| The Couch | |
 Entrance to the park | |
| Former names | Ernie Shore Field, Gene Hooks Field at Wake Forest Baseball Park |
|---|---|
| Location | Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA |
| Coordinates | 36°7′47″N80°15′8″W / 36.12972°N 80.25222°W Coordinates: 36°7′47″N80°15′8″W / 36.12972°N 80.25222°W |
| Owner | Wake Forest University |
| Capacity | 3,823 |
| Surface | AstroTurf GameDay Grass 3D 52H |
| Scoreboard | Daktronics |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1956 |
| Renovated | 2016 |
| Tenants | |
| Winston-Salem Red Birds (CL) (1957–1960) Winston-Salem Red Sox (CL) (1961–1994) Winston-Salem Warthogs (CL) (1995–2008) Winston-Salem Dash (CL) (2009) Wake Forest Demon Deacons (NCAA) (2009–present) | |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
David F. Couch Ballpark is a collegiate and former minor-league baseball park in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA. The full-time home of the Wake Forest University baseball team, starting in 2009, it was also previously home of the Winston-Salem entry in the Carolina League (currently the Winston-Salem Dash), a role it played since the park opened in 1956.
College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional players, as baseball's professional minor leagues are more extensive, with a greater history of supplying players to the top professional league. Moving directly from high school to the professional level is more common in baseball than in football or basketball. However, if players do opt to enroll at a four-year college to play baseball, they must complete three years to regain professional eligibility, unless they reach age 21 before starting their third year of college. Players who enroll at junior colleges regain eligibility after one year at that level. In the most recently completed 2017 season, there were 298 NCAA Division I teams in the United States.
Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two opposing teams who take turns batting and fielding. The game proceeds when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball which a player on the batting team tries to hit with a bat. The objectives of the offensive team are to hit the ball into the field of play, and to run the bases—having its runners advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners' advance around the bases. A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate. The team that scores the most runs by the end of the game is the winner.
Winston-Salem is a city in and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. With a 2019 estimated population of 251,907 it is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the fifth most populous city in North Carolina, and the eighty-ninth most populous city in the United States. With a metropolitan population of 676,673 it is the fourth largest metropolitan area in North Carolina and is expected to keep that fourth spot for many more years. Winston-Salem is home to the tallest office building in the region, 100 North Main Street, formerly the Wachovia Building and now known locally as the Wells Fargo Center.
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The ballpark is located at 401 Deacon Boulevard, directly east of BB&T Field, home of the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons football team. It is bounded by Deacon Boulevard to the south (first base), Shorefair Drive to the east (right field), and BB&T Field to the west (third base). West 32nd Street lies to the north (left field) behind a group of buildings and a parking lot.
BB&T Field is a football field in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The stadium is just west of Gene Hooks Field at Wake Forest Baseball Park, home of the Wake Forest baseball team. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons. The stadium opened in 1968 and holds 31,500 people. It is the smallest football stadium, by capacity, in both the ACC and in all Power 5 conferences. In September 2007, Wake Forest University and BB&T, which is headquartered in Winston-Salem, announced a 10-year deal to officially rename the stadium "BB&T Field" starting with the first 2007 home game against Nebraska. The deal is part of a larger development process to secure funds for stadium renovations and upgrades.
Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, has been located north of downtown Winston-Salem since the university moved there in 1956. The Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center campus has two locations, the older one located near the Ardmore neighborhood in central Winston-Salem, and the newer campus at Wake Forest Innovation Quarter downtown. The university also occupies lab space at Biotech Plaza at Innovation Quarter, and at the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials. The university's Graduate School of Management maintains a presence on the main campus in Winston-Salem and in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Formerly known as Ernie Shore Field, the park was named for major league pitcher and North Carolina native Ernie Shore, who was a teammate of fellow pitcher Babe Ruth when they played for the Boston Red Sox during the 1910s. After Shore retired as a ballplayer, he served as Forsyth County Sheriff and baseball guru for many years. He helped spearhead the drive for a new ballpark, after the decades-old South Side Park had burned. The effort was successful, and the "Twins", as they were then called, had a new home. Since then, the team has gone through various nicknames and is currently called the "Dash".
North Carolina is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. It borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west, Virginia to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. North Carolina is the 28th-most extensive and the 9th-most populous of the U.S. states. The state is divided into 100 counties. The capital is Raleigh, which along with Durham and Chapel Hill is home to the largest research park in the United States. The most populous municipality is Charlotte, which is the second-largest banking center in the United States after New York City.
Ernest Grady Shore was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Boston Red Sox during some of their best years in the 1910s.
George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "The Bambino" and "The Sultan of Swat", he began his MLB career as a stellar left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. Ruth established many MLB batting records, including career home runs (714), runs batted in (RBIs) (2,213), bases on balls (2,062), slugging percentage (.690), and on-base plus slugging (OPS) (1.164); the latter still stands as of 2019. Ruth is regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture and is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. In 1936, Ruth was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its "first five" inaugural members.
The park was also the home field of the Demon Deacons baseball team until they opened Gene Hooks Stadium on campus in 1981. Because Hooks Stadium lacked lights, some early-season and necessary night games continued to be played at Ernie Shore Field. Like their now-demolished on-campus ballpark, the renamed Ernie Shore Field honors former Wake Forest athletic director Gene Hooks.
The Wake Forest Demon Deacons baseball team represents Wake Forest University in NCAA Division I college baseball. The program competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). They won the 1955 College World Series. They are coached by Tom Walter.
Gene Hooks Stadium was a baseball stadium in Winston-Salem, NC. It was the primary home field of the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons college baseball teams from 1981 through 2008.
The baseball park was used for some key scenes in the 1990 movie Mr. Destiny starring James Belushi and Linda Hamilton. In that movie, Belushi's character travels back in time to "try again" in a life-altering high school ball game.
Mr. Destiny is a 1990 fantasy comedy film starring James Belushi. Other actors in this film included Linda Hamilton, Michael Caine, Jon Lovitz, Courteney Cox and Rene Russo.
Linda Carroll Hamilton is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Sarah Connor in The Terminator film series and Catherine Chandler in the television series Beauty and the Beast (1987-1990), for which she was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy Award. She also starred as Vicky in the horror film Children of the Corn (1984). Hamilton had a recurring role as Mary Elizabeth Bartowski on NBC's Chuck.
With the resurgence of minor league baseball during the 1980s and 1990s, the stadium underwent many renovations to modernize the facility.
The transfer of the stadium to Wake Forest University began in December 2006, when tentative agreements were put into place to sell the field to the University after a new stadium was constructed in downtown Winston-Salem for the Dash. [1] The sale was completed prior to the 2009 baseball season. The new ballpark's construction experienced various delays. The Dash had hoped to begin the 2009 season at the downtown park, but pushed the date back to mid-season. Wake Forest University accommodated the Dash for as much of the 2009 season as necessary. [2] On June 2, the club announced the opening of the new ballpark for the 2010 season, [3] allowing Wake Forest complete control of Wake Forest Baseball Park.
In February 2016, Wake Forest baseball park was named David F. Couch Ballpark in honor of former baseball player David Couch ('84). A longtime supporter of Wake Forest Athletics and the baseball program, Couch made the lead gift toward the new $14 million Player Development Center, which opened in February 2017. [4]
Along the third-base line, the 41,000-square foot facility includes a team locker room, lounge, training room, equipment room, a full kitchen, professional players locker space, also including renovation and relocation of the home dugout and bullpen and construction of a pitching laboratory, complete with 18 high-speed cameras designed to analyze the biomechanics of each player. Future additions will include a video conference room, team meeting room, coaches offices, a Wake Forest baseball heritage area and an indoor batting facility.
