Riverview Stadium
Clinton, IA
Team: Clinton Lumberkings
Affiliation: Texas Rangers
Capacity: 2,500
Completed: 1937
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Clinton's Riverview Stadium is old.  It's mostly bench seating, with only three rows of regular seats, which, for that matter, are wooden.  On top of that, it's small, holding only 2,500 fans.  In other words, it's nearly perfect.  About as close to a time warp as you can get, this place is what baseball must have been like in the 1930's.  And that's what I love about it.  The place has charm and atmosphere like very few other parks I've been to.  

Riverview Stadium was built in 1937 as part of the WPA project, and with the exception of a few years during World War II, the park has hosted professional baseball in Clinton ever since.  Some of the more interesting features include a stucco exterior, (complete with old-time posters and ads), a roof covering the entire seating area, and a location along the Mississippi River (you can't really see the river from the seats, but you can occasionally see some of the boats).  There is a picnic area and a playground for the kids down the left field line, both of which are completely covered in netting, eliminating the possibility of accidentally getting hit by a ball.  The concessions and souvenirs are reasonably priced, as are the tickets.  

There aren't many drawbacks to this place, but one of them would probably be the excessive netting.  Not only does it cover the picnic and playground areas, but it also covers a significant part of the grandstand, going most of the way down each baseline.  The biggest problem, however, is similar to the one they have in Quad Cities: people just aren't coming out at a rate high enough to keep this place open for much longer, and that's a shame.  The average attendance in 2000 was just over 1,000, among the lowest in the league.  The night I was there (which was, to be fair, a hot one), I estimated no more than two or three hundred, which may actually have been generous.  I guess sometimes you just don't realize what you have until it's gone.  

Clinton's financial woes were actually chronicled in an ESPN "Outside the Lines" episode entitled "Minor Leagues, Major Changes" (you can read the transcript or even view an online version by clicking here).  

The walls along the concessions area are decked with old fashioned posters

The green wooden seats, all three rows of them, are taken straight from the 1930's

I just love these old fashioned radio-tower lights