Back in the late 1990s, I had an opportunity to play amateur baseball in the HRNABA, the Hampton Roads National or North, well it was a men’s baseball league. I was mostly injured during my 2 year baseball stint at Springfield College, so I didn’t really have much of a college baseball experience. Oh, I wasn’t on scholarship either, so it was either study and graduate or hit the job force at 19. I stayed on, got my degree, and have used it just about every day since graduating in 1994. When I moved to Virginia after college, I learned about this competitive baseball league, tried out, made a team, and played for 3 seasons. It was, in my mind, a college baseball/minor league feel at every game. And I loved every inning of it.
Some 25 years later, I have relocated back to the Virginia Beach area and am loving the trips down memory lane and Virginia Beach Blvd. I have found some old places of work, like Conte’s Bicycle Shop on Laskin Rd. And located others that have either been demolished (Boathouse) or renovated (Downtown Athletic Club). Of course, the Boardwalk is still the Boardwalk with all of its hotels, bars, and the incredible beaches. It has been amazing to walk around, drive around, and see the progress Hampton Roads has made since I departed back in 1998.
Over the summer, I found a familiar baseball field where I played many a game in the HRNABA – Lakewood Park. So, I got to thinking ‘where else did I play and does it still exist’ and that set off a search of baseball fields and teams and leagues here in Hampton Roads. I was hoping to jog my memory with a field name or field location and am fairly confident I stumbled upon something. In a search for “summer collegiate baseball leagues Hampton Roads,” I came upon the Peninsula Pilots of the Coastal Plain League. The Pilots and the CPL mirror summer collegiate leagues nationwide – they provide college baseball players with a competitive wooden bat league to spend their summers near to or far away from home, while sharpening their baseball skills against top competition. The Peninsula Pilots play their home games at War Memorial Stadium, Hampton.
This Hampton stadium struck a chord with me. I remember playing in a championship game, the year my team won the league title. I remember playing in a large stadium with bleachers that wrapped around home plate and past each dugout. I remember playing left field in a larger than life field. Our team played a lot at Lakewood and other area high school fields. Now, this championship game was definitely played at a stadium that looked like a Single A Minor League ballpark. Was this one of my fields of my baseball youth? One way to find out – drive over the bridge and check it out in person.
And that is exactly what I did yesterday. Fully expecting the stadium to be locked up, I took the drive from Virginia Beach, over/under/through the HRBT, and into Hampton, VA. A short drive past the Hampton Coliseum and onto Kentucky Ave in just under 30 minutes. Rachel and I parked in the vacant spectator lot, which was open, and began to walk around the closed park.
At first I had doubts, it wasn’t ringing any bells up north. We walked past the Peninsula Pilots schedule, their office on site, the locked front gates, and into the back parking lot adjacent to right field. There was a grassy walkway behind the right field fence for me to view the entire field, home plate seating, and then it hit me. This was the field. That is where I stood, right there in right field. That was my view. The stadium has undergone some renovations over the years, but that view was what sealed it for me. I took a moment to dig deep into the baseball memory bank and peer into my baseball past, the last competitive baseball I was to play at roughly age 27.
It started to rain and so my baseball memory lane experience was coming to an end. A successful trip nonetheless, as I believe I have found another baseball field of my youth, War Memorial Stadium, Hampton, VA. Now, when the Peninsula Pilots season opens up, I will 1000% confirm it by attending a game, maybe take a walk out onto the field, to the batter’s bat, sit in the dugout, head out to right field, and immerse myself in my baseball past. War Memorial Stadium looks incredible and has all the great old-time baseball park nostalgia amenities that I love to experience. I can’t wait for Coastal Plain League baseball this summer and the home team, Peninsula Pilots!
The Rhiter 