Kindrick Legion Field

Home plate entrance to Kindrick Legion Field, Aug-2006.

The seating bowl, as seen from down the third-base line.

The ballpark experience is only enhanced by the view.

• Location: Memorial Park, Warren Street north of Lyndale Avenue, Helena, Mont.
• Opened: 1932 (current stadium built 1949, renovated 1972)
• Home team: Helena Phillies (1978-83), Gold Sox (1984-86), Brewers (1987-2000, 2003-present), Pioneer League
• Capacity: 1,700

Rating: 3 baseballs

Here is another example of a ballpark which was erected for Legion ball yet has also seen use as a professional stadium. The facility is tucked away in a park behind an industrial section of Montana’s state capital.

Local baseball historian Curt Synness advises that the park was built in 1932, seven years earlier than I had originally thought. He also told me of Ace Kindrick, for whom the field is named. Synness describes Kindrick as a “longtime Helena Legion baseball supporter, manager, ticket-taker, bus driver, etc.” – precisely the sort of man who should be honored with a ball field named for him. I have added e-mail from Jeff Kindrick, Ace Kindrick’s son, telling more about the park’s namesake.

I got here for a game in 2006, and I saw a park that has received some recent updates, including orange seating in the main bowl that came from the Oakland Coliseum. A party area has also been added down the first-base line.