Baseball Stadiums: MiLB Mascot Mania

A few weeks ago, I mentioned write a post about my experiences with Minor League Baseball mascots.  After taking some time to gather my photographs and put things into a spreadsheet, I can report that I have photographs with 22 MiLB team mascots over the past four seasons.

I've had my picture taken with mascots at almost all levels: Triple-A, Double-A, Class A Advanced, and Class A.  I do not have any pictures with me and mascots from Class A Short-Season or Rookie level teams.

My first photograph with a mascot happened by circumstance.  In 2011, I attended a Tacoma Rainiers game will in Seattle for the AAG Annual Meeting.  I don't remember the situation, but I was exploring the stadium when Rhubarb the Reindeer walked by, and I jumped on the chance to get my photo taken with him.

Me with Rhubarb the Reindeer.

Although I have been attending MiLB games since the early 1990s, I never sought out photo opportunities with mascots until 18 months ago.  I was teaching in the geography department at Oklahoma State University, and decided to add some life to my first day of class slides and incorporated photos of me with mascots.  If students guessed where I was based upon the picture they got a bonus point, and it helped me learn names with faces, too.

So the first time I did that, I included the my photo with Rhubabr and some others that I accumulated during the 2012 season.  In order, I got photos with the Arkansas Travelers mascot Shelly (put out to pasture since the team's rebranding in 2014), the Montgomery Biscuits mascot Big Mo, and the Memphis Redbirds mascot Rockey the Rockin' Redbird.

Me with Shelly at Dickey-Stephens Park.

Me with Big Mo at Riverwalk Stadium.

Me with Rockey the Rockin' Redbird.

During the Spring 2013 semester before I went to Los Angeles for the AAG Annual Meeting, I had a student ask if I was going to get my picture taken with any mascots at the games I planned to attend.  That's when something that started by happenstance turned into a hunt to get my picture with as many mascots as possible.

On that trip, I attended two Minor League games and got my picture with Tremor from the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes and Thunder from the Lake Elsinore Storm.

Me with Tremor at LoanMart Field.

Me with Thunder at the Lake Elsinore Diamond.

During the summer, I visited the Dayton Dragons while in Cincinnati, Ohio, for the AP Human Geography Reading.  So I got my picture taken with all three of the team's mascots: dragons Gem and Heater, and Wink, an ogre.

Me with Gem and Heater during a rain delay at Fifth Third Field.

Me with Wink at Fifth Third Field.

Before my move from Oklahoma to Alabama, I did some sightseeing in in the Ozarks and got my picture taken with the both mascots for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, Strike and Sinker, and the Springfield Cardinals duo: Louie and Fetch.

Me with Strike at Arvest Ballpark.

Me with Sinker the Lake Creature at Arvest Ballpark.

Me with Louie at Hammons Field.

An extreme closeup of me with Fetch at Hammons Field.

During the 2014 season, I got nine pictures with mascots from eight teams.  The first three mascots I saw came during the AAG Annual Meeting in Tampa, Fla.  I got pictures with Phinley from the Clearwater Threshers, Marty from the Bradenton Marauders, and Blue from the Tampa Yankees.

Phinley try to eat me at Bright House Field.

Me with Marty at McKechnie Field.

Me with Blue at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

After the AP Human Geography Reading I made two stops on my way back south, and saw the Bowling Green Hot Rods and Nashville Sounds.  I got photos with both mascots from the Hot Rods, Axle the Bear and Roscoe the Grease Monkey, and I got a picture with the Sounds' mascot Ozzie.

Me with Axle the Bear at Bowling Green Ballpark.

Me with Roscoe the Grease Monkey at Bowling Green Ballpark.

Me with Ozzie at Herschel Greer Stadium.

In July, I went to a Gwinnett Braves game and got my photo with their mascot, Chopper.  I had been to a G-Braves game prior to this season, but did not get a picture with the groundhog.  So I made sure to my picture with him this time.

Me with Chopper at Coolray Field.

In early August, I made a trip through the Tennessee River Valley and visited the Chattanooga Lookouts and Huntsville Stars.  The primary purpose of the trip was a reunion with former Stars coworkers, as the team has been sold and is supposed to move to Biloxi for the 2015 season.  While I had been to a Lookouts game at AT&T Field many years ago, I had not blogged about my experience and wanted to be sure I got my photo with the Lookouts mascot Looie.  With the Stars set to move, I felt compelled to get my photo with Homer the Polecat.

Me with Looie at AT&T Field before I competed in musical chairs.

Me with Homer the Polecat at Joe W. Davis Stadium.

I have a few places in mind that I hope to visit in 2015, but it's too early to predict how much I may get to travel next season.  I know that I will be in the Chicago area in late April for the AAG Annual Meeting, but many Minor League teams have yet to release their 2015 schedules.  Closer to home, I'm hopeful that I can see the minor league teams in Georgia and Alabama that I have not visited yet, which would add four teams to my tally and theoretically six mascots to my picture collection.

Baseball Stadiums: 2013 Early Recap

After my recent trip to California I can add 3 new stadiums (LoanMart Field in Rancho Cucamonga, Angel Stadium of Anaheim in Anaheim, and Lake Elsinore Diamond in Lake Elsinore) to my list, and one state.

I do not have any summer road trips planned yet, but am hoping to visit at least four stadiums.  I will be completing my PhD at Oklahoma State University this summer, and want to visit Arvest Ballpark in Springdale, Ark., and Hammons Field in Springfield, Mo., before moving out of this region.  Closer to home, that being the Atlanta area, I want to visit the newly opened Regions Field in Birmingham and the soon-to-close Knights Stadium in Fort Mill, S.C.

Here is an update of my tally:

• MLB = 20 (13 active)
• AAA = 9 (8 active)
• AA = 15 (11 active)
• High A = 2
• Low A = 3 (1 active)
• Short-Season A = 6 (5 active)
• Independent = 5 (4 active)
• College = 15 (14 active)
• Spring Training = 10 (9 active)

My updated stadium map can be found here.  I don't have write-ups for each stadium I have visited, but am doing my best to write about each visit moving forward.

I have now watched baseball games in 30 states, the District of Columbia, and one province.

Baseball Stadiums: LoanMart Field

It's spring time, which means two things in my life: the start of baseball season and the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting.  This year I got to combine the two for my trip to Los Angeles, Calif.

After booking my flight to arrive the day before the conference so I could visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, I decided to attend a Rancho Cucamonga Quakes game.

A week before my trip, I saw that the Quakes were running a promotion on their Facebook fan page that would allow the winner to throw out a ceremonial first pitch as the Social Media Monday winner.  I posted many times, but I think that my last post probably clinched the win.

"I've got tickets for April 9, but I've never seen a California League game before.  My students at Oklahoma State University want to see me get a photo with Tremor, but I'd like to one-up them by getting a picture of me throwing out the first pitch!" - the winning entry

I didn't deliver a strike, but I'm happy with my pitch.

I also got a photo with Robbie Garvey, who picked the ball out of the dirt.

Me with Robbie Garvey and the ball he dug out of the dirt.

Three recreational softball fields flank LoanMart Field, which had been The Epicenter until just a few days before the Quakes' season opener.  With the stadium changing names just before the start of the season there was not a lot of signage celebrating the new name, but I did not find any signage for the old stadium name either.  Palm tree flank the main entrance, but nothing screams for the spectator's attention.

Main entrance to LoanMart Field.

I had great seats in the fifth row behind home plate, so I was able to snag this amazing photo of the action.

It was not easy selecting a unique food item to enjoy at the stadium because the only unique encased meat was a Dodger Dog.  While talking with the concessions staff I stumbled upon a uniquely California item: a tri-tip sandwich.  Tri-tip is a cut of beef from the bottom sirloin that is typically served as a roast, but in my case was shredded onto a bun and served with barbecue sauce.  It was delicious, although somewhat fatty.  I washed the sandwich down with a local craft brew from Hangar 24.  The only choice at the stadium was the Orange Wheat, which blended perfectly with the tri-tip and had a fantastic zest of its own.

Shredded tri-tip sandwich with barbecue sauce.

Maybe it's the geographer in me, but it was really awesome to see the fault lines in the jersey numbers of the Quakes players and staff.  I know the team tries to push the boundaries with its logo choices and I appreciate that the club plays up its name in almost every way possible.

Quakes batting coach Jay Washington (#15) with Angelo Songco (#22) following what turned out to be the game-winning hit.

I never planned to make it a habit of getting my photograph with team mascots, but I feel like it's become expected of me considering that students asked if I was going to get a photo with the mascot before going on my trip to California.  So here's my obligatory photo with Tremor, the mascot for the Quakes.

Me with Tremor after I threw out the first pitch.

Overall, I had a great time at LoanMart Field with the Quakes.  The customer service was excellent from purchasing tickets over the phone to winning Social Media Monday to throwing out a ceremonial first pitch to receiving some Quakes cash to eating a delicious sandwich and drinking a thirst-quenching beer to watching an entertaining mascot dance on top of the dugout to leaving the stadium following a 1-0 win for the home team over the Modesto Nuts.

LoanMart Field scoreboard after the home team's victory.