Last week, my work commitments with ABF Freight took me to the city of Philadelphia, PA via the city of Cherry Hill, NJ. The two cities are very close by and with the terminal in Philly, I stayed at a hotel in nearby Cherry Hill, just over the Betsy Ross Bridge. As I typically do, I searched for interesting baseball fields and potential experiences in the area around my work and hotel. One of the first fields to pop up was Trenton Thunder Stadium, Trenton, NJ. Less than an hour away north of Cherry Hill, easy to get to, no tolls – work permitting, that will be on my short list of fields to visit, I thought. And so I did on Monday afternoon.

The Trenton Thunder are now a summer collegiate baseball team playing in the MLB Draft League. Previous to its contraction/subtraction from minor league baseball in 2020, the Trenton Thunder held a prominent place in professional baseball as an affiliate for teams like the Detroit Tigers, The Boston Red Sox, and most recently the New York Yankees. The Thunder were a AA affiliate, which in my opinion is where the real talent is in any major league organization, no offense to the other levels. Baseball is still played at a high level there in Trenton via the MLB Draft League, which starts up in just a few weeks.

As with many, many trips I take to baseball fields, this one was simply a walk around the perimeter of the stadium – via the parking lot. The gates were locked, the roll doors up the stairs to the stadium were down, and the ticket booth attendants were missing/not present. No worries, I have been down this road before. And again, I don’t hop fences or break in where I am not supposed to be. I try to take as many photos as my six foot 2 frame and a few rocks/bricks/steps will allow me. Case in point…

One place in particular that really piqued my interest was the adjacent Delaware River. From the sidewalk behind the outfield fence, it is so close you can throw a rock, or a baseball into it.

Imagine what a power hitting prospect for the Tigers, the Red Sox, even the Yankees could do with a mighty swing of the bat!!! How many stories are in that river? How many home run baseballs were hit by players who went on to prolific major league baseball careers? Maybe Hall of Fame careers? I’m guessing there are quite a few gems and treasures floating in that Delaware River. Didn’t Derek Jeter have an inside out swing to right field as a right handed batter? In fact, Yankee Stadium has that pathetic short right field fence that hitters hit “home runs” over and really get under my skin. So, maybe Trenton was training their hitters to hit that way? In case, they got the call up to the big club in the Bronx??? Hmmmmm… See the map below, come on its only a 360 foot poke to right field. That’s child’s play!!!

I wasn’t able to get more than an abbreviated view of the inside of the stadium but that’s okay. Through my zoom feature, I was able to see some of the names on the façade behind home plate – Judge, Jeter, Sanchez, Gardner, Severino. Mostly players I despise/despised as a Red Sox fan, except for Jeter. It was a nice day to walk around the ball park, the surrounding area of the ball park is actually quite nice to walk around, especially with the Delaware River running side by side with the stadium. I didn’t get to go into the park, but still had a very positive Trenton Thunder baseball experience.