Having played for several years in old East Lake Park on an interim basis while their new stadium was built, the Detroit Falcons, on an upward trajectory seemingly, also had a well-timed christening of a beautiful brand new ballpark this Spring.
We are long overdue reporting on this, but with the Denver Brewers now heading to Detroit for the first time this season it is a good time to introduce you to Conway Park, the new home of the Detroit Falcons.
Early indications are that Conway will favor pitchers, at least slightly, which is probably a good thing for Detroit given that their four top prospects are all pitchers. It has also helped fuel a good start to the season for some of their veteran starting pitchers who are bridging the gap until the youngsters are ready to take over. It doesn't look like a great park for power hitters, especially those who bat right handed but with the youngest hitting stars on the team being more contact than power oriented (John Hemmah, Byron Whitehead, in particular) this isn't necessarily a bad fit either. And somehow the Falcons have managed to hit the 4th highest number of homers in the league thus far, so the new park hasn't hurt that much in this regard. (Their biggest slugger, veteran right fielder Roberto Camacho, has hit 7 of his team-best 10 home runs on the road.)
Conway Park doesn't seat quite as many fans as East Lake did but with the rising level of play and with Conway being a much more attractive place to watch a baseball game, the feeling is that the Falcons will draw more and more fans to come out to see them play and, if things go as planned, this park will be were Detroit fans will finally see the club raise a pennant and, with a little luck, be crowned WPK Champions.