A 'Holy Toledo' Finish

A full-size bobble head Muddonna greets fans at one gate
while her friend Muddy stands guard at another.

After reaching the furthest point of my Midwest baseball tour in Beloit, Wis., it was time to turn back east to spend a couple of days in Cleveland before heading home to Pennsylvania. Can anyone think of a better way to break up a long drive on endless toll roads across three states than to take in a baseball game? Lucky for me the Toledo Mud Hens, AAA team for the Detroit Tigers, were at home for an afternoon match with the Indianapolis Indians, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ affiliate.

Getting to Fifth Third Field in downtown Toledo was easy, but I was surprised to see $20 signs at a couple of parking lots next to the ballpark. I decided to drive around the block to see what else might be available, and I was surprised again to see a tiny lot with less than 20 spaces and a sign that said $10.

On most days I would say that $10 is too much to pay for parking at a minor league baseball game, but this was a welcome sign considering the competition, and so I pulled in. I still can’t figure out why it cost so much less than the other lots, and why there were so many open spaces less than 15 minutes before the stadium gates would open.

My excellent parking spot. That building in the background
is part of the Fifth Third Field complex.

My parking lot was across the street from the stadium, just like the $20 lots that I could see just a half a block away, and it was close to the ticket windows where a small crowd had begun to gather. It was hot, so I requested a seat that might have some shade, then had just a few minutes to wait before they let us in.

There were a lot of people at the ballpark on a Sunday afternoon, but with plenty of food and beverage concession stands, there were no long lines. It was mostly the usual ballpark fare and I wound up with a delicious chili dog loaded with onions. First I had plenty of time to check out the team store to get my ballpark passport book stamped before the cashiers’ counter got busy.

Then I went to the guest services table to get a copy of the team rosters and the starting lineups. I was surprised to see that they had a tentative Toledo Mud Hens schedule for 2022. I hadn’t seen any schedule information for any minor league teams so I asked if this was something new. “We just released it to the public a few days ago,” the guy said.

Many familiar names on the Toledo Mud Hens roster.

For me this was big news. The minor leagues will continue the six-game series format put in place for this year, but there will be expanded competition across divisions within the various leagues. For example, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders, who only played the other teams in New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in 2021, will be playing the Toledo Mud Hens and a couple of other different teams next year.

I could hardly wait to get to my seat and search for more information on other teams, especially the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, the new AAA team for the Miami Marlins. The Jumbo Shrimp play a little over 100 miles from my home in Florida, so I’ve been to see them several times on my extended visits south. Selfish me, I want to see them on the road when they come to play my two AAA teams in Pennsylvania, the Railriders to the north, and the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs to the south. Both teams are about 35-40 miles from my home in Henryville, an easy drive either way.

Not a bad seat in the house at Fifth Third Field in downtown Toledo.

Not all the minor league teams have released their preliminary schedules, so I was only able to find out that the Jumbo Shrimp won’t be playing the Iron Pigs, but they will be at the Railriders for a week in May. They’ll also come up to play the Syracuse Mets, which is a little more than a day trip’s distance, but close enough for me to see a few of the games at least.

Yes, I’ve already started to fill in my baseball calendar for 2022, and there’s still about six weeks to go in this season, counting the extra two weeks of postseason play for all the AAA teams. The Mud Hens are in a battle for first place in the Midwest division of the AAA East, but the standings won’t really matter for the postseason tournament. Each team will play an opponent five games at home and another opponent five games on the road. At the end of the 10 games, the team with the best record will be declared the AAA East champion.

A delicious chili dog. I was so hungry, I almost forgot to take a picture.

It looked like Toledo might slip in the standings when the Indians took an 8-5 lead after batting around in the fifth and sending eight to the plate in the sixth. The Mud Hens tightened the score to 8-7 in the bottom of the sixth, setting up a wild finish that was an awful lot like the end of the game I saw in Dayton just four days before when an unlikely hero won the game for the Dragons.

A leadoff double in the bottom of the ninth from Aderlin Rodriguez, a wild pitch and a walk to Kody Clemens put runners on first and third with no outs. A strikeout followed, then another walk loaded the bases. The Indians pitcher mishandled a ground ball chopped down the third base line, allowing Rodriguez to score the tying run and leave the bases loaded.

The Mud Hens celebrate their dramatic victory.

Another ground ball fielded by the catcher forced the out at home, but the bases were still loaded, now with two outs, as Akil Baddoo came up for his sixth plate appearance. He was 0-3 on the day with 2 walks, but on a 2-2 count, he drove one to the center field wall to bring home the winning run. Final: Toledo Mud Hens 9, Indianapolis Indians 8. 

Within minutes I was back on the road to Cleveland. I scooted out of my $10 parking spot, flew across a bridge away from downtown traffic, and got back to the long, lonely toll road.