Hiram Bithorn Municipal Stadium

esta­dio-munic­i­pal-hiram-bithorn

Mirám Bithorn Municipal Stadium

The Hiram Bithorn Munic­i­pal Sta­di­um was built in 1962, dur­ing the admin­is­tra­tion of may­or Felisa Rincón de Gau­ti­er, to replace the aging Six­to Esco­bar Base­ball Sta­di­um in the Puer­ta de Tier­ra area of the Islet of San Juan.  It was named after Hiram Bithorn, who played for the Chica­go Cubs in 1942 and was the first Puer­to Rican to play Major League Baseball.

There was a time when the Hiram Bithorn was the home of both the “Senadores de San Juan” (San Juan Sen­a­tors) and the “Can­gre­jeros de San­turce” (San­turce Crab­bers) base­ball teams dur­ing the win­ter sea­son.  But pro­fes­sion­al base­ball is pret­ty much dead in Puer­to Rico, which is very weird because the Dou­ble A league is very much alive.

The new major of San Juan, Car­men Yulín Cruz Soto, has promised to change that, so base­ball fans are eager to hear those famous words “play ball” once again.

The park can seat approx­i­mate­ly 18,000 fans.  The left and right field lines are 325 feet each, while the cen­ter field is 404 feet deep.  The fences are 8 feet high.

Many major league teams have played at Hiram Bithorn Sta­di­um, includ­ing the Mon­tre­al Expos, the Phoenix Suns, the Mil­wa­kee Bucks, the Toron­to Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers.  It has also been the host facil­i­ty for many Base­ball Clas­sics, Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Pan Amer­i­can Games.

The Hiram Bithorn Sta­di­um has also host­ed its share of world class con­certs, includ­ing: The Byrds, San­tana, Jack­son Five, Peter Framp­ton, The Ras­cals, The Grass Roots, Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne, Men At Work, Sting, The Beach Boys, Poi­son, Ratt, Toto, Rod Steart, Whit­ney Hous­ton, Lau­ra Pausi­ni, Bil­ly Joel, Maná, Back Street Boys, Rihan­na and many more.

Orlando Mergal buys all his photo equipment at B&H

Dis­clo­sure of Mate­r­i­al Con­nec­tion: Some of the links in this post are “affil­i­ate links.” This means that if you click on a link and pur­chase an item, I will receive an affil­i­ate com­mis­sion. Regard­less, I only rec­om­mend prod­ucts or ser­vices that I use per­son­al­ly and believe will add val­ue to my read­ers. I am dis­clos­ing this in accor­dance with the Fed­er­al Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Con­cern­ing the Use of Endorse­ments and Tes­ti­mo­ni­als in Advertising.”

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