East Field (Glens Falls, NY)

East Field as pictured in 2021.

 

Over the course of a month and a half in March and April 1980, East Field in Glens Falls, New York, went from an unremarkable city-owned baseball field notable mainly for its swampiness to a showcase for some of the Chicago White Sox’ top prospects.1

It happened this way: The owners of a Double-A Eastern League team, stymied in talks with another city, dangled their team in front of Glens Falls if the city would improve an existing amateur ballpark. Civic leaders had been planning upgrades anyway, so they fast-tracked their plans, hustling bleachers, fences, and outbuildings into place. And just like that, East Field was on the professional baseball map.

East Field, sometimes called East Field Stadium to differentiate it from a surrounding public park with the same name,2 hosted Double-A baseball from 1980 through 1988 and a single season of short-season Class A ball in 1993. Since then, it has settled into a niche shared by many former low-minor-league parks: It’s become a well-used amateur facility with a little something extra in its history.

Before we get to the ballpark, some scene-setting. Glens Falls is a city of about 15,000 residents in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, about an hour’s drive north of the state capital, Albany.3 Winter sports are popular there,4 and the city might be best known in sporting circles for hosting minor-league hockey teams.5 The city is also about an hour and a half’s drive from Lake Placid, site of the 1980 Winter Olympic Games.

Limestone mining was an industry in nineteenth-century Glens Falls – a type of limestone is named for the city6 – and the current site of the East Field park complex was once worked for stone. In 1925 a group of leading citizens called attention to the city’s need for recreational facilities, especially on its east side. A neighborhood association bought multiple parcels of property and turned them over to the city for that use. The original seating at the baseball diamond was provided about a decade later by the federal Works Progress Administration.7 Over the years, the park became the home of baseball teams from St. Mary’s Academy, a local Catholic high school, as well as youth baseball programs, high-school football games, and traveling circuses.8

Almost certainly the oddest event in East Field’s history occurred overnight on August 20 and 21, 1974, when police and media outlets received numerous reports of unidentified, colorful flying objects in the region’s skies. A large crowd of spectators began to gather in Glens Falls. For crowd control purposes, city police guided them to East Field, where hundreds of people watched the unexplained goings-on through telescopes and binoculars.9

Glens Falls emerged as a cradle of pitchers in the late 1970s, when three native sons launched careers that led them to the big leagues. Dave LaPoint, David Palmer, and Randy St. Claire combined for 668 appearances, 156 wins, and 12 saves in the majors. All three were born in Glens Falls and raised in the area,10 and all three played at East Field as boys.11 They were the first Glens Falls natives to reach the majors since Bob Cooney pitched for the 1931 and 1932 St. Louis Browns.12 LaPoint returned to East Field for “Dave LaPoint Night” in 1986, where he discussed the city’s tight-knit nature: “It’s Glens Falls. Everyone knows everyone else. Anyone who knows me knows they can come over to my house anytime. I’m no different than I used to be.”13

As the three prospects left Glens Falls to seek their fortunes, East Field took its own journey to the professional ranks. The story unfolded on the pages of the Glens Falls Post-Star in March and April 1980 – first through rumors, then through public statements and discussions, and finally in a focused bustle of construction activity.

Richard Stanley and Frank Schafer, co-owners of an Eastern League franchise, had come to a standstill in negotiations with the city of Schenectady, near Albany. Stanley and Schafer offered their team to Glens Falls, contingent on the city’s willingness to upgrade East Field. They found the city in an expansive mood. In May 1979, Glens Falls had celebrated the opening of a hockey arena and concert venue on a long-underdeveloped downtown property, with the Detroit Red Wings’ top minor-league affiliate serving as the headline tenant.14

Officials said an initial investment of $25,000 to $35,000 would bring East Field to professional standards in the short term, with additional improvements – like lights and permanent bathrooms – to be made later.15 (The city installed the lights ahead of schedule, inaugurating night baseball in mid-August 1980. Portable potties lingered until 1982.16) An existing fieldhouse could be converted into a clubhouse. An outfield fence would have to be added, along with exterior fencing to limit entrance to paying customers. And, officials hoped, a concurrent sewer project along neighboring Haskell Avenue would improve the field’s drainage.17

Capacity was initially pegged at 3,000, consisting of 1,500 seats’ worth of quickly installed plank-style bleachers down the first- and third-base lines.18 Initial bids to provide the bleachers came in over budget. The city was forced to borrow temporary seating from the Greenjackets, a local semipro football team, and the nearby community of Hudson Falls until new bids could be submitted on the permanent bleachers.19

In subsequent years, seating sections were added behind home plate and behind the outfield fence, along with picnic tables. By 1986 the park’s capacity was listed at 8,000.20 As of fall 2023, East Field’s then-current occupant, the Glens Falls Dragons of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, listed capacity as 7,000.21 A ballpark blogger stopping by around that time commented on the pieced-together appearance of the seating areas, describing East Field as “comprised of an array of grandstands scattered around the perimeter of the playing field … in all shapes and sizes and … various states of disrepair.”22

But, back to 1980. An “all-out push” in the early weeks of April installed fences, permanent dugouts, and other fixtures.23 The press box and concession stand reportedly came from Lake Placid, where the Winter Olympics had ended in late February.24 The scoreboard arrived a few days late after it was shipped to Iowa by mistake.25 One worker who contributed to the last-minute rush was lucky to escape with his life. Linwood Thomas, a line worker with the Niagara Mohawk power company, was working near the top of a power pole at East Field when the top eight feet of the pole snapped off. Thomas fell 30 feet to the pavement, and the pole equipment landed on him; he suffered a fractured pelvis.26

 

Game action at East Field, 2018. Note the proximity of the home across Haskell Avenue, behind the left-field fence.

 

The hastily upgraded East Field debuted as a pro facility on a sunny Saturday, April 19, 1980, when 6,124 fans turned out to see Glens Falls’ team – quickly dubbed the “Glensox” – lose 3-2 to the Waterbury (Connecticut) Reds.27 Mayor Edward Bartholomew, wearing a full White Sox uniform, threw out the first pitch. In addition to the crowd inside the park, the Post-Star reported that “hordes” stood outside East Field’s fences, sat in trees, or stood along nearby Dix and Haskell Avenues.28 It was reportedly the largest sports crowd in Glens Falls history.29

Former big-league pitcher Mike Pazik managed the team, and up-and-coming players included Lorenzo Gray, who led the team with 145 hits; Rod Allen, who hit .355 in 31 games; and outfielder Randy Johnson, who led with 25 homers and 70 RBIs. The team finished last in the four-team North Division with a 63-74 record, but its on-field struggles didn’t bother fans. Even though the team couldn’t play night games until August 12, some 84,472 fans, or 1,233 per game, turned out – a gate increase of more than 21,000 compared with the White Sox’ Double-A team of 1979, which had played in Knoxville, Tennessee.30

While the 1980 season served as a pleasant introduction to the pros, Glens Falls made a bigger splash the following year, when a brawny batch of prospects found East Field’s cozy dimensions entirely to their liking.

East Field was, and is, something of a bandbox. In the early 1980s the deepest part of the park, in right-center field, measured only 381 feet. Other dimensions included 322 feet down the right-field line, about 370 feet to each power alley, a little over 370 to straightaway center, and only 314 feet to left. The left-field fence backed up directly onto Haskell Avenue, a public street lined with homes. In the Glensox’ first season, center field was marked as 400 feet – until a prankish group of players took the “400” sign and hung it on the fences surrounding some tennis courts, about 40 feet beyond the outfield wall.31

Ron Kittle pumped 40 homers for the ’81 Glens Falls team, earning EL Most Valuable Player honors; two seasons later he was the American League’s Rookie of the Year.32 Johnson added 32, while teammates Luis Rois, Greg Walker, Vince Bienek, and Tim Hulett also reached double figures. The full team combined for 179 round-trippers in 135 games, far and away the league’s highest total.33 Glens Falls also led the loop in doubles, RBIs, runs, and slugging percentage. “The name of the game is the home run. People always want to see something that’s powerful,” Kittle mused in July, and he was right: Attendance at East Field climbed to 101,567.34

To its credit, a pitching staff that included future big-leaguers Bob Fallon and Jim Siwy surrendered only 90 homers – fewer than the league average – helping the hard-hitting Sox to an 83-52 record and a runaway first-place finish in the league’s North Division.35 In the EL championship series, the South Division champion Bristol (Connecticut) Red Sox dropped Glens Falls, three games to two, in a series in which “both teams played like possessed madmen,” in the sober judgment of the Post-Star.36

That season proved to be the White Sox’ high-water mark at East Field. The team retained its Chicago affiliation through 1985 but reached the postseason only once more, in 1984, when Glens Falls tied for second place but lost a first-round playoff series to Waterbury. (The Brass City was by then hosting an Angels affiliate.) White Sox farmhands who passed through Glens Falls in the early ’80s included Daryl Boston, John Cangelosi, Ron Karkovice, Doug Drabek, and Ken Williams, who became an outfielder for and then general manager of the parent club in Chicago.

The White Sox shifted their Double-A team to Birmingham, Alabama, for the 1986 season, citing the poor condition of East Field’s playing surface. An independent evaluation of East Field gave good marks to the park’s lighting, seating, and concessions, but added, “The field looks like the National Guard just finished their two weeks of summer camp here.”37

The Detroit Tigers signed on to replace the White Sox, but not without additional drama. Bartholomew’s successor as mayor, Francis O’Keefe, claimed Bartholomew had promised the Tigers up to $300,000 in ballpark improvements that weren’t in the city’s budget, including a replacement for East Field’s dilapidated clubhouse.38 The new clubhouse was never built during the Tigers’ stay, and the parent club reportedly felt misled.39

Despite East Field’s small dimensions, two Tigers hurlers achieved a pitcher’s ultimate accomplishment by throwing no-hitters. Bill Cooper pitched the first professional no-no there in the first game of a doubleheader on August 27, 1986, needing only 65 pitches to dispose of the Nashua (New Hampshire) Pirates in a seven-inning, 4-0 victory.40 And César Mejía threw the ballpark’s only nine-inning professional no-hitter on April 17, 1988, winning 3-0 over the Albany (New York) Yankees.41

Mejía won the league’s Pitcher of the Year award that season, while teammate Rob Richie (.309, 14 HRs, 82 RBIs in 137 games) won the MVP. The 1988 team, under the direction of former big-leaguer John Wockenfuss, went 80-57 to win the EL’s regular-season championship. Other contributors included future major leaguers Chris Hoiles, Torey Lovullo, Doug Strange, Shawn Holman, and Kevin Ritz. (This represented a significant turnaround from 1987, when the team went 58-79 and finished eighth. Players that season included a future Hall of Famer, 20-year-old John Smoltz, who went 4-10 with a 5.68 ERA.)

Although the 1988 team played well, the second half of the season unfolded under a cloud. Citing poor attendance and financial losses in previous seasons, owners Stanley and Schafer announced in late June that the team would move to London, Ontario, the following season. The move had been rumored the previous fall.42 Attendance in 1988 slumped to 57,314, the lowest of any of Glens Falls’ seasons in minor-league ball.43 (East Field’s lack of covered seating was sometimes cited as a drag on attendance, as fans would stay away when the weather looked inclement.44)

The summer of 1988 was also marred by the death of electrician Michael Holmes, a city employee who was electrocuted while working on a football scoreboard at East Field in July.45 The season ended on a down note when the Tigers lost in the first round of the playoffs to Albany, three games to one.46 To cap off the bad news, hopes that Glens Falls might land a franchise in the short-season Class A New York-Penn League were dashed in November when a proposed expansion of the league was rejected.47

The New York-Penn returned a few years later to add a coda to East Field’s pro baseball story. Ben Bernard, a former general manager of the Glens Falls White Sox, had stayed involved with minor-league baseball. He arranged for a pair of regular-season games between the Hamilton (Ontario) Redbirds and Utica (New York) Blue Sox to be played at East Field on July 10 and 11, 1992. The games drew more than 10,000 fans combined.48

With Bernard’s involvement, the Redbirds – a St. Louis Cardinals farm team, as their name would suggest – moved to East Field for the 1993 season. It was a temporary arrangement while the Redbirds built a new home field in New Jersey for 1994. Bernard hoped for a successful season that would serve as a springboard to bring a permanent New York-Penn League team to Glens Falls. Mayor O’Keefe promised improvements to the ballpark, including painting and an upgrade to the concession stand.49

With a 37-40 record, the Redbirds finished third in the league’s four-team McNamara Division. Alan Benes, Jeff Berblinger, and Rich Croushore were the last future big-leaguers to play for an affiliated Glens Falls team. Though the on-field product was not competitive, the Redbirds ranked second in the league in attendance, drawing more than 80,000 fans.50

But Glens Falls was unable to land a permanent team. The city’s baseball backers had expected that stringent major-league specifications for minor-league ballparks, scheduled to take effect in 1994, would cause a flurry of relocations by teams whose cities were unwilling to invest in their old ballparks. When MLB delayed the new rules until 1995, teams that might have moved got another year to plead their cases and find funding for improvements.51 By December 1994, Glens Falls had settled for a team in the independent Northeast League. The city has not hosted affiliated minor-league baseball since the Redbirds left.

The situation inspired a heartbroken lament from Glens Falls sportswriter Ken Tingley in October 1993 that merits quoting at length: “We should have known this would happen. We should have been more careful. We should not have let baseball back into our hearts. … We were told if the people came, so would another team. We were told, if the advertising was there, they would line up at Exit 19.52 We were told if the outfield billboards sold, our Field of Dreams would be safe. … Who do we blame? Who do we lodge a complaint with? What do we do now? We did our part.”53

That said, East Field has not been idle since the Redbirds left. The independent Adirondack Lumberjacks played there from 1995 to 2002, winning championships in the Northeast League and Northern League.54 Former major leaguers Peter Hoy and Hipólito Peña were among the ’Jacks’ players, while local hero LaPoint served as the team’s first manager.55 The team subsequently moved to Bangor, Maine.

Many former New York-Penn League communities have since hosted summer teams for college-age players. Glens Falls joined the ranks in 2004 with the arrival of the Glens Falls Golden Eagles of the New York Collegiate Baseball League.56 The Golden Eagles later moved to the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, changed their name to the Dragons, and were purchased by veteran local baseball campaigner Bernard.57

The Dragons encountered a rough patch in 2021-2022, when they went a combined 13-72. But perhaps more important is that the team survived the COVID-pandemic cancellation of the 2020 season and returned to East Field. (The Dragons improved to 14-26 in 2023.)

As of fall 2023, the Dragons’ website listed dimensions at East Field as 310 feet to left field, 375 to center, and 330 to right.58 The team played the 2023 season without any seating behind home plate. The old section of seats was removed, but – in echoes of 1980 – bids for the new set came in too high. At season’s end, the new seating was in storage and ready to be installed.59

In other activities, East Field hosted a series of “Summer Jam” concerts in the 1990s and 2000s, featuring Beatles and Rolling Stones cover bands, local groups, and fireworks shows.60 The park hosted the US Collegiate Athletic Association Small College World Series in 2016 and 2017, won both years by the College of St. Joseph of Rutland, Vermont.61

In return for its hurried investment in 1980, the city of Glens Falls received a decade of affiliated minor-league play, three decades (and counting) of independent and college-age summer baseball, and a nicer venue for local teams to use. It seemed unlikely as of 2023 that East Field would host minor-league baseball again. Of course, it seemed unlikely in February 1980 that East Field would ever host minor-league baseball … and you’ve just finished reading about what happened next.

 

Seating down the first-base line and behind home plate, 2022. (Glens Falls Dragons players are having a pregame catch with young fans.) As of 2023, the section of seating behind home plate was in the process of being replaced.

 

Acknowledgments

This story was reviewed by Rory Costello and Len Levin and fact-checked by Paul Proia,.

The author thanks longtime Glens Falls baseball backer Ben Bernard of the Glens Falls Dragons for permission to use the photos included with this story. At the time this story was written, the Dragons’ website included a number of photo galleries with various views of East Field and the college-age players who played there between 2018 and 2022.

 

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for background information on players, teams, and seasons. He also consulted newspaper stories not specifically cited here, particularly in the Glens Falls (New York) Post-Star.

 

Notes

1 Swampiness: Jeff Wise, “White Sox Farm Team Here?” Glens Falls (New York) Post-Star, January 11, 1980: A1.

2 As of 2023, the East Field complex included – in addition to the baseball stadium profiled here – four Little League-sized youth baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts, a pond, a playground, and open space. A map of the complex was available at the City of Glens Falls’s website: https://www.cityofglensfalls.com/DocumentCenter/View/2869/East-Field-Map-PDF?bidId=.

3 The 2020 US Census reported that Glens Falls had 14,830 residents. In 1980, when professional baseball arrived, that total was 15,897.

4 The author’s family had good friends who lived in Glens Falls for many years; it was on a boyhood visit to Glens Falls in the early 1980s that the author learned to cross-country ski.

5 Over the decades, Glens Falls has hosted the American Hockey League affiliates of the National Hockey League’s Detroit Red Wings, Calgary Flames, and Philadelphia Flyers, as well as teams at lower levels. HockeyDB.com, accessed October 2023. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/team_data.php?x=127&y=6&tname=&tcity=Glens+Falls&tstate=NY&tleague=&y1=&y2=.

6 “Glens Falls,” National Geologic Map Database, United States Geological Survey website, accessed October 2023. https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Geolex/UnitRefs/GlensFallsRefs_1820.html.

7 Don Cunnion, “The Sports Telescope,” Glens Falls Post-Star, May 8, 1936: 14.

8 Don A. Metivier, “East Field History,” Glens Falls Post-Star, March 29, 1980: 4.

9 Don A. Metivier, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little ? – How We Wonder What You Are,” Glens Falls Post-Star, August 22, 1974: 19. While most sightings of unidentified flying objects can be explained as known phenomena (such as planets, weather balloons, or aircraft), the author was unable to find an official explanation for the Glens Falls 1974 sightings. It’s also not clear from the context of this article whether the crowd gathered at the baseball field specifically, or in other parts of the East Field park complex. But since the ballpark wasn’t enclosed until the White Sox arrived in 1980, there would have been nothing to stop any UFO watcher from wandering onto the field if they chose to.

10 LaPoint and Palmer were teammates at Glens Falls High School. Norm King, “David Palmer,” SABR Biography Project, accessed October 1980.

11 LaPoint and Palmer appear together in at least one news item as 14-year-old teammates: “Little League Results,” Glens Falls Post-Star, June 16, 1972: 18. St. Claire, three years younger, played there as part of an American Legion team: “Hudson Falls Drops 3,” Glens Falls Post-Star, July 10, 1978: 20; “Glens Falls Tops Error-Prone Rivals,” Glens Falls Post-Star, July 14, 1978: 21.

12 As of this writing in fall 2023, no other Glens Falls natives have reached the majors. St. Claire’s career ended the latest of the three – he made his last appearance in May 1994 – which makes him the most recent Glens Falls native to appear in the big leagues.

13 Greg Brownell, “LaPoint Pleased to Be a Padre,” Glens Falls Post-Star, July 17, 1986: C1.

14 Dan Amon, “Eager Public Gets Its First Look at Center,” Glens Falls Post-Star, May 19, 1979: 1.

15 In spring 1980, the city estimated its full cost for all upgrades at $73,000, with additional funding available from other sources. Various stories in the Glens Falls Post-Star, including Jeff Wise and Bill Palmer, “Glens Falls Seeks Pro Baseball Team,” March 5, 1980: 1; Dan Amon, “City Offered Baseball Team if Field Adequate,” March 6, 1980: 1; Dan Amon, “City Officials Eye Baseball Facility,” March 6, 1980: 1; Bill Palmer, “East Field Will Be Ready for Baseball,” March 21, 1980: 18; and Dan Amon, “City Accepts Bid to Fence East Field for White Sox,” April 3, 1980: 1.

16 Bill Palmer, “Glensox Earn Split With Lights from East,” Glens Falls Post-Star, August 13, 1980: 18; Greg Brownell, “Birth of Franchise a Sometimes Shaky Process,” Glens Falls Post-Star, August 28, 1988: D10.

17 Wise and Palmer, “Glens Falls Seeks Pro Baseball Team”; Amon, “City Offered Baseball Team if Field Adequate”; Amon, “City Officials Eye Baseball Facility”; Palmer, “East Field Will Be Ready for Baseball.”

18 Dan Amon, “DPW Hurrying East Field Work,” Glens Falls Post-Star, March 29,1980: 1.

19 “Council Studies Plan for City Bus System; New Data Requested,” Glens Falls Post-Star,April 10, 1980: 1; “Bleachers Loaned for Sox Opener,” Glens Falls Post-Star, April 18, 1980: 10. At the time this story was written in 2023, the Greenjackets were still operating, using East Field as their home stadium. Glens Falls Greenjackets website, accessed October 2023. https://greenjacketsfootball.com/east-field/.

20 “Tigers Battle for Playoff Berth,” Glens Falls Post-Star, July 25, 1986: 11.

21  “East Field,” Glens Falls Dragons website, accessed October 2023. http://gfdragons.pointstreaksites.com/view/gfdragons/east-field-1.

22 Mike Castro, “East Field,” BallparkBrothers.com. Review written following a visit in fall 2021; accessed October 2023. https://www.ballparkbrothers.com/east-field.

23 “East Push Continues” (photo and caption), Glens Falls Post-Star, April 8, 1980: 12; Bill Palmer, “Legalities Out of the Way, Sox Concentrate on Preparing,” Glens Falls Post-Star, April 8, 1980: 13; “Ball Park Boundaries” (photo and caption), Glens Falls Post-Star, April 17, 1980: 1.

24 Lary Bump, “A Few Successes, Embarrassment for Other Cities,” Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle, November 19, 1980: 3D; John Fox, “SUNY Field the Big NY-P Question,” Binghamton (New York) Sunday Press, December 6, 1981: 6E; Greg Brownell, “In the Baseball Beginning,” Glens Falls Post-Star, June 13, 1993: D1.

25 Jeff Wilkin, “Professional Baseball Debuts in City Today,” Glens Falls Post-Star, April 19, 1980: 1.

26 “Lineman Injured in 30-Foot Fall,” Glens Falls Post-Star, April 18, 1980: 12.

27 Bill Palmer, “Sox Drop 2 in Home Debut,” Glens Falls Post-Star, April 21, 1980: 18.

28 East Field’s formal street address is 175 Dix Avenue.

29 Dan Amon, “White Sox Draw Biggest Sports Crowd Ever in City,” Glens Falls Post-Star, April 21, 1980: 1.

30 StatsCrew.com pages on East Field (https://www.statscrew.com/venues/v-976) and Smithson Stadium/Bill Meyer Stadium in Knoxville (https://www.statscrew.com/venues/v-1350), both accessed in October 2023. The 1979 Knoxville Sox drew 62,876 fans, or 892 per game.

31 Greg Luckenbaugh, “Sox Have Love-Hate Relationship with East,” Glens Falls Post-Star, June 10, 1982: 21.

32 Associated Press, “White Sox Add Kittle to Roster,” Glens Falls Post-Star, November 18, 1981: 20.

33 The Buffalo Bisons – whose home field, War Memorial Stadium, measured only about 300 feet down the right-field line – placed second with 148 homers. (StatsCrew.com page on War Memorial Stadium: https://www.statscrew.com/venues/v-375; Clem’s Baseball page on War Memorial Stadium, also accessed October 2023: http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/WarMemorialStadium.html). The Lynn (Massachusetts) Sailors were third in the league with just 86.

34 Greg Luckenbaugh, “Kittle Has a Lot Going for Him,” Glens Falls Post-Star, July 17, 1981: 18; StatsCrew.com page on East Field. The strike that idled the major leagues for about two months of 1981 might also have contributed to fans’ strong interest in the team.

35 The Eastern League’s eight teams hit 772 homers in 1981, which means the average pitching staff surrendered a rounded-up total of 97 dingers.

36 Greg Luckenbaugh, “Bristol Edges Sox for EL Flag,” Glens Falls Post-Star, September 9, 1981: 18.

37 Greg Brownell, “White Sox’ Future in Glens Falls Grows Murky,” Glens Falls Post-Star, August 23, 1985: 23; Gordon Woodworth, “Tigers Coming to GF?” Glens Falls Post-Star, September 14, 1985: 29.

38 Sheila Magee Nason and Kathleen Kathe, “Clubhouse Deal Lured Tigers to City,” Glens Falls Post-Star, February 21, 1986: 1; Greg Brownell, “Tigers Wary of ‘Clubhouse,’” Glens Falls Post-Star, March 29, 1986: C1.

39 Greg Brownell, “Sox, Tigers Had Share of Off-the-Field Troubles,” Glens Falls Post-Star, August 28, 1988: D10; Greg Brownell, “Tigers and Glens Falls: Some Differences of Opinion,” Glens Falls Post-Star, August 23, 1986: A4.

40 Greg Brownell, “Tigers’ Cooper Pitches No-Hitter,” Glens Falls Post-Star, August 28, 1986: C1. The Nashua lineup included future major leaguer Jose Lind. Cooper pitched seven seasons in the minors, topping out at Double A.

41 Greg Brownell, “Mejia Gets No-Hitter!” Glens Falls Post-Star, April 18, 1988: C1. The Albany lineup included future big-leaguers Kevin Maas, Jim Leyritz, Oscar Azocar, and Hensley Meulens.

42 Greg Brownell, “GF Tigers Targeted by London, Ontario?” Glens Falls Post-Star, June 22, 1988: C1; Greg Brownell, “Tigers Moving Franchise to Ontario,” Glens Falls Post-Star, June 29, 1988: A1. Chronic losses in previous seasons: Greg Brownell, “Glens Falls Tigers: What’s the Future?” Glens Falls Post-Star, August 23, 1986: 1.

43 StatsCrew.com page on East Field. Attendance in 1987 had been 79,303. The highest attendance total achieved during East Field’s minor-league years was 103,225 fans in 1984.

44 Greg Brownell, “Glens Falls Tigers: Somewhere in the Middle,” Glens Falls Post-Star, August 2, 1987: E7.

45 John Sullivan, “Council Expresses Sorrow for Accident,” Glens Falls Post-Star, July 20, 1988: B1; John Sullivan, “State Cites GF in Death of Worker,” Glens Falls Post-Star, August 9, 1988: A1.

46 Greg Brownell, “Albany Ends Season for Tigers,” Glens Falls Post-Star, September 6, 1988: C1.

47 Greg Brownell, “NY-Penn Baseball Won’t Be Coming to Town,” Glens Falls Post-Star, November 6, 1988: A1.

48 Matthew Crowley, “3,721 Show Up for New York-Penn Game,” Glens Falls Post-Star, July 11, 1992: C1; Matthew Crowley, “Baseball Bids Farewell – For Now,” Glens Falls Post-Star, July 12, 1992: D1.

49 Greg Brownell, “Team Opens Shop,” Glens Falls Post-Star, October 30, 1992: A1.

50 Michael DeMasi, “Ball Team Finds Home in Glens Falls,” Glens Falls Post-Star, December 30, 1994: A1. StatsCrew.com’s page on East Field, cited previously, gives the Redbirds’ 1993 attendance as a slightly lower 78,925.

51 John Allen, “Prospects Dim for Pro Baseball in Glens Falls,” Glens Falls Post-Star, October 13, 1993: A1. East Field was seen, at least by Glens Falls representatives, as being in better shape than some comparable ballparks and in better position to meet the new standards.

52 Exit 19 is one of the Glens Falls-area exits from Interstate 87 (known in that region as the Adirondack Northway), the north-south highway that runs from New York City to Montreal.

53 Ken Tingley, “Who Do We Blame For This One?” Glens Falls Post-Star, October 14, 1993: C1.

54 StatsCrew.com page on East Field; John Purcell, “‘Jacks’ Win a Dogfight,” Glens Falls Post-Star, September 5, 1995: C1; David Blow, “City to Honor Lumberjacks,” Glens Falls Post-Star, September 21, 2000: B1.

55 LaPoint also made two starts for the Lumberjacks in 1996.

56 Brett Orzechowski, “Collegiate League Baseball Team Names Coach,” Glens Falls Post-Star, October 9, 2003: C1. In 2023 former New York-Penn communities hosting teams in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League included Auburn, Batavia, Elmira, Geneva, Jamestown, Little Falls (Mohawk Valley), Newark, Niagara Falls, Oneonta, Utica, and Watertown.

57 Maury Thompson, “Dragons Intern Moves to Big Leagues,” Glens Falls Post-Star, January 10, 2017: B1.

58 “East Field,” Glens Falls Dragons website, accessed October 2023. http://gfdragons.pointstreaksites.com/view/gfdragons/east-field-1.

59 Greg Brownell, “A Rough Season for Dragons Is Only a Half-Step Forward,” Glens Falls Post-Star, posted July 30, 2023; accessed October 2023. https://poststar.com/sports/a-rough-season-for-dragons-is-only-a-half-step-forward/article_172134c2-2f34-11ee-b8cf-d33552c94418.html.

60 A few representative Summer Jam stories: Gretta Nemcek, “Summer Jam Seen as a Success,” Glens Falls Post-Star, July 6, 2001: B3; Lauren R. Dorgan, “Crowds Brave Heat for City Jam,” Glens Falls Post-Star, July 4, 2002: A1; James Romoser, “Summer Jam Expects Record Crowd,” Glens Falls Post-Star, July 2, 2004: D3; and Doug Gruse, “Rocking the Years Away,” Glens Falls Post-Star, June 28, 2008: D1.

61 Will Springstead, “USCAA W. Series Returns to East Field,” Glens Falls Post-Star, May 14, 2017: D1; “St. Joseph Captures USCAA Title,” Glens Falls Post-Star, May 20, 2017: C1.