Dozer Park

• Name: Dozer Park
• GPS-able Address: 730 Southwest Jefferson Avenue, Peoria, IL 61605
• Ballpark Owner: Peoria Chiefs
• Architects: HNTB
• Groundbreaking: 8/16/2001
• Minor League Baseball Teams: Peoria Chiefs (A+) 2021-present; Peoria Chiefs (A) 2002-2020
• Class/League History: A+/Midwest League 2022-present; A+/High-A Central 2021; A/Midwest League 2002-2020
• First Professional Baseball Game: 5/24/2002; stadium debut of Class A Chiefs
• Others Playing or Operating Here: Bradley University Braves
• Previous Ballpark Names: Chiefs Stadium 2009-2013; O'Brien Field 2002-2008
• LF: 310 CF: 400 RF: 310
• Seats: 7,500
• Stated Capacity: 8,500
• House Baseball/Softball Record Attendance (as currently configured): 9,692; 7/28/2005

Dozer Park, in Peoria, IL, is the home of the Peoria Chiefs, the St. Louis Cardinals' High-A Midwest League farm team. The brick "downtown retro" ballpark by HOK Sport (now Populous) fits into its urban surroundings, as that design always tries to.

In then-O'Brien Field's May 24, 2002, debut, legendary Cards-then-Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray's widow, Dutchie, led the seventh-inning stretch at 8:36 p.m. as the Chiefs blanked the Kane County Cougars, 3-0.

Caterpillar, Inc., bought ballpark naming rights in 2013. Its headquarters was then within sight of the ballpark, but later moved to Deerfield, IL. The firm signed a five-year extension in 2023 that was critical to funding upgrades made necessary by new ballpark standards MLB enacted in its 2021 Minor League Reorganization.

Big-league baseball's most intense intra-league rivalries include Cardinals-Chicago Cubs, and it would be interesting to poll Peorians: Chiefs fans watched future Cubs from 1985 through 1994, future Cards from 1995 through 2004, future Cubs again from 2005 through 2013, and future Cards since 2014.

The Chiefs played in front of a Midwest League record 32,103 on July 29, 2008 - but that was at Chicago's Wrigley Field. The Chiefs and - coincidentally - the Kane County Cougars were tied at 6 in the bottom of the ninth when rain forced a suspension; the game, completed the next night, went to the Chiefs, 9-8 in 12 innings.