Smokies Stadium in Kodak Tennessee

I have mentioned the Tennessee Smokies baseball team a number of times on my now dormant blog on baseball.  Go here, here, here, here, and here if you want to check out my old entries on this team and park.

This is one of my all time favorite locations to catch a game.  I love the team, the area, the park, and the general vibe at the games played here.  You have the AA Cubs on their way up, playing near the Great Smoky Mountains.  Seeing a game here after enjoying the park or the sites in Gatlinburg makes for a perfect day.


I love their team shop.  Other minor league teams could learn a lot from this team.  Have a nice, organized and clean shop.  AND, exploit the heck out of a cool logo!

We were here on their special Star Wars night.  This attracted a lot of fans (we found out later that they broke their attendance record on this particular night).  We loved the Star Wars goofiness, but the crowd was a bit out of hand.  The vibe on this night was much more comparable to a AAA or major league game.  We were going to try to have dinner at the park this night, but we changed those plans.  The concession lines were long and slow!

We enjoyed the heck out of the Star Wars themed night.  Players wore jerseys with Han in carbonite on them.  Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and other characters mingled with fans.  Players from the other team appeared as Star Wars characters as they were announced on the scoreboard!

A tree hugging friend jokingly scolded me when I got back to Kentucky since I took time out from my trip to the National Park to visit a ballpark.  I get that.  There are some areas where going to a ballgame really takes away from your time to do historic and nature related things in an area.  There are some minor league ballparks not worth your valuable vacation time- but that isn't the case here.  The Tennessee Smokies baseball team and park are meshed in with the local history.  That relaxed Smoky Mountains green vibe is felt while you enjoy the play on this AA diamond.  Part of the experience of going to see this region of Tennessee is catching a game at this ballpark.