Pohlman Field

Pohlman Field
Location	Beloit, Wisconsin United States 42.535351; -89.00946
Building chronology
Built	1982
First game	April 18, 1982 Danville Suns 7, Beloit Snappers 2
Former names
Telfer Park (1981–1987)
Tenants
Beloit Snappers
Capacity
3,501 (Team website); has reported more than 4,200 for baseball (Media coverage)

Pohlman Field in Beloit, WI, was the home of Beloit affiliated baseball from 1982 through 2019. After that and delays caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, the Beloit Snappers moved into a new downtown stadium midway through the 2021 season.

Until the move, the city owned the ball club - from the beginning, running it as a community recreation project. "We're not out to make money for ourselves," its first general manager said - but eventually both the Milwaukee Brewers (2004) and Minnesota Twins (2012) cited the state of the stadium as a justification for dropping the team from its farm system. Finally, Minor League Baseball told the city to fix the issue by 2020 or lose the team.

Just after a self-stated deadline passed, Pensacola Blue Wahoos owner Quint Studer - who started his career in nearby Janesville, WI - put together a 13th-hour deal that made him team owner in a new, privately financed ballpark - ABC Supply Stadium - that hosted its first Snappers game August 3, 2021. In 2022, in a move originally intended to coincide with the stadium move but delayed by MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization, Studer rebranded the club Beloit Sky Carp.

Opened as Telfer Park in 1982, Pohlman was renamed in 1987 for longtime local baseball coach Harry C. Pohlman. Many folks call the old playpen that, but the main stadium signage reads only Pohlman Field. Only a small plaque delivers the full name, Harry C. Pohlman. It was nicknamed "The Teacup" for its relatively small size in professional baseball circles.

Predictably, the ballpark fell into disrepair. A protective covenant will likely keep it a baseball facility, but of course professional baseball is no longer an option. After some rudimentary repairs, a Beloit high school and Rockford University used it as their home field in at least 2023. Meanwhile, the city is considering all options short of tearing it down.[1]

"Snappers" was for snapping turtles, an unabashedly local nickname: Turtle Creek, the nearby town of Turtle and Beloit itself - by its original name, Turtle Village - were all named for a turtle-shaped mound at what is now Beloit College that tribal people built more than 1,000 years ago.

The Snappers auctioned stadium but not field naming rights in the partial 2021 campaign: as in "Pohlman Field at (blank) Stadium".

The ballpark appears in the film Sugar (2008).