That Old Feeling

Historic Grainger Stadium ready to welcome fans on opening day in Kinston, N.C.

From the moment you pull into the vast parking lot and look up at Grainger Stadium in Kinston, N.C., you know you’ve arrived in a special place. Lots of brick and metal beams come together in a way that evokes memories of a time gone by, a time when our summer pastimes involved boardwalks, wooden roller coasters and the crisp crack of a baseball bat.

Inside, new structures blend with the old to give the stadium an up-to-date look while maintaining a solid foot in its historic past. It’s almost as if someone designed a brand new stadium and did a fantastic job of making it look old.

Comfortable stadium seating in an old-fashioned setting .

Grainger Stadium in Kinston, N.C., home of the Single A Down East Wood Ducks, is one of the oldest ballparks in Minor League Baseball. It opened in 1949, a year before I was born, to provide a new home field for the Kinston Eagles of the Coastal Plains League.

Professional baseball in Kinston goes back more than a century, but it really began to take hold in the mid-1920s with the independent Eagles. There were a few years of no baseball during the Great Depression until the Eagles joined the Coastal Plains League in 1935. A succession of teams then called Kinston home until the CPL folded in the 1950s. Other teams came and went as part of the Carolina League into the 1970s and 1980s. A long association with the Cleveland Indians lasted from 1986 until 2011, when the Kinston Indians moved to Zebulon, N.C., and became the Carolina Mudcats.

Dewd, the mascot, gets his Ducks in a row for the opening day pre-game festivities.

Baseball returned to Grainger Stadium in 2017, when the Texas Rangers established the Down East Wood Ducks as a new team in the Carolina League. Other major league teams that have had minor league affiliates in Kinston throughout Grainger Stadium’s history were the Red Sox, Tigers, Pirates (twice), Senators (before they became the Twins), Braves, Yankees, Expos, and Blue Jays.

The crowd was good for the Single A opening night game between the Wood Ducks and the visiting Kannapolis Cannon Ballers. The electronic scoreboard used their nicknames, Ballers and Woodies, as did the players’ uniforms.

I got the feeling that the crowd is usually a good one here, with generations of baseball under their belts. One fan told me his son is the team’s general manager. Some of the liveliest fans were the many kids who cheered for their Woodies throughout the entire game, and who agonized when things didn’t go their way. The fans were friendly too and so were the stadium staff. They went out of their way to make me feel welcome at their ballpark.

The Taters are hardly visible under a pile of goodness in the Five Tool Tots.

It’s easy to get around the stadium with a broad walkway between the upper and lower seats in the main grandstand. Concessions are located on the first and third baselines, within view of the playing field. I was able to join the crowd singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” while I waited to get my Five Tool Tots in the middle of the seventh inning. It wasn’t just the snack-sized helping I expected. There were enough Tater Tots smothered with pork, cheese and lettuce to feed two people. Jalapeños and sour cream came on the side. I was able to sit at a picnic tables by right field and watch the game while I ate.

I love these older ballparks and Grainger Stadiums, with its well-executed updates, is one of the best. I have now been to seven of the 11 oldest minor league ballparks. Benjamin Hill, who’s been to more ballparks than anybody, compiled a list of them a couple of years ago for milb.com. You can see what he had to say by clicking here.

The countdown continues.

And here’s what I wrote after I went to these old ballparks for the first time. I’ve added the year each opened and the current home teams.

Jackie Robinson Park, 1914, Daytona Tortugas

Excite Ballpark, 1942, San Jose Giants

Valley Strong Ballpark, 1946, Visalia Rawhide

First Energy Stadium,1951, Reading Fightin’ Phils

I’ve also been to these two ballparks, but I haven’t written about them yet: 

LECOM Park, 1923, Bradenton Marauders: I went to a spring training game here in March 2020. It was one of the last baseball games played before everything was shut down by the covid-19 pandemic. The ballpark is 100 years old. Maybe I’ll go back for a minor league game this summer and write about it then.

McCormick Field, 1924, Asheville Tourists: This was one of my stops on an early road trip in 2022. Some day I’ll catch up on this stadium and the many others that I never wrote about last year.

I can’t wait to see these other oldies-but-goodies, maybe the first two this year:

Modern Woodmen Park, 1931, Quad Cities River Bandits (Iowa) 

Bank of the James Stadium, 1940, Lynchburg Hillcats

Funko Field, 1947, Everett AquaSox

Nat Bailey Stadium, 1951, Vancouver Canadians

The scoreboard and video screen were easy to read from almost everywhere
in the ballpark.That clock on top was a little bit off.

The Cannon Ballers scored first in the game for a 2-0 lead, but the Woodies tied it up and were ahead 3-2 after 6 innings. Tim Elko’s 3-run homer in the seventh put Kannapolis ahead for good, spoiling the home opener for the Woodies and their fans.

Baseball’s new “speedy” rules seemed to be working in Kinston. The final score was Kannapolis 5, Down East 4, with the two teams combining for 15 hits. Even with plenty of offense, the game was over in a short 2 hours and 13 minutes.

The little team store was sell-stocked for the new season, but there was
only one choicewhen it came to  collectible pins. Lucky for me, it was the right one.

Back to 'D-BAP'

The main gate at DBAP leads right into the team store.
You have to take stairs on the left and right to get into the stadium.

I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to start the 2023 season with the Durham Bulls on AAA opening day. Several months ago they announced their plans to celebrate the 2022 championship that they won in Las Vegas last season. There would be a championship ring ceremony, pennant giveaway, and fireworks the first night. There was a separate flash sale for tickets to the second game. The first 100 people to buy tickets would get a bobblehead figurine of Wander Franco, a fan favorite with the Bulls who has stepped up to the major league level with the Tampa Bay Rays. Special throwback uniforms would pay tribute to 110 years of Bulls baseball in Durham.

It sounded like fun, especially because I had been in Las Vegas for the AAA championship games. I saw them win. Why not go help them celebrate? It would mean a return to a ballpark that was one of the earliest ones I visited in my quest to go to all the affiliated minor league teams. In fact, my first visit was so long ago, that I hadn’t even considered such a crazy notion.

Back in those early days, I was mostly interested in teams close to where I lived in Florida and in northeastern Pennsylvania, and teams that were about halfway between them. I would be making frequent trips back and forth and would need to stop at least one night along the way. If I could work a baseball game into the itinerary, so much the better.

I found one championship pin from 2017 buried in a box full of newer pins.

I found myself in Durham on one of those trips in September 2017. I had only been to a handful of minor league ballparks, but here was a chance to see the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders on the road in the best-of-five International League championship series. The Railriders won the game to tie the series at one game apiece. The next day I continued south to Florida and the two teams traveled north to Pennsylvania where Durham won the next two games for the title. A few days later the Bulls beat the Memphis Redbirds from the Pacific Coast League for the AAA championship.

I have foggy memories from that first game at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, or DBAP for short, which is pronounced “D-BAP’ as I indicated on the title of this post. But the stadium still seemed like a familiar place, and it would to you too if you’ve ever seen “Bull Durham,” the excellent baseball movie about life and love in the minor leagues.

Celebrating last year's championship season.

There it is near the left field foul pole, waiting to snort steam through it’s big nostrils when a home team hero belts one over the fence for a home run. The giant bull sign with its incentive messages to batters, “Hit Bull Win Steak,” and in the patch of painted grass below, the booby prize “Hit Grass Win Salad.”

Art imitates life as the movie spins the tale of two players at opposite stages in their playing careers, and the woman who helps them get through the long summer season. Much of the film was shot at the older Durham Athletic Park, which is still standing and still being used for baseball games.

Crash Davis, the real one gets a commemorative stone at the main gate.

Crash Davis, the character in the film is completely fictional, but he bears the name of a real player who has a memorial plaque in the pavement outside the stadium’s main entrance. On a wall nearby, the fictional Crash’s number hangs alongside the retired numbers of several real players.

Life imitates art when it comes to the bull sign. It was completely made up for the film, but the prop became a permanent fixture at the old ballpark after the filming stopped. The original prop was removed and put in storage, but several replacements have occupied its space ever since, including at the new stadium.

DBAP also has the familiar and nostalgic look of ballparks like Camden Yards in Baltimore and the many other red brick stadiums that mimic its design. The stadium was built on the former site of the American Tobacco Company, which produced and sold Bull Durham loose smoking tobacco. Restored buildings and some new ones around the stadium make up a large downtown complex featuring apartments, offices, restaurants, shops and a performing arts center. Some of the buildings include seating where you can watch the game from rooftops and balconies.

A model of the ballpark and surrounding old and new buildings is on display across
the street. Zoom in to see a tiny bull sign at the far end of the blue wall in left field

Another feature of the stadium that might look familiar is the 32-foot wall in left field that is a blue version of Fenway Park’s Green Monster. There’s a hand-operated scoreboard in the wall and a jump video screen, and you can buy tickets for seats along the wall’s lofty top. Behind the row of seats is a broad part of the concourse that circles the playing field. They call it a 360-degree concourse, but that part that cuts through the main seating area is just a wide aisle. You can’t really gather there or stop to watch the game for much more than an at-bat.

DBAP is one of the first batch of “new” ballparks that were designed to put fans closer to the action with fewer obstructed views, but some old-fashioned features remain. The food concessions are located under the grandstands where you can’t see what’s happening on the field while you’re waiting to pick up your hot dogs.

Wander Franco's bobblehead flashes a two-fisted bull horn gesture.

Prepare yourself for some climbing if you want to stroll all the way around the park. There’s a long staircase leading up to the top of the Blue Monster and the rest of the outfield walkway. A recently added plaza area at the right field corner offers a good place to stop for food with a good view of the playing field. Two long staircases greet you at the stadiums main gate as well, but there are street level entrances near the left field corners. Elevators are also available for those who can’t navigate the stairs.

It was a celebration weekend at DBAP, but it was the Norfolk Tides who did most of the celebrating on the field. The Tides took an early lead in game one and never looked back. Most of the game was played in a steady drip, drip, drip of rain — not enough to stop play, but enough to make it annoying for the fans. I gave up trying to keep my scorecard dry after two innings and took shelter a couple of innings later in the team store, where I picked up a souvenir pin from that 2017 AAA championship. I found comfort in a soft-serve waffle cone before heading back to my seat in time for the seventh-inning stretch. The Tides won 6-4.

Never a good sign, but the tarp came up in time for a 1:30 first pitch.

Game two was even worse for the Bulls fans. There was a 20-minute delay so the field could dry out from more rain in the morning. The original plan was to start the game at 1:10 to mark 110 years since the first game played by a team called the Durham Bulls. This is one of the oldest team names in the minor leagues although there have been a few gaps and temporary changes in all that time.

The players wore throwback white uniforms with black trim that looked particularly sharp on the players who wore their black socks over the calf. On the right front of the jersey was a simple large black D, and on the left side was a black silhouette of a bull. The white cap had a black bill, a big D on the front and a thin black ring around the top that gave it a pillbox look.

Throwback uniforms looked good, especially with high socks.

Rain clouds gradually gave way to blue skies and sunshine, but the good weather came with a crosswind that played havoc with fly balls and lofted several hits out towards the Blue Monster and beyond. Right fielder Ruben Cardenas had two home runs for the Bulls, but Josh Lester smacked three out of the park to keep theTides ahead from the get-go. Every time the Bulls managed to score a couple of runs, the Tides answered back with more for a final of 13-4.

I missed Sunday’s final game of the short series, but it was more of the same with the Tides winning 7-4 to take the three game sweep. The two games I saw in Durham were the third and fourth consecutive Bulls games I’ve attended, counting the International League and AAA championship games I saw in Las Vegas. I’m not done. My next game is the home opener in Jacksonville tomorrow, where the Jumbo Shrimp will open a six-game series against none other than the Durham Bulls. The streak ends at five, as I’ll be back on the road after that for the Single A season opener with the Down East Wood Ducks in Kinston, N.C.

Looking Back on Opening Day

Las Vegas Ballpark was the site of the 2022 AAA Championship Weekend

How could baseball’s off-season go by so slow and so fast at the same time? I remember the agonizing wait for schedule releases, the day-to-day drip of promotion announcements, the slow countdown to spring training and to opening day. I was hoping to make the time go by faster by catching up on the blog, which I neglected horribly last season.

Well, here we are. Yesterday I finally started catching up on the long-neglected blog while waiting to board my flight to North Carolina for tonight’s season opener at the Durham Bulls, the defending AAA champions. I decided to start the 2023 minor league season with the Bulls when I saw a special deal for tickets to the championship weekend celebration and because I was at the game in Las Vegas last year when they won the title.

It was the first time the minor leagues used the championship weekend format for AAA. In previous years, before Major League Baseball took control of the minor leagues, the AAA title was determined in a one-game match between the champions from the International and Pacific Coast Leagues. The title game was played at a ballpark selected earlier in the season, alternating between PCL and IL sites from year to year.

Last, year, the best team from the East and West divisions of the PCL and IL met for three games at Las Vegas Ballpark. The stadium opened in 2019, the same year the team once known as the Stars changed names from the 51s to the Aviators. It was also the same year a new affiliation agreement was signed with the Oakland A’s to replace the New York Mets. You might think the stadium’s name is a generic reference to its location on the western edge of the city of Las Vegas, but it’s actually a result of a naming rights agreement with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

The stadium has palm trees, a swimming pool
and the biggest scoreboard in the minor leagues.

For those keeping score, Las Vegas Ballpark is No. 84 in my quest to visit all 119 affiliated minor league stadiums. It’s a big modern stadium with a broad, ground-level 360-degree concourse, lined with palm trees and surrounding a sunken10,000 seat bowl. Towering over the concourse in left center field is a giant scoreboard, bigger than any of the minor league ballparks. Food concessions, bars and party areas are located around the concourse all with good sight lines to the action on the field. There’s even a swimming pool in center field that has 14 seats and a patio that can handle groups of up to 50 fans.

The PCL championship game was on the first night with the Reno Aces (Diamondbacks) vs, the El Paso Chihuahuas (Padres]. The Aces took an early 4-0 lead and the Chihuahuas never caught up, stranding 11 runners in the 6-2 loss.

The Reno Aces splashed around after their PCL championship victory

When a pop-out to third base ended the game, the Aces rushed onto the field to celebrate. After piling on one another like every other championship team does, they raced out to center field, scaled the wall and jumped into the swimming pool, cleats and all. I hope the cool water was as refreshing for them as it was for the fans to see their exuberance as we made our way to the outfield exits.

The next night put the Nashville Sounds (Brewers) against the Durham Bulls (Rays) for the International League Championship. It was a blowout. The Bulls were relentless throughout the game, outhitting the Sounds 15-8 and scoring 13 runs while holding Nashville to zero.

Guards stood ready after game 2 to prevent a second celebration in the outfield pool.

I’m sure the Bulls were as excited to advance to the AAA championship game as the Reno Aces were the night before. They piled on top of one another on the field, jumped up and down as usual, but there was no dash to the pool this time. As soon as the game ended, a small squadron of guards took their places along the outfield wall. There would be no pool party tonight.

In the championship game, the Bulls again jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but the Aces answered back with 5 runs and took the lead in the third inning. The Bulls tied it up in the seventh, but the Aces scored in the eighth to take a one-run lead into the ninth. The Bulls exploded in the top of the ninth, sending 7 batters to the plate and scoring 5 runs with a double and a home run. It was three up and three down for the Aces in the bottom of the inning, giving the Bulls a 10-6 victory and the AAA crown.

The Aces and the Bulls lined up before the big game on day 3.

The championship weekend was a lot of fun and I’m glad I went. I was able to check off another minor league ballpark and I got to see four teams in three games on consecutive nights. Things will be different this season. Minor League Baseball announced this week that the AAA one-game championship will return to Las Vegas on Sept. 30, but the opponents will be determined in home field league championships from Sept. 26-28. The first half leaders, which will be determined on June 25, will host the second half leaders in the best-of-three series in each league.

I’ll be watching to see if the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders or the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, my three “home” teams, clinch a spot. I will also have my eyes on the eight AAA teams i haven’t yet visited with a chance to see a playoff series in a new stadium.

The big sign said it all as the Bulls celebrated on the field.

But tonight I’ll be at Durham Bulls Athletic Park to help the reigning AAA champs celebrate. There will be more celebrations as the other nine minor league champions begin their seasons in the next couple of weeks. Congratulations to all of them, and to the Tampa Bay Rays organization for three out of four championships. There were the Bulls (International League and AAA), High A Bowling Green Hot Rods (South Atlantic League) and Single A Charleston River Dogs (Carolina League). All three were repeat champions from 2021. Tampa Bay’s AA Montgomery Biscuits lost in their division series to eventual 2022 Southern League champs, the Pensacola Blue Wahoos (Marlins). In 2021, the Biscuits made it to the Southern League championships, but lost by a run in the final game.

Other 2022 AA champions were the Somerset Patriots (Yankees) in the Eastern League and the Frisco Roughriders (Rangers) in the Texas League. In High A, the South Bend Cubs won the Midwest League title and the Eugene Emeralds (Giants) won in the Northwest League. Other winners in Single A were the Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres) in the California League and the St. Lucie Mets in the Florida State League.

Let’s celebrate. Play ball!

I Brake for Ballparks

A blank slate, the Ballpark at Jackson is ready for the name of its new home team.

It’s official. The only thing missing is a bumper sticker. I brake for ballparks.

I was driving on I-40 from Nashville, Tenn., to Memphis when I saw an odd-looking curved, multi-story building with lots of windows. Was it an apartment building? A hotel? An office building?

It only took me a moment to realize I was seeing the luxury suites at a baseball stadium, then it dawned on me that I was driving through Jackson, Tenn., home of the former Jackson Generals. I stepped on the brakes and barely made it to the exit so that I could go check out the ballpark.

I saw the Ballpark at Jackson's luxury suites as I was driving by on I-40.

The Generals were one of the teams that lost its major league affiliation status in the recent shakeup of the minor leagues. Many of the 43 teams that were dropped found new life in independent leagues, but the Generals had to fold their tent after their agreement with the city of Jackson was invalidated.

Other teams were called the Jackson Generals in the city’s past, and there was another team called the Jackson Generals, which played in Jackson, Miss. That team has moved around over the years and currently plays as the Corpus Cristi Hooks in Texas. In 2021, the Ballpark at Jackson was the temporary home of the Winnipeg Goldeyes, who were displaced from their home in Canada by Covid-19 travel restrictions.

A statue at the ballpark's main gate is dedicated to children of fallen warriors 

Next year the staidum will be home to a new team in the summer college Prospect League. The results of a name-the-team contest is expected to be announced in the next week or so.

The five finalists are:

Jackson Locomotives, referring to the railroad industry and engineer Casey Jones.

Hub City Heroes, Jackson being known as a hub between Tennessee rivers and cities.

Jackson Blue Suedes, an homage to area native Carl Perkins, and his famous song.

Jackson Rockabillies, another reference to the music style of Perkins and others.

Hub City Hub Caps, once again pointing out Jackson’s central location. 

The gates were open, so I went in for a peek, but I couldn't find anyone inside.

I’m looking forward to coming back to the ballpark after the new team takes the field.

Backup Bonus

First pitch at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter, Fla., spring training home to both
the Miami Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals. This night, the Cardinals were the visitors.

It was supposed to be opening night for the Miami Marlins vs. the World Series champion Braves last night, but the contract negotiations between Major League owners and players put a stop to that. Instead, the Marlins’ season will open on the road against the Philadelphia Phillies in two weeks and their home opener is in mid-April.

This would have been upsetting because I had planned on opening night in Miami and with the Savannah Bananas the next night on their Banana Ball World Tour stop in West Palm Beach. Thanks to baseball’s backup plan, it turns out my trip will be even better. The delay in the big league regular schedule forced them to squeeze in some spring training games and I’ll be seeing a lot more baseball — and a lot more Marlins — than I had planned.

Last night I saw the Marlins at their spring training ballpark in Jupiter against the St. Louis Cardinals. Friday, it’s a double header, first the Marlins at the Houston Astros at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, then the Banana Ball game that night in the same stadium. Saturday, it’s back to Jupiter for the Washington Nationals at the Marlins and on Sunday, I’ll stop for Marlins at the New York Mets in Port St. Lucie on my way back to Central Florida.

But wait, there’s more.

I’ll be in Lakeland Monday when the Detroit Tigers face the Toronto Blue Jays. Tuesday is opening night for AAA baseball, and I’ll be in Jacksonville when the Jumbo Shrimp face the Worcester Red Sox.

Not my first trip to Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, but the first since
I started keeping track in my spring training passport book.  

Spring training comes to an end on Tuesday, but the Tampa Bay Rays have scheduled an extra game against the Phillies at the Trop, their major league home in St. Petersburg, on Wednesday. Too bad the Rays aren’t playing on Thursday, which is opening night for most of the Major League teams, but I think I’ll be ready a day of rest after eight games over seven days in five ballparks.

The fun continues next Friday, opening night for the rest of minor league baseball, and I’ll be joining friends at Jackie Robinson Park in Daytona Beach when the Tortugas play the St. Lucie Mets. Finally it’s back to Jacksonville on Saturday for another Shrimp-Sox matchup.

I say finally, but there might be one more game in Jacksonville on Sunday afternoon, and then I’ll head out on my first road trip of the season. It looks like my baseball adventures are off to a good start in 2022.

A nice spring training pin for the Cardinals.

That first road trip will start in the Carolinas and take me through Georgia and Alabama, then back to Florida. Two of my stops are on the Banana Ball World Tour when they play in Columbus, Ga., and Birmingham, Ala.

My second trip will be built around the last Banana Ball game against the Kansas City Monarchs in early May. I haven’t worked out the details, but it looks like I’ll be driving from Florida to Pensacola, then up to Kansas before heading home to Pennsylvania, with plenty of baseball along the way.

One more trip will take me to Texas for games in Corpus Cristi, Sugar Land, Houston, Frisco, Arlington, Round Rock and San Antonio. This tour includes two Major League games, the Marlins at Houston Astros and my first visit to the Texas Rangers’ new ballpark. Once again, I’ll be able to say I’ve been to all the Major League Baseball stadiums. Also, it’ll be my first time in the capital of Texas, and I’ll have a day off to visit the grave of former President Bush. That's my triple crown: baseball, state capitals and presidents resting in peace.

There might be a trip southern California and I’ll be able to check Nixon and Reagan off the list and complete my tour of presidential burial sites. There are three Single A teams in the area, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to fit that trip in this year.

Some excitement at the ballpark last night. Jorge Soler cleared the bases with a big double and Jazz Chisholm Jr.hit a grand slaw to give the Marlins a big lead early in the game. The Cardinals never caught up. Final: Miami Marlins 7, St. Louis Cardinals 4.

Back to Spring Training

The fans are back at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium for spring training.

It was good to be back. Back in Lakeland where downtown still looks like downtown even though the Maas Brothers department store is long gone along with all the other shops that used to line its streets. Where the swans are the main attraction still in the donut-shaped park that surrounds Lake Morton. Where 50 years ago, I graduated from Florida Southern College and learned so much, not just in class, but from day-to-day immersion in the architectural brilliance of Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings.

And it was good to be back in the stands at Joker Marchant Stadium, now known formally as Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. I saw it brutally hyphenated as Publix-Marchant Stadium on one sign. Fans still turn off Lakeland Hills Boulevard onto Al Kaline Drive to get to the parking lots. There were a lot of them at the first game of spring training for the hometown Detroit Tigers vs. the Philadelphia Phillies. The line of cars was so long that I thought I might miss the first pitch, so I darted around the traffic to a freelance lot across the street.

It had been two years since I was at a spring training game, I managed to catch a handful of games in 2020 right before the pandemic arrived and shut down everything. Spring training returned in 2021, but with limits on crowd size. It was almost impossible to find tickets. This year, it looked like the major league contract dispute was going to mean another year without spring training for me, The schedule had been cancelled, but a new one was slapped together after the owners and players settled their differences.

The Tigers have been training in Lakeland for 84 years and by the time their current lease runs out, it will be over 100 years. The Tigers owns the minor league Lakeland Flying Tigers, a partnership that has lasted 52. They are tied with the Phillies and their AA team, the Reading Fightin’ Phils for the longest major league affiliation. 

Where to take in a spring training game in Florida.

I’ve been to a few games in Lakeland recently since the big 2017 renovation that transformed the stadium into one of the best among spring training and minor league facilities. I’ve only been to spring training games, but not any Flying Tigers games. I’ll have to see if I can fix that one of these days.

I don’t remember anyone ever mentioning the minor league team when I was going to school and working in Lakeland. Back then, they were called the Lakeland Tigers and in the early years they played at Henley Field, a ballpark down the road from Joker Marchant. Some college games were played at Henley as well, some high school football too, but I never went to any games there. 

A variety of caps for the minor league Lakeland Flying Tigers.

When I was in college, I saw our team, the Florida Southern College Striking Moccasins, when they played at Joker Marchant. They were a good team, winning several small college national championships. Back then the space behind the wooden bleachers was dirt and grass, which was a good thing on that day a friend talked me into trying chewing tobacco. Let’s just say the experiment did not end well.

Although I was at school in Lakeland four years, taught at FSC one year and lived and worked in town another year and a half, I don’t remember going to a Tigers spring training game back then. Once I went to the annual Tiger Barbecue, an all-you-eat-and-drink extravaganza set up under a tent. I can still see the row of wall-to-wall tables piled high with boiled shrimp, and I still have the smallish glass beer mug that was included in the price of your ticket. 

A squad of Tigers players working out during the game on a practice field beyond the outfield scoreboard. The same thing was happening on three or four other practice field.

The new stadium has a lot of the amenities found at other modern ballparks. There’s a 360-degree concourse that includes the Runway, a wide terrace from center to right field with a long rail shelf for your snacks and drinks. There’s also a grassy berm under the scoreboard on the left field side and a bar and a number of party areas for group rental. The Runway and the Flying Tigers are named as a tribute to the fighter pilot school that was located here during World War II.

It’s too bad the concessions are still located behind the stands, which means you miss some of the game if you need to get food or drink. But the concourse under the stands is spacious and it’s easy to navigate, even when there are long lines at the food stalls. I found a delicious chili dog at Coney Dogs, where there was almost no line, and I grabbed a big iced tea at an express drinks line. 

It's a good thing the Tigers didn't paint over this mural. Florida State League
and other historic minor league names are back in 2022. And class Low-A is now
Single A. No more Low-A Southeast. An update might be needed.
The Florida Firefrogs and the Charlotte Stone Crabs no longer exist.

How was the game? Well, it’s spring training, so we saw a lot of players including some of the big league stars. The highlight was back-to-back home runs for the Tigers with Miguel Cabrera on deck. He grounded out, but for a few moments, all eyes were ready for liftoff. The lead changed several times during the game, but the Phillies tied it up for good at 6 runs apiece with a two-run homer in the 7th. That’s how the game ended after 9 innings. No winner, no loser, just a good day of baseball under the Central Florida sun.

The Spoils of Summer

Minor league baseball is just around the corner.

I intended to post a final report on my amazing baseball summer of 2021, but it took longer than I expected to sort things out, and baseball found itself on the back burner. Now, as the earth slowly turns its face away from the cold emptiness of winter’s dark night sky, I’m getting ready for the new season. Major League Baseball’s opening day has been cancelled, but AAA minor league teams are preparing for first pitch on April 5th and the rest of the minor leagues three days later.

I have an ambitious schedule in the works, but the details will depend on when Major League Baseball returns, if at all. One thing for sure, I’ll be visiting several new and historic stadiums on the Savannah Bananas Bananaball World Tour, with games in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Kansas. I’ll also see a number of minor league teams along the way. Join me as we go back to the ballpark in 2022. 

1. The Final Tally For me, it was great just to be back in the ballparks in 2021. Little did I realize that I would see 65 baseball games in 20 states from coast to coast. That’s just over half the states that have minor league baseball teams. I’ve now been to 63 minor league ballparks, which is more than half of the 119 stadiums scattered across the land. I’ve also been to quite a few others that host other types of baseball, like spring training or college games, and several that were home to former minor league teams.

I was lucky to catch a AAA game at one such oddball, the stadium in Trenton, N.J. The Buffalo Bisons played some home games there as the Trenton Thunder while the stadium in Buffalo was on loan to the Toronto Blue Jays. I had hoped to see a major league game in Buffalo earlier in the season, but tickets were limited and sold out fast.

Bobbleheads, shirts, pins, etc.

By the end of the season I had made my first visit to 36 other stadiums, all home to affiliated minor league teams. In the process, I accumulated a lot of baseball gear and memorabilia, from T-shirts to jerseys and bobbleheads to baseballs. I added a lot of lapel pins to my collection from most, but not all, of the stadiums I visited. I picked up more baseball caps than I’ll ever need. There was so much stuff, it filled my dining room table and spilled over onto the chairs, and that didn’t include several items n Florida. A lot of the things were free giveaways, some were gifts, and most of the rest were discounted.

One big mystery remains. I snagged a foul ball at the Brooklyn Cyclones and I picked up a ball in the outfield during batting practice at the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders. But I seem to have a third minor league ball. Where did I get it? Does anyone have a clue?

I wonder how long the scoreboard outside the National Baseball Hall of Fame
will be stuck on the World Series results.

2. The Champions

I’d like to congratulate all the minor league champions from 2021. I was hoping to catch some minor league postseason action, but none of the teams near me qualified. I did get to see some good late-season games involved in various minor league pennant races.

The AAA leagues didn’t have post-season and championship games. Instead, the teams with the best records at the end of the regular season claimed bragging rights as AAA East and West Champions. All 30 teams participated in a two-week round-robin kind of tournament that was called the Final Stretch. Each team played five games at home against one opponent and five on the road against another. The team with the best record, the Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay), was declared the Final Stretch winner.

All the other minor league champions were decided in best-of-five series between the top two teams in each of the nine leagues.

AAA East and AAA overall — Durham Bulls (TB)

AAA West Tacoma — Rainiers (SEA)

AAA Final Stretch — Durham Bulls

AA Central

Northwest Arkansas Naturals (KC) 3-0 over Wichita Wind Surge (MIN)

AA Northeast

Akron Rubber Ducks (CLE) 3-0 over Bowie Baysox (BAL)

AA South

Mississippi Braves (ATL) 3-2 over Montgomery Biscuits (TB)

High-A

East Bowling Green Hot Rods (TB) 3-2 Greensboro Grasshoppers (PIT)

High-A

Central Cedar Rapids Kernels (MIN) 3-2 over Quad Cities River Bandits (KC)

High-A

West Eugene Emeralds (SF) 3-1 over Spokane Indians (COL)

Low-A East

Charleston Riverdogs (TB) 3-2 over Down East Wood Ducks (Tex)

Low-A

Southeast Bradenton Marauders (PIT) 3-0 over Tampa Tarpons (NYY)

Low-A

West San Jose Giants (SF) 3-0 over Fresno Grizzlies (COL)

It’s worth noting that the Tampa Bay Rays teams were represented in the postseason or championships at all levels from Major League Baseball to Low-A minor league. The Rays let me and their fans down by not making it all the way to World Series, but three of Tampa Bay’s four farm teams claimed their league championships. The Bulls dominated AAA, the Bowling Green Hot Bods defeated the Greensboro Grasshoppers (Pittsburgh) 3-2 in the High-A East championship and the Charleston Riverdogs defeated the Down East Wood Ducks (Texas) 3-2 in the Low-A East series. The Montgomery Biscuits came close, losing to the Mississippi Braves in game 5 of the AA championship.

3. Stars, One and All

I want to thank everyone who helped make my baseball summer so much fun: my All-Star team. I was able to catch up with so many friends and relatives as I made my way around the country. Some made it to games with me, others did not, but it was great to see so many in visits that were long overdue. Special thanks to all of you who opened your spare bedrooms to give me a break from all the one-night hotel stops along the way.