Visalia Rawhide Baseball Club

Super fun, quaint, intimate and family friendly minor league ballpark. Very inexpensive, great food and drink options(far better than my beloved Oakland venue)Seats are closer to the field than any other park I have been to, anywhere.

Congratulations Rawhide 2019 champs. I've been going to Recreation Park since the 1970's. Nice to see so much pride

So, now they are called the Rawhide and our part of the Diamondbacks system.They recently made some renovations to the ballpark, and it is an amazing looking place for A ball team.My good friend from high school lives there and go us the famed dugout seats. It is a great time for both kids and adults. The kids get lots of swag from the game (bats, ball, etc) and the adults get served like they were at a bar/restaurant. You are right down on the field, of course, and it is a great view of the ball game.Parking is a bit of an issue for this place, but you just have to remind yourself that it's not like San Francisco where they will ticket your car.The team was off to a 9-0 start, and so they look like a strong team. Crowd was decent, and the sound system wasn't that bad for a single A team.

For Father's Day, we made the trek up the 99 to Visalia to see the heroes (SJ Giants) slaughter the local moo cows. The approach to the park leaves a strong impression. The local school is beautiful. The greens are lush. The brick facade is splendid. As you get past the park, there's plenty to remind you that you're in the central valley. It quickly goes from "I could live here" to "Why don't they make bars to put on car windows?". The Rawhide employee we stopped to get parking advice admitted that when he parked nearby a week ago, his car got broken into. Luckily, there's a free lot (albeit unattended) across from the park.Knowing we couldn't bring in food, we didn't try. We threw water and sunflower seeds in a backpack with our camera and tickets and walked up to the gates. Security informed us that seeds weren't allowed. I've never heard of this before. Baseball without seeds is like... baseball without burgers and dogs. It's blasphemous. We were not enthused, but seeing as we're not stupid, I ran the seeds back to the car and we took our seats.The seats behind home plate aren't of the same quality as the right field brick facade. The seats are old and a good 4-6 inches narrower than my shoulders. Granted, I have large shoulders, but if the park was packed, I don't think I could have taken a seat. They could probably use an upgrade and judging by the lackluster crowd, less seats wouldn't hurt them. $12 for section 104, row A. Not bad. It's the highest that I'm aware of for the Cal League though. High Desert runs you $8 and the seats are newer. If you do sit in section 104, the fence bows out towards 3rd base. This means that leg room is limited at seat 1 and ample at seat 10. We weren't particularly uncomfortable, but again, getting in and out on a busy day would have been challenging. Beer selection= good. Food selection= eh. $7 for a fajita dog and it comes with chips. That's alright. It's not exceptional, but I wasn't crying. Though your bowels may after a couple of them. The fajita dog was very good. Baseball teams usually have a speciality food and if this wasn't theirs, I'm impressed. If it is, I'm definitely not disappointed. Good mix of local beers and more prominent ones. Nice seeing 805 on tap in a ball park. However, at $8 a pop, it didn't take me long to switch to PBR in a tall boy for $6. Quick note: if they had allowed me to bring in seeds, I surely would have drank more (not that I needed more).The weather was great. The views are good; although, by putting netting all the way down the lines, they made plays in the corners tough to see.Access to seating is tough. There is a railing running the full length behind premium seats. This means that there's one access point at each end of the sections. To get out, you have to walk past EVERYONE. While this allowed us the opportunity to make new friends, it's certainly not preferable. There's a fairly annoying trend I've noticed at minor league ballparks: no credit cards. This is a pain and if your merchandise store can take cards, the rest of the park could be equipped. Isn't our economy past the "cash only" phase? Overall, I'd definitely go to Visalia again. It was enjoyable, but I've experienced better in most aspects of what they offer. I can also see it being a little less enjoyable at night. I don't know that I'd take kids to a night game given the area and people we saw frequenting the "market" across the street.

It would be impossible to review the Visalia Oaks, as a Visalia native with a love of baseball I've been to too many games to know where to begin. However, I recently attended my first Visalia Rawhide game so I'll review that experience. Putting aside my initial confusion over the name change (the Rawhide? really? a dog chew toy?) the entire evening was wonderful. The improvements to the stadium are really classy, they maintained the charm of Rec Park while greatly improving the amenities. I really appreciated the new storage shed making up part of the new right-field fence. It's designed to look like a barn, as in, the proverbial broad side of a barn. I love a subtle joke. We got hooked up with box seats from a friend. Those seats are now shaded and have nice comfy chairs. They also have perfect views of the field. Apparently, home plate and the baselines are only 32 feet from the grandstands, the closest in any professional ballpark. Look out for foul balls :) The boxes are kind of close together, but that's okay, we ended up making friends with the people in the box next to ours, because that's how Visalia rolls. It's a friendly place. Our waitress was overworked and a bit harried, but very nice and got the job done with a smile. I was pleased with my nice big, grilled hot dog and soda. I can't review the new food offerings, but I've heard from others they have some great new options on the menu. They even won some sort of award for most vegetarian offerings (oh, the irony). We were at the game preceding the 4th of July so we caught some amazing fireworks afterwards. They let them off right in center-field, it's the only time I've seen the entire trajectory of the firework, from the big box thing they're stored in up to the sky. It was freaking cool. Parking can be an issue, fortunately as another reviewer wrote they're not going to write you tickets and at least it's free. All in all, it was a great time and I'm really happy to see the improvements they have made. Although I'll never quite get used to calling them the Rawhide.

We were only in town as part of a road trip north, but when we realized our team, the Storm, were playing the Rawhide that very night, we had to go. This is a sweet little stadium. It's very simple; no JumboTron, few seats, etc. However, it is homey and comfortable, and the fans were loud and loyal. Sure, there was no shortage of perplexed stares at us in our Storm gear, and at least two people asked your if we were related to a Storm player, but everyone was nice and friendly. One staff member gave my younger son a ball from an earlier warm up session, and Ripper even gave him a high five. ("He has soft paws!") Oh, and beer in a plastic boot? What could be bad? (Edit: Tipper. I knew that. Just wanted to see if anyone actually read the review. :) )

What stadium allows a spectator to go find the EMT themselves after getting struck by a foul ball - this one! I guess the staff do not have a way to communicate with the EMTs - that should be changed. Staff could be a bit more compassionate as well.

The fact that Visalia has a minor league ball club is simply amazing. Watching the Oaks play is a fun way to spend a summer evening. Dollar beer night is quite an experience!

No re-entry is crazy in this heat and they over charge you for a bottle of water. Ridiculous!!!

Came out to a game today for Mother's Day, only 1 snack bar open, line a mile long with two employees working it & limited menu today. Come on Rawhide, you want people to attend games, but with poor service and not much to offer, does not make me want to return any time soon!!