We are lined up to go to a minor league game Friday night, if it's not rained out that is. Any fans of a minor league team on the old 'fire?

Yes, I go to the Augusta Green Jackets games frequently. They are a lot of fun.

Altoona Curve once in a while.
It's close, easy to get to, and cheap.
Not a sports fan at all, but I can stand to sit through
a ball game for my wife and kids. Would take a book,
But I have never been there, that someone didn't get hit by a ball
And have to be taken out.

OKC Dodgers are a good time. Beautiful park for minor leagues. I’ve had club level tickets given to me a couple times. A great feed before the game and food and drinks provided throughout.

Corpus Christi Hooks
pretty big deal here, but i've never been to a game.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Christi_Hooks

Salem Red Sox....

Love it. More relaxed venue, cheap seats, kids can run around and talk to the players. Ball game tomorrow, what could be better on the 4th of July??

Hartford Yard-goats here. The field is new and has a big league feel to it.

Watching the Chattanooga Lookouts is a good cheap activity. Seems the minor league players hustle more than the pampered millionaires in the majors. Cheap seats for $5.

Used to go see the O Royals when they played at Rosenblatt. Haven't been out to see the Chasers at Werner, but hear it's nice.

I need to go sometime.

+1!

Colorado Springs SkySox was good for a long time, triple-A team for the Rockies. Didn't mind paying close to Majors price ($8 beers) to see them but they moved. A single-A team has taken their place for the Brewers now but kept the $8 beer prices. I don't go there any more. If I want to pay major league prices I just drive up to Denver and see the Rockies.

The Braves single A team stadium is 6 miles from the house. I go watch them a few times a year. Cheap entertainment and I should probably go more. I can eat there cheaper than at the local high school games.

Cedar Rapids Kernels are fun - nice ballpark, easy access, good baseball. They are the the low A team for the Minnesota Twins. They have been affiliated with a number of teams over the years, and a lot of good ballplayers have passed through - Mike Trout being perhaps the best of the bunch.

The OKC Dodgers have already been mentioned, but I started watching AAA minor league baseball in Oklahoma City with the OKC 89ers. Before the city built the beautiful and spacious downtown Mickey Mantel Chickasaw Bricktown Ball Park, the franchise played at the old fairgrounds All Sports stadium.

Major League Affiliations:

1962-1964: Houston Colt .45s
1965-1972: Houston Astros
1973-1975: Cleveland Indians
1976-1982: Philadelphia Phillies
1983-1998: Texas Rangers

Rebranded the "Red Hawks" in 1998, after a failed NHL bid by the city, resulted in millions of dollars of "RedHawk" branded memorabilia, which was converted to use by the baseball franchise owners.

Owners:

1962-????: Oklahoma City All Sports Association (Jim Roederer, et al.)
1971-1973: Phil Dixon
1974-1975: Bus Horton
1976-1978: Harry Valentine
1978-1989: Patty Cox Hampton & Bing Hampton, et al.
1990-1993: Jeffrey Loria, Marv Goldklang, Bobby Murcer, et al.
1993-1998: Ed Gaylord, Bill Mathis, Larry Mathis, et al.
American Association Champions: 1992 & 1996
Pacific Coast League Champions: 1963 & 1965






1971 - OKC All Sports Stadium (safety nets? What safety nets? We don't need no stinkin' safety nets!)


Chickasaw Bricktown Ball Park - opened 1998

Minor league team stadiums we've been to:

Nashville Sounds
Bowling green Hot Rods
Louisville Cardinals
Jackson Generals
Tennessee Smokies
Asheville Tourists
Norfolk Tides
Chattanooga Lookouts


Independent League:

Florence Freedom


Major League:

Atlanta Braves
Cincinnati Reds
St. Louis Cardinals
Cleveland Indians

Our kids play and love baseball. I might have missed a couple, but these are what come to mind.

5sdad, and I were at the game Friday night. Good close game, the Kernels won down to their last strike bottom of the 9t. Two runs scored. the home crowd was happy, and they had a fireworks display after the game. Good time.

i played ball growing up and softball when i was in my twenty's but never really got into the spectator side of it. just like tennis, i like to play it but get bored watching it.

Tennessee Smokies....

When I was a kid it was the Tulsa Oilers. That team was an AAA club for the Cardinals. Since 1977 the team is the Tulsa Drillers a (now) Dodgers AA farm team. Great stadium right on the edge of downtown. A pile of good major league talent has played in Tulsa over the years.

Former Drillers

Ubaldo Jiménez, pitcher
Troy Tulowitzki, shortstop
Brad Hawpe, outfielder
Jeff Francis, pitcher
Ryan Speier, pitcher
Matt Holliday, outfielder
Dexter Fowler, outfielder
Ian Stewart, third baseman
Chris Iannetta, catcher
Gabe Kapler, outfielder
Iván Rodríguez, catcher
Sammy Sosa, outfielder
Carlos Pena, outfielder
Charlie Blackmon, outfielder
Nolan Arenado, third baseman
Corey Seager, shortstop
Cody Bellinger, first baseman, outfielder
Walker Buehler, pitcher

Former Oilers

Steve Carlton,
Mike Torrez,
Ted Simmons,
Nelson Briles,
Jerry Reuss,
Keith Hernandez,
Bob Forsch,
Dal Maxvill
Mike Easler



Perry

Mississippi braves?

Went to a game last year. Had a good time. Found the craft beer concession stand. 😂. Cool fireworks after the game.

To add to the story - the kid who doubled in the tying and winning runs, with two outs and a full count, was playing his first game for the Kernels, up from the rookie league. His first two at-bats resulted in outs. He was mobbed at 2nd base by his teammates - a real feel-good evening.

My Buddy has been managing in the minors for years, so I follow pretty close. There are a few good books on the minor leagues, many don't realize how many big names go up and down with nobody realizing. Dann and I both started as Cardinals in Little League, and he has come full circle now.

I remember him managing the Muckdogs, the Springfield Cardinals, and now he is managing the Palm Beach Cardinals. I love going to visit him and just sit in his office, and usually some ex-players will come by.

I highly recommend the book "Where Nobody Knows Your Name", a good insight into the minor leagues.

+1 on where nobody knows your name. Was really interesting. I didnt realize how much up and down from the majors there is on a daily basis

Unless you are a star, there is a lot of pressure to stay up.

That one story about that one guy was priceless...can't remember all the details, but wasn't it about six different teams in 30 days, then he ended up back where he started in his own apartment that he never had a chance to move out of!!

Grew up watching the Spokane Indians. George and Bobby Brett are the owners now. Working at a Refinery in Tacom right now and the Rainier games have been a good time!..

https://www.milb.com/tacoma/

I grew up watching the Arkansas Travelers as a kid. Then when we were stationed at LR we used to go watch them a few times a season. When we lived in MT, we used to watch the Rookie League team that Great Falls had that was a White Sox club at the time. The last Minor League game I watched was in August of 2017, I was in Biloxi, MS, and watched the Biloxi Shuckers. As many Minor games as I've been to, I've never been to a MLB Game, but that is changing the end of this month. I have tickets to the Braves/Nationals game when we are in DC. I'm going to try and catch a Giants game next year, as I grew up a Giants fan. My son likes the Texas Rangers since he was born in TX. MLB teams are where he and I split our differences.

I just ordered it , can't wait to get my hands on this book!

You will come away with a new understanding of how the “buisness” of baseball works. I have been a fan since I was 8, but I always had the impression the minors were for making your way to the Majors, then one played in the majors until their careers ended..I was way wrong.
Players want it bad, many are willing to languish and hold onto the the dream, some are given a small taste, never to return.
The book also talks about the umpires trying to make their way to the show, it is even lower odds for them. They have no stats to bolster their progress, just people who evaluate their game. Piss off somebody evaluating you, your career as an ump is over.
Book is an eye opener for real baseball fans, others will not understand it.

Yup Tri- City Valley Cats. Houston Astro's A team. My nephew is the GM ....

Cost more for one beer than to get in, $6 pints. Food prices are ridiculous.

Reading this brought bag some fond memories, as I actually played in several of those teams.......Spokane Indians, Tulsa Drillers when it was at the fairgrounds, Little Rock against the Travelers, Jackson MS mets. One thing of note about the bouncing up and down thing........my 2nd yr in AA I made a whopping $1400 gross per month. Out goal was obviously to make it to the big leagues, but even if you spent one inning in the show, whether it be on the field, bull pen, dugout, or whatever, if you got sent back down to the minor leagues you had to make a guaranteed 1/2 the major league minimun salary, which at that time IIRC was $100,000. That was huge money to a career minor league guy.

There is great talent at the AA level, just a notch below big league level in a lot of cases, and a slew of them did make it. Good ting about watching this class of baseball is that the players are still busting their assses when they're on the field, unlike the lazier, guaranteed big money big leaguers who make a half-assed effort about half the time.

Were you guys aware that one of our very well known members played in the minors? If you don't know who, I'll keep you hangin' here for a while.

My wife bought us tickets the St. Paul Saints for late July. The team is co-owned by the Veeck family and Bill Murray. Bill's been know to work one of the entrances at the first home game of the season checking tickets, shaking hands, and thanking fans for attending. The Veeck's are well known for their crazy promotions to get butts in the seats, from the piglet that carries the balls to the umpire, to the nuns giving massages in the stadium, it's non stop entertainment. The Saints play some pretty good ball too. They are part of the unaffiliated Northern League.

"Veeck, As In Wreck"

It's not every day a midget gets to bat in the major leagues.

Eddie Gaedel - #1/8 in your program, #1 in your heart. (It was the Browns, so there is some question as to the legitimacy of the "major leagues" designation.)

Ya, AA really is where the decisions are made, AAA more the bus station where people come down and go up.
As the book opines, AAA managers never know who was on their team until they get to the ballpark, sometimes 15 roster changes in a week.

My bud’s team started out well this year, I think first half they finished 1 game off the pace..second half they are in the cellar. I asked him what was going on with his team, he lost 15 players at the halfway point. 😂😂. I asked him once if he was hoping to get to AAA Memphis, he said no, AAA is too hectic, it’s chaos and not really a team sport. .
Suck it up Danno, good manager wins with what he’s got! 🤣

Minor league baseball is about as American as there is. Wish we had a local team here.

Town team ball is real popular up here in Minnysoda. Lots of guys that went to school around here, or moved to the area, but played ball elsewhere. There's some really nice little parks around here.

I hear you Barkoff. I can honestly say that winning the game wasn't the priority it was say, in college ball. If I went 3-4 and we lost I really didn't feel to bad. Pretty much everyone felt that way at AA and up. I could still advance to AAA if we had 40W's and 100L's. Just a different mindset.

We used to have the Oneonta Yankees (NY-Penn League) nearby. Don Mattingly, Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and some others made it to the show. Sam Nader owned the team for many years, he turns 100 years old tomorrow. John Elway played there one summer too. They moved to Staten Island in 1999.
Now we go to see the Yankees AAA team in Scranton or the Mets AA team in Binghamton.
The thing I like about minor league baseball is in the smaller stadiums there isn't a bad seat in the house.

Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks is our minor league team around here. Been to the games several times. My work has drawings for free tickets. Not a bad seat in the house. I have not gone for quite awhile but after seeing this thread, I told the wife we need to go again. It is a lot of fun!

OH, and the reason I quoted Gopher is because the Redhawks and Saints are rivals in the Northern League.

The one good thing about AAA, was the chance for a call-up in Sept, both players and coaches hoped for a call.

Danny coached the "Patavia Muckdogs", loved that name so much, I bought the hat!!

We’ve got a good friend that plays for Scranton. He’s about to go to the bigs. NY Yankees that is. Keep a close eye on Ryan McBroom!

We have the Frisco Roughriders which is part of the Texas Rangers organization. Been awhile since I have been to a game.

I savored the book over several weeks, it was really good! If anyone wants it let me know.