Sam Lynn Ballpark
Bakersfield, CA
Review by Mike
Sam Lynn Ballpark is the home of the Bakersfield Train Robbers of the Pecos League. It is the former home of Class-A California League teams for 75 years, starting with its opening in 1941. I was not able to gain entry to the stadium when I passed through Bakersfield in 2014, so these photos were taken through the fence.
For a ballpark approaching its 80th birthday, there is nothing obviously classic or nostalgic about it. A basic block grandstand behind home plate and a pair of erector set bleachers down the right field line and that’s it. No suites, no roof, few concessions and weeds growing rampant just beyond the sagging chain link fences.
These photos were taken just one week before the start of the 2024 Pecos League season and I have a hard time imaging the place being ready to host professional baseball. The field was in sorry shape, the grass ragged around the line of the infield, overgrown in the bullpens and graffiti adorned the ticket office.
One notable quirk is that this is one of only two professional (or formerly professional) ballparks in the country that faces west, aka, the wrong way, causing occasional sun delays as the sun sets in the batter’s eyes. The other is Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which is the only circumstance by which this sorry place should be mentioned in the same context as that classic gem.
I had heard that Sam Lynn Ballpark has the reputation of being one of the worst minor league ballparks in the country and I saw nothing here to dispel that notion. How affiliated ball lasted here for 75 years is a mystery. Having not gone inside, I cannot give it a rating, but I imagine it would have reflected my underwhelmed impression.
