Centene Stadium
(Redirected from Legion Park)
Legion Park redirects here. For the ballpark in Raton, NM, see Legion Park (Raton).
Centene Stadium | |
Location | Great Falls, MT United States 47.516895; -111.259102
|
Building chronology | |
Built | 1956 |
Tenants | |
Great Falls Voyagers | |
Capacity | |
3,800 |
Centene Stadium in Great Falls, MT, was the home of Great Falls affiliated baseball from 1963 through 2019. After that and the Coronavirus pandemic-canceled 2020 season, MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization made the Rookie-Advanced Pioneer League - including the Great Falls Voyagers - an independent circuit.
Baseball here actually dates to 1940, with a history that includes a great save story that has nothing to do with relief pitching plus a later and very thorough renovation.
The original Civilian Conservation Corps project opened as Legion Park in 1940. A Los Angeles Dodgers affiliation landed in 1953 was lost to ballpark deterioration 10 years later. Then, 100 baseball-loving business people pledged $1,000 each toward a renovation so extensive it seems today's stadium was "built" on the site of the one it "replaced". The new stadium was also called Legion Park until Centene Corporation, a managed care company, bought naming rights in 2007.
Affiliated baseball returned in the form of a partnership with the San Francisco Giants in 1969; the Dodgers returned in 1984.
A $2.2 million renovation - only a quarter of that on taxpayers - began in 2003 as they switched parents to the Chicago White Sox, originally using that nickname. Five years later, they became "Voyagers" - for the old Legion Park's famed 1950 UFO filming.[1]
All Great Falls professional teams from 1916 through 1963 played as the Electrics - except the 1949 and 1950 seasons as the Selectrics.
Centene has a capacity of 3,800 people.
Photograph Courtesy of (c) Eric and Wendy Pastore http://www.digitalballparks.com
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