A Little Ways Up the Hill

Entrance to Municipal Stadium, Jul-2011.

A good look at the main grandstand.

Visible here is a short rise in the ground level in left field.

Chronological Tour: Stop 17

• Location: Eastern Parkway South, Hagerstown, Md. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1930 (renovated: unknown)
• Demolished: 2022
• Home team: Hagerstown Owls, Interstate League (1941-49); Hagerstown Braves, Interstate League (1950-52), Piedmont League (1953); Hagerstown Packets, Piedmont League (1954-55); Hagerstown Suns, Carolina League (1981-88), Eastern League (1989-92), South Atlantic League (1993-2019)
• Capacity: 4,600

Rating: 3 baseballs

SABR founder Bob Davids (left) and other members at a 1998 game.

The seating areas were nothing to write home about; a section of grandstand behind home plate received new seats in the early 1990s. However, the intriguing feature was a rise in ground level near the wall in left field. Whether this was just the original lay of the land or somebody’s idea of being cute, I had no idea. Helpfully, site visitor Jamie Slavy advised me in 2008 that there is a limestone deposit in left field that was too difficult to flatten when the park was built. Slavy wrote, “It’s one of the few true (not manufactured) quirks that still exist on a modern baseball playing field.”

I am not certain when the most recent aluminum grandstand was installed. Obviously, it was not original to the park; however, the grounds clearly date to 1930. Some of the seating in the main grandstand was replaced shortly before the 2011 season.

There was talk of building a new park here, near the crossroads of I-70 and I-81, and officials later floated the possibility of a downtown ballpark. Neither idea came to fruition, however, and the Suns made plans to move to a new park in Fredericksburg, Va., for the 2015 season, plans that went on hold due to real estate issues at the Fredericksburg site. A new plan arose in April 2015 for Spotsylvania County, just south of Fredericksburg, to build a park to accommodate the Suns. None of that wound up happening; the site within Fredericksburg city limits wound up the home of the Carolina League team relocating from Prince William Co., Va. Subsequently, Hagerstown was not extended an invitation to join the restructured minors in 2021, and the stadium structure was demolished in the summer of 2022.