Baseball Stadiums: 2015 MiLB Mascot Mania Recap

Baseball's Hot Stove season is heating up with trades and free agent signings.  A few weeks ago I recapped the stadiums (MiLB and MLB alike) that I visited during the 2015 season, and I felt it was appropriate to recap the mascots I saw during the past season.

I went to 17 games during the 2015 season, including a handful of return visits to stadiums.  I visited nine new ballparks during the season, but only got pictures with five mascots.

The mascot I most wanted my picture with was Gnate the Gnat of the Savannah Sand Gnats.  In May, the Sand Gnats announced that they would relocate to Columbia, S.C. (read story here), and in August announced they would be renamed the Columbia Fireflies (read story here).  So when I visited Savannah in June it was a priority to get my photo with Gnate before his retirement (read about my visit here).

Me with Gnate the Gnat at Grayson Stadium.

On the same trip to Savannah I visited Augusta where I saw the GreenJackets (read about my visit here) and got my photo taken with Auggie.

Me with Auggie just before the game started.

Although I placed a priority on getting my photo taken with Gnate the Gnat, my first trip of the 2015 baseball season led to me the Gulf Coast where I watched the Pensacola Blue Wahoos and enjoyed my first shrimp and grits at a baseball game (read about my visit here).  I also got my photo taken with Kazoo, a ubiquitous sea creature.

Me with Kazoo on the third base concourse.

While in Georgia this past summer, I made it a point to visit all four of the state's Minor League Baseball teams.  In 2014, I visited the Gwinnett Braves and got my photo with their mascot, Chopper (read about my visit here).  So after my trip to Augusta and Savannah, I only needed to visit Rome to watch the R-Braves and see all of Georgia's Minor League teams in one season.

As the game entered the 10th inning I was able to snag a photo with Romey, the team's anthropomorphic mascot.

Me with Romey as the Braves begin their extra-inning rally.

I finished my Minor League trips with a visit to Nashville, Tenn., in early August when my girlfriend moved to the Music City.  So I had the opportunity to visit the Nashville Sounds in their new ballpark, First Tennessee Park (read about my visit here).

After relocating from Greer Stadium south of downtown, the Sounds retired their former mascot Ozzie the Cougar with Booster, who is a hot chicken.  Nashville is noted for its hot chicken, which allows the team to incorporate a local tie into their mascot.

Me with Booster after entering the stadium.

So with five new photos of me and mascots, I now have 27 pictures of me with Minor League mascots since 2011.  Those 27 pictures represent 21 teams, as some teams like the Dayton Dragons, which has three mascots, have multiple mascots.

Baseball Stadiums: 2015 Recap

With the 2015 Minor League Baseball season officially concluded following the Triple-A National Championship Game in El Paso, Texas, on Sept. 22, and the Major League Baseball season approaching the playoffs, it felt like an appropriate time to recap the stadiums I visited during the 2015 season.

I visited three MLB stadiums, and wrote about two visits.  For the first time, I visited U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox (read about it here).  As has become custom for me over the past five years, I attended a few Cincinnati Reds games at Great American Ball Park while in town for the A.P. Human Geography Reading, but I did not blog about my visits.  In the sense of playing catch up with ballparks I have visited, but not written about I attended an Atlanta Braves game at Turner Field in late August (read about it here).

I visited eight new MiLB stadiums and revisited three during the season.  I attended a Gwinnett Braves game at Coolray Field; this time on Back to the Future Night when the team wore jerseys replicating the attire of Marty McFly, the main character in the 1985 film "Back to the Future."  I also saw the Mississippi Braves at Trustmark Park, but attended because I served as "designated eater" for MiLB.com reporter Benjamin Hill (read it here).  Hill also interviewed me about my academic work and how I study sports through a geographic lens (read it here).  Closer to home, I attended a pair of Birmingham Barons games at Regions Field during the season; once in April with a friend and on the Fourth of July with my girlfriend.

Screen capture of Ben Hill's article about my academic research on the Minor League Baseball web site.

The first new Minor League stadium I visited was Fifth Third Bank Ballpark in Geneva, Ill., home of the Kane County Cougars (read about it here).  In April I was in Chicago for the 2015 Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, and made a one-day trek to the west suburbs to watch the Cougars.  I also got to meet fellow baseball blogger Craig Wieczorkiewicz, who runs the The Midwest League Traveler site.

After the end of the spring semester, I took a 3-day trip to the Gulf Coast and saw games at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium, home of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos (read about it here), and Hank Aaron Stadium, home of the Mobile BayBears (read about it here).

At the end of May I made a daytrip to Birmingham to attend the 20th Rickwood Classic at Rickwood Field.  While I have seen the host Birmingham Barons play at their current home, Regions Field, I had never attended a Rickwood Classic (read about it here), when the team wears throwback uniforms and play at the oldest continuously used baseball stadium in the United States.

While visiting family in Atlanta during the month of June I took a trip and saw the Augusta GreenJackets at their home, Lake Olmstead Stadium (read about it here), and the Savannah Sand Gnats in their final season at Grayson Stadium (read about it here).  I also made a daytrip to see the Rome Braves at State Mutual Stadium (read about it here).  Along with attending a game at Coolray Field, home of the Gwinnett Braves, I was able to visit all four of the Minor League stadiums in Georgia, which is a resolution I set out to accomplish a year ago, but failed to fulfill during the 2014 season.

In 2014, I resolve to visit all four Georgia @MiLB teams: @GreenJackets, @GwinnettBraves, @TheRomeBraves, and @gnatsbaseball. #PlayBall

— Steven Ericson (@geoSteven) January 1, 2014

I made the same resolution in 2015, but was actually able to fulfill my goal and visited all four of Georgia's Minor League teams in the same season.

In 2015, I resolve to visit all 4 Georgia @MiLB teams: @gnatsbaseball, @GreenJackets, @GwinnettBraves, and @TheRomeBraves. #PlayBall

— Steven Ericson (@geoSteven) January 1, 2015

At the beginning of August I made a trip to Nashville with two goals.  The primary objective was to help my girlfriend move into her new apartment, and the second reason was to attend a Nashville Sounds game at their new ballpark, First Tennessee Park (read about it here).

I also made a change to my blogging experience during the past season and abandoned using Google Maps to display my stadium visits, and changed to mapping my blogs with Esri Story Maps.  Esri is a company that makes mapping software, most notably ArcGIS, and provides a free online format that incorporates maps and photographs to create mashups like story maps.  My Story Map can be found here.

Screen capture of my Story Map.

As the 2015 baseball season concludes I wrote about ten ballparks and attended 17 games at 13 stadiums across the MLB, Triple-A, Double-A, and Class A levels.

These trips now bring my stadium tally to:

• MLB = 21 (14 active)
• Triple-A = 10 (8 active)
• Double-A = 21 (16 active)
• Class A-Advanced = 5 (5 active)
• Class A = 8 (5 active)
• Class A-Short-Season = 6 (5 active)
• Independent = 5 (2 active)
• Spring Training = 10 (9 active)

I have now seen professional baseball games (including Spring Training) in 28 states, the District of Columbia, and one Canadian province (British Columbia).  I attended games in seven states during the 2015 season, but the only new state was Illinois where I saw the Chicago White Sox and Kane County Cougars.

Baseball Stadiums: Pensacola Bayfront Stadium

After a long school year, I decided to blow off a bit of steam with a three-day baseball jaunt to the Gulf Coast.  So last Thursday, I hit the road and drove to Tallahassee, Fla.  Visiting Tallahassee has nothing to do with baseball, but everything to do with one of my other travel interests: state capitols.

Tallahassee isn't on the way to many places, so when I planned a trip to visit the Gulf Coast I added Tallahassee so I could visit Florida's capitol.  Unfortunately, visiting Tallahassee cost me some time and caused me to be late to the other primary objective: a Pensacola Blue Wahoos home game.

I arrived at the stadium box office just as the national anthem was being performed.  Unfortunately because it was Thursday (a.k.a Thirsty Thursday) there was a lengthy line of people waiting to buy tickets so I missed the first pitch, but I did make it into the stadium before the visiting Tennessee Smokies completed their at bat in the 1st inning.

Main entrance to Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.

Once I made my way in the gate, I quickly set up to get my standard photo of a pitch from behind home plate.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos starting pitcher Daniel Wright getting ready to deliver a pitch
to Tennessee Smokies right fielder Bijan Rademacher.

Luckily the Smokies loaded the bases and got to the No. 5 hitter in their lineup, which allowed me the opportunity to get a picture of them still batting in the 1st inning.  It's not the picture I prefer, but it's the picture I got.

After getting the picture from behind home plate, I walked around a bit and took advantage of the Thirsty Thursday promotion buy purchasing a $3 16-oz. Rolling Rock.  As I explored the stadium I took advantage of the setting sun to take some photos.

View of left field with condominiums in the background.

Center field with Pensacola Bay in the background.

The scoreboard over right field with the outfield bar.

While exploring I stopped into Bubba's Sand Trap, which is named after co-owner and PGA golfer Bubba Watson, to sample their craft beer selection.  I also took advantage of the $5 pints in the 5th inning as part of their Thirsty Thursday promotion.

Bubba's Sand Trap, which features craft beer and sushi.

During my usual stop at the gift shop I asked one of the employees about what "signature" food item I should try.  She offered a lot of suggestions ranging from the sushi at Bubba's Sand Trap to the sea dog (a piece of fish served on a hot dog bun), but the suggestion that hit home was shrimp and grits.  Despite settling on having shrimp and grits, I wasn't particularly hungry and decided to watch some of the game before getting food.

Although I had bought a ticket for a seat along the first base line, I ended up standing at a bar along the third base line, which is where I took a majority of my pictures.  It gave me the opportunity to capture the Smokies new powder blue uniforms, which I had not seen before that night's game.

Tennessee Smokies starting pitcher Corey Black on the mound
with Pensacola Blue Wahoos manager Pat Kelley in the third base coach's box.

Closeup of Tennessee Smokies starting pitcher Corey Black on the mound.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos first baseman Kyle Waldrop at the plate.

While watching the game the Blue Wahoos mascot, Kazoo, walked by.  After he posed for the usual pictures with kids I seized the opportunity and had my photo taken with him.

Me with Kazoo.

After my photo with Kazoo, I decided it was time to get my shrimp and grits.  Here are the basics: they are available at the concession stand on the third base side.  Or as the Blue Wahoos call it the "Port Side Grille" because it's on the left side of the stadium, which in nautical terminology would be the port side.  And yes, the concession stand on the first base side is called the Starboard Side Grille.

A nautically-named concession stand.

Now onto the most important part: the food!  Those who grew up in the South don't need an explanation of shrimp and grits, but people from elsewhere in the U.S. or those who grew up outside the U.S. may need a primer.

So here's some background on shrimp and girts.  Grits is derived from corn production with the leftover coarse material from grinding corn being used as grits, which are made by boiling them in water.  When cooked grits look like a porridge of sorts.  Traditionally Southerners add salt, pepper, and butter, but sometimes other items are added.  Along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts people naturally added seafood.  So seeing shrimp and grits in Pensacola, Fla., is not a surprise, but the dish has gained in popularity and is found at many restaurants throughout the South and beyond.

Shrimp and grits in a mini helmet.

If you get the shrimp and grits be careful.  The helmet will not melt, but it will be very hot!  It won't be McDonald's-coffee, burn-your-hand hot, but it'll be hot enough that you need a few extra napkins if you plan on holding it.  Also, as MiLB.com's Ben Hill notes, the shrimp and grits in the helmet is a new frontier.

A new frontier for helmet-based cuisine! How was it? https://t.co/KBsvDFVPUo

— Benjamin Hill (@bensbiz) May 8, 2015

Back to the game, and my stadium visit.  I spent most of the later innings chatting with a fan next to me at the tabletop bar, which was great because I got to pick her brain about watching Billy Hamilton play here a few years ago.  The most interesting thing I learned was that the Blue Wahoos were now selling season-ticket packages based on certain days of the week.  She had full-season tickets previously, but opted for the Thursday-only tickets this season.  I love the idea, and hope more teams adopt that strategy.

After falling behind early, Pensacola tied the game in the 6th inning.  In the bottom of the 9th, Jesse Winker (the Reds No. 2 prospect according to MLB.com) lined a single to center field that brought home Juan Perez and capped the comeback to give the Blue Wahoos a 5-4 #RallyFish victory.

It also left me with a satisfied feeling following a long day of driving.  Pensacola Bayfront Stadium has a great view of the bay with a wide, nearly-wraparound concourse.  It was a full stadium, but it never felt full, which is a testament to the design.  The craft beer selection was good.  The drink specials on Thirsty Thursday were also good.  The food was excellent.  But most importantly, the staff, from the ticket office to the ticket takers to the gift shop employees to the bartenders to the concession stand employees were all hospitable, friendly, and great as doing their jobs.