? The opponent, Winston-Salem, needed to catch a train out of town, so both teams agreed to the fast play.) The batboy in that game was 15-year-old Thomas Wolfe, who would later achieve fame as an author known for works like You Can't Go Home Again.

Homes for these teams were Riverside Park (which was flooded away) and Oates Park, which was abandoned after professional baseball left.

McCormick Field was designed to bring back professional baseball for the 1924 season. It was named for bacteriologist Dr. Lewis McCormick, who became known for advocating the "Swat That Fly" movement, telling people to kill common house flies to prevent the spread of disease. (We're guessing that McCormick Field is the only ballpark named for a bacteriologist.)

One of the first games at McCormick Field came on April 3, 1924, when the barnstorming Detroit Tigers came through town to take on the Asheville Skylanders of the Piedmont League. The Tigers won, 18-14; Heinie Manush hit the first homer in ballpark history, and Hall of Famer Ty Cobb contributed a round-tripper as well. Other major-league teams barnstormed through Asheville after spring training, including the New York Yankees and Babe Ruth. (When Babe Ruth visited in 1925, he skipped the game because of an upset stomach, and word spread that the Babe had died in Asheville. The rumors were soon picked up by wire services.) Jackie Robinson became the first black to play affiliated ball there a year after breaking the color barrier for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Overall, Asheville teams played in 13 different professional leagues for 13 major-league affiliates, including the Asheville Blues of the Negro Leagues.

McCormick Field was completely redone after the 1992 season; the wooden grandstands were demolished and was rebuilt in the same style, albeit in concrete and brick. The work was overseen by Bowers, Ellis and Watson.

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Concessions
The Tourists run concession stands in the back of the grandstand, and directly across is a food court run by local firms. The concession stands feature the usual ballpark fare -- Elm Hill hot dogs ($2.25), nachos ($2.75), hamburgers ($3.25), cheeseburgers ($3.50), chicken fingers ($4.25), corn dogs ($2.25), Little Venice pizza ($2.50 per slice), pop, popcorn and beer (Bud, Bud Light, Killian's, Coors, MGD, Icehouse). The food court features Grandpa's boiled peanuts, funnel cakes, cheesecake on a stick, Sno Kones, Dippin' Dots, Bellacino's grinders, and more.

For the Kids
Though there's little specifically at the ballpark for kids, McCormick Field is a kid-friendly environment: they gathered before the game for player autographs (and the Tourists were very accommodating, spending a lot of time with fans) and were generally glued to the action.

Parking
Free parking is available on surrounding streets and in a small adjoining parking lot.

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Before/After the Game
Asheville combines the rural scenery of the Blue Ridge Mountains with an artsy electric downtown. You could spend days and days exploring the pleasures of the area, which first came to prominence as a retreat for the rich and famous.

One mandatory stop is the Biltmore Estate. A 250-room estate that was once the largest private house in America, Biltmore is now an inn, conference center and winery open to the public. It was built by George Vanderbilt over 100 years ago with money he inherited in the Vanderbilt estate. You can view the many treasures collected by Vanderbilt: paintings from Renoir and Sargent, and gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmstead.

Walking around downtown Asheville is quite the experience if you're interested in architecture. It appears that very little was ever demolished there, so you have an assortment of architectural styles, many times located on the same block.