📍 Lake Elsinore, California
⚾ Home of the Lake Elsinore Storm

Home to one of the grandest backdrops in Minor League Baseball, the Lake Elsinore Diamond has been a centerpiece of the Southern California baseball scene for over three decades. Since its opening in 1994, the home of the Storm has given the Padres’ an ideal Single-A home, pairing proximity to San Diego with breathtaking desert mountain views.

The thrice-relocated club has called Inland Empire its home since 1986, moving to Palm Springs after a seven-year stint in Northern California. There, the team was known as the Palm Springs Angels, a name they kept until their final relocation to Lake Elsinore.

While the organization does a phenomenal job providing family-friendly baseball, it’s the scenic mountains that truly make the experience a California League classic. Inside, the setup punches above its pay grade, as it could easily host Double-A baseball. 4,835 maroon bucket seats fill the bowl, providing clean sightlines from every angle. The mostly-shaded concourse stretches foul pole to foul pole, and mist fans built into the old-timey roofline spray cool relief onto the crowd during the dog days of summer. These misters are found behind home plate and even in the box office line. A 36-foot wall towers over right field at the Diamond, every bit as imposing as Boston’s iconic Green Monster.

Concessions here are plentiful, local and diverse, putting Southern California’s southwestern spin on traditional ballpark grub. The ballpark’s crown jewel of concessions is the Diamond Taproom, a sleek, indoor club lined with TVs and futuristic lighting. Out on the concourse, there’s an espresso bar, tacos, and even açaí bowls for health-conscious fans. But the headliner is Nini’s BBQ, a stand that locals call the best smokehouse in the Inland Empire.

As for promotions, the activities are familiar to Minor League Baseball, and the mascot, Thunder the big green dog, keeps kids entertained for all nine innings. Speaking of kids, one more unique detail catches the eye: a lone lime-green section bookending the seats down the first-base line marks the family zone. It pops against the sea of maroon seats and adds to the park’s many quirks.

Over their more than 30 years in Lake Elsinore, the Storm have secured four league titles – most recently in 2022 – and have sent many star players down the Padres pipeline, including Jake Peavy, Jedd Gyorko and David Freese. Their stadium is also one of very few minor league facilities to have hosted NCAA postseason baseball, doing so in 2015. That year, University of Virginia would win the Lake Elsinore regional on their improbable championship run.

The Lake Elsinore Diamond thrives on natural beauty and ballpark quirks. Desert heat and mountain views, with a right-field wall that looms over the outfield like Fenway’s twin. It’s a desert-adjacent ballpark that boasts a homey, oasis feel.