When the lockout was going on, I decided I was still going to go to as many baseball games as I could. The minors were still going to be starting on schedule and college baseball started in February. Long Island has two Division I schools (I’m defining Long Island as Nassau and Suffolk). Even though the lockout ended and Major League Baseball is back, I still wanted to get to games at Hofstra and Stony Brook. I have traditionally done an Easter vacation baseball trip. I thought about doing a minor league game in upstate New York or Pennsylvania this week if the weather was good. I was checking the forecast and it isn’t very good so I’m not going anywhere. But the weather last week so it was a good time to get to games at Hofstra and Stony Brook.
My first game was at Hofstra. I went on Tuesday after work. I think this was my first Hofstra sporting event ever (maybe I’ve seen Hofstra play basketball somewhere before, but I don’t think so). The game started at 3:00 so I didn’t get there until the third inning. Hofstra was leading St. John’s when I got to University Field. St. John’s scored runs in the fourth and fifth to tie it. They added three in the seventh and one in the eighth. Hofstra hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth, but that was all they could score and St. John’s won 6-4. Apparently Hofstra is now 11-64 all time against St. John’s. I have a former student who is a freshman at Hofstra. She met me at the game when she got out of class around 4:30. It was good catching up with her.
I ended up sitting behind the guys who had the radar guns for each team. I was paying attention to them until my former student got to the game. Neither team had a pitcher last more than three and a third. There was one pitcher who was throwing in the low 90s. It seemed like everybody else was topping out in the low-mid 80s. The weather was fantastic with a high of 72°. I really could have gone for a hot dog and a beer, but there was no concession stand. I said how Frank Eck Field at Notre Dame felt closer to a minor league stadium than a high school field. University Field at Hofstra felt closer to a high school field.
I would prefer maybe 10 degrees warmer, but it was really good baseball weather.
On Friday I went to Stony Brook for their game against Binghamton. Although I spent a year as a Stony Brook student, the only Stony Brook sporting event I’ve ever been to was the biggest win in the history of their basketball program many years after I was a student there. Like the Hofstra game, I got to this one in the third inning also. The game was moving along really quickly until the sixth or seventh inning and I had to park really far away because most of the lots required a permit to park until 4:00 on weekdays. So I had to park by the basketball arena and pay for an hour of parking ($2.50) and then I walked back to my car and moved it to a lot much closer to the field. Anyway, it was a pretty well-pitched game for the first six innings. Stony Brook’s starter lasted six and a third and Binghamton’s starter went seven. I saw Stony Brook take a 1-0 lead on a home run in the fourth. The guy crushed a ball to left field, but it was foul. Then he hit a high fly ball to left that was fair and it just kept carrying over the fence. That was the first hit for either team. Stony Brook scored another run in the fifth when I was moving my car. Binghamton didn’t have a hit until the sixth inning. They tied it with a home run in the seventh. Stony Brook took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh and then Binghamton tied it in the top of the eighth. Stony Brook hit a home run in the bottom of the eighth to make it 5-3 and then they held on in the ninth for a 5-3 win. The win improved Stony Brook to 55-36 all time against Binghamton (and then they ended up losing the next two games of the series). I have another former student who is a freshman at Stony Brook. She’s the best friend of the one at Hofstra, but she was working during the game on Friday so I didn’t see her.
At Stony Brook, there was a tiny press box. I’m guessing it was mainly used to run the scoreboard because both teams had broadcast teams that sat at the top of the stands (for an internet broadcast). I sat in front of Binghamton’s broadcast team until I moved my car. When I came back, I sat in front of Stony Brook’s broadcast team. It was kind of cool to hear the broadcasters and get more information that I would normally have at a game like that. For example, I learned that Binghamton outfielder Christian Perez is the son of former New York Met Timo Perez. The weather was pretty good, but not as good as when I went to Hofstra. The high was 67°, but it was getting a little cold by the end of the game with the wind. Joe Nathan Field (named after Joe Nathan and his 377 career Major League saves) felt even more like a high school field than Hofstra’s University Field did. There was no concession stand, but it was Good Friday and I was fasting anyway.
It looks really good, but the weather wasn’t as good as it was three days earlier at the Hofstra game.
I would say that I liked University Field a little better than Joe Nathan Field. It was free to attend games at both, but I had to pay for an hour of parking at Stony Brook (I probably would have been okay parking in one of the student lots, but I didn’t want to take any chances). University Field had a turf infield and grass outfield. Joe Nathan Field was all turf. Grass is good, but having a turf infield and a grass outfield is weird (Mulcahy Field in Anchorage was like that also). University Field had seats, but Joe Nathan Field just had metal bleachers. Joe Nathan Field definitely had the better scoreboard. At Stony Brook, it was more like a professional game in that they had to fill the time in between batters and innings with music and they had the PC Richard’s whistle when Stony Brook struck somebody out. Also, one of the speakers was right behind where I was sitting when I first got there and it was too loud. Hofstra let the game breathe a little more. Joe Nathan Field was symmetrical, but University Field had a more interesting outfield. Of course, when you’re sitting that close to the field, you can’t really appreciate the shape of the outfield (that’s why my ideal seat at a baseball game is a little higher, but you can’t sit all that high at these college fields). University Field did not really have a batter’s eye. The fence had kind of a translucent blue covering over it and you could see cars driving through that covering from left field to center field (there were trees behind the fence in right field).
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| I like the shape of the outfield. I don’t like the turf infield. |
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| It’s all turf and symmetrical. |
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| It looks better than Stony Brook’s field, but it’s also all turf and symmetrical. I didn’t post this picture in my Notre Dame post, but I think I’ll keep doing it for college and minor league games. |
I have been to many college basketball games and college football games. I’ve been to a handful of college hockey games. I have been to very few college baseball games. But this wasn’t a bad way to spend a couple of afternoons when the weather is good. I probably won’t go to any other college games this year, but it’s definitely something I’d be willing to do again in the future. It would be interesting to go to a college baseball game at a place where they get big crowds. Most college stadiums hold less than 5,000 (some are significantly less than that) but some hold more than that and probably draw pretty big crowds (especially SEC schools). I’ll end with my college baseball stadium rankings:
3. University Field
4. Joe Nathan Field
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