Estadio Antonio Escarre
San Jose, CR
Review by Mike
Costa Rica may not have any professional baseball leagues, but they do have baseball. The Asociación Deportiva Beisbol Master runs two amateur leagues during the year, one for age 40+ and another for younger players. The largest baseball stadium in Costa Rica is Estadio Antonio Escarré in San Jose. It seats around 3,800 fans and has also hosted regional international tournaments, most recently in 2013.
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Despite my limited Spanish, I was able to arrange a visit while in San Jose. My guide, Hugo, spoke little English, but we had no trouble communicating through the universal language of baseball. We met on a Wednesday morning and he showed me all around, taking me through the grandstand and up a perilous stair/ladder to the crow’s nest just under the lip of the roof.
The ballpark was built in 1955 and it is set right in the middle of the San Cayetano neighborhood, surrounded by housing and a few “sodas”, or small restaurants. There is absolutely no parking. The design is quite unlike anything I have ever seen. There are two levels and they are directly on top of each other. The upper level is a more traditional grandstand, with 14 rows of formed, individual plastic “bucket” seats that sweep gracefully from dugout to dugout, every seat covered by a large roof with lots of intricate girders for support. The press box is comprised of three octagonal “pods” at the top of the 3rd base seating. Each is small, with only room for one or two people inside. I’ve never seen anything like it.
The lower level is entirely covered by the upper level. This level has five rows of seats, with generous legroom and almost no pitch, so people in the back row would have to try to see around the people in the four rows in front of them. The ceiling is very low and the view of the field is wide, but compressed vertically, so any ball that is hit in the air will immediately vanish from view. It’s like watching the game in Panavision.
There are a couple of small free-standing grandstands down each line, with the same bucket seats, all of which feature drainage holes to prevent water from settling in this tropical climate. The scoreboard in right-centerfield looks like it could use a little maintenance. The dugouts each have nice, shingled rooves on them and they lead back to small clubhouse areas.
During my visit, a group of locals and ex-pat Americans were practicing on the field and they were nice enough to let me play after I’d taken my photos. After Hugo tossed me a glove, I trotted out to left field and chatted with a very nice local fellow wearing a Phillies hat and discovered that this old man’s playing days are in the past. I took a few hacks at the plate, hitting a couple of ground balls to short before calling it a day.
Estadio Antonio Escarré may be a little rough around the edges and in need of some TLC, but it is a unique venue in a country where fútbol is king. Sometimes experiences and human connections can elevate that which is merely good into something that is magical. My visit to Costa Rica’s estadio primero is one of those times. Many thanks to Hugo and the baseball lovers of San Jose for a truly special morning at the ballpark.
2026
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