THE BALLPARK

A98351

Tough, tough, tough postcard to find!!!!

Maine Guides/Phillies (IL) (1984-1988)

The Ball Park is a baseball stadium located in and owned by the Town of Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The stadium has a seating capacity of 6,000 and was a former Triple-A baseball facility that was almost destroyed by years of neglect and despair until a community organized volunteer effort revived the stadium.

The Ball Park was opened in 1984. It was built primarily for baseball and was the home field of the Triple-A International League's Maine Guides from 1984-88. The Guides were the top minor league affiliate for Cleveland from 1984-1986 and the Philadelphia Phillies from 1987-1988. The owners of the team believed that due to the large amount of vacation traffic that the town enjoys in the summer months that numerous vacationers would attend games. However, after only five years in existence the Maine franchise relocated to Moosic, Pennsylvania following the 1988 season. Although attendance was not a major problem during the franchise's existence. The park was hampered by three main driving forces: First, in the summer the stadium was home to a large population of Maine Black Flies that pestered fans. Second, there was only one road leading to and from the stadium, thus creating a traffic nightmare. Finally, soon after the stadium was built, current stadiums expanded and new ones were built to make it normal for most Triple-A stadiums to hold well over 10,000 people, far above the 6,000 that the newly constructed Ball Park held.

Around April 2008, a local volunteer organization known as The Ballpark Group took on the task of cleaning up the 53 acre property and renovating the facility to a condition suitable for hosting games and special events. The volunteers removed the debris from the skybox fire, cleared vegetative overgrowth, rebuilt the dugouts and outfield wall, leveled off the playing field and planted new sod. Much of the skilled work was completed with the volunteer help of local plumbers, contractors, carpenters and electricians and most of the funding has come from private donations.

In October, 2009 the website ballparkdigest.com officially removed The Ball Park in Old Orchard Beach from its "Endangered Ballparks List." On October 31, 2009 the stadium took a major step in resuming active baseball play. Two teams, made up of local high school players from all over Southern Maine played the first game at the stadium in nearly 20 years. The stadium group hopes to have several games played there starting in 2010 and The United States Collegiate Athletic Association Baseball National Tournament has already been booked to be played in May.

Unused 4" x 6" continental size chrome postcard.

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