Falcon Park

Falcon Park is a stadium in Auburn, New York. It is primarily used for baseball, and is the home field of the Auburn Doubledays minor league baseball team. The field also plays host to the Auburn Maroons varsity baseball team's home games. It opened in 1995 and holds 2,800 people. Falcon Park was originally built in 1927 on the same site which currently houses the 1995 reconstructed facility. The stadium is called Falcon Park because it was built by a fraternal organization n in Auburn called the Polish Falcons. The Polish Falcons owned the stadium until 1959, when the local minor league franchise purchased it. The City of Auburn purchased both the stadium and the franchise in 1981 by assuming the former team's unpaid debts.

Falcon Park was a typical old wooden grandstand-type of facility from 1927 until 1995. The original park's demolition began seconds after the final out of the final game of the 1994 season, with a bulldozer crashing into the stadium by smashing through the centerfield fence. The scene was shown nationally on ESPN.

Permanent lights were first erected at Falcon Park in 1940, although some temporary construction lights were put in place in order to accommodate some night baseball in 1938. Before the stability of the present Auburn Doubledays franchise,professional minor league baseball was somewhat of a "come and go" proposition in Auburn. When the city hadno team in 1957, the stadium was used as an auto racing speedway for children. The kids raced go-kart-type vehicles called microds on a one-tenth mile oval built on the ball diamond's infield. The races drew large crowds and the enterprise was featured in an article in Life Magazine. When the city had no team in 1981, the stadium was used for rock and roll concerts.

Notable players who have played for Auburn in Falcon Park include present day major leaguers Johan Santana, Billy Wagner,Roy Oswalt, Morgan Ensberg, Aaron Hill, Todd Jones, Kenny Lofton, and Luis Gonzalez and former stars such as Mel Stottlemyre, Joe Pepitone, Jim Bouton, Phil Linz, Rollie Sheldon, Rick Dempsey, Ike DeLock, Don Liddle, Jerry Koosman, Ken Boswell, Cleon Jones, Johnny Stephenson, Tug McGraw, Ed Kranepool, Lonnie Smith, John Halama,and Shane Reynolds. The playing field at Falcon Park is named Pinckney Field to honor sportswriter Leo Pinckney, who was very instrumental in securing a New York-Penn league franchise for Auburn in 1958.

External links

* [http://www.littleballparks.com/Stadium/2005/Auburn/Auburn.htm Falcon Park Views - "Ball Parks of the Minor Leagues"]
* [http://www.frontiernet.net/~rochballparks2/auburn/auburn.htm Photographs of Falcon Park - "Rochester Area Ballparks"]