Gwinnett Field - Gwinnett Stripers

Louisville Bats (CIN) @ Gwinnett Stripers (ATL)

June 21, 2026

Stripers 10, Bats 1

W: Connor Thomas
L: Sam Benschoter

HR: Jim Jarvis (GWN), Brewer Hicklen (GWN)

Attendance: 2,738
Time of Game: 2 hours, 28 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Rome, GA
Opened: 2009
Capacity: 10,115
Level: Triple A
League: International

I made it!  The finale of my 16 day, 13 ballpark journey.  Originally, I was scheduled to go to a game in Gwinnett County, Georgia on Saturday night and then was going to spend most of Sunday driving home.  Well, I still spent most of Sunday driving, but included one last baseball game into the mix.  The drive from Rome to Lawrenceville, the northeast suburb of Atlanta where the Stripers call home, took me right past Truist Park where the Braves were playing a game that same afternoon.  Which brings me to an observation.  While it makes all the sense in the world from the big league club's perspective to have all of their minor league affiliates so close, I'm not sure how great that is for the franchises themselves.  Yes, they are all located in cities that love the Braves and many fans probably enjoy seeing the future Braves stars as they progress up the system.  But it also might hurt attendance a bit when some fans could opt to just make the drive to Atlanta to see the big league team instead.  The three Braves affiliate games I attended on this trip were all weekend games, yet had mediocre sized crowds at them.  I especially wonder how much Gwinnett suffers when they are home at the same time as the Braves, playing just 35 miles apart, as they were this day.  Anyway, just something that crossed my mind.

Either '25-'26 was an offseason with an unusually high number of minor league ballpark naming rights deals expiring, or I just happened to hit all of them this year.  I assume Gwinnett Field is only a temporary name until a new corporate sponsor can ben found.  While I have not visited Low A Augusta yet, I feel pretty confident in saying Gwinnett Field is the crown jewel of the Braves minor league ballparks.  It is a very nice facility, and a good one to close my trip with.  The lower level has almost a big league ballpark feel to it with ample seating nearly running from foul pole to foul pole, with luxury seating sections right behind home plate.  A spacious concourse encircles the entire park.  The outfield has no standard seating, but considerably sized berm seating areas in both left and right field, as well as plenty of standing room vantage points all the way around.  Because of the larger lower bowl than is typical in the minor leagues, the second level situated above the main concourse is a bit further from the playing field.  It is lined with suites and party decks at the end on each side.  High rise residential buildings surround the park all the way around the outfield.  I already mentioned a downside of having an AAA team so close to the big league team.  But on the positive side, it means the fans are heavily invested in the team and its players.  That makes the game itself more of an attraction than it is some other places in the minor leagues.  That said, there is plenty of the traditional minor league fun to be had here too.  This was a very nice, sunny afternoon in Georgia.

As a neutral, the highlight for me going into this game was getting to see Elly De La Cruz make a rehab appearance for Louisville.  The Reds All-Star shortstop had a rough game on this day though, both at the plate and in the field.  He went 0-for-3 and committed a costly error that caused the Bats to give up a pair of runs in the first inning.  Louisville did score first though.  Former highly touted prospect Hurston Waldrep got the start on the mound for the Stripers.  In the first, he allowed a two out double to Hector Rodriguez, who then came around to score on an Ivan Johnson single to left.  Turns out, that would be the only run the Bats would score on this day.  The Stripers, on the other hand, kept scoring all afternoon.  They were facing Bats righty Sam Benschoter.  A Brett Wisely triple down the right field line preceded the aforementioned fielding error on De La Cruz that tied the game.  Two more singles followed to score a second unearned run of the first inning that gave the Stripers a 2-1 lead.  In the third, Aaron Schunk doubled to left to score Wisely.  Gwinnett took full control of the game in the fifth inning.  Jim Jarvis started the frame by clubbing a home run into the Louisville bullpen near the right field foul pole.  A couple more singles and then a sacrifice fly by Schunk put the Stripers up 5-1 through five.  They would go on to score in every inning in which they batted the rest of the game.  In the sixth, it was a RBI double by Jarvis.  The Bats defense contributed to their pitchers' struggles all afternoon.  In the seventh inning, Gwinnett had already tacked on two more runs on a two run homer slugged into the home bullpen by Brewer Hicklen before an error eventually led to a third run in the inning.  For good measure, De La Cruz's late game replacement, Garrett Hampson, also committed an error in the eighth inning to push another unearned run across.  Three Bats errors in the game allowed four unearned runs to score, turning what probably would have been a loss anyway into a blowout.  Gwinnett won this one by a final score of 10-1.  Waldrep and the three relievers who followed all had nice outings on the mound for the Stripers.  They allowed just six hits in the game, with five of them being singles.

Not the most exciting game to end the trip with, but I was not going to complain at this point.  I definitely had a sense of accomplishment pulling off my most ambitious baseball trip to date, which made the long drive home that evening quite tolerable.  With 13 ballparks crossed off my list on this trip to add to the five I hit earlier in the year, I was already through 18 of the 20 ballparks I had intended on visiting this year with more than a week left to go in June.  Those last two stops were drivable day trips for me, both of which I wound up doing on consecutive Saturdays in July.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: Arthur W. Perdue Stadium in Salisbury, MD

AdventHealth Stadium - Rome Emperors

Hudson Valley Renegades (NYY) @ Rome Emperors (ATL)

June 20, 2026

Renegades 3, Emperors 2

W: Rory Fox
L: Zach Royse

S: Wilmy Sanchez

HR: Core Jackson (HV), Kyle West (HV), Eric Hartman (ROM)

Attendance: 1,788
Time of Game: 2 hours, 27 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Rome, GA
Opened: 2003
Capacity: 5,105
Level: High A
League: South Atlantic

The final weekend of my trip started with me making a relatively short drive from Madison, AL to Rome, GA.  This was a pretty interesting drive, much of it being on two lane highways going through the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.  Rome itself, located in the northwest part of Georgia, is quite hilly too.  AdventHealth Stadium is located on the northern edge of town, a decent ways from downtown.  With the Southern League in my rearview mirror, it was time to close out a second league in as many nights with my final visit to a High A South Atlantic League ballpark.

This is maybe a tad unfair to AdventHealth Stadium that I saw it near the conclusion of a trip that otherwise included higher level ballparks and truly unique A-ball facilities, but I think I can safely say this was my least favorite stadium on this trip.  It reminded me a great deal of the home ballpark of the team the Emperors were hosting this night, the Hudson Valley Renegades, right down to the artificial playing surface.  Artificial turf in Georgia makes no sense to me.  This park opened in 2003, a little before the boom in modern minor league ballpark design.  There is ample onsite parking.  A retro brick exterior greets fans coming into the main entrance behind home plate.  The main concourse is located under the grandstand, which is where you will find most of the concessions, and interestingly, an indoor space that is the team store on one side and a bar area on the other.  The main grandstand has a walkway separating the 100 and 200 levels.  There are two large entryways from the concourse to this walkway.  Railings separate the sections.  In the 200 level where I was sitting, these railings made it difficult to move around, and the ramps leading up to the sections were not particularly well marked as to which sections they served.  A curious design choice, I thought.  The main grandstand is topped off with a row of suites surrounding the press box.  Seating only runs a little past third base on that side of the park.  The first base side, on the other hand, has large open spaces beyond the grandstand that house additional concessions, a picnic area, a kids zone and berm seating that stretches around into right field.  I mentioned in the Hub City write-up how unusual it was to see the PA announcer sitting at field level rather than in a booth somewhere.  Well, that was nothing compared to Rome where the PA announcer was really a jack of all trades.  In addition to normal PA announcing duties, he was also the primary emcee of in-game entertainment and a hype man.  And he did all of this while wandering all around the park, sometimes even announcing next batters while on the move.  Not sure what they pay this gentleman, but it is probably not as much as he deserves.  He has a great set of pipes too.

I happened to be wearing a Notre Dame t-shirt this day, without realizing until the evening that the starting pitcher for Hudson Valley was former Fighting Irish right-hander Rory Fox.  He was opposed by Zach Royse, who was selected 23 picks after Fox in last summer's draft.  This was Royse's High A debut.  Both pitched pretty well in this game outside of the home runs they allowed.  Royse surrendered the first home run to the second batter of the game as Core Jackson slugged one out to right into the Renegades' bullpen, giving Hudson Valley an early lead.  The Emperors didn't have as much as a hit against Fox in the first three innings, with the only base runner reaching on a dropped routine fly ball to right fielder Luis Durango.  The Emperors finally got something going in the fourth.  John Gil started the inning lining a single to right.  That was immediately followed by Eric Hartman hitting a towering home run to the kids zone in right, well beyond the outfield wall.  That put Rome ahead 2-1.  That was the extent of the damage done against Fox on the night.  He finished with just those two runs allowed on three hits, one walk and six strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.  In the half inning right after falling behind, Hudson Valley retook the lead.  With one out in the top of the fifth, Eric Genther lined one to right and hustled to second for a double.  Then Kyle West parked one to deep right, into the trees for a two run homer.  That put the Renegades back ahead by a 3-2 score.  As it turned out, neither team would score again after that.  Hudson Valley missed several opportunities to score more throughout the night, but were unable to get key hits as they left 10 runners on base.  Luckily for them, it didn't matter as their two home runs were enough.  Other than the inning they scored their two runs, Rome wasn't able to muster multiple hits in an inning all night.  Wilmy Sanchez got the save by striking out three of the four Emperors he faced.  It was a 3-2 victory for Hudson Valley, with all five of the game's runs scoring on the three home runs.  Fox deservedly picked up the win.

And with that, I had wrapped up my tour of the 12 South Atlantic League ballparks.  A caveat to that though.  I visited Aberdeen back in 2024.  However, this year they lost their Orioles affiliate status and were replaced in the SALLY by Frederick.  I wasn't able to make it to a game in Frederick this year, but will definitely go to a game there at some point.  I will go ahead and post my ballpark rankings for the league now though and will update accordingly once I've visited Frederick.  These rankings were much more difficult to do than the Southern League because I visited almost half of them over two years and 40+ ballparks ago.  I did skim through my write-ups of those older visits to jog my memory for these rankings.  And here they are.

South Atlantic League Ballpark Rankings

1. Hub City

2. Greenville

3. Winston-Salem

4. Asheville

5. Brooklyn

6. Greensboro

7. Wilmington

8. Bowling Green

9. Jersey Shore

10. Aberdeen

11. Hudson Valley

12. Rome

Perhaps it is recency bias, but I went with two ballparks from this trip for the top two spots.  Hub City was a pretty easy choice for the number one spot though.  Asheville was the most difficult to place, in the same way that I have a hard time deciding where to rank Fenway and Wrigley when rattling off MLB stadiums.  It is such a timeless gem that it can't be ranked near the bottom.  But it also isn't nearly as "nice" as the newest stadiums.  I settled on fourth, right ahead of Brooklyn, which is another ranking not so much based on the quality of the park, but because of its extremely unique location and surroundings.  Hudson Valley and Rome were pretty easy choices to put at the bottom of this list, though I could have gone either way with the order of those two.  As I keep pointing out, none of these parks are bad at all.  They are all much nicer than the Class A ballparks I remember visiting in my younger days.

Just one more day to go on this marathon trip down south.  That last Sunday would wind up being a long day of driving, with an afternoon game in Gwinnett mixed in.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: Gwinnett Field in Lawrenceville, GA

Toyota Field - Rocket City Trash Pandas

Montgomery Biscuits (TB) @ Rocket City Trash Pandas (LAA)

June 19, 2026

Biscuits 11, Trash Pandas 2

W: Santiago Suarez
L: Ryan Costeiu

HR: Kenny Piper (MTG), Will Simpson (MTG), Jadher Areinamo (MTG), Raudi Rodriguez 2 (RCT)

Attendance: 4,959
Time of Game: 2 hours, 55 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Madison, AL
Opened: 2021
Capacity: 7,500
Level: Double A
League: Southern

On the final Friday of my trip, I drove pretty much the entire length of Alabama to the northern part of the state near Huntsville.  I arrived in suburban Madison just in time to watch the USMNT's second World Cup game at a nearby bar.  Then it was off to see the seventh and final Southern League game of this trip, completing my tour of the entire league this year.  Toyota Field is a pretty new ballpark and the Trash Pandas are a new franchise as well, both debuting after the pandemic in 2021.  The Huntsville area is not new to minor league baseball though.  The Huntsville Stars relocated to Biloxi six years prior to the Trash Pandas arrival.  The Trash Pandas effectively replaced the Mobile franchise in the Southern League.

As one might expect from a ballpark that opened this decade, Toyota Field is a very nice modern facility.  Not only is the park new, but the entire neighborhood where it sits seems to be relatively new construction.  It very much has a suburban feel to it, unlike most of the other Southern League ballparks that are situated in or near downtown areas of larger cities.  The park has a large 360 degree concourse which is good sized in the outfield as well despite no fixed seats out there.  People walking around the outfield can get a close up view of pitchers warming up in the bullpens.  The home bullpen is situated such that you could actually watch a pitcher's warmup from directly behind the catcher if you are so inclined.  The outfield also houses a large kids zone featuring a mechanical bull ride.  The bar in right field has rail seating that actually slightly overhangs the right field warning track.  There is a yellow home run line below that which creates some interesting house rules for what constitutes a homer and what is a ground rule double.  In general, the outfield wall has all sorts of directional quirks that likely play tricks on outfielders unfamiliar with the park.  Just off the concourse on the first base side is the large team store right next to viewable batting cages.  Across the way from that area is a berm seating area down the first base line.  The rest of foul territory on field level features traditional stadium seating, with some patio seating at the back of sections down each foul line.  There are a bunch of luxury seating options too, including a couple field level suites.  The second level is pretty much exclusively luxury sections.  There is a large stadium club on that level on the first base side with suites running from behind home plate and down the third base line.  Rocket City dubbed this BBQ weekend.  They played as the Bama Butts this night with special uniforms for the occasion.  A bunch of local BBQ vendors had tents set up down the first base line for tastings.  Even without that, there was an impressive selection of concession options in the park.  After the wet night in Pensacola, the clear and warm conditions this Friday night in Madison were much appreciated.

Santiago Suarez started this game on the mound for the Biscuits, just as he did in the game I saw in Montgomery the previous week.  He was far more effective this time around.  He was opposed by another righty, Ryan Costeui, who looked pretty good early in this game, but it all fell apart in his final inning.  It was the Raudi Rodriguez show all evening for the Trash Pandas offense.  In the bottom of the first, he lined an opposite field homer to the Rock Porch in right to give Rocket City an early 1-0 lead.  Montgomery tied it in the second on a scorching line drive homer to left by Kenny Piper.  In Rodriguez's second plate appearance of the night in the fourth, he once again hit an opposite field homer to right.  This time though, it was a towering fly ball that clanged off the porch facade, above the home run line.  That put Rocket City up 2-1.  Other than those three solo home runs, the pitchers were pretty effective through the first four innings.  That changed in the fifth though when Costeui got touched up by the Biscuits.  Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out.  Then Jadher Areinamo hit a seeing eye single up the middle to knock in a pair of runs to put Montgomery ahead.  Another walk reloaded the bases and ended Costeui's night.  Will Simpson immediately greeted reliever Chris Cortez with a two run single to left.  Cortez would later walk in a run to allow the fifth Biscuits run of the inning to score.  Montgomery kept the offense rolling in the sixth when Simpson hit a towering three run home run to left, his third hit of the night with five runs driven in.  That gave the Biscuits a commanding 9-2 lead.  Areinamo would add a two run homer in the eighth, his fourth hit of the game.  That put the Biscuits up 11-2, which was the final score.  Areinamo and Simpson combined for seven hits and nine runs driven in.  On the other side, Rodriguez's two solo home runs were the only runs scored for the Trash Pandas.  He had more than half of the team's hits in the game, three out of five.  Montgomery looked like a completely different team than the one I saw lose convincingly at home the previous week.  Rocket City dropped both of their games I was at on this trip.

New feature! When talking to people about my minor league tour, I'm frequently asked which are my favorite ballparks I've visited so far.  I usually preface my response by saying that it is very difficult to compare parks at different levels of the minors and go on to name a few of my favorites at each level.  Additionally, visiting so many new parks each year makes it difficult to remember specifics about parks I visited several years prior.  So to help me remember how fond I am of different parks, I want to put some rankings in writing.  Because I'm not sure if I will ever visit every ballpark at every level, I'm going to further split out these rankings by league.  Once I've visited every park in a league, I will post my ballpark rankings for that league.  The Southern League is the first minor league that I completed.  It will be one of the easier to rank since I was at all eight of these parks this year.  While I'm not using a thorough mathematical formula for these rankings, I'm going to use three primary criteria in the following order of significance:  (1) Overall ballpark quality, (2) Location/neighborhood, (3) Gameday experience (concessions/in game entertainment).  The last one receives the smallest weight because I know my personal experiences were largely determined by what particular game I attended.  I don't want to punish a stadium too much because I went to a Tuesday night game rather than a Saturday night with some major promo.  The other thing I want to state up front is that since the minor league reorg earlier this decade that saw many of the worst facilities lose their affiliation status, there really aren't any bad parks left in the minor leagues.  Even the ones that will show up at the bottom of these rankings are solid ballparks where you will likely have a good time if you visit.  But rankings are rankings and some parks have to finish last.  Without further ado, let's move onto my first minor league ballpark rankings.

Southern League Ballpark Rankings

1. Knoxville

2. Chattanooga

3. Rocket City

4. Birmingham

5. Montgomery

6. Pensacola

7. Biloxi

8. Columbus

The top spot really came down to the two new Tennessee ballparks in Knoxville and Chattanooga.  I went back and forth on which one to put up top as both are among my favorite parks in all of the minor leagues, but ultimately settled on Knoxville because of location.  New construction is ongoing in both neighborhoods though, so this might change years from now.  Rocket City and Birmingham are upper echelon stadiums as well.  I probably could have ranked Montgomery, Pensacola and Biloxi in any order and felt okay about it.  Columbus was a fairly easy choice to put last, despite being a perfectly decent park in its own right.  It just doesn't have anything particularly special about it like the rest of the Southern League parks do.

So that closes out one league.  The next night, I would close out another in Rome, Georgia.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: AdventHealth Stadium in Rome, GA