On June 15, I was in Modesto for an evening game between the Modesto Nuts and the San Jose Giants. Since 2017, the Nuts have been affiliated with the Seattle Mariners. The weather was about perfect for shorts and t-shirt.
Wally Walnut was on hand to give me a fist bump as I headed to my seat behind home plate. The Nuts actually have three mascots, Wally Walnut, Al the Almond and Shelly Pistachio. I only saw Wally. who wandered the stadium meeting and greeting fans. Kids love the mascots. But, even for adults, they lend a special fun and laughter to the minor league experience.
This was the view from my seat, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The field box seats are so close that the sounds of the game are right in front of you -- the whirr of the ball, slam of the catcher's mitt and distinctive sounds of a wooden bat on a baseball.
Modesto's John Thurman Stadium seats 4,000 people. Most of the seating was behind me in bleachers. I don't know what the attendance was, but the stands seemed near full to me. A lot of kids. There were whole Little League or other youth league teams bunched together in their uniforms. And occasionally an organized cheer for the Nuts would well up. I sensed a civic pride about the team and it all added to the fun of being at the game. I have to say that the overall game experience inside the park was among the best of my tour. It didn't hurt that they served my new favorite, the Hops of Wrath.
Built in 1955, John Thurman Stadium is planted in an expanse of grass at the intersection of Tuolomne Blvd. and Neece Drive. On one side is a golf course. On another side, across Neece Drive runs the Tuolomne River, which is pictured below.
The stadium's approach hardly speaks of anything professional. It is a baseball field in the middle of a town park surrounded by chain link. But, as I walked the grass leading to the gates, the humble setting was wonderfully familiar, reminiscent of warm summer nights playing this game a long time ago.
Some would appreciate John Thurman as "old school." I'll go along with that. But, for me, I like the simplicity of the stadium -- the chain link surround instead of solid brick allowing passers-by to peak in to see a sliver of the game and ground level seats right up against the backstop. At John Thurman I felt more connected to the game than at other stadiums on my tour. An easy choice -- it was my second favorite league stadium.
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But, John Thurman Stadium has a problem. It does not meet Major League Baseball's minimum standards for a minor league stadium. Not sure what those standards are, but it is not hard to imagine that the humble trappings of John Thurman don't measure up to MLB's refined expectations.
So, a movement is afoot to build a new stadium in downtown Modesto. The plans are very cool, would bring baseball, soccer and concerts to downtown Modesto, and act as a catalyst for business and residential development. Similar plans have worked in other cities.
One of Modesto's civic leaders has it exactly right. Lynn Dickerson, retired leader of Modesto's Gallo Center for the Arts, attributed the move to build a downtown as a "quality of life issue." In a December, 2021 article at balllparkdigest.com, Dickerson made an astute observation: "Those of us in the private sector working on this see it would be a game-changing event in our community, making Modesto and Stanislaus County a better place to live... We see the need to keep youth in town, settling down and raising families. We also see it as a way to attract talent. That's one of the issues we struggle with, to attract people to live and move here."
Seems Modesto and Baseball have a shared need to attract young people.
I was not in Modesto long enough to get a feel for the town. But, I liked a lot of what I saw. I like the bold town motto "Water, Wealth, Contentment, Health," which is spelled out on a downtown arch built in 1912. Driving around, I saw some restored old buildings and other signs of a potentially resurgent downtown. Modesto after all was the film site for the cruise scenes in American Graffiti. Without being too rash, it would seem Modesto would a have a good chance to restore an exciting downtown.
So, how much money would it take to build the ballpark? Estimates for the new downtown stadium range from $85 M to $124 M.
In other words, for less than the cost of Max Scherzer, you could build a new stadium in downtown Modesto, create a catalyst for positive change, spur jobs and economic development, and increase the quality of life for many of the 200,000 who call Modesto home. And maybe, along the way, more young people would move to Modesto where they would enjoy an exciting downtown and become baseball fans.
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