Dow Diamond

Home-plate entrance to Dow Diamond, Aug-2007.

The seating bowl, as seen from the right-field foul pole.

The view from behind home plate, looking toward the scoreboard.

• Location: State Street at Business US-10 (M-20), Midland, Mich.
• Opened: 2007
• Home team: Great Lakes Loons, Midwest League (2007-present)
• Capacity: 5,200

Rating: 4 baseballs

The park contains many features familiar to folks who see many of the newer parks, including a suitably wide concourse with concession areas, a walk-around concourse including berm seating in the outfield, a picnic pavilion, and a good-sized team store.

In addition, the park includes two fire pits for those cold spring evenings. They weren’t necessary on the day I arrived, for a Monday afternoon game in early August, but it's nice to know they are available. Another touch, for the true baseball fan, is the presence of game information such as the current batter and the line score on display boards around the seating bowl, so that folks in the outfield can keep up to date with the game. The only thing missing from those displays is a board dedicated to the ball-strike-out count, but that’s a minor quibble.

I give the park management and staff credit for being extremely friendly – but then again, that’s a common trait among Michiganders, especially in the middle of the state.