On the Road to the Bigs

Welcome to Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, home of the Marlins and Cardinals.

I’m on my to Miami for a couple of Marlins games. What’s on the way to Miami? Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, home to both the Jupiter Hammerheads and the Palm Beach Cardinals. Who’s playing baseball at Roger Dean Stadium this week? Well, it’s the Jupiter Hammerheads and the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels. Looks like I’ll be stopping in Jupiter for some minor league baseball on my way to the bigs.

Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter, Fla., is a busy place. In addition to the Low-A Hammerheads and Cardinals, Miami and St. Louis also share the stadium for spring training, and each fields a team here in the rookie Gulf Coast League. That means there’s always something going on at the stadium and it requires a lot of fancy footwork to keep the pieces moving.

Safety first. No autographs. A shield between bullpen pitchers and fans.
Some seats OK, some not, for safe distancing.

Masks 100% off in the stands, 50% off in the team store. 

The Marlins and Cardinals both use the same playing field and grandstand, but each organization has its own office space, practice fields, conditioning rooms, lockers, etc. The teams were faced with a problem when dealing with pandemic health restrictions. How do two teams that play games in one stadium virtually every day find time to clean seats and other surfaces to ensure safety for players, employees and spectators?

The solution was to close the stadium three days a week to all but players and essential personnel. No spectators were allowed for Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday games, and seats were limited for Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Restrictions have been eased to allow more people in the stands, but there are still no spectators on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Some recognizable names on Palm Beach County Sports Hall of Fame banners.

I’ve been to games at Roger Dean Stadium several times, I think for at least one spring training game, and maybe a minor league game too. I don’t have my game logs handy, but I can check them out in about a week when I’m back in Pennsylvania. I know that I was here for a game in spring of 2013 so my sister Gale could get an autograph on the pink bat she was given as the Marlins 2012 Honorary Bat Girl in baseball’s Going to Bat Against Cancer campaign. 

I’ve also been back to get a stamp in my Minor League Ballpark Pass-Port Book. I just don’t remember exactly when. You’d think I would have gone to a lot of games at Roger Dean on my many, many trips to Miami for Marlins games, but there was always some scheduling problem or travel deadline that got in the way. I have seen the Hammerheads play many times when they travel to Daytona to face the Tortugas. 

Signs show which outfield buildings belong to the Marlins
and which belong to the Cardinals. They light up.

 
Tonight’s game in Jupiter was a perfect fit for my weekend plans in Miami, with an early Marlins game Saturday and even earlier start on Sunday. Spending tonight in South Florida means I won’t have to get up extra early for the 4½-hour drive south.

What makes me really happy is that I'm seeing games this season where all the Marlins teams are based, at least almost. After tomorrow, I will have been to games in Miami, Jacksonville, Pensacola and Jupiter this month. Somebody send me a ticket to Beloit, Wisc. If I can get to a Snappers game, it'll be a clean sweep of all the Marlins's teams. It might not be this month, but there's a good chance I'll make it before the end of the season. I would like to see the Beloit Snappers in their farewell season. They'll have a new name next year. We just don't know what it's going to be yet.

New name, new uniforms for the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels.

The Hammerheads' opponents have a new name and a new look this season. The former Fort Myers Miracle, A-Advanced team of the Minnesota Twins, became the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels in 2020. They never got to play a single game though. No minor league teams did, as the season was postponed and eventually cancelled when Covid-19 put a halt to everything. This year it's a new name, new uniforms and new colors. They're still with the Minnesota Twins, but they and they rest of the old Florida State League teams are now in the Low-A Southeast league. 

Celebration for the Hammerheads.

The Mighty Mussels of Fort Myers showed up to play baseball, but it was the mighty muscles of the Hammerheads that prevailed. Final: Jupiter Hammerheads 4, Fort Myers Mighty Mussels 1.