Bicentennial Park is a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

and

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

stadium in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The park, originally named after the bicentennial year in which it was renovated, was officially renamed Earl F. Hunsicker Bicentennial Park after Hunsicker's death in 1987; it was renamed ECTB Stadium at Earl F. Hunsicker Bicentennial Park in 2005. ECTB is an acronym for the Elite Championship Tournament Baseball, a youth baseball organization. The stadium and land around it are owned by the City of Allentown and currently leased to the ECTB, which in turn sub-lets the stadium to numerous community organizations which host events there throughout the year. The ballpark currently seats 4,600.

Origins

The ballpark opened in 1939 as Fairview Field, home to the Allentown Dukes, a Boston Braves Minor League farm team. The Dukes, a founding member of the

Interstate League The Interstate League was the name of five different American minor baseball leagues that played intermittently from 1896 through 1952. Early leagues Earlier versions of the Interstate League, with years active: *1896–1901: an unclassified ...

, won both the regular-season pennant and defeated the Sunbury Senators in the playoffs. The 1939 Dukes featured future

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

players

Joe Antolick Joseph Antolick (April 11, 1916 – June 25, 2002), was an American professional baseball catcher and manager, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies. He appeared in four games, in , as a 28-year-old rookie. Du ...

George Hennessey George Hennessey (October 28, 1907 – January 15, 1988) was a professional baseball player who played pitcher in the Major Leagues from 1937 to 1945. Born in Slatington, Pennsylvania, he played for the St. Louis Browns, Philadelphia Phillies, ...

, and

Tony Parisse Louis Peter "Tony" Parisse (June 25, 1911 – June 2, 1956) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He appeared in ten Major League Baseball games as a catcher and pinch hitter for the – 44 Philadelphia Athletics, one of the ...

. The next year, the Dukes were replaced by the Allentown Fleetwings, which were affiliated with the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

. In 1941, the team as taken over by the Philadelphia Phillies and renamed again, as the Allentown Wings; they reverted to the Cardinals in 1944 and played their final season at Fairview in 1947. (Allentown would play for the Interstate League title three times in four years, in 1944, 1945 and 1947, but lost each time.) The team moved to

Breadon Field Breadon Field was a minor league ballpark in Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania, located on the east side of MacArthur Road, about north of the U.S. Route 22 interchange outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania. During its existence, the field was ...

, a new ballpark just north of the city in Whitehall Township, on August 6, 1948 after playing on the road until then due to construction delays.

Bicentennial Park

Fairview Field was renovated in the mid-1970s and re-opened as Bicentennial Park in 1976 for use as a softball field. The renovation effort was led by Earl F. Hunsicker who raised an estimated $1,400,000 over an 11-year period, aided by Mayor Joseph S. Daddona and the Allentown Recreation Commission.

Allentown Ambassadors

After the Eastern League's Allentown Red Sox played their final season in 1960, the city was without pro ball until the

Allentown Ambassadors The Allentown Ambassadors were an independent baseball team that competed in the Northeast League and the Northern League from 1997 until 2003. They played their home games at Bicentennial Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. History In 1996, Al ...

of the independent

Northeast League The Northeast League was a professional independent baseball league that operated in the Northeastern United States from 1995 until 1998 and from 2003 until 2004. Between 1999 and 2002, the league was part of the Northern League after the two leag ...

arrived in 1997. However, dwindling attendance (hurt by increasingly poor on-field performance) led to owner Peter Karoly to fold the team shortly before the 2004 season; the franchise wound up as a travel team for a year (as the Northeast League Aces) before becoming the

Worcester Tornadoes The Worcester Tornadoes were a professional baseball team based in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the United States. The Tornadoes were a member of the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball, an independent baseball league which wa ...

in 2005. Over its six seasons, twenty-one MLB players played for or managed the Ambassadors, including

Ed Ott Nathan Edward Ott (born July 11, 1951), nicknamed "Otter", is an American former professional baseball player, coach and manager. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1974 to 1981, most notably as a member of the Pittsbur ...

, Luis Andujar,

Kim Batiste Kimothy Emil Batiste (March 15, 1968 – October 7, 2020) was an Americans, American Major League Baseball infielder for the Philadelphia Phillies (1991–1994) and San Francisco Giants (1996), both of the National League. He was drafted in the ...

, Scott Bullett, Brian Drahman, Angelo Encarnacion,

Mike Figga Michael Anthony Figga (born July 31, 1970) is a retired catcher in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles. In a three-year career, Figga hit .213 with one home run. Early life and education Born in ...

, Jason McDonald,

Darryl Motley Darryl DeWayne Motley (born January 21, 1960) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder who played six seasons for the Kansas City Royals and Atlanta Braves between and . In his MLB career, Motley played in 413 games, hit 44 home runs, 324 hi ...

, and Brad Pennington.

Philadelphia Force

From 2006-09, Bicentennial Park returned to a softball configuration to host the

Philadelphia Force The Philadelphia Force was a women's professional softball team based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. From 2006 to 2009, it played as a member of National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) league until a failed sale in September 2009 put an end to the team on hia ...

National Pro Fastpitch National Pro Fastpitch (NPF), formerly the Women's Pro Softball League (WPSL), was a professional women's softball league in the United States. The teams battled for the Cowles Cup. The WPSL was founded in 1997 and folded in 2001; the NPF revive ...

Land dispute and proposed demolition

In 2009, a controversy emerged over the land the stadium sits upon. LANta (Lehigh And Northampton Transportation Authority), which at the time owned 0.2 acres of the property extending from the left field parking lot to the left field base line, announced plans to build a new garage using federal stimulus money and later expand the site and buy the remaining property the stadium sits on from the city of

Allentown Allentown may refer to several places in the United States and topics related to them: *Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California *Allentown, Georgia, a town in Wilkinson County *Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Taze ...

. The plan, which would result in the demolition of the stadium, ran into opposition from the family of Earl Hunsicker as well as owner Terry Schadler, who tied up the proposal in the Allentown City Council. After a four-year lease renewal was awarded by City Council to new stadium owner Dylan Dando in 2016, the matter was resolved in 2017. The property in question was returned from LANTA to the City of Allentown in exchange for existing adjacent land which had been vacant and used for stadium parking, which LANTA intends to use for expansion of their existing facility near the stadium. The $13,000,000 expansion to the facility will add space vertically and allow for a compressed natural gas filling station on their property. This deal allows the stadium to remain open, although the Hunsicker family has expressed reservations based on the potential for disruption of parking at the site.

References