Alumni Field: A Legacy of Baseball in Keene, New Hampshire
Alumni Field, nestled in Keene, New Hampshire, stands as a testament to the enduring appeal of baseball. From its origins in 1948 to its present-day role as the home of the Keene Swamp Bats, the field has been a focal point for the community and a stage for countless memorable moments.
Early Days and the Northern League
By the 1890s, baseball's popularity exploded, with town teams, school teams, and amateur players joining mill teams, store teams, church teams, and travelling barnstormers. Keene team rivalries included the “Married Men” vs. the “Single Men” and the “Short Men”. The Keene White Sox was the city’s great semi-pro team of the 1910s and 1920s. The team was as professional as the city would see during its era, featuring several future and former major league players. In addition to the local teams, the White Sox played many barnstorming teams during this period. Alumni Field's story begins in 1948, but the city's baseball heritage stretches back further. The Keene Bluejays of the semi-pro Northern League played here in the late 1940s-1950s.
The Keene Swamp Bats Era
Alumni Field is currently home to the Keene Swamp Bats, a collegiate summer baseball team in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL). The Swamp Bats have consistently been one of the top teams in the NECBL, reaching the league playoffs in 18 of the past 21 seasons. Their success on the field is matched by their popularity, as they boast one of the largest fan bases in the league. Since 2002, they have led the NECBL in attendance three times and have finished outside the top two teams in attendance only once. The team has won the League Championship six times.
A Classic New England Ballpark
Located at 77 Arch Street, Keene, New Hampshire 03431, Alumni Field offers a quintessential "small town New England" baseball experience. Keene High School sits behind the left field corner, and Alumni Field is used for Keene HS athletics. A red barn and the White Mountains give the park a true "small town New England" feel. A grove of trees provides the batter's eye in center field, and the scoreboard sits next to the barn in right.
Several of the light standards are in play, and a birdhouse sits perched atop the fence in straightaway center. The pressbox building also houses the ground-level visitor's dugout. A small bleacher section sits behind the plate, with room in front for people to set up their own chairs and get the best view in the house. The original 1948 covered grandstand on the first base side. The home dugout is dug into the ground unlike the visitor's. Inside the covered wooden grandstand.
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A large bleacher section sits down the third base line, next to the pressbox building. There's no fence down the line. Instead there is an "out-of-play" line a few yards from the foul line, and fans bring their chairs right up to the line. Alumni Field was once used for other sports, so there are large amounts of foul territory down both lines and behind the plate, but the fence is close in right and center field. These days the park is used only for baseball. The bullpen is a single mound, literally penned in, behind the bleachers.
A Memorable Season
As Keene had clinched the top seed in the North division the week prior, the team announced all-star Ripken Reese (Kent State) would play all nine positions in the game, a feat that had not been accomplished in MLB since 2017. Lefty James Lordi (UCF) made his third start of the summer, and it was his best outing yet, as he twirled five innings of scoreless baseball, while only allowing one hit and one walk, and tallying a season-high eight strikeouts. The Bats got traffic on the basepaths early, and took advantage of balls put in play, as Chandler Tuupo (Charleston Southern) hit an infield single to bring home the first run. The home half of the fifth is where things started to come together for Keene, as Jack Herring (ECU) and Marshall Lipsey (FAU) walked and singled to bring up Michael O’Brien (Little Rock). He lifted his sixth home run out of the yard and onto the red barn in right field to give Keene a four run advantage. Vermont added a run in both the eighth and ninth on a sacrifice fly and a solo home run - the only home run Reese would allow in his debut as a SwampBat pitcher in the ninth.
The SwampBats close out the regular season with a record of 32-12 (16-6 in June, 16-6 in July), the best mark in the league. Along with setting a new franchise record, the 2025 Bats tie the NECBL record for most wins in a year, matching the totals of Newport in 2006, and Vermont and Bristol in 2022. Keene will host the Upper Valley Nighthawks (18-26) in game one of the first round of the NECBL Postseason on Friday, August 1st.
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