Fisher Cats Baseball Park

Left-field (the only) entrance to Fisher Cats Baseball Park, Jul-2005.

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

Among the featured items in the ballpark view is the Manchester Civic Arena.

• Location: Commercial and Bedford streets, Manchester, N.H.
• Opened: 2005 as Fisher Cats Baseball Park
• Additional names: MerchantsAuto.com Park (2007)
• Home team: New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Eastern League (2005-present)
• Capacity: 6,000

Rating: 3 baseballs

Gill was an old ballpark, renovated several times but inadequate for the Eastern League. Eventually, land was located on the west side of the railroad tracks from Elm Street (US 3), and the Fisher Cats moved into a new ballpark for 2005. As of my July visit, the park still had no naming sponsor, though that changed either late in the season or in 2006.

The field faces northeast, as most ball fields do, but access is to the north, so the main entrance and ticket windows are down the left-field line. Right field is tight thanks to the railroad tracks; as a result, the concourse does not extend around the entire field here, as it does at many modern yards.

The seating bowl consists of stadium seats mounted on an aluminum frame, which is usually more economical than pouring concrete but also gives the impression that the park may have been built on the cheap.