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The Pittsfield Suns are marking 10 years this season since they first opened at historic Wahconah Park.

Pittsfield Suns Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary with Logo Contest

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Is your art a home run?

The Pittsfield Suns are having a logo contest in recognition of the team's 10-year anniversary.  

Submissions are open now, due on April 1, and the winning design will be featured on this year's merchandise, though the prize doesn't end there.

The winningmartist will also receive a family four-pack of season tickets for the 2022 season, special recognition at a game, and a $200 gift certificate for retail merchandise.

General Manager Sander Stotland said Suns fans have been great in standing behind the team but this is just to get a bit more oomph for the 10th year.

Up to three finalists will be selected and the fans will determine the final winner.

All age groups are welcome to submit original designs that speak to the spirit of the baseball team. Stotland said he would love to see the kids of Berkshire County get involved.

The Suns went dark for the 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic but returned in 2021.  The team was so glad to be back that it progressed to the championship round, which is it farthest the Suns have ever gone, Stotland said. 

For the decade anniversary year, fans may even see a blast from the past.


"We've got some tricks up our sleeves, obviously," Stotland said about the 2022 season.  

"We're trying to reach out to potential alumni of that first season and potentially bring them back for a recognition night and who knows maybe even getting suited up and, depending on who we can get ahold of do a little exhibition inning or something before or after a game, it's just a matter of trying to get hold of them and tracking them down and where they're at and where their lives are and their willingness to head to Pittsfield if they're not local."

The Suns are a collegiate summer baseball team that competes in the Future Collegiate Baseball League of New England. The team is owned by the Goldklang Group, which also owns the Saint Paul Saints in Minnesota and the Charleston Riverdogs in South Carolina, and moved to Wahconah Park in 2012.

Owner Jeff Goldklang has had a home in the Pittsfield area for about 40 years and when the team was created said, "we intend to honor the tradition and history of the game in Pittsfield while adding heavy doses of smiles and laughs."

In the decade before the Suns came to Pittsfield, professional and collegiate league teams including the Defenders, Black Bears, and Dukes took up residence at Wahconah Park.

The team's season runs from May to August, a schedule can be found on the Pittsfield Suns website.

Logo contest submissions must be in jpeg or png format and can be emailed to sander@pittsfieldsuns.com.
 


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Pittsfield Says Goodbye to Wahconah Park Grandstand

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Mayor Peter Marchetti and 'Banjo Joe' Ryan lead a chorus of 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' with a nod to the Pittsfield Suns. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Dozens of people bid farewell to the Wahconah Park grandstand on Saturday with a round of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," hot dogs, and stories about the ballpark. 

"Sometimes you felt like you were at Fenway Park, but mostly it just felt like home," Parks Commissioner Clifford Nilan said. 

"How lucky the players were to be playing in this park, and how lucky we were to be able to watch." 

Wahconah Park's 75-year-old grandstand was deemed unsafe in 2022, and planners have determined that starting from square one is the best option; a $15 million rebuild is on the table. Demolition is expected to begin soon, and the city planned the "Farewell to the Grandstand" event to celebrate its past and look forward to the future. 

The old grandstand also had to be redrafted when estimates for construction came in at more than $200,000. It would be built at about half the length of the wooden structure it replaced for a sum of $115,000.

"In the early 1900s, Wahconah Park went from concept on paper to construction. The grandstand was built between the 1949 and 1950 seasons. It was designed to seat about 2,000 fans. A few decades later, in 2005, Wahconah Park was listed in the National Register of Historic Places," Mayor Peter Marchetti said. 

"That longevity matters because it connects today's games, school events, and community gatherings to more than a century of shared memories." 

Marchetti and "Banjo Joe" Ryan led a verse of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," adding "Root, root, root for the Suns, if they don't win it's a shame." Pittsfield and its longtime summer collegiate baseball team, the Pittsfield Suns, have signed a negotiating rights agreement, solidifying that the two will work together when the historic ballpark is renovated. 

Artifacts of the ballpark were displayed in cases outside of the grandstand for the event, along with banners depicting the park's history and a roped-off area for community members to see the structure one last time. 

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