Longtime reader, and friend of the site, YankeeRudy, suggested that the writers and readers of Start Spreading the News share their experiences at baseball parks around the country.
We loved this idea and this series was born. Please enjoy the following articles and please consider sharing one of your own!
Today, Ethan shares a recent trip to Coca Cola Park (Allentown, PA), home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs!
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Originally, I had no other intentions than to take a quick weekend trip to visit some college friends from our alma mater, Lafayette College's, homecoming football game. But, baseball always finds a way to monopolize my thoughts, and this story needs a little background.
The weekend before I was visiting my brother who lives in the middle of Pennsylvania. During that trip the two of us planned to head to a Baltimore Orioles game (the first time either of us had gone to a game at Camden Yards), picking the Sunday afternoon game. Knowing this, I had already taken off work on that Monday, thus I had a free day to take a nice long drive home. I first started out going to Reading, PA to see FirstEnergy Stadium where the Reading Fightin’ Phils play. After walking around the ballpark real quick (it was about 10:00 AM and I don’t think anybody was around), I left for the next ballpark on the way: Coca Cola Park in Allentown, PA.
With my luck, as I got there and started to walk around one of the teams personnel was at the ballpark, allowed me a chance to walk around the gift shop, and even quickly allowed me a view of the field. He also told me that their final home series was going to be happening that next weekend. With plans to already visit nearby Easton, PA for the weekend, I now had another sporting event that I had to attend.
So, now let’s skip ahead a week past the football game that Lafayette lost by one point and we’re at Sunday, October 3rd, 2021. The final game of the 2021 Minor League regular season. Now, as my friends had tests on Monday or had to head back to their own jobs for early Monday work, I went alone to this game. It was the first time I ever went to a ballgame completely alone, and it was an odd experience doing so.
I made the best of it, talking with the couple next to me was fun and I caught them a T-shirt that was being thrown around by the IronPigs employees. (I guess they were trying to clear extra stock before the offseason.) I ran into another friend from college, got to lay down with the grass on my back and watch a baseball game in the outfield, and share a laugh with the crowd at the fact that a lady on the scoreboard knew who Marc Anthony was but couldn’t name Roberto Clemente.
Coca Cola Park was a fun place to go. I spent some of the game moving around to experience the different views of the stadium, but I found the best were just at my seat. The weather was perfect, and the game was contested well until the end.
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A couple of interesting things around the ballpark:
Holy moly is there a lot of advertising there. It honestly got to be a little overwhelming by the end of the game with the sheer amount of color being thrown at you. I counted something like 6 colleges having an advertisement across the outfield.
Speaking of advertisements, the Martin Guitar was a cool touch given that their factory is nearby to Allentown. However, it wasn’t great to watch the game through.
There were some cool things to look at around the stadium which I took photos of (you can find them below) of the “Pigs to the Majors” and the “Wall of Feats”.
As to be expected, there was lots of bacon memorabilia and other bacon-type items around the stadium.
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