H.P. Hunnicutt Field (II)

From BR Bullpen

H.P. Hunnicutt Field (II)
Location Princeton, West Virginia United States
Building chronology
Built 2000
Tenants
Princeton Rays
Capacity
2,500

H.P. Hunnicutt Field (II) in Princeton, WV, was the home of Princeton affiliated baseball from 2000 through 2019. After that and the Coronavirus pandemic-canceled 2020 season, MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization made the Rookie-Advanced Appalachian League a collegiate wood-bat circuit.

The original H.P. Hunnicutt Field was a wooden structure that had been built in 1988 around the existing Princeton High School baseball diamond. Largely because its name didn't change, the 2000 structure is often regarded as a renovated ballpark. The original was, however, a wooden structure in a time that MLB was mandating minimum standards that excluded such a design - and it would, in fact, eventually be completely replaced.

After the wooden ballpark was torn down following the 1998 season, the 1999 Princeton Devil Rays literally played "under construction" while the current concrete-and-steel facility took shape. Completed in 2000, its status - new or renovated - is answered by a simple question: What was common to both? Of the original wooden ballpark, then-General Manager Jim Holland said only the four outfield light poles remained. A 2001 contest drew the new ballpark's biggest crowd - about 3,100 - but the site baseball record is 4,050 even though neither facility claimed to seat more than 2,500.

Holland served as the club's GM for 25 years, through two parent clubs and three nicknames - Reds, Devil Rays and Rays. He created the Mercer Cup traveling trophy series with league rival and fellow Mercer County city Bluefield, WV.

Hunnicutt's field was replaced during the 2010-2011 off-season.