Kevin's Baseball Stadium Blog: Toyota Field

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.

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