Baseball Stadium Tour 2017: Dozer Park

When the hubby discovered I had a couple of days of PTO that I needed to use before the end of the month, he decided we needed to hit some ball parks. The only problem was trying to find teams that were home and within driving distance of each other. He put together a nice little road trip that included 3 games in 2 games in 3 different states. I dubbed it the Cardinal/Brewer road trip since we were seeing the Cardinals A team at home, the Brewers/Cardinals in St. Louis, and the Brewers A team on the road.

Our first stop was Dozer Park home of the Peoria Chiefs -- St. Louis A Team. Dozer Park is located downtown Peoria, IL. It built into a triangle piece of land with main roads on all sides of the ballpark... a foul ball or home run might just hit a passing car -- that's how close the stadium is to the street. You could park on the street or in one of the lots. We ended up parking in one of the Caterpillar lots next to the diamond.

The hubby got seats right next to the first base dugout. We were right by the walkway from the dugout to the outfield and bullpens. Periodically we had players walk right by us. This proved very helpful in the top of the ninth when the centerfielder made a spectacular catch and he tossed me the ball. The only "problem" with our seats was that kids tried to get autographs and balls from the players in the dugout during the game blocking our view.

Despite the temperatures in the 90s, it was a good game. The Chiefs played the Clinton Lumberkings and ended up losing 7-6 in the ninth. There were some good catches and hits.

Dozer Park is your typical A-League Stadium with the normal baseball fare at concession stands. We had fairly decent hot dogs for lunch. I think hot dogs were $4 each. Not bad. It was too hot to have much else. The Shaved Iced looked huge and refreshing.

Besides being the home of the Chiefs, Dozer Park is also the home of Bradley University Baseball. Kirby Puckett played for Bradley and has his number retired. There is a wall dedicated to Bradley Baseball.

We have now crossed off our second minor league ball park. The hubby is on a mission to see all the major and minor league parks. That's a lot of baseball. It may have taken me 10 years for him to agree to this mission but now he is on a rampage. Good thing I like traveling and baseball is just a bonus.