Covenant Health Park - Knoxville Smokies

Birmingham Barons (CHW) @ Knoxville Smokies (CHC)

May 9, 2026

Smokies 4, Barons 3

W: Jackson Kirkpatrick
L: Carson Jacobs

S: Vince Reilly

HR: Ariel Armas (KNX), Owen Ayers (KNX)

Attendance: 5,663
Time of Game: 2 hours, 26 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Knoxville, TN
Opened: 2025
Capacity: 7,448
Level: Double A
League: Southern

The main theme of my 2026 minor league ballpark tour is a trip around the Southern League.  I intend to see games in all eight Southern League ballparks this summer, with all but one of them on the docket for my June trip down south.  The one exception is Knoxville, where I had intended to stop on my way back from Nashville in April.  Actually, I did spend a night in Knoxville on that trip, but did not go to a game.  So I made a return trip in May.  The Smokies franchise returned to the city of Knoxville in 2025 after calling Kodak, TN, about 20 miles to the east, their home for a couple decades.  They returned to the city in a brand new ballpark located just a few blocks northeast of the main downtown area, in a neighborhood that is being revitalized with the ballpark as the central figure of that project.

Covenant Health Park is easily one of the nicest minor league parks I've visited to date, particularly at the AA level.  The interior of the park is modern in every way.  However, it does seem to pay a little bit of homage to the Smokies parent club of the Cubs by providing great views of the game from points outside the stadium like the rooftops across the street from Wrigley Field.  Here, there is a brand new condo building on the exterior of the park on the first base side where residents could have as good of a view of the game as most of the people inside the park.  Except it appears very few of the units on the ballpark side have been sold so far because there were no lights on in any of them from what I could tell.  There were a number of people watching from a lower terrace of that building though.  Meanwhile, beyond the premises on the left field side are apartments that also provide balcony views of the action for its residents.  Inside the park, there is a massive concourse above the main seating areas that has as impressive of a selection of concessions as I've seen in a minor league park.  There is a walkway encircling the entire field.  Uniquely, in center field, that walkway takes you over a bridge with a creek running below.  I would imagine that creek has more than a few baseballs at the bottom of it because it is definitely reachable for left-handed pull hitters.  There are picnic and party areas down each baseline and a large bar in right field with a water tower structure next to it that is a nod to the neighborhood's industrial past.  Near that bar in right-centerfield is a massive video board, uniquely shaped like the state of Tennessee.  A vast majority of the seats are on the playing field level in foul territory.  Other than those hanging out at the bar in right or taking a walk around the outfield concourse, there are no actual seating areas in the outfield from which to watch the game.  There is a second level that is almost exclusively luxury seating.  I was really impressed with this park.  It has me excited to see a couple other brand new AA ballparks that I plan to visit later this summer (Chattanooga, Richmond) to see if they are all this nice.  On top of that, this was also an extremely nice night for baseball with a huge crowd on hand to watch Chicago's two AA affiliates square off on a Saturday night.

This was my first of a scheduled three looks at Birmingham this year.  The two time defending Southern League champs are probably a longshot to make it three in a row because most of the Sox prospect talent is consolidated in High A and AAA right now.  The Barons did get a few callups from Winston-Salem shortly after this game though.  It was a very rough night at the plate for them in this one.  Samuel Zavala started the game with an infield single that the second baseman wasn't able to corral.  That would be the Barons only hit of the night.  Smokies starter Tyler Schlaffer, who had been having a rough season up to this point, was dominant on this night.  He pitched five scoreless innings allowing only that one infield hit, plus two walks, while striking out seven.  He actually faced the minimum in those five innings because the hit and one of the walks were erased on caught stealings, while the other walk was followed by a double play.  Barons starting pitcher Connor McCullough had a decent outing as well.  But he needed to be nearly perfect and was not that.  In the bottom of the second, Alex Ramirez lined a double over the centerfielder's head for the first of three hits for him.  He came up a home run shy of the cycle.  That was immediately followed by Ariel Armas hitting a bomb into the Smokies bullpen in deep left-center to give Knoxville a 2-0 lead.  That was Armas' first home run of the season.  Neither team would score again until the sixth inning when both starters had been pulled.  Jackson Kirkpatrick took the mound in the sixth for the Smokies.  After retiring the first batter he faced, he then walked three straight Barons to load the bases.  A RBI groundout by Jacob Burke put the Barons on the board.  Then Alec Makarewicz hit a slow chopper to third that Devin Ortiz made a wild throw to first allowing two runs to score.  The Barons scored three in the inning without the benefit of a hit to take a 3-2 lead.  The lead did not last long.  Leading off the bottom half, catcher Owen Ayers lined a pitch just over the wall in right field to tie the game.  It capped off a big night for Ayers on both sides of the ball as he also threw out a pair of potential base stealers.  Following a Barons pitching change, Ramirez hit what appeared to be a routine fly ball to deep right that right fielder Drake Logan completely lost, allowing the ball to drop over his head and Ramirez to reach third safely for a generous triple.  It seemed too dark at the time to be a twilight vision issue, so I'm not exactly sure what happened.  Ramirez would later come in to score on a sacrifice fly by Edgar Alvarez who lined out to center for the second out of the inning, where centerfielder Burke started jogging in thinking the inning was over.  Probably wouldn't have been able to throw out Ramirez anyway, but not a good look in that inning for the Birmingham outfield.  That gave Knoxville a 4-3 lead heading into the late innings.  The Barons didn't mount much of a charge in those final three frames.  Smokies relievers struck out seven of the final nine batters they faced, with five of them coming on called strike threes.  Birmingham seemed frustrated by the home plate ump, but at some point you need to swing the bat if he's going to keep calling strikes.  In addition to throwing a one-hitter, Knoxville pitchers also struck out 14.  Pretty rough night at the plate for the Barons as they dropped this game by a final score of 4-3.  Amusingly, the win was credited to Kirkpatrick, who was by far the Smokies least effective pitcher.

While I was disappointed with the result of the game, it was a very enjoyable evening in Knoxville.  I now look forward to seeing what the rest of the Southern League ballparks look like, because this one will be tough to beat.  After one evening in Tennessee, it was back to Virginia for a Sunday afternoon game in Salem the following day.

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Next ballpark: Carilion Clinic Field in Salem, VA

City Stadium - Hill City Howlers

Fredericksburg Nationals (WAS) @ Hill City Howlers (CLE)

May 8, 2026

Nationals 11, Howlers 5

W: Cesar Rojas
L: Angel Perez

HR: Jacob Walsh (FBG)

Attendance: 1,396
Time of Game: 2 hours, 42 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Lynchburg, VA
Opened: 1940
Capacity: 4,281
Level: Single A
League: Carolina

My second trip of the year featured a return to Knoxville, which I skipped on my first trip a month earlier following a rainout in Nashville.  But before heading back to Tennessee, I made a stop in Lynchburg, VA for a Friday night game at one of the oldest ballparks in minor league baseball.  Despite having lived in the Commonwealth of Virginia for nearly a quarter century, this was my first time in Lynchburg.  The city is situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, thus the team being named Hill City.  That's actually a recent development as they were the Lynchburg Hillcats in the years leading up to this one.  The team's new owner was looking to freshen up the brand.  While the new name seems reasonable to me, it was perhaps a bit of a rushed process just a few months before the season.  Their primary home caps simply state "Hill City" rather than an interesting logo or even a traditional "HC" look.

The team name isn't the only change going on with this franchise in Lynchburg.  Significant renovations are underway on the ballpark itself as well.  As currently configured, its probably one of the coziest parks I've been to on these minor league adventures.  Although, it is worth noting that this was the first Low A park I'd visited the past few years that wasn't practically brand new.  So I don't have a lot of recent comps to use for it.  Opened in 1940, City Stadium has a very retro feel to it.  Just beyond the stadium on the third base side is a football/soccer stadium, which was built in conjunction with this ballpark in the early 40s.  The covered grandstands in the sections behind home plate actually have some obstructed view seats from the poles holding up the skybox level above.  There are a few rows of reserved seating behind each dugout, with GA bleachers behind them leading up to the main concourse.  One nice feature is the ability to watch the game from that concourse if you so desire, not something that common in the older style parks.  There is a picnic area down the first base line.  The main area that is currently under construction is on the third base side where I assume additional group and party areas are being added.  There are no outfield seats anywhere in this park.  It might have the smallest overall footprint of seating areas of any ballpark I've been to so far.  The playing field is symmetrical with relatively short distances to the outfield wall in all directions, necessitating a fairly high wall all the way around.  There is what I understand to be a relatively new video board in right field with a traditional scoreboard in left.  It was not a huge crowd on hand for this Friday night game, but still a fun environment.

According to some ranking I saw early this season, the Fredericksburg Nationals opened the year with one of the top five prospect rich rosters in all of minor league baseball.  They were the visitors for this Carolina League game featuring two of the league's top teams entering this game.  The FredNats most notable prospect is Eli Willits, last year's #1 overall draft pick who I saw last August during the first week of his pro career.  The very young shortstop had a quiet evening in this one though, going hitless with a walk and a pair of strikeouts.  Several of his teammates picked up the slack though.  Hill City struck first in the bottom of the first with a Juneiker Caceres triple on what looked to me like a routine pop flyball off the bat.  The short outfield dimensions immediately came into play as the ball hit the wall above the right fielders reach.  Caceres then came in to score on a well struck double to right center by the next hitter, Cannon Peebles.  This lead was short lived as the Howlers defense let them down in the top of the second.  Coy James reached on what was ruled an infield single, advancing to second on an errant throw to first.  That was immediately followed by a RBI single up the middle by Nats slugging first baseman Jacob Walsh, a tall left handed hitter drafted out of Oregon last summer.  This was just the start of a big night for Walsh.  The next batter hit a deep fly ball to Caceres in right, which he dropped for a two base error.  Howlers hurler Jacob Zibin then hit the next batter to load the bases with nobody out.  A double play groundout allowed the lead run to score.  Then nine hole hitter Jordan Williams doubled to the gap in left center to give the FredNats a 3-1 lead.  Zibin finally got out of the jam by striking out Willits in a second straight inning.  He would allow another unearned run in the fifth, this time of his own doing as he threw away a bunted ball by Williams back to him that ultimately led to Williams scoring on a sacrifice fly to make it 4-1.  Meanwhile, Nationals starter Leuris Portorreal was largely effective after the first, but was pulled in the fourth inning.  Fredericksburg seemed to have the game under control until the bottom of the seventh when 7 foot tall lefty Jared Beck took the mound.  A 7' low-slot lefty is quite an interesting profile, but the fact that he's still pitching in Low A at the age of 25 tells much of the story.  He ominously threw his last warmup pitch to the backstop and the wildness didn't stop there.  He walked three batters in the inning, including one with the bases loaded.  A two run bloop single to right by Dauri Fernandez tied the game, although there was confusion as to whether or not the second run counted as Fernandez was thrown out at second trying to stretch it to a double to end the inning.  It took at least a half inning before the scoreboard actually reflected the tied score.  Hill City then took the lead the next inning when Caceres continued his eventful evening by lining one the opposite way over the left fielder's head for a run scoring double.  That gave the Howlers a 5-4 lead heading into the ninth.  Angel Perez came in for the Howlers to try to get the save.  It did not go well for him.  He did not retire any of the first seven hitters he faced.  Here's the sequence:  double, hit by pitch, walk, game tying single by Yeremy Cabrera, lead run scoring walk by Luke Dickerson, another bases loaded walk by James, and then an absolute bomb of a grand slam by Walsh to make it 11-5.  The Howlers went down quietly in the bottom of the ninth giving the FredNats a seven run win in a game they trailed heading into the final inning.

This game was a nice encapsulation of the craziness of lower level minor league baseball.  And it was an entertaining way to start my weekend trip.  The next day it was off to Knoxville where I would get to see a game this time around.

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Next ballpark: Covenant Health Park in Knoxville, TN

First Horizon Park - Nashville Sounds

Charlotte Knights (CHW) @ Nashville Sounds (MIL)

April 5, 2026

Sounds 7, Knights 5

W: Brian Fitzpatrick
L: Adisyn Coffey

S: Will Childers

HR: Luke Adams (NAS)

Attendance: 4,881
Time of Game: 2 hours, 50 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Nashville, TN
Opened: 2015
Capacity: 10,000
Level: Triple A
League: International

Following Friday night's game in Kentucky, I made the short drive down to Nashville on Saturday morning and spent most of the afternoon exploring the city, this being my first visit to Music City.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and am already itching to make a return trip in the future.  To me, it seemed like a much nicer version of Las Vegas and New Orleans, with the common theme among those three cities being that pretty much everybody goes there to have a good time.  The only negative was that a rainstorm swept through in the late afternoon which wound up postponing the game I had planned on attending that evening.  I had already made a contingency plan though and stuck around for the game the following afternoon instead, which happened to be Easter Sunday.

First Horizon Park is located a little bit west of downtown Nashville, and just a few blocks from the State Capitol building.  The park is aligned to provide a nice view of the skyline beyond right field from most seating areas.  Beyond the park in left field are residential buildings.  The exterior of the park on the third base side includes a restaurant with an outdoor patio which appears to provide great views of the action for those who want to eat, drink and watch baseball without actually buying a ticket.  This park has as large of an outfield concourse as I can recall seeing in a minor league park.  Right field, in particular, has wide open spaces for congregating and having fun.  That area includes games such as cornhole, ping-pong and even a miniature golf course.  This area is situated below and around the gigantic guitar shaped scoreboard in right-center.  I would imagine even someone who doesn't care a lick about baseball could have a good time out there.  A second level around the infield contains a good number of suites and club level seating.  There are also field level suites right behind home plate that I found to be an interesting design choice because it takes up a pretty large amount of prime real estate with not a lot of actual seats.  Perhaps I would have been more understanding of it if I had seen how the space is occupied for a mid-summer game with a larger crowd.  The overall large footprint of the stadium and all of these extra amenities gives First Horizon Park as close to a big league feel as I've experienced in the minor leagues.  It was not a big league sized crowd for this particular game, however.  Which made sense with it being Easter Sunday and the first weekend of April.  Following the Saturday night rain, temperatures dropped pretty significantly, making this a somewhat chilly afternoon.  Still pleasant though with the sun shining.

To begin the season, the Charlotte roster featured three of the White Sox top pitching prospects.  Fortunately, I was able to see one of them in person for the first time for this game:  hard-throwing right hander Tanner McDougal.  It was easy to see why he is so highly touted as he fired upper 90s heat with nasty breaking balls.  That said, he was not overwhelmingly dominant in this outing.  He walked four while striking out three in five innings.  Nashville did not do much damage against him though, only notching two hits and one run.  Meanwhile, the Knights offense did knock around Sounds lefty starter Tate Kuehner a bit, despite having a lineup mostly consisting of left handed hitters.  They scored one run in the third and then added three more in the fourth, highlighted by a two run double down the left field line by Drew Romo.  Nashville got one back in the bottom of the fourth on a solo home run by Luke Adams, who drilled a McDougal fastball to the berm in left-center, cutting the Knights lead down to 4-1.  Charlotte immediately responded with three straight hits off of Kuehner to start the fifth, the last of which was a RBI single by Jacob Gonzalez, ending Kuehner's afternoon.  The Knights recorded eight hits off of the Sounds starter, but then only one hit for the remainder of the game facing the bullpen.  Charlotte's bullpen, on the other hand, was far less effective.  The game completely flipped when the bullpens entered the picture.  The Sounds cut the lead to two with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth.  They scored one on another RBI hit by Adams and another on a sacrifice fly by Brock Wilken.  Then the Knights bullpen completely self-combusted in the bottom of the eighth inning, despite Tyler Gilbert retiring the first two hitters he faced in the frame.  He then allowed an infield single by Luis Lara and hit Adams with a pitch, ending his day.  Adisyn Coffey came in and threw gas on the fire.  The first four batters he faced included three walks, another hit batter and a pair of wild pitches thrown in for good measure.  The Sounds scored four times in the inning with the only hit being an infield single.  The runs scored on a bases loaded hit by pitch, a bases loaded walk and two wild pitches during the same plate appearance, putting Nashville on top 7-5.  It was a truly ghastly inning for the Charlotte bullpen, particularly Coffey.  The Knights did put a couple runners on base in the top of the ninth on an error and a walk, but Will Childers came in to pitch for the Sounds and struck out the only batter he faced to end the ballgame and earn the save.  The Sounds got the 7-5 come from behind victory.

The Saturday rainout cut this trip down to just two games, both of which were lost by White Sox affiliates.  Because I wound up skipping Knoxville on this trip, I now have a return trip planned there very soon, during which I will once again try to see the Sox AA squad, Birmingham, play in Knoxville.  Here's hoping for good weather.

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Next ballpark: City Stadium in Lynchburg, VA