Season’s End, Part 2: A Big Finish

Skipper takes umbrage and my cap when he sees my Beloit Snappers gear. 

When I hatched the plan for the crazy three-state end to my baseball summer, it was an extra bonus that Ohio’s Lake County Captains were playing the Beloit Snappers, the High-A minor league team of the Miami Marlins. This would be the third game of my trip after a Tuesday game in Allentown with the Iron Pigs and a Wednesday game at the Erie Seawolves. 

Classic Park, home of the Captains, is a short drive east of Cleveland, where I was staying with my friends. That’s a great name for a baseball stadium, even though it’s a corporate sponsor, the Classic Automotive Group auto dealer conglomerate, that paid for the naming rights. There are other examples where a sponsor’s name looks good as a stadium name, like Great America Ballpark in Cincinnati or Valley Strong Park in Visalia, Calif.

The Captains are the High-A team of the Cleveland Indians and one of closest farm teams to its major league affiliates. The two teams also have a long association that goes back to 1991 in Columbus, Ga., when the Captains were known as the Redstixx. The team moved to the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio in 2003, but remained in the South Atlantic League until they switched to the Midwest League. They’re now in the East Division of Minor League Baseball’s High-A Central League.

The nautical theme is everywhere at Classic Park.

It was 3-2-1 Night at Classic Park: $3 draft beers, $2 hot dogs, and $1 fountain sodas or water. I don’t need fantastic menu concoctions with a deal like that.

There was a kerfluffle before the game when Skipper, the Captains’ furry mascot plopped down in the seat next to me. “Uh-oh,” I said, “You’d better not look at my shirt.” Both my cap and t-shirt featured one of Skipper’s arch enemies, Snappy the turtle, mascot for the Beloit Snappers. Skipper shot out of the seat, grabbed my cap, and put his giant sized Captains cap on my head.

He was probably surprised that his cap was almost a good fit for my giant-sized noggin. When he tried to switch back, I threatened to hold on to his cap as a fair exchange. I finally gave it back it him, and he gave me mine . . . but only after wiping it all over his tail end.

The jumbo screen says it all: Captains Win!

The Snappers got the same kind of treatment from the Captains. The Snappers scored first in the fourth inning, but Raynel Delgado tied things up with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning and the inning ended with the Captains up 3-1. The Snappers evened the score at 3-3 in the sixth, but Christian Cairo launched a two-run homer to put the Captains ahead for good. Jose Tena added an insurance run with a solo homer in the eighth. Final: Lake County Captains 6, Beloit Snappers 3.

Friday was a traveling day to get back to my home in Pennsylvania. We left early Saturday with the goal of getting to Yankee Stadium by 11 a.m. in order to line up for our Don Mattingly bobbleheads. There was a good-sized, good-spirited crowd, but we arrived with time to spare. I was expecting to wait an hour before the gates opened for the 1:05 game time, but found out we’d be able to get in at 11:35.

The early crowd gathers with Gate 2's metal detectors in sight.

The extra time allowed us to get our bearings once inside, and we were able to beat the late crowd at Monument Park without a long wait. I had never been to see the legendary display in center field at either the old or new Yankee Stadium, so I’m glad we had time to stop by on our way to our seats. Whether you’re a Yankee fan or not, it is an astonishing tribute to the pantheon of Yankees who represent a large slice of baseball’s history.

The legendary gallery in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park.

I don’t know if there’s still much of a debate over old vs. new Yankee Stadium, but for me, it’s still one of the most exciting places to see a baseball game. The atmosphere is electric and I think they did a good job of bringing a sense of history from the old ballpark into the new one.

It’s only the second time I’ve been in the new stadium and the first time since I retired from my job in New York City. It was fun to watch the players, the majority of the starting lineup, who I’ve been seeing over the years at the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders.

The dramatic atrium at Yankee Stadium.

I even got to see Giancarlo Stanton, an old favorite of mine from the Miami Marlins, hit one of his signature home runs. Meanwhile, my friend Paul got to see his Cleveland Indians knock the tar out of the Yankees for an 11-3 victory. The night before we had watched on TV as the Yankees shut out Cleveland, 8-0.

I had only been to the old stadium a half a dozen times in all the years I lived and worked in the city. I could look it up. Maybe it was eight times. But one game in particular was on my mind, 25 years ago to the day, when I took my brother, Drew, to see a Yankees game on his birthday. That was in the old Yankee Stadium and those seats are gone. Still, it was a sweet memory of one of my favorite baseball buddies and the many games we were able to see together over the years. Leaving one memorable season behind, I can look forward to next year, when I can go back to the ballpark.

Season’s End, Part 1: The Tickets That Keep Giving

A September sunset at UPMC Park, home of the Erie Seawolves.

While AAA baseball is in the midst of what they’re calling the Final Stretch, while the lower minor teams are wrapping up their league championship best-of-five series, and while the final pieces of the playoffs in the big leagues are falling into place, my thoughts are focused on closing out my blog for the season. I have no tickets for any games the rest of the way, but you never know with me. It ain’t over ‘til it’s over, right?

It was a good, long season for me and it ended with a great baseball trip with four games over a span of five days in four cities across three states. Two of the ballparks were new to me, so I should be posting at least two reports. The problem is the four games all part of the same tale and I’m having trouble sorting things into their separate and proper compartments. So here we go with one big, season-ending, back to the ballpark blowout, part 1. 

We have to go back to May when I bought two tickets to a Seawolves game on a tag-along business trip with my niece to Erie, Pa. Then her meeting was cancelled and so was the baseball trip. It looked like I would end up losing the ticket investment, so I decided to call and offer the tickets as a donation so a couple of kids might get to see a game. I got lucky when the right person answered the phone and said I could use my tickets for another game. 

The first thing I had to do was decide when I could get back to Erie and use the tickets. Maybe it could be part of a trip to western Pennsylvania coupled with more baseball in Altoona or Pittsburgh. Or I could stop for a game on my way to Cleveland to see my friends there and to see more baseball in Ohio. 

I always ask a few questions when I’m picking a date for baseball tickets. Are there other nearby teams playing at home? Who are they playing? Is there a special event like Bark in the Park? And then there’s the big question: What are they giving away? 

Oops. A mixup over bobbleheads. Wait 'til next year.

It turns out the Seawolves had two bobblehead giveaway dates on September 15 and 18, a Wednesday and Saturday. Saturday’s bobblehead would be Matt Manning, the rookie pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, who was named Eastern League Pitcher of the Year in 2019. Wednesday’s offering was a piñata bobblehead, specifically a bull piñata, the mascot for Las Piñatas de Erie, the alter ego of the Seawolves in baseball’s Copa de la Diversión series. 

One serious giveaway and one silly was OK by me. I penciled the two games into my calendar and moved on. These games were months away in the last week of the regular season and I could make the exchange closer to the dates. It’s a good thing I waited, because I would later pick up two free tickets to see the Yankees, thanks to my association with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders.

Once again, I went through the process to find a good date for the Yankee game and hit the jackpot. On Sept. 18, they would be giving away a Don Mattingly bobblehead at their game with the Cleveland Indians. As much as I hated to give up the Matt Manning bobble, there’s no way I could miss out on Don Mattingly, the manager of my favorite team, the Miami Marlins.

Bubblegum and Stardust hurry to the starting line for the unicorn race
across the outfield between innings, "the fastest 20 seconds in all of sports."

This also meant I’d probably miss out on the piñata bobblehead too, because it would be sandwiched between a Tuesday night game in Allentown and Saturday’s game in New York. Then I got a crazy idea. I could drive to Cleveland, take my friends Paul and Sally to the Seawolves on Wednesday and maybe go to another game on Thursday. Then Paul and I would drive back to my home in northeastern Pennsylvania on Friday so we could go to the Yankees-Indians game on Saturday. From there Paul would fly home to Cleveland.

Paul was on board, but with one small change. It would be me flying to Cleveland and Paul and Sally would do the round-trip drive. There’s icing on this sweet cake. On Thursday, the Lake County Captains, who play just east of Cleveland, were scheduled to play the Beloit Snappers, the High-A team of my Miami Marlins, in the final week of their farewell season before re-branding as the Beloit something or others next year.

Waiting to board the bus for the "flight" to Newark and on to Cleveland.

Adding to the wackiness of this trip is that the first leg of my flight from Allentown is a bus ride at 6 a.m. to Newark Liberty International where I get on a plane to Cleveland. Did I mention I went to an Iron Pigs game in Allentown the night before? (The Railriders beat the Pigs 4-2.) It was a short night’s sleep at another niece’s house near the airport before the flight, and an ill-fated ride to drop me off. I made it to the bus with plenty of time, but her car broke down after dropping me off. This is just the latest in a series of car mishaps the two of us have had involved with sporting events. At least she had the use of my car while I was gone.

At the Iron Pigs '90s Night, Mitch Williams was on hand to sign his bobblehead box.

I arrived in Cleveland on schedule and even had time for a short nap before we headed for Erie, an hour and a half away. UPMC Park, where the Seawolves play, is named for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Erie. It might be the most unusual baseball stadium I’ve seen, and I’ve been to at least 100. It has two separate grandstands, one on the first base side and the other on third. There’s a high gray wall in left field where the stadium butts up against the arena.

Erie’s previous baseball team, the Sailors, moved to New York in a dispute over stadium improvement issues and became the Hudson Valley Renegades. Not long after that, Erie’s city government was able to get help from the state to build a new ballpark, and the Welland Pirates moved from Ontario, Canada, and became the Erie Seawolves.

The team is no longer affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but it has kept its piratical identity even though it’s one of the Detroit Tigers’ teams. Give them a call some time and go through their automated menu until you get to the last option. “Press 7 to hear a pirate joke.” 

There's a hot dog underneath the rest ot the Cuban dog ingredients.

There are good food offerings at the ballpark. I had a Cuban dog that was a challenge to eat on it’s tiny, regular hot dog bun. A Cuban roll would have made it a lot easier. Another option was a basket of French fries covered with the ingredients you’d normally find on super nachos. I forget what they called it, but it sure looked good.

Pepperoni balls, two per order, are the specialty of the house. They’re filling, so consider sharing with someone if you want to have room for some of the other tasty offerings. Hand scooped ice cream is particularly good at UPMC Park.

Imagine a filled doughnut, but without the sugar coating
and stuffed with pepperoni instead of jelly.

It was a big disappointment that the piñata bobblehead giveaway was postponed until next season. The good news is that our tickets will be honored next year when the bobblehead game is rescheduled. Looks like it’s back to the ballpark next year thanks to the tickets that keep giving.

The Piñatas on the ball field took the lead early in their game with the Richmond Flying Squirrels. Erie answered back with 2 runs in the bottom of the fifth inning after Richmond tied the game at 2 apiece in the top half. Both teams added a run in the eighth, but Erie held on to win. Final: Piñatas de Erie 5, Richmond Flying Squirrels 3.

Next: Season’s End, Part 2. More minor league baseball and back to Yankee Stadium.

Baseball at the Boardwalk

The lights come on when night falls at Maimonides Park
and on rides beyond left field in Coney Island.

It’s my latest m.o. On a long drive from point A to point B, find a baseball game along the way to break up the trip. Just about exactly halfway home to Pennsylvania from Hampton Bays, N.Y., is Maimonides Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones. Lucky for me, the Cyclones were wrapping up their week-long series with the Aberdeen Ironbirds in a game at 4 p.m.

Also lucky for me, Sundays and Thursdays are senior days with $10 tickets anywhere in the stands. Parking is reasonable too in a lot right next to the ballpark. Most days it costs $20, but if you’re going to the baseball game it’s $8. They might ask to see your tickets before they give you the ballgame rate.

Colorful lights dance up and down the Parachute Jump tower just outside the stadium.

Maimonides Park is in one of the most dramatic locations of any ballpark I’ve seen. It’s built on the spot where Coney Island’s famous Steeplechase amusement was located. Towering over the right field corner is the historic frame of the Parachute Jump ride, which is brilliantly lit when night falls. From the stands you can see the tops of carousels, bungee jump rides and various rollercoasters, even the Cyclone, which gave its name to the baseball team. It’s like watching a baseball game at a carnival. You can even see the Atlantic Ocean.

The public address system was the loudest I’ve ever heard at a ballpark. More than once I saw fans with their fingers in their ears, even during the national anthem. One time when it went silent during an at-bat, I said out loud, “Wow. I can hear myself.” The people sitting in front of me laughed.

A few innings into the game it became clear why it was so loud as a hip hop concert cranked up a little ways down the boardwalk. The duel of decibels was on. Note to self, and others: take some earplugs next Cyclones game.

A free jersey. Happy Birthday Thor.

I got up to go to the restroom and I was walking along the concourse when a foul ball came straight back into the stands and took a bounce toward me. A guy with a broom and a dustpan one-handed it and held it out for me to take. That’s not the only souvenir from my day at the ballpark. I bought a pin, of course, celebrating a Seinfeld night promotion called The Sein-clones.

I knew we might get a pack of 30 Cyclones baseball cards if we got to the game early, and we did, but I didn't know we were getting a Noah Syndergaard Mets jersey for his 29th birthday. We missed Thor’s Thursday rehab appearance by a few days. He was expected to pitch an inning on his birthday, but was scratched after a positive Covid-19 test. He’s been vaccinated. Happy Birthday, Thor. Best of luck and thanks for the shirt.

Nathan's Famous french fries and hot dog.

Do I have to say anything about the food at Maimonides Park? You’re in Coney Island. You can see Nathan’s Famous on Surf Avenue from your seat behind the Cyclones dugout. Get a hot dog and some fries, sit down and enjoy the game.

I’m embarrassed to say it took me so long to catch a Brooklyn Cyclones game considering all the time I lived and worked in and around New York City. True, the Cyclones didn’t even exist for more than half the time I was there, but that’s no excuse. I’m the guy who also never visited Grant’s tomb until at least a decade after I’d left New York and retired to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania.

I never went to a Staten Island Yankees game either. I thought I lost my chance forever when the team shut down following Major League Baseball’s shakeup of the minor leagues last year. It looks like a baseball will return to Staten Island next year, not with a minor league team, but as part of the expanding independent Atlantic League.

One of several 9/11 memorials outside the ballpark.

No need to wait until next year for baseball in Coney Island, but you’d better hurry. There are only two home stands left for the Cyclones and there won’t be a post-season for them this year. They’re in last place in the standings.

The Cyclones batters struggled at the plate and came away with only four hits. Their pitchers had trouble finding the strike zone, walking 9 Ironbirds batters. The score could have been more lopsided than it was. The Ironbirds left 12 runners, and walkers, on base. Final: Aberdeen Ironbirds 6, Brooklyn Cyclones 1

Welcome to the Minor Leagues

A big flag flies in center field at TD Bank Park, home of the Somerset Patriots

The Somerset Patriots are one of three independent teams brought into the minor leagues in last year’s reorganization by Major League Baseball. The other two were the St. Paul Saints, who became the AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, and the Sugar Land Skeeters, who became the Houston Astros’ AAA team.

The Patriots took the place of the Trenton Thunder as the AA team of the New York Yankees and Trenton got left behind in the shuffle. I wondered why the major league teams were bringing in clubs from outside in the new alignment, while at the same time reducing the number of affiliated teams from 160 to 120. That was when I knew almost nothing about the independent professional leagues.

A big version of Sparkee, the Patriots' mascot, welcomes fans to the ballpark.

It turns out there’s been a lot going on outside of Major League Baseball and their minor league teams. I’d heard about the success of the St. Paul Saints, who were part of the American Association of Professional Baseball. We’ll talk about them whenever I get to see a game there.

The Patriots and the Skeeters were part of Atlantic League Professional Baseball, which was created in 1998 when the New York Mets objected to an affiliated minor league team moving into their market area. The league works with a higher salary cap than other minor leagues, tries to sign players with major league experience, and requires that stadiums be maintained at or above the standards set for AAA ballparks.

Every ballpark should do this. Pay for parking, get a store discount

Two teams that lost their affiliation with major league teams, the West Virginia Power and the Lexington Legends, have joined the Atlantic League to replace the Patriots and the Skeeters, and there are plans to expand from eight teams to as many as 12 in the coming years. A team in Staten Island is expected to start play in 2022.

The Atlantic League has recently agreed to test a wide range of experimental rules that are being considered by Major League Baseball, like radar tracking for balls and strikes and moving the pitcher’s rubber back a foot. It’s an interesting partnership that makes me want to add the Atlantic League teams to my list of ballparks to visit. I’ve already seen a game in Charleston, W. Va., when the Power were a Class A team of the Seattle Mariners.

The Patriots have retired 28, my number and the number of Sparky Lyle,
who managed the team for many years.

The Patriots and their fans have embraced their new association with the Yankees, which strengthened ties that were already part of the team’s history. The Yankee pitcher Sparky Lyle was involved with the team from the start and he served as manager for many years. They’ve retired his number (and mine), 28, which hangs on the stadium wall behind the home plate seats. The furry mascot Sparkee has a very distinctive and familiar looking moustache.

Honoring the contributions of the Negro Leagues to professional baseball. 

The special event for the night was a celebration of the Negro Leagues and the decision by Major League Baseball to include statistics from Negro League players. Exhibits were on display from the Yogi Berra Museum in Little Falls, and from the Hinchliffe Stadium Project to restore the historic ballpark in Paterson that was home to the New York Black Yankees.

A small bobble head honoring Elston Howard, with fun facts and stats on the box. 

Early arriving fans received a bobble head figurine of Elston Howard, the catcher who became the first black player with the New York Yankees. Howard is known for his stellar career, and also for inventing the batting doughnut, the circular weight that slips over a bat to help an on-deck player warm up for his plate appearance.

Loaded barbecue potato chips with pulled pork, bbq sauce and cole slaw.

The Patriots fell behind the Akron Rubber Ducks early, but tied the score twice, the second time in the bottom of the ninth when Josh Breaux hit a solo home run. The Rubber Ducks scored two runs in the top of the 10th, and the Patriots went down in order for the loss. Final: Akron Rubber Ducks 5, Somerset Patriots 3, 10 innings.

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.

Hello and Farewell to the Snappers

Clouds didn't keep the Beloit Snappers' grounds crew from their appointed rounds.

I can’t tell you how good it felt to be sitting in ABC Supply Stadium watching the Beloit Snappers playing the Peoria Chiefs. First of all, it’s a brand new stadium, with its first game played earlier in the month. Everything is unblemished and the place even smells like a new car. Maybe I was the first person to sit in Section 108, Row D, Seat 24, who knows? 

Secondly, this is one of my teams, the new High-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins. It would have been nice to have them closer to home, like the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp who were promoted to AAA from AA this season. The Jumbo Shrimp are closer to my home in Florida than the big team in Miami. It’s any easy day trip to Jacksonville instead of an overnighter to Miami.

The Snappers moved into their new ballpark in early August.

The Jupiter Hammerheads stayed right where they are, about an hour north of Miami. The only difference is that they were demoted to Low-A from Advanced A. The Pensacola Blue Wahoos, the Marlins’ new AA team, are not really close to home, about 700 miles from Miami, but at least they’re in the same state. 

I wondered if the Marlins would keep the Clinton Lumber Kings or the Batavia Muck Dogs as their fourth minor league team or maybe invite a team closer to either of my homes in Florida. I have to say I was a little bit disappointed to find out they had chosen the Beloit Snappers. Would I ever get to Wisconsin to see them play? 

It's a Snapper's tradition. A veteran raises the flay during the national anthem.

Still, I started making plans for a visit, and I got more and more excited when I found out they’d be moving into a new stadium. They’ll be adopting a new name next season, but I’d be happy if they didn’t change. Snappy is a fun mascot and I don’t think there are any other teams named for a turtle.

What made me happiest, though, is that I made it to Beloit this year to complete a cycle of all the Marlins’ teams in one season, the first time I've done this for any team, let alone my favorite fishes. I’ve been to all of the affiliates of several teams by now, but only over multiple seasons.

The old ballpark, Pohlman Field, is now vacant on game days.

To top things off, it was a fun experience. It’s a great place to watch a game, even though it’s kind of difficult to find. My GPS search wanted to send me to the old stadium in a city park north of downtown. Parking is tricky at the new stadium, but the good news is that it’s free in various nearby municipal lots. You just have to take a short walk to get to the ballpark.

The Snappers have pulled out all the stops when it comes to food. The first thing you see when you enter through the center field gate is Food Truck Alley, where local vendors offer a variety of options. The stadium’s concession stands feature things like chicken nuggets served in a waffle cone as well as with other ballpark standards. It’s Wisconsin, so fried cheese curds are on the menu too.

Brat-chos for the main course, a double-scoop waffle cone for dessert.

I had brat-chos, sliced bratwurst over tortilla chips with red cabbage, pickled onions and brown mustard. For dessert, I went to the Madison Chocolate Shoppe booth, where they make hand-dipped ice cream cones and sundaes with flavors like Espresso Oreo and Yippee Skippy.

I went a little crazy in the team store for Snappy’s farewell season. I had to get a Snappy baseball cap, and a farewell season pin. It looked like the fishing Snappy bobble heads were sold out, but the staff found me one. I also pulled an Isan Diaz bat with a split handle out of bucket of broken bats.

Souvenir stash from the team store.

It was a lot of fun watching the future Marlins at work even though it didn't end well for the Snappers. They managed to keep it close with the Cardinal’s team from Peoria, and they tied the game at 4 apiece in the bottom of the 8th inning. The Chiefs scored a run on a couple of hits in the 9th to regain the lead and struck out the side in the bottom half for the win. Final: Peoria Chiefs 5, Beloit Snappers 4.

Full of Surprises

A tribute to Stanley Coveleski, the Hall of Fame pitcher who retired in South Bend.

Where to begin with this one? I try to do a little background research before going to a stadium. Other blogs, the team websites and maps give me an idea of what to expect, but I’m often pleasantly surprised. Four Winds Field at Coveleski Stadium, home of the High-A South Bend Cubs, knocked my socks off. 

It’s not a new stadium, by average standards, but it looks like it could have been built yesterday instead of almost 35 years ago. It’s not quite as wide open as the stadiums that are being built today, but it has wide concourses that open out with views of the field once you get past about first and third base. The 5,000 seats are spread out around home base and along the baselines in a way that puts everyone close to the action on the field.

Splash pad in the outfield. Great for the kids on a hot day.

Apparently it was one of the first stadiums to “open up” the walkways behind the seating arena and served as a model for other ballparks that followed. There’s a walkway completely around the field that provides good views except for a small area behind the batter’s eye and some structures in center field. There are play areas for kids, a lively and popular splash fountain that even has changing rooms for the youngsters that get soaked.

A few years ago, there was a major renovation effort around the stadium and now the outfield is surrounded by apartment buildings that provide views for residents and rooftop seats for others, just like at the big ballpark in Chicago’s north side. Of course, the name and the team logos are a dead giveaway that South Bend is an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.

Seating on the rooftop, party decks down below.

There are other references to the big home team. There are signs above the various concession stands that say things like “Clark Street” and “Waveland Avenue” to help you remember where you saw the ice cream cones or the chicken fingers for sale.

One of the best nods to Chicago is the alternate identify the South Bend Cubs have adopted for the Copa de la Diversíon series: Los Cabritos Maldichos, or the little cursed goats. I found out about them in the team store, which I had a little difficulty finding, because it was in an unusual place beyond the outfield. The store is inside what might be the only synagogue building attached to a ballpark.

The South Bend Cubs team store is located in the historic Sons of Israel synagogue. 

The Sons of Israel synagogue was built in 1901, but had outlived its usefulness as a house of worship. It was sold several times over the years as people tried to figure out what to do with the historic landmark until it was taken over by the Cubs. The building has been restored inside and out, except that now it’s full of South Bend Cubs merchandise.

Double header fare. Fried curds for starters, Philly steak nachos in the nightcapper.

The food at Four Winds is top notch. I started with an order of fried cheese curds, a treat that I am happy to say has migrated from its homeland in Wisconsin, and I was going to have something small later in the game. Then people started showing up with a dish that looked and smelled delicious. It turned out to be a Philly cheese steak, not in a roll, but piled over a basket of tortilla chips. There were many other tempting options, too many for even a double header, and too many to list them all. But you can look at the menus here.

I had another surprise when I arrived in South Bend early and went straight to my hotel west of town to check in rather than exploring downtown. It’s a good thing, because when I double-checked the game time, I found out there was a double header of sorts, a continuation of the game that had been suspended the night before. The game would resume at 5:05 with the regular game starting about a half hour after the end of the first game.

Early arrivals for the double header at Four Winds Field.

I didn’t even unload the car because it was almost 4 o’clock and I figured the gates would be open by the time I got there. It would give me time to settle in, visit the shop, grab a bite to eat, etc. There were a few people waiting outside when I got to the stadium but the gates weren’t open. I bought my ticket and asked when the ballpark would open.

“5 o’clock.”

I don’t know. I guess it was going to take time to get the stadium staff organized and the concession stands up and running, but five minutes didn’t seem like a lot of time to get us through the gates and into our seats. Well, I thought, they finished two innings the night before and there was no score, so it would be kind of like watching a 7-inning game from the start.

To my surprise, I looked out on to the field and saw the bases were loaded with two outs in the top of the third inning. That was the situation at the time the game was suspended when a big storm rolled through town. It didn’t take long for the game to get exciting. On a 1-2 count, Michael Massey hit one over the right center field fence, and just like that, the Quad Cities River Bandits were up 4-0 over the Cubs.

South Bend got back into the game with the score 5-3 at the end of the 6th, but the River Bandits batted around in the 7th and added two more runs in the 9th for a 12-4 lead. The Cubs fought back in the bottom half scoring 4 runs and loading the bases with two out for Bryce Windham, who represented the tying run. It was his second at bat of the inning, and for the second time he flied out to end the game. Final, game 1: Quad Cities River Bandits 12, South Cubs 8.

The moon came up for a view over the first base stands.

In the second game, the Cubs came back to tie things up 4-4 in the sixth, but the River Bandits scored two in the extra 8th inning and the Cubs could manage just one more run. Final, game 2: Quad Cities 6, South Bend Cubs 5.

One more thing: I believe this is my first baseball game where one of the umpires was a woman. Jen Pawol, one of two women currently working in the minor leagues and the seventh woman to umpire in men’s professional baseball, was behind the plate for the first game and in the field for the second game. You can read more about her here. She has an interesting story.

Jen Pawol makes the call at third base.