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.

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.