Salt Lake Trappers start workouts, hope to firm up roster by Thursday. See story on D1.
Guess where a national magazine says is the best place to watch minor league baseball out of the 150 or so minor league stadiums in the nation?It's Derks Field - even though Salt Lake City has condemned 1,500 prime seats this year fearing the structure beneath them might collapse. The city also is looking at building a new stadium at Pioneer Park or other sites.
But USA Weekend - a magazine published by the Washington-based Gannett Corp. that is inserted in newspapers nationally similar to Parade magazine in Sunday's Deseret News - rated Derks as the top minor league stadium in an article published over the weekend.
Why did it win? Writer David Lamb wrote, "Besides great Pioneer League baseball, Derks Field offers a stunning view of the snowcapped Wasatch mountain range."
He added, "For a beer and a burger after the game, try Duffy's Tavern, the favorite hangout of the Salt Lake Trappers."
David Evans, an architect assigned by major league baseball to inspect minor league ballparks, toured Derks on Monday.
Because of a new agreement between the minor and major leagues, all baseball stadiums will have to conform to uniform standards by April 1994. Evans said he is not too concerned about the structural problems at Derks. "We'll document that, but at the moment it looks like the city is working on the problem," he said.
Officials with the Salt Lake Trappers said the other 8,500 seats in the stadium are safe and will be used this season.
Meanwhile, Mayor Deedee Corradini has ordered a report of all downtown sites suitable for a new stadium - to be completed by the start of the 1994 season.
The USA Weekend ranking was part of a story on minor league baseball nationwide. The other nine top cities listed by the magazine are in Durham, N.C.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Bluefield, W.Va.; Denver (where major league baseball arrives next year); Stockton, Calif.; El Paso, Texas; Charleston, S.C.; Peoria, Ill.; and Las Vegas.