Know Your Opponents’ Turf: Coca-Cola Park, Home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs
[caption id=”attachment_3216" align=”alignnone” width=”500" caption=”Entrance of Coca-Cola Park (Courtesy: theballparkguide.com)”]
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Capacity: 10,100
Opened: March 30, 2008 (The Phillies beat the IronPigs 5–3 in an exhibition game)
First Home Win: 3–1 vs. Richmond April 14, 2008
The Bats are in the midst of a four-game set in Allentown, PA this week as they take on the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. Allentown became home for the franchise for the 2008 season, as did Coca-Cola Park (not to be confused with Buffalo’s Coca-Cola Field). The stadium opened its doors for the ’08 season and still sports that “new-park smell.” Modeled after Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, groundbreaking for Coca-Cola Park took place in September 2006.
The ballpark is the smallest in the International League with 8,200 seats. With the berm beyond the left-center field wall, the park holds just over 10,000 people. A scoreboard with a 20’ by 50’ hi-def video board provides the berm’s backdrop and the trademark Coca-Cola bottle atop the board gives the park perhaps its most distinguishing feature. Fireworks fly from the oversized bottle with every IronPig run that crosses the plate.
[caption id=”attachment_3218" align=”alignnone” width=”300" caption=”View from the “Tiki Terrace” (Courtesy: theballparkguide.com)”]
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Other features include a Tiki Terrace in left field where fans can enjoy food and drinks and where right-handed sluggers (like the Bats’ Mike Hessman) can deposit long balls. Out in right field, there’s the Bud Light Trough where fans can gather and watch the game. Another feature, located on the concourse, is a wall of Lehigh Valley alumni that have gone on to become Major Leaguers, a space reserved for “Pigs to the Bigs.” Fans have flocked to Coca-Cola Park since its 2008 opening and the Pigs have boasted the highest attendance in the minor leagues the last three seasons with 688,821 turning out in 2012.
[caption id=”attachment_3219" align=”alignnone” width=”300" caption=””Pigs to the Bigs” (Courtesy: theballparkguide.com)”]
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The field’s dimensions closely match those of the Phillies’ home field with a distance of 334 feet to left, 400 feet to center and 325 to right. After a loss to open this year’s trip there, Louisville is 11–10 all-time at Coca-Cola Park. In all, the IronPigs are 190–184 all-time at Coca-Cola Field.
[caption id=”attachment_3220" align=”alignnone” width=”300" caption=”The view from right field. (Courtesy: theballparkguide.com)”]
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For the record, Louisville allowed the IronPigs’ first ever grand slam at Coca-Cola Park as Lehigh Valley’s Andy Tracy launched one off Louisville’s Ben Jukich in the fifth inning of a game August 13, 2009. Also, the last time a Bats’ pitcher hit a home run was at Coca-Cola Park as Daryl Thompson hit one in Louisville’s 87, 13-inning loss June 11, 2011.
