Athletic Park 324 East Wausau Avenue Wausau, 54403
Originally constructed in 1936, Athletic Park in Wausau, Wisconsin has been housing aggressive baseball for over eighty years. Minor league groups inclusive of the Wausau Lumberjacks, Timberjacks, Mets, and the Timbers referred to as Athletic Park domestic from 1936 to 1990. After the 1990 season, the minor league associate moved to Geneva, IL, and, in 1994, the Wisconsin Woodchucks have been fashioned as a constitution member of the summer time season collegiate Northwoods League. Twenty-seven years later, the park has been renovated phase with the aid of using phase and is one of the jewels of the league.
One of the thrill of running withinside the baseball global is being pleasantly amazed via way of means of ballpark adjustments going on over lengthy intervals of time—some thing made clean with a go to Sunday to Athletic Park, domestic of the Wisconsin Woodchucks (summer time season collegiate; Northwoods League). This became our 1/3 go to to Athletic Park: the primary got here in 2002 with plenty of the unique grandstand nonetheless in place, the second one got here after renovations spearheaded via way of means of the town and the previous Northwoods League ownership (the Woodchucks are a constitution member of the Northwoods League, courting again to 1994), and the 1/3 Sunday. Each new release found out large adjustments to the venerable antique ballpark—adjustments that still pondered then-cutting-edge working techniques in Minor League Baseball and summer time season-collegiate baseball. In a way, Athletic Park has continually been in a consistent country of redevelopment. The cutting-edge ballpark owes plenty to a WPA-funded upkeep in 1936, which furnished a old fashioned antique grandstand that became rebuilt, and some years later the signature stone wall surrounding the ballpark. You can get a sense for that 1936 grandstand on the price price tag stand on Wausau Avenue, and the stone wall is a consistent presence as you navigate the ballpark. Before that there has been a small wood grandstand on the cutting-edge grandstand site, as baseball has been performed on the cutting-edge Athletic Park vicinity due to the fact earlier than the flip of the century. Go Here, The ballpark configuration has the primary-final analysis jogging north-south and the 1/3-final analysis jogging east-west, presenting for a few perspectives at once into the solar from the primary-base bleachers at sunset. It’s now no longer an unusual hassle in older ballparks predating middle of the night lighting, like Pittsfield’s Wahconah Park. If you had visited Athletic Park earlier than the cutting-edge renovations, you possibly had been surprised via way of means of how land-locked the ballpark became, with business improvement beyond left subject and houses surrounding the rest, Athletic Park had a good fit. But Macdonald had a innovative solution: North Fifth Street, placed to the east of the ballpark, became closed off, and houses throughout the road from the ballpark had been bought and torn down, yielding plenty-wished area for a celebration tent, extra concessions and a big kids’ play region. Stop at the 400 Block. There possibly could be greater adjustments to Athletic Park in coming years, in step with Macdonald: the older right-subject bleachers ought to get replaced with a brand new seating segment just like the one down the left-subject line, whole with raised bleachers and greater 4-tops towards the action. Other improvement among the ballpark and the river (most effective 3 or 4 blocks to the west) ought to convey a few sorely wished parking and different points of interest to the region as well.