Aces High

Home plate entrance to Aces Ballpark, Aug-2009.

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

A view from behind the plate.

• Location: Evans Avenue & 2 Street, Reno, Nev.
• Opened: 2009
• Home team: Reno Aces, Pacific Coast League (2009-present)
• Capacity: 9,354

Chronological Tour: Stop 348

Rating: 3 baseballs

On the 1980s game show “Card Sharks”, announcer Gene Wood delivered a bit of doggerel similar to that, but slightly different each day, over a clapping sequence. It’s only fitting that at the new Reno Aces Ballpark, the “Card Sharks” clapping sequence is used to get the crowd going, rather than the more familiar claps from the Routers’ “Let’s Go” or John Fogerty’s “Centerfield”.

Reno bills itself as being “The Biggest Little City in the World”, a motto that is played on both at Moana Stadium, this park’s predecessor, and at the gift shop here. Working on a vacant lot bordered by Evans Avenue, 2 Street / Kuenzli Street, the Truckee River, and the Union Pacific tracks, planners built the biggest little ballpark they could within walking distance of the Virginia Avenue casino strip.

Perhaps the best feature of the park is the right-field berm, where they had a little bit of room with which to work. Beyond the wall, the park features picnic areas, a kids’ play area including a mini-baseball field with a swing set replacing the grandstand, and ten poles with lights that illuminate in patterns whenever the Aces cross the plate with another run. The outfield in left is constrained by the railroad track.

I found the seating bowl serviceable but unspectacular. The broadcast booths are built into the seating bowl just to the first-base side of home plate, a position that has not been utilized in most recent ballparks. I also found ticket and concession prices to be fairly high in comparison to many other Triple-A parks. Finally, because the park is east of Virginia Avenue, the main view here is not of downtown Reno; it is even difficult to see the foothills in the distance.

It’s hardly The Biggest Little Ripoff in the World, but Aces Ballpark didn’t excite me. I found parks like Fresno, Salt Lake, and Sacramento much more to my liking.