Melaleuca Field

Melaleuca Field in Idaho Falls, ID, was the home of Idaho Falls affiliated baseball from 2006 through 2019. After the Coronavirus pandemic-canceled 2020 season, MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization made the Rookie-Advanced Pioneer League - including the Idaho Falls Chukars - an independent circuit.

The PL's oldest franchise played here starting in 1940 - the first 19 years as the Idaho Falls Russets, by its parents' nicknames all but two years between 1962 and 2003, and as the Chukars after joining the Kansas City Royals.

What's a chukar? The grayish-brown European partridge was brought to the western United States as a game bird. The team broadcaster suggested it as a pun on chucker - which is baseball slang for a pitcher. Releasing nearly two dozen chukars before Melaleuca's inaugural game showed they fly little better than WKRP in Cincinnati turkeys: The birds settled in center field, delaying the start of the game while staff chased them off.

The site's original stadium, Highland Park, lost its grandstand to a 1975 fire. The rebuild was renamed McDermott Field in 1977 for newspaper publisher E.F. McDermott. Its 2007 same-site replacement was named after the multi-level marketing company donated $600,000.

The only minor league park in the 2017 solar eclipse Path of Totality whose team was away that day hosted a free watch event.

The ballpark seats 3,400 fans.