Joe O’Brien Field

Entrance to Joe O’Brien Field, Jul-2003.

There’s no cover here unless you're in one of the press boxes.

The distant outfield fence doubles its height in dead center field.

• Location: Mill Street at Holly Lane, Elizabethton, Tenn.
• Opened: 1974 as Riverside Park (renovated: 1996)
• Additional names: Joe O’Brien Field (1980)
• Home team: Elizabethton Twins, Appalachian League (1974-present)
• Capacity: 1,500

Chronological Tour: Stop 242

Rating: 2 baseballs

The ballpark is surrounded by a wooden fence, much like parks of old. In center field (414 feet away), the height of the wall doubles to 16 feet for a stretch – not that many Appalachian League players will put one out to straightaway center.

In 1996, significant upgrades were made to the ballpark, including new locker rooms and a new reserved seat section behind the plate – the only comfortable seating in the ballpark. Everything else is aluminum bleachers or, in a few spots in the main grandstand along first base, bare concrete. The dual press boxes flank the reserved section on the first and third base sides.

On the scoreboard (an Electro-Mech model appearing to date to 1974), the visiting team error total no longer works, so they keep the home team error total on zero. (Each team made four errors in the game I saw, in July 2003.) In addition, the number of the player at bat is frozen.