Comstock Park's Ballpark Lost the Season. Nobody Told the Calendar.

The Whitecaps played their last game of 2026 in Dayton, Ohio, not at home. By the time the final out landed on September 6, the season was already decided. Grand Rapids stayed home that Sunday afternoon, and the ballpark on West River Drive sat with its gates locked and its scoreboard dark for the first time in five months.

It didn't stay that way for long. Thirteen days later, the ballpark was already hosting a family fun fest. A car show is booked for this coming weekend, and the first Friday night football game at LMCU Ballpark in seven years kicks off less than two weeks after that. If you live near the ballpark and assumed things would go quiet once baseball ended, this fall is going to correct that assumption fast.

A Franchise Record Buried Inside a Losing Season

Here's the part of the story that got less attention than it deserved. The Whitecaps finished 60-70 overall, missed the playoffs by a single spot to the Great Lakes Loons, and closed the year with a 5-2 win in a game that no longer mattered for the standings. That's the headline most people already read.

The number underneath it is more interesting. This was a franchise-record season for home runs, with the team setting a new all-time mark of 130 dingers on the year. Three players reached at least 16 home runs apiece, Bryce Rainer with 18, Cristian Santana with 16, and Jackson Strong with 17, the first time in Whitecaps history that three hitters have reached that mark in the same season. A team can lose its playoff spot and still put something in the record book that outlasts the disappointment. This year, Comstock Park's team did both at once.

The Parking Lot Didn't Get the Message

What happens at LMCU Ballpark in the month after the final out is the part locals should actually be marking on a calendar, because it turns out to be one of the busier stretches of the year for the venue itself, just not for baseball.

Here's what's on the books:

• September 19 – Already come and gone, but worth noting for how fast it landed: the Capes & Crowns Walk and Family Fun Fest, presented with A Kid Again, brought superhero-themed activities, a Kids Dash with Crash race, and an outdoor screening of The Incredibles under the stadium lights, running 5:30 to 10 p.m., just thirteen days after the Whitecaps played their last game.
• September 26 – A car and motorcycle show fills the ballpark grounds with more than 800 cars and trucks and 400 motorcycles, one of the larger all-makes events in the region, with Cars & Tacos GR handling the food. Entry runs $20 for a car or truck and $10 for a bike, 5 to 9 p.m.
• October 2 – Friday night football returns to LMCU Ballpark for the first time since 2019, with the Sparta Spartans hosting the Coopersville Broncos. Kickoff is 7 p.m., gates open at 5:30.

That last one is worth sitting with for a second. Dan Morrison, the ballpark's Vice President of Sales, put it simply when the game was announced: "We're excited to welcome high school football back to LMCU Ballpark for the first time since 2019. The ballpark has hosted countless memorable events over the years, and we're thrilled to add Friday night football back to that list." Seven years is a long gap for something this straightforward, a stadium built for one sport hosting another, and the fact that it's happening now says something about how the venue is being used between baseball seasons rather than just during them.

Down West River Drive, a Different Kind of Wait

Not every Comstock Park landmark is refilling its calendar this fall. A few minutes from the ballpark, at the corner of West River Drive and Lamoreaux Avenue, Nick Fink's sits in a different kind of pause.

The building has been serving drinks since 1888, long enough that its own history reads like local folklore, complete with stories about Al Capone's favorite corner booth and an old post office and hotel that once operated out of the same walls. The Gilmore Collection bought it in 2008 and kept it running until the pandemic years forced a closure in 2021. It sat empty for three years before reopening on September 23, 2024, a reopening that made news precisely because so few people expected the oldest bar in the Grand Rapids area to come back at all.

Less than two years later, it's on the market again. In July 2026, the Gilmore Collection confirmed it was selling the property following the 2025 death of founder John Gilmore at age 96, who had been the bar's primary owner and operator. The listing, handled by broker M Retail LLC, is priced at $1.2 million and includes the operating restaurant and bar, its liquor license, a residential house and outbuilding on just under an acre, and a vacant adjacent lot on McCrellis Avenue.

As WOOD TV reported, Matt Dowdy, the Gilmore Collection's Director of Marketing and Creative, framed the sale as part of the estate's planning rather than a sign of trouble at the bar itself. "As part of the estate's long-term planning, the family has made the decision to transition ownership of the property, and we are assisting in that process," he said, adding that the company hopes to find "a buyer who recognizes its legacy and potential" and that the current staff remains the site's greatest asset. As of this fall, no buyer has been announced, and the bar continues operating under its current ownership while the listing sits on the market.

Two Landmarks, One Neighborhood Habit

Put these two stories next to each other and a pattern shows up that neither one tells you on its own. Comstock Park doesn't treat a landmark's rough patch as a reason to go quiet. The ballpark just absorbed a losing season and immediately booked three unrelated events that have nothing to do with baseball. Nick Fink's absorbed a three-year closure and came back once already, and it's now waiting to see whether the same thing happens a second time.

Neither outcome was guaranteed. A ballpark doesn't have to host high school football just because it has open Fridays in October, and a 138-year-old tavern doesn't have to find a buyer willing to keep pouring drinks instead of tearing the building down. What this fall shows is that the neighborhood's two most recognizable gathering spots are each mid-transition at the same moment, one filling back up with purpose and one waiting to find out what its next chapter looks like.

If you live near either of them, that's worth knowing heading into October. The ballpark parking lot is going to be busy on nights you might not expect, and the bar you've been meaning to visit again might look different by next year, or it might not exist in its current form at all. Either way, this is the kind of thing you notice by paying attention to the neighborhood as it actually runs, not by checking a box score or a listing once and assuming the story's over.

If you're curious about what else is shifting around Comstock Park, or you're thinking about your own next move in West Michigan and want someone who actually pays attention to this stuff, the team at Welcome Home West Michigan would love to talk. Book a Consultation whenever you're ready.