Competition to the south

Monongalia County Ballpark

If you're a fan of the Wild Things or just minor league baseball in general and you live south of Washington, say in Waynesburg or Carmichaels or Uniontown, you have a interesting decision to make this summer. Do you continue to go to Consol Energy Park and watch the Wild Things or do you travel 30 minutes south and check out the West Virginia Black Bears, the Pittsburgh Pirates' affiliate that will be making its debut this year in the New York-Penn League? The Black Bears will play in the new Monongalia County Ballpark that opens tonight when West Virginia University hosts Butler.

The 3,500-seat ballpark is an an easy location to get to, just off I-79 at the Star City exit.

The idea of having the Pirates' New York-Penn League team share a ballpark with a local college team is not a new idea. The original plan, which was discussed about 15 years ago, was for the Pirates to place a team in the league and have it play in a new ballpark in Washington, which became Falconi Field/Consol Energy Park. The plan really wasn't as simple as that as it involved switching ownership and affiliations of some teams. When Cam Bonifay was fired as general manager of the Pirates during the 2001 season, the plan for a New York-Penn League team in Washington was put on the backburner for a decade. Thus, the Wild Things were born to replace the New York-Penn League that never came to Washington.

Here are two videos of Monongalia County Ballpark. You'll notice that it's still a work in process.

http://www.wdtv.com/wdtv.cfm?func=view&section=Sports&item=Video-Tour-of-the-Monongalia-County-Ballpark-22406

http://www.wvusports.com/blogs.cfm?blog=baseballBlog&story=27829