Hold up! Minors has long history of strange delays
Come out to the ballpark on any given day, and there’s no telling what you might see. Or might not see. For instance, a baseball game played as scheduled from start to finish. Nobody hopes for a delay, but the possibility does add a certain spontaneity. And is there any
Ballpark chef brings Italian touch to concessions
ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- The 2023 season was Alessandro Buccino’s first as executive chef for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. This despite the fact that, for most of his life, he never gave any thought to a career in the food service industry. But, then again, he also hadn’t thought that he'd
Check out 10 of Mike Veeck's zaniest promotions
The Saint of Second Chances, a new documentary now streaming on Netflix, traces Mike Veeck’s professional implosion and resurrection. The implosion was caused by Disco Demolition Night, an infamous disaster that Veeck staged in 1979 while serving as promotions director for the Chicago White Sox (a team then owned by
Minor League Baseball's Top Alternate Identities
Over the course of a long season, it's good to switch things up. Minor League teams across the country do so on a regular basis, adopting a plethora of alternate identities to complement their everyday name and look. Alternate identities encompass a wide range of often irreverent themes, gaining fans
Smell familiar? Skunk once again interrupts Baysox-Senators game
Something is in the air when these two teams meet. For the second time this season, a skunk has interrupted play between the Double-A Bowie Baysox (Orioles) and Harrisburg Senators (Nationals). In the bottom of the sixth inning on Tuesday night at Harrisburg’s FNB Field, a black-and-white striped critter appeared
Who needs hits? Jupiter's Lewis steals 5 bases
At first, it looks like a misprint. Five steals on zero hits? How can that be? What Ian Lewis accomplished for Single-A Jupiter on Wednesday night was so rare it’s been done just once in AL/NL history dating back to 1901. (The lone big leaguer to pull off the five-steal,
DSL Red Sox no-hit themselves, well, sort of
When you play in a league with more than one team from your organization, every head-to-head matchup comes with bragging rights. The Rookie-level Dominican Summer League Red Sox Blue commandeered them on Thursday in pretty remarkable fashion – no-hitting organizational counterpart Red Sox Red in a 1-0 victory. That’s right:
Tourists crash party to celebrate Costner character
The Durham Bulls may be the Minor League team most often associated with the “Bull Durham,” but they’re not the only one from North Carolina with ties to the 1988 rom-com. Main character Crash Davis ends the movie playing 224 miles west of Durham with the Asheville Tourists, where he
Altoona's trash could be a lucky fan's treasure
When fans attend a ballgame, there’s not much better than catching a foul ball in the stands. For whoever grabs it, that ball becomes a cherished souvenir. But what if you attended a game and went home with a 55-gallon trash can used two seasons ago, would that become a
Springfield cash-ews in on local cuisine
The Springfield Cardinals have always been, in the words of general manager Dan Reiter, a very traditional franchise. The Double-A team had never assumed an alternate identity before, but the tradition was broken this week. For the first time in the club’s history, they didn't take the field as the
Danas, Mesas get in some extra bonding time
For the Dana brothers, playing for the Tri-City Dust Devils is something of a family tradition. And for the Mesa brothers, taking the field for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos was a treat they'd like to repeat. But in both cases, being in pro ball in the same organization as their
Goose engages in fowl play in Hudson Valley
An out had not even been recorded in High-A Hudson Valley’s contest against Brooklyn on Thursday when the game took a turn for the wacky. A goose found its way onto the field at Heritage Financial Park, evading both players and groundskeepers alike in a brief appearance that raised goosebumps
What's in an apostrophe? For Pensacola, everything
Baseball, at its core, is a game dependent on accuracy. A fielder aims to throw the ball on the mark, a baserunner seeks every angle possible to motor around the bags and a manager can be zen-like in the quest to tab a hot bat off the bench or remove
Baker gets all kinds of acrobatic on sliding stop
For many of us, the first thought that comes to mind when we hear the name Darren Baker is of a 3-year-old boy being rescued at home plate by Giants first baseman J.T. Snow during Game 5 of the 2002 World Series. Baker, serving as San Francisco's batboy, was a
Critters get their running reps in during EL action
Who let the animals out in the Eastern League? Wildlife briefly interrupted Wednesday's action at two different Double-A ballparks in Pennsylvania -- first a squirrel in the New Hampshire-Reading game, and then a skunk in the Bowie-Harrisburg contest. Squirrel delays are nothing new at Minor League games -- in fact,
Draft Picks: Stripers serve up historical Pilsner
This is the first in a series of MiLB.com Draft Picks articles about clubs crafting unique and interesting beers for their respective fan bases. Others in the series: Spokane's Redband Tangerine Wheat Beer, Fayetteville's Birdy Brew and Kannapolis' Baller Beer.