Baseball Dates: Dickey Stephens Park

The scene: August 2012. The place: Little Rock, Arkansas. The cast: Mandi and Dan, both complete foreigners, but in town to catch some baseball, see the sights, and check out one of our favorite minor-league teams of all time - the Corpus Christi Hooks play the Arkansas Travelers!

We naturally were rooting for the Hooks

The Arkansas Travelers play at a wonderful brick facility in North Little Rock (a distance that can be walked from downtown Little Rock) From Wikipedia (and supported by photographic evidence from within the park): "the ballpark is named after four local Arkansas brothers: Baseball Hall of Famer Bill Dickey, former Major League Baseball catcher George Dickey, and businessmen Jackson T. Stephens and W.R. Stephens." As a Yankees fan, it was interesting to see a Yankees (and Red Sox...) uniform in Arkansas:


HOF Yankee Catcher Bill Dickey on the left

The playing field was spectacularly kept for a late-season minor league franchise and the sight lines from all seats were good and unobstructed by anything in the stadium; however, the left field/ 3rd base sides were severely in the line of sight of the sun for an early evening game. The entire ballpark can be walked around, and includes a vast open outfield with direct look ins to the bullpens and an overhang that goes from about 1st to third base seats that includes the majority of food vendors below and suites above. In the middle of it is a large clock whose luminescence is lost in my photos and was truly a beautiful and classy sight as the night got darker. The overall feel of the park was modern, new and clean, but harkened back to the fields of yesteryear with its classic brick buildings and the clock above the press box and suites.

Mandi on the 3rd Base Side with downtown Little Rock in the background enjoying her ballpark favorite - a hotdog with mustard and ketchup.

The food was your average ball park fare with decent hot dogs and cheap soda late in the game as I recall. Really nothing remarkable but nothing to complain about either.

As far as Little Rock goes, it should be noted the Travelers play in North Little Rock literally just across the river from Little Rock, which seems to be an area that is on the up and up, recovering from years of neglect.We chose not to drive and I didn't see much public transport there (the ballpark was within sight of the hotel we stayed at) so we decided to walk, which was pleasant and easy enough... until it rained cats and dogs.

Dickey Stephens Park is a short walk from downtown Little Rock

...but don't get caught in the rain.

Little Rock itself is a small, southern city. They've got some good bar-b-que at the Whole Hog Cafe and the Clinton Presidential Library (which, regardless of your political leaning, was a neat time capsule of the 1990s in America) and if you're driving from the north, I expect you'll see some rural parts of Arkansas that I never realized how beautiful they were - they reminded me of the Hudson Valley of New York with rolling hills and small mountains full of foliage. A few shots from the Clinton Presidential Library are below, including a secret service limo and a mock up of the Oval Office. I also threw in a shot from the Old Statehouse in Little Rock, which is now a museum that details much of Arkansas' history. Little Rock is a very enjoyable city with a surprisingly modern feel with a good deal of history as well, much like Dickey Stephens park.