Rattling the Cage

Exterior of Fox Cities Stadium, Jul-2001.

View from the right-field berm toward the seating bowl.

The park is visible from Route 41, just beyond the dirt mound in right-center field.

Chronological Tour: Stop 205

• Location: Olde Casaloma Drive, north of Wisconsin Avenue (WI 96), Grand Chute, Wis. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1995
• Home team: Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, Midwest League (1995-present)
• Capacity: 5,500

Rating: 3 baseballs

The ballpark actually looks nice, with a burgundy roof and burgundy seats. These are a refreshing change from the typical green that most places seem to employ these days. Burgundy is one of the team colors of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, an overblown name that replaced the perfectly functional “Appleton Foxes” of days gone by.

Otherwise, it’s a typical park for its size and its time, mistakable for Wilmington, Trenton, etc., except for one thing: There are only two luxury boxes here, flanking the press box. They would actually be part of the press box if they had built sky boxes instead of just a roof over the concourse. In fact, I would imagine they put overflow press in there when the NCAA Division 3 College World Series comes in, as it has on occasion.

The other thing that really bothered me about the place was the $3 parking fee, highest in the Midwest League. I complained to a club official about it, as there is really nowhere else to park out there in the middle of nowhere, but to no avail. As of 2015, the fee is $5. There is a pedestrian walkway over Highway 41 that leads to the parking lot of a technical college, but the walk is too long for most fans.