Cafaro Field

Exterior of Cafaro Field, Aug-1999 (the summer it was built).

The seating bowl fills up before game time.

Visible here is the small amount of foul territory halfway down the line.

• Location: Youngstown-Warren Road (Route 422) behind Eastwood Mall, Niles, Ohio
• Opened: 1999 as Cafaro Field
• Additional names: Eastwood Field (2002)
• Home team: Mahoning Valley Scrappers, New York-Penn League
• Capacity: 6,000

Chronological Tour: Stop 169

Rating: 4 baseballs

Short of actually building on the Mahoning River (and there isn’t much to recommend the Mahoning River), there wasn’t much the developers could have done to improve the view. The field is awkwardly tucked behind a shopping mall which now holds naming rights for the park, but at least it faces a field of trees -- and a treehouse that one enterprising property owner built beyond the right field wall in order to give himself a view.

The field itself has a symmetrical but interesting shape. It has generous dimensions – 335 down the lines, 405 to center – but in order to make the box seats down the lines more marketable, they cut sharply toward the foul line (and face the infield) until they get within about 3 feet of the line. That’s where they end, yielding very little foul territory for the last 75 feet or so – just like left field at Fenway Park, except that this is both lines.

The stadium itself is remarkably similar to Skylands Park in Augusta, N.J., except for being a bit larger. This is accomplished mainly by putting more seating rows above the concourse level. It’s comfortable, as there are stadium seats in all the lower boxes and all the upper infield seating areas. Outfield areas are bench seating. However, the concourse aisle is surprisingly narrow, making it just a little difficult to move around between innings. It could have stood being a foot or so wider, with all the capacity.