Point Stadium is the home of the Johnstown Johnnies of the independent Frontier League.

Point Stadium in Johnstown was built in 1928, wedged between two rivers and a street. It is old, it had an upped-deckectomy in the 1960's, and it is very much showing it's age. And it is a wonderful baseball stadium.

How do you put atmosphere into words? You don't. You just go to Johnstown and experience it. Point Stadium is an oddly shaped ballpark due to the confines of it's lot. The left field foul pole is just 251 feet from home plate. To compensate for this, a huge screen was erected over the already high fence. Balls hit into the screen are in play and we got to see several land there on this night, including one shot that might have never come down if it hadn't met mesh. Instead it was just a hard hit single.

The location of the park is wonderful. Beyond the right field stands is Yoder Hill, which is lovely in all of it's greenery. Look farther along and you can watch the famed Johnstown Incline slide gracefully up and down the hill, carrying passengers. You can stand at the top of the left field stands and watch frequent freight trains cross the river on the ancient stone bridge.

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Inside the park, things are a little ragged with age, but everything is clean and everyone is friendly. The crowd was lively and full of characters shouting interesting, but good natured remarks at the field.

For some reason the left fielder thinks that he needs to stand right in front of the fence, although any ball over his head will be uncatchably against the wall anyway!

The light did not serve me well, but hopefully you can get the idea of the kind of target that big screen in left provides.

The stands continue down the right field line and into fair territory, making a Fenway-like short right field pole followed by a deep drop back into right center.

The seats come right down low and it is easy to get real close to the action at The Point.

Click on the above photo for a panoramic view