Dunn Field



Exterior of Dunn Field, Sep-2002.

The venerable seating bowl, including the carousel placed down the first-base line in 2001.

Some days, the view here has a Blue Ridge feel to it.

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Quick Facts: Rating: 3 baseballs
The Elmira Pioneers are one of the oldest clubs in baseball. The club dates its history to 1888, although Elmira’s first minor-league team took the field in 1885, and the team didn’t bear the Pioneers nickname until 1935 in the New York-Pennsylvania League (which became the Eastern League in 1938, the year Dunn Field was opened).

The park consists of over four thousand seats, mostly covered by an expansive roof. Most of the seats are still the original wooden stadium seats from 1938, although the box seats and the seats in the lower portion of the grandstand were replaced in a 1993 renovation that also brought new clubhouses and dugouts to the facility. For 2001, the City of Elmira added a carousel to the grounds, on the end of the grandstand at first base.

When I first visited the park in 1993, the Pioneers were part of the New York-Penn League. However, the franchise was bought and shifted to Lowell, Mass., in 1996. A new Pioneers club started immediately and joined the independent Northeast League, lasting for ten seasons through 2005. In that last season, the club reportedly lost over $100,000, and with a new Can-Am League team taking up residence in northwest New Jersey, the Pioneers opted to suspend operations for 2006. Since then, Dunn Field has hosted teams in college summer ball.


Read one man’s story of life with Earl Weaver at Dunn Field and Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium.
Game Date League Level Result
107 Sun 5-Sep-1993 NY-Penn A- Geneva 7, ELMIRA 3
559 Sun 1-Sep-2002 Northeast Ind. ELMIRA 3, Albany 2
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This page updated 19-May-2014