Tuesday afternoon, while on a training trip to the Chicago area for ArcBest, I had some personal time to explore some (additional) Chicago area baseball experiences. In previous trips out to the Windy City and surrounding areas, I have been lucky enough to have visited baseball parks in Valparaiso and South Bend, Indiana as well as the Midwest Mecca of Baseball, Wrigley Field in Chicago. I have visited summer collegiate league ballparks like Block Stadium, Oil City Stadium, and Legacy Fields. I have been super lucky, like the luck of the Irish, to have visited not only Notre Dame’s baseball park but also the South Bend Cubs home ballpark, Four Winds Field. I have witnessed Vintage Base Ball via the Deep River Grinders and walked the grounds of (Jeff) Samardzija Field. Turns out, the Chicago area has a ton of baseball experiences to explore. And Tuesday, I crossed off three more of those amazing baseball experiences. Starting with a trip to Impact Field, home of the Chicago Dogs.
Impact Field is located just about as close as physically possible to O’Hare Airport (exaggerating a bit) as a baseball stadium can be. The planes did not stop taking off and landing as I drove up I-294, then as I exited off the highway and finally landed in the stadium’s parking lot. The planes did not stop taking off and landing while I toured the closed facility area. Big planes, small planes, all sorts of planes – they were a constant presence, so much that you sort of got used to them flying over almost immediately. I found parking in an open garage and made my way over to the front office area to gauge my chances of getting into the stadium and taking a few photos.
The Chicago Dogs play in the American Association of Professional Baseball League. Impact Field is their home stadium. And on Tuesday afternoon, Impact Field was closed because (speculating a bit here) the Dogs were playing on the road at the Kane County Cougars. A Chicago Dogs rep came out to chat with me and mentioned that the general public were not allowed onto the field without an appointment. Makes sense, I was okay with that. I mentioned my “stop in” mentality with ballparks that I visit when I’m travelling for work and thanked him for his time. With the gates closed and my parking spot in the garage okayed by the Dogs employee, I decided to just walk what I could of the perimeter of Impact Field to try and snag a few photos of the inside from the outside.
After making it about 3/4 of the way around the stadium, I dead ended at a business next to the stadium before making a U-turn back to my rental car. I looked for the Dogs employee who had helped me but he was nowhere to be found. I was able to get one more cool view of Impact Field from the parking garage before heading out. The American flag whipping around in the Windy City.
The Chicago Dogs did win their game yesterday at Kane County – 7-6 – over the Cougars. Despite not getting into Impact Field, it was still fun walking the perimeter of the field and checking out what I could. And watching plane after plane take off from or land at nearby O’Hare Airport. Plus, it was a beautiful, sunny afternoon and ideal for walking around baseball stadiums and soaking in some cool Chicago baseball experiences. Next stop, Wintrust Field, home of the Schaumburg Boomers.
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