Pioneer Park

The handsome exterior of Pioneer Park at Tusculum College, Aug-2006.

The seating bowl, as seen from the left-field berm.

What fans sitting behind the plate get to see.

Chronological Tour: Stop 314

• Location: Tusculum College, Shiloh Road, Tusculum, Tenn. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 2004
• Home team: Greeneville Astros (2004-17), Reds (2018-19), Flyboys (2021-present), Appalachian League; Tusculum College Pioneers, South Atlantic Conference
• Capacity: 2,400

Pioneer Park opened in 2004 to host the relocated Martinsville Astros of the Appalachian League. The city of Tusculum is next to Greeneville, which is the Greene County seat, the second oldest city in Tennessee, and the birthplace of President Andrew Johnson.

Entry is through an attractive portal down the left-field line. Fans take three steps down from there to the main concourse, which wraps the seating bowl but not the entire field, although there is a small grass berm down the left-field line. The predominant theme is brick, with the exterior, the concession buildings, the press and luxury boxes, and even the backstop faced with attractive brickwork. Tusculum College has undergone a major upgrade in athletic facilities and has added a football team, playing at adjacent Pioneer Stadium. The ballpark blends in with these other facilities.

I was surprised on my initial visit to not find a whiteboard for the lineups. I asked a staff member about it, and I was told that they had lineup boards in 2004, but that no staffer picked up the job in 2005 and so the boards were removed. The board was back for 2006. As it turns out, writing the lineups down for that 2005 game would have been an exercise in futility, as it started raining half an hour before game time and the game was eventually called. I returned late in the 2006 season and got a game in despite a pre-game squall.

The Astros organization pulled out of the Appalachian League for 2018; the Cincinnati Reds jumped in, giving a seeming color contrast in the Greeneville Reds for two seasons.

With the Appalachian League transforming from a rookie professional league to an MLB-sponsored college summer league for 2021, the club here will sport a name other than that of a major league affiliate for the first time. Greeneville’s team is now known as the Flyboys. Pioneer Park is built on the site of a former air field, and the Flyboys embrace that heritage.