While Niagara Falls dithers, smaller Olean has dug in and resuscitated its ballpark. Glitches remain, such as goal posts in play, but it’s safe to say Bradner Stadium should survive to see its 100th birthday, 12 years hence.
It’s different there. Bradner Stadium is the home of Olean High School football, baseball and track. Niagara Falls schools have set up shop elsewhere. Still, it’s remarkable that Olean managed to find $1.4 million to restore and maintain a ballpark of which it’s justly proud.
Base Paths finally got to take in a game as June wound down. It’s not his father’s Bradner Stadium, that batted toward the northwest and had a 190-foot rightfield foul pole. A sliver of the bleachers there were designated ground-rule single, and even in the dead-ball era missiles threatened passing traffic on what was then Route 17.
Bradner faces southwest now, the hills ahead of it, the road in foul territory. It’s not quite symmetrical, reading 330-390-336 left to right. On re-opening night some 2,000 fans occupied a cozy semi-circle of bleachers about nine rows high. Seats beneath the pressbox provide shade but require an act of faith, as the booth teeters over the right-field stands like some ill-designed UFO.
The home dugout burrows into the bleachers while the visitors occupy a large, Plexiglas bus shelter. Bradner eschews base paths except for small cutouts around the sacks. It’s a short hop from plate to backstop, consisting mostly of textured running track.
The great yellow “H” of goalposts runs parallel to the third-base foul line, in foul territory, but in play. Base Paths imagines that the ground rules have, like the late Lucy, some ‘splainin’ to do.
Then there’s the scoreboard, also set up for football. Balls appear under “Ball On,” strikes under “Down.” Honest.
Entry’s as challenging as third-and-thirty. There’s a parking lot across the street and long walk through a tunnel beneath the road. For elders, it’s a difficult hike. Fortunately for Base Paths and his bride, several Oiler volunteers made it their mission to get them in through an alternative gate.
And when the rains came, a tarp materialized. An hour later, the game resumed. They finished a double-header. At unprotected and soggy Sal Maglie, two more postponements would have gone into the book. Olean vows those goalposts will go and was smoothing a surface for wheelchairs even as the game went on. It’s a great place for baseball and will get better. And there’s beer, discreetly, at $3 a can.
For Sal Maglie, the future is darker than the clouds that rain-delayed Olean. There is talk of letting it lie fallow while enterprises are entertained. Landscapers know you can not do that with a ballpark. Olean may have goalposts, but Niagara Falls hasn’t even a goal.
Return Base Paths’ signal at pollyndoug@hotmail.com
Leave a Reply