For relaxed, family summertime entertainment, few activities rival a balmy night at the ballpark - especially a park modeled on one of the nation's bastions of baseball tradition, Boston's Fenway Park.
That's what the Greenville Drive, the Boston Red Sox's Class A team in the South Atlantic League, is perhaps best known for: Fluor Field, a mini-Fenway with its own "Green Monster" wall in left field with the relaxed vibe of minor league baseball. Get a seat behind home plate, a hot dog and a cold beer: What could be better?
On Greenville's busy sports calendar, the Drive is the summer attraction. In the fall, Furman University of the Southern Conference draws around 20,000 fans to home games at Paladin Stadium, while about 30 minutes away, Clemson University, a perennial Top 25 Atlantic Coast Conference team, plays before crowds of 80,000-plus in Memorial Stadium, aka "Death Valley."
When winter arrives, there's Furman and Clemson basketball and, for those used to colder climes, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (formerly Road Warriors) of the East Coast Hockey League, playing in Greenville's Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
The Swamp Rabbits, who moved to Greenville from Johnstown, Pa., in 2010, are about family fun. The team begins its 36-game home schedule each October and the season runs into April. Like the Drive, the team is affiliated with an iconic sports franchise, the Los Angeles Kings, another draw for tourists.
For more on area sports venues and teams, visit UpcountrySC.com.
