5. Quigley Stadium — West Haven, Conn.
Quigley Stadium, an old minor league ballpark, has light standards that are in play, potentially causing havoc on balls that hit them.
Photo courtesy of Ballparkreviews.com
There's grass on the field of play. There's dirt, there's bases and there's some chalk too. Oh, and there are some light standards as well.
This former minor league ballpark, home of the defending state champion
Notre Dame (West Haven, Conn.) baseball team, has the bases of most of its light towers within the field of play. Umpires, players and coaches alike have to study up on the ground rules for when a ball hits the standards.
"There's a ground rule that if it hits the light standard at a certain point it's this and if it's above it's a home run. The ground rules take a minute," athletic director Tom Marcucci said. "If it's below the fence line and hits the light standard and comes back in, they play it like a wall."
There is padding around the bottoms of the light standards, but it's still going to hurt if a player slams into one. And if a ball hits low enough on the light standard, it's a guessing game as to where the ball might ricochet to.
"It's a unique and strange place," Marcucci said. "Because it was used for football for so many years you had the combination of different lines on the field, in terms of sidelines for football getting confused with foul lines. It's not a home field advantage at all, though."
From 1973-81 the field hosted an Eastern League team and up until recently, was also used for high school football. Now, it's just for amateur baseball.
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