Allentown fans embracing IronPigs

He's got a booming voice, a firm handshake and vividly remembers his career as an employee of Bethlehem Steel, which was once the second-largest steel producer in the U.S.

There they manufactured, obviously, the iron-laden alloy. But before the metallic support for a vast array of structures is created, one of its intermediate products -- a mix of smelting iron ore with coke and resin -- is Pig Iron. A byproduct thusly named because the shape of the molds used for creating it was a branching structure that resembles a litter of piglets suckling on a sow. The region is rich in steel history and produced loads of the stuff during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

That's part of why Schaffer, 90, and his son Howard's first visit to Coca-Cola Park was so meaningful.

Home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs -- an obvious play on Pig Iron -- Coca-Cola Park, as well as the team, is new to the International League this season. The club is thriving early in its existence.

But it wasn't always this way.

Prior to the IronPigs' arrival in Allentown, the city hadn't experienced affiliated baseball since 1960. The city experimented with two independent league teams: the Allentown Ambassadors and the Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds.

The Ambassadors lasted seven years and played at Bicentennial Park, a ballpark that was little more than a glorified high school facility and didn't peak the region's interest. Besides, the Philadelphia Phillies (now Lehigh Valley's Major League parent club) played just over an hour's drive away, so why watch Minor Leaguers when you could see the real deal for a quarter more tank of gas? The Ambassadors folded in 2003.

The Black Diamonds were an even worse horror story. With the region recognizing that the Ambassadors were on their way out, the Black Diamonds were expected to come to Allentown for the 2000 season and bring baseball back to a community that desperately needed it. Ground was broken on a stadium which was halfway through construction when the general manager, Thomas Flaherty, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, leaving a half-built semi-circle of concrete and $3 million of debt. The team was homeless and played the next year as the Pennsylvania Road Warriors.

Enter Kurt Landes. The former GM of the Class A Hagerstown Suns and 15-year Minor League Baseball veteran knew he didn't have any room for error in trying, once again, to provide a region yearning for a team to support with a proper product.

"I think the people were excited about the prospect, but if there was anything at all that was difficult to overcome, it was skepticism that this project might not take place because of past projects going bankrupt or failing," Landes said.

"This area's been burned a couple times, so we had to make a concerted effort to not only go out into the community constantly, but to communicate what we were doing and why we were different. We had to bring people to the construction site to show them this wasn't just a nice college facility."

The 9,700-seat facility -- with a 360-degree walkable concourse, a club level that contains a full bar and lounge area, lawn seats in center field and a picnic pavilion along the left field line -- has been anything but.

Landes, now commanding a staff of over 40 members, appears to have finally achieved the region's long-time goal with Coca-Cola Park.

The stadium's club level -- which seats 1,000 -- is sold out for the rest of the year and over 4,100 season ticket plans have been purchased overall. The facility's air-conditioned entrance offers live music every night alongside 15-20 tables, where fans can sip drinks from the centerpiece bar. Streaming to the right and left of the central area are carpeted hallways leading to the company-owned luxury suites, which can be furnished however the owners see fit.

"From what I've seen so far, this is dynamic," Schaffer, 56, said. "Having a club level like this, and a seating level -- it's everything you could ask for. For a first-time visitor, I think after seeing this, they'd be sold for life."

Perhaps more impressive are the dugout suites, which are rented on a night-by-night basis and provide a vantage point closer to home plate than the pitcher's mound. The seats are below field level, so a fan's line of sight is roughly even with the catcher's mitt. Behind the seats are more standing tables and behind them, an indoor suite similar to the ones on the club level.

In left-center field is the largest scoreboard in the Minors, a 22-foot LED screen topped by an 8-foot, 3-inch Coca-Cola bottle that lights up and spouts red fireworks every time the IronPigs score a run.

Much like Citizen's Bank Park in Philly, drink rails line the entire concourse, allowing fans to move freely and experience many different vantage points throughout the contest.

"All the kids want to come and everybody's taking their whole family," said Bob Wiesner, an 80-year old usher and lifetime Allentown resident. "There are good seats all over and, no matter where they sit, they can see the game very well."

General concessions, which include the park's claim-to-fame Big Porker sandwich and Porker Nachos, are operated in-house. Landes said the decision was made to control all food services within the organization to maintain an above-average level of quality as well as keep prices reasonable.

The open-air feel while sitting in the forest green seats -- which are all angled toward home plate -- combined with the ostentatious appearance of the park's facade provide spectators the unique combination of Major and Minor League experience.

"It's almost like giving birth. It's a labor of love," Landes said of the $50 million project. "You take something and mold it, create it, and make it your own and it's a family. Now everybody in the family has grown to love it."

For folks like the Schaffers, having the sport they adore so close to home and being played at such a high level is invaluable. Schaffer remembers attending games at Connie Mack Stadium during the prime of the region's booming steel production age.

"I think it's great they have a Triple-A team," the younger Schaffer said. "Just look at all the fans, the young people and the kids with their families. They need this in the area."

Landes agrees.

"To see so many IronPigs hats and shirts in the community shows that [the fans] have latched on," he said. "They have something of their own in their community, not just rooting for Philadelphia. And to see grown men and women walk around on the concourse with plastic pig noses has really been a neat process too."