Veteran's Field
Coordinates: 41°41′04″N 69°57′45″W / 41.684579°N 69.9626°W
| Location | Route 28 Chatham Center, Chatham, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Owner | City of Chatham |
| Operator | Chatham Athletics Association Inc. |
| Capacity | 2,000 (can be expanded to 8,500) |
| Field size |
Left Field - 340 ft Center Field - 385 ft Right Field - 314 ft Backstop - 30 ft |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1920 |
| Opened | 1923 |
| Closed | Open |
| Demolished | N/A |
| Construction cost | $0 USD; |
| Tenants | |
| Chatham Anglers (Cape Cod Baseball League) | |
Veterans Field is the home field of the Chatham Anglers baseball team. It is located on Depot Road in Chatham, Massachusetts, USA, on Cape Cod.
Stadium history
Veterans Field has a capacity of approximately 2,000 people; however, much of the seating is informal around the perimeter of the field on grass or lawn chairs and the park can accommodate close to 8,500 people informally. This is achieved because of where Veterans Stadium is situated. The park sits in a natural bowl which forms a natural stadium around the stadium in addition to the permanent seating. Admission to Veterans Field is free; however, to offset this are donations and a raffle held by the Anglers for small prizes.
The stadium originally utilized a local high school building adjacent to the field as a clubhouse area for the Athletics. However with its closure the team has been left without a formal clubhouse forcing players to change in their cars. The loss of the old school building also eliminated the stadium's bathroom facilities as well necessitating portable toilets being placed on the first base side of the field. Night games were first played in 1963 at Veterans Field.
Veterans Field is also used by the Chatham High School baseball team and l soccer teams during the Anglers offseason. The field also features a play area with a wooden playground on the first base side for children to utilize during the games.
Recently, however, the adjacent high school has been replaced by a community center, and the portable restrooms have been replaced by a new bath house, part of a slight face lift of the field that included a new concession stand and a recently installed playground, replacing the old wooden set that had been an unofficial trademark of the field.
The field sits in the town between Depot Road (beyond the right center field hill) which houses Chatham's local fire department overlooking the field, and Main Street (behind the third base line). The field is neighbored by a number of houses, as well as the Red Nun Bar and Grill. The field can be found just a few hundred yards from the Main Street Rotary, leaving it within a short walking distance of Chatham's majestic town center.