No shortage of quirks at Rockland’s Provident Bank Park
Provident Bank Park, the new home of the Rockland Boulders, is anything but a cookie-cutter design
Greetings from the brand new $38 million home of the expansion Rockland Boulders, Provident Bank Park! This rustic-yet-modern ballpark, tucked in the shadows of the Ramapo Mountains in Pomona, N.Y., hosts the Jackals in their three-game series this weekend against the Boulders and is definitely one of the more unique minor league ballparks built recently. Let’s take a tour of the quirkiness…
Rockland’s towering center field wall, which resembles Fenway Park’s Green Monster but sits roughly 100 feet further from home plate, stands approximately 35 feet high. It conjures up images of Yale Field, the former home of the Can-Am League’s New Haven County Cutters, which featured a 25-foot-high wall in center field that was made out of steel from an old battleship.
While the Rockland Monster (I’m told the guy who comes up with the nicknames is on vacation) may be a pitcher’s new best friend, the short porch in right field should prove to be an enticing target for the Jackals’ arsenal of left-handed hitters. The foul pole, at a respectable 313 feet, is actually five feet further back than it is down either line at Yogi Berra Stadium, but the waist-high wall runs almost parallel with the back of the right side of the infield. Rockland’s Vic Buttler decided to pay said short porch a visit in last night’s series opener with a three-run liner that may or may not have reached the warning track at most other minor league ballparks.
Another unique aspect of the ballpark is the location of the home and visiting clubhouses. While most ballparks (especially newer ones) feature locker rooms under the stands with tunnels that lead into each dugout, the clubhouses at Provident Bank Park actually sit down the right field line behind the first base concourse. This means players must walk through the stands and down an aisle between seating sections to access the field. As a fan-friendly touch, the Boulders have placed their indoor batting tunnel right next to the clubhouses behind four large windows, offering fans a chance to watch Can-Am Leaguers take some hacks before the game.
Additional notables include a press box situated down the third base line, bullpens that sit in foul territory but are in the field of play, a “Dugout of Dreams” next to the Boulders’ first base dugout that allows fans to sit in the same bunker as the home team during the game, and, of course, the potential for regular fog delays (as seen last night) due to the fact that the ballpark essentially sits in a giant ditch a mile off the Palisades Parkway.
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