Dwyer Stadium is a 2,600 capacity

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

Batavia, New York Batavia is a city in and the county seat of Genesee County, New York, United States. It is located near the center of the county, surrounded by the Town of Batavia, which is a separate municipality. Batavia's population, as of the 2020 census, ...

, situated in Genesee County. It opened in 1996 replacing the original stadium that was built in 1937, while the playing field is the original. The stadium is currently home to the

Batavia Muckdogs The Batavia Muckdogs are a collegiate summer baseball team in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL). They are located in Batavia, a city in Genesee County, New York, United States. Their home field is Dwyer Stadium in the city o ...

of the

Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League The Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) is a 16-team collegiate summer baseball league founded in 2010. As of 2022, all teams are within the state of New York. All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order ...

, a

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

league; the

Genesee Community College Genesee Community College (GCC) is a public community college with its main campus in Batavia, New York. It has campus centers in Medina, Warsaw, Dansville, and Arcade, New York. The college serves areas not only inside of Genesee County but a ...

Cougars of the

National Junior College Athletic Association The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) is the governing association of community college, state college, and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions across 24 states ...

(NJCAA); and high school teams including the Notre Dame of Batavia Fighting Irish and Batavia Blue Devils.

History

The grandstand and surrounding structure of Dwyer Stadium may be new but the field and area hold over 80 years of professional baseball history. Originally built in 1939 the stadium underwent three names and stood until 1995 when being replaced by the new stadium, keeping the previous name.

State Street Park (1939–WWII)

State Street Park was built in 1939 and employed 17 local workers to construct. During the first season of play the stadium went unfinished and a snow fence had to be placed for each game to act as the outfield wall while chairs had to be borrowed from a local mortuary for seating. The works project continued through the first season but did not deter fans as 3,000, still a record for Batavia, attended the first game of professional baseball at State Street Park.

MacArthur Stadium (WWII–1972)

During World War II the name was changed to MacArthur Stadium after General Douglas MacArthur in an act of patriotism.

Dwyer Stadium (Original: 1973–1995)

Before the 1973 season the stadium found its final name, Dwyer Stadium, after Edward D. Dwyer, a long time team president that was instrumental in keeping the team in Batavia. The stadium was a wooden and covered grandstand that was famous in old time ballparks.

Dwyer Stadium (1996–present)

In 1995, it was officially announced Batavia would be getting a new $3 million stadium on the same location; the field would remain intact while the grandstand and seating would be torn down and replaced. Auburn and Batavia each got a stadium that was almost carbon copies of one another. The old Dwyer Stadium still has its place in the new stadium as the original Wall of Fame is still present behind the first base bleachers.

Usage

Dwyer Stadium is primarily used for

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, though has also been home to area youth football as well throughout its history. Dwyer is the home field of the

, a

team of the

(PGCBL). The Muckdogs were previously members of

Minor League Baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

New York–Penn League The New York–Penn League (NYPL) was a Minor League Baseball league that operated in the northeastern United States from 1939 to 2020. Classified as a Class A Short Season league, its season started in June, after major-league teams signed th ...

, which was affiliated with

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

teams. After the cancelled 2020 minor league season, Major League Baseball took direct control of Minor League Baseball and discontinued short-season play. The Muckdogs were not among the teams invited to remain in affiliated baseball. The city received offers to join collegiate summer baseball and semi-professional leagues. In January 2021, the team was purchased by CAN-USA Sports and joined PGCBL for the 2021 season. The facility also hosts college games during the spring and fall for the

Cougars as well as local high school games in the spring.

Empire State Yankees

During the 2012 season the Triple-A affiliate of the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

, the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees, were scheduled to play seven games at Dwyer Stadium as the Yankees home stadium

PNC Field PNC Field is a 10,000-seat minor league baseball stadium that is located in Moosic, Pennsylvania, in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area that was built in 1989 and rebuilt in 2013. The stadium is home to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailR ...

Moosic Moosic ( ) is a borough in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States, south of downtown Scranton and northeast of downtown Wilkes-Barre, on the Lackawanna River. Moosic is in a former coal-mining region. A few older industries existed at ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

underwent renovations. Before the scheduled games the

made improvements to the infield and pitchers mound as well as the clubhouse. Due to weather conditions only four Triple-A games were played at Dwyer.

References

External links

Batavia Muckdogs
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080629005917/http://www.littleballparks.com/Stadium/2001/Batavia/Batavia.htm , date=2008-06-29

Minor league baseball venues Sports venues in Genesee County, New York Baseball venues in New York (state) 1996 establishments in New York (state) Sports venues completed in 1996 College baseball venues in the United States High school baseball venues in the United States