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Billy Hebert Field
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Billy Hebert Field is named for a popular American Legion and California League ballplayer who was the first professional ball player to die in World War II, while serving in the South Pacific. A park should honor a local hero not the latest owner or advertiser. For my money, it's the best named ballpark in the country. It's not cool like The Diamond, it's not commercial like Synergy, it's commemorative.
Stockton doesn't plan any more upgrades to this field. Instead they are looking into building a new ballpark. That might be just as well since it really doesn't measure up to the level of innovation and quality of the new wave of minor-league ballpark design. I like the place a lot, but if you're not being unfair to the taxpayer, this facility lags behind the newer ballparks of California League rivals, the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes or High Desert Mavericks.
The Stockton Ports mascot is "Casey." The team is convinced that "Casey at the Bat" was written about a local Stockton team that played on a field on Banner Island nicknamed Mudville. I've seen different accounts that indicate Stockton had its first club in 1888 or possibly as early as the 1870s. This specific franchise has played here continuously since 1949. They've also had recent success on the field. Between 1980 and 1992, they won more games than any other minor league team, hauling in five league championships.
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This
ballpark is set in Oak Park in North Stockton where it is surrounded
by big old trees. There is no trouble finding free parking. In
fact, if the food wasn't so good inside the ballpark, I'd recommend
having a picnic in the park before the game. The weather was
great before the game, and after the sun sets a cool breeze blew
in from the San Joaquin Delta, it was luxuriant.
This
is my favorite of the older California League (single A) parks.
It shows what can be done without constructing a new facility:
Make sure all the seats have backs even those heinous aluminum
benches. Put in a few rows of reserve or box seats. Add port-o-potties
when necessary. And build a deck for sit-down dining of some
darn fine barbecue.
There's
a great deck on the left-field side to watch the ball game as
if you were on a street corner cafe. Specifically, get the tri-tip
steak platter with potato salad, beans, and fresh peppers---and
make sure they slather it with bbq sauce. Order early and get
this dish warmer. They are pre-cooked. Cheeseburgers are a highlight
at the Mudville Cafe, which is located behind the grandstand.
There
were only two significant negatives to my enjoyment of watching
the game. First, I had to listen to incessant and insipid Valley
Girl banter. Yes, it's THAT valley. Second, beware the usher
that insists that you have to sit in your specific reserved seat
in front of the guy with the radar gun---even though there are
plenty of empty seats nearby. Having that gun hanging over your
shoulder can be pretty disconcerting. I moved to the general
admission to avoid both that lady usher and the radar gun distraction.
Stockton is about an hour away from
both Yosemite National Park to the east and all that San Francisco
has to offer to the west. I heartily suggest going toYosemite,
even though they're implementing shuttle buses because of the
ever-increasing automobile traffic there. But what other choice
would I make. I'm a nature kind of guy. Ballparks and National
Parks, you see. You don't have to make the same choice, you could
do both. Besides Oak Park there are also reputed to be fifty
municipal parks maintained by the city of Stockton. In other
words, there are plenty of green places to picnic and frolic
in before coming to Billy Hebert Field to enjoy a ballgame.