Watch Out for That Hill!

Walking into Howard Johnson Field, Aug-1999.

The park's distinctive seating bowl.

One of the main features of the park is the hill leading up to the right-field wall.

• Location: Legion Street south of Main, Johnson City, Tenn.
• Opened: 1956 as Cardinal Park
• Home team: Johnson City Phillies (1957-60), Cardinals (1961, 1975-present), Yankees (1971-74), Appalachian League; East Tennessee State University Buccaneers, Southern Conference
• Capacity: 2,500

Rating: 3 baseballs

It’s a city park which hosts both East Tennessee State University and the Johnson City Cardinals of the rookie-level Appalachian League. The field is a respectable size, with a right-field berm making balls to the wall very interesting (at least one fielder fell down playing the ball up the berm and off the wall).

The stadium itself is typical Appy, with bench seating under a roof (except for the two rows of box seats up against the field) and a scoreboard that works right some of the time but is in desperate need of bulbs. The entire grandstand is screened by a net; if you want a souvenir, you have to go into the bleachers down the lines.

Parking is free, tickets are cheap, concessions are reasonable, souvenirs are very reasonable. At this lowest level of pro baseball, things feel a lot purer than they do in some of the artificial environments I’m seeing at some of these new palaces.