A Nice Place That Took Some Getting Used To

The entrance to handsome New Britain Stadium, Jun-1996.

The new park is adjacent to, and a big improvement on, the old Beehive Field.

• Location: Willow Brook Park, CT 9 & 372, New Britain, Conn.
• Opened: 1996
• Home team: New Britain Rock Cats, Eastern League
• Capacity: 6,146

Rating: 3 baseballs

The result was New Britain Stadium, a very nice-looking facility tucked in between the old Beehive and the football stadium in Willow Brook Park.

There was only one problem: the fans were not coming out in droves to see games at the new park. One initial factor may have been the affiliation: In 1995, the Boston Red Sox, impatient with Buzas’ decision process, moved their Eastern League affiliation to Trenton, and the Rock Cats were born and became a Minnesota Twins farm club. Hartford-area fans don’t associate too easily with the Twins.

The good news is that under new ownership, fans started coming out to see up-and-coming players like Doug Mientkiewicz, who ironically contributed to the Red Sox’ 2004 World Series title after he was obtained from the Twins.