Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park is a baseball stadium in College Station, Texas, that is home to the Texas A&M baseball program. The stadium was dedicated on March 21, 1978, and is named in honor of C. E. "Pat" Olsen, a 1923 graduate of Texas A&M University and a former baseball player in the New York Yankees farm system. Olsen Field has served as an NCAA regional site five times and had its 1999 regional attendance ranked second with 53,287. The first NCAA Regional Tournament held at Olsen Field was in 1989.
In 2004 Sports Illustrated on Campus ranked Olsen Field "the best college baseball venue". Olsen Field has been known to be one of the more hostile environments in college baseball, as seen by the Aggie baseball fans being called RAggies for have a reputation of fiercely "ragging" opponents.[3]
Olsen Field underwent a major renovation that began on June 7, 2011, funded in part by donations from the owners of Blue Bell Creameries, based in nearby Brenham. In return, Blue Bell gained naming rights. Some new features of the stadium included an expanded concourse and concessions area, luxury suites, a new press box, club seating, two grass berms, expanded locker rooms and coaches offices, a student athletic center, and extended seating closer to the field. However, the seating capacity was decreased from 7,000 to 5,400 to accommodate the changes (although with standing room only will still hold over 7,000). Olsen Field reopened on February 17, 2012, for the first game of the 2012 baseball season even though some projects were not completely finished; the remaining work was completed on non-game days.
In 2015, the Aggies ranked 7th among Division I baseball programs in attendance, averaging 4,857 per home game.[4] On April 13, 2024, a new post-renovation attendance record was set, with 8,075 watching the Texas A&M Aggies defeat the Vanderbilt Commodores by a score of 9-0.
See also
References
- ^ "Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park - Texas A&M; Official Athletic Site - 12thman.com". Archived from the original on 2015-06-03. Retrieved 2014-09-26.
- ^ "Baseball vs Vanderbilt on 4/13/2024 - Box Score". 12thman.com. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
- ^ "Road Trip: College Station, Texas". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-05-20. Retrieved 2017-02-28.
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