From Minor League Baseball to Major Props: Part 2

I’m not one to talk trash or complain, but I also like to think I’m not a bore either. Some of the office/press box chatter among broadcasters, writers and other media members inevitably comes down to food and other free services. Like anyone else, good food makes people happy. On the other hand though, if you give the wrong guy (or gal) a cold hot dog or don’t get them their game notes on time, it can put some people in a bad mood.

I’ve been lucky enough to have very grateful inhabitants of the press box at Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field this season, so when something goes wrong (as it inevitably does in minor league baseball), they won’t wait for my head on a silver plate. Who would ever want to be [press box] king? (Kudos to Coldplay‘s Viva La Vida for being a Nick Gagalis Blog Entry Visionary with those lyrics.)

Never an honest word, but that was when I ruled the world.

The real reason I decided to write this post is because of some good things I’ve encountered here in Ramapo, New York. I gave the Newark Bears some serious credit for their treatment of interns during a rain-filled tarp pull, and I thought the Boulders deserved some dap for the conditions of their hotel and stadium.

The Rockland Boulders are a brand new franchise in the CanAm League, and their stadium, Provident Bank Park, is even brand-newer. (I guess you could say that music brings out the creativity in me, for better or for worse.)

The ballpark isn’t the only focus of this entry. In fact, it wasn’t even the first subject I wanted to cover. Long before we reached the park yesterday, we pulled up to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Suffern, which is the palace the Boulders house their guests in.

The rooms here are great (and contemporary style, for those of you who care about interior design). The lobby has a fish pool and a decorative waterfall too, and there’s a pretty nice (and somehow affordable) restaurant there as well. It may not have a swimming pool, but this place has everything else.

Provident Bank Park is equally nice, with pretty much every amenity you can imagine. You’d never know the stadium was built in only nine months. It actually has a similar construction story to the park I visited oh-so much last year, the Hudson Valley Renegades‘ Dutchess Stadium. In both cases, a town fairly close to New York City decided to field a team and build a stadium very close to the season’s start. The Renegades had a smaller window to fit everything in and built their home in two months (back in 1994). The last few seats were literally being drilled in early on Opening Day.

Here in Rockland County, the Boulders had much longer to build their stadium, but they also had much grander plans for it, making the time crunch just as bad. You would never know it opened mid-season if you didn’t see the Boulders’ schedule.

I’ll post plenty of photos of it on Twister’s Blog on the Worcester Fitness Website later today. As usual, I’ll have a “View from the Booth” video to post on the Worcester Tornadoes’ YouTube Channel also.