A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

Summer of Baseball

Summer of Baseball: Hagerstown gives you an old-school baseball setting

It’s nice to know there are some throwback baseball stadiums out there.

As baseball’s minor leagues get more and more popular, some places are having a hard time holding onto their teams. Take for example Oneonta in my area — the longtime Yankees and then Tigers short-season A affiliate bolted town before the 2010 season when new owners took over and lied about how long they’d stay to “try and make it work.” Instead, they moved the team to Connecticut where, yes, attendance went up but makes one wonder if it was worth it for the large bump in rent.

The moon over Municipal Stadium during a game.

But, I digress.

Hagerstown is that throwback. A stadium dating back to 1930 with not a lot of bells and whistles. It feels old in there. There isn’t a lot of pomp and circumstance and, if you’re there for the baseball, then it’s going to give you the experience you want.

I’ve found, in time, that some of these stadiums are hard to visit. But Municipal Stadium has gone through enough renovations to keep it nice, yet still keep its old-school charm.

What’s nice here is the ambiance of the park as a whole. The older “feel” to the ticket booth and the souvenir stand, as compared to a store. The fan services are also being a stand, rather than walking in somewhere. I loved that not all the food was out of a stand, rather having one spot where you could get something grilled right on the spot.

There were also two beers made locally — one for the team — which gave it a cool feel.

Sight lines are good as it didn’t seem there was a bad seat in the house. There weren’t a lot of fans that night, so I didn’t feel squeezed anywhere. People were friendly (including a few fans I had interactions with) and, overall, it was a nice experience.

The night I was there, they announced an attendance of 704, and that was probably being quite kind. It’s a shame, too, It’s a baseball experience that is going quickly by the wayside. With newer stadiums popping up with many amenities, these smaller stadiums and towns are bolting for bigger areas in the hopes of making more money. We can hope baseball will stay in areas like this, but it’s getting harder and harder for teams to maintain their presence.

Though my ratings are average, and I enjoyed myself and my trip to Hagerstown. I’d visit again if given the opportunity. If you have the chance, check it out in case it eventually is too late.

Park Notes:  

Municipal Stadium
Hagerstown, Maryland
Home of the Hagerstown Sun (Single-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles)
Visited on: July 20, 2016
Opponent: Columbia Fireflies (Single-A affiliate of the New York Mets)

Ratings (out of 10)

  • Stadium: 7/10
  • Concessions: 7/10
  • Parking: 9/10
  • Ambiance: 6.5/10
  • Friendliness: 8/10

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

The Chiefs make you want to get on board

It’s time to get on board.

As a fan of minor league baseball, I love having several teams to choose from within a couple of hours. From the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, to the Syracuse Chiefs, to the Tri-City ValleyCats, to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, there are plenty of options.

But one team sticks out as one that has turned a pretty good corner over the past several years – the Chiefs.

One of the major reasons for the changes is general manager Jason Smorol and his staff, which is among the smallest in Triple-A baseball, according to Smorol.

My first interaction with Smorol came during his first year. I had gone to the team store in search of the Baseball Passport stamp. The people couldn’t find it, but said they’d track it down and took down where I was sitting. A couple of innings into the game, the stamp was found.

Who delivered it?

Smorol.

Smorol with Syracuse’s NBT Bank Stadium in the background.

Since then, when I go to games in Syracuse, I still see Smorol doing his thing. He gets out and talks with people. He remembers fans. He makes connections. For being a step away from the majors (Syracuse is the Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals), he still seems to carry the type of feel you’d get from a general manager at a much lower level of play. He still pops by our seats, too, remembering who we are and where we sit.

“Talking to people is super important to me,” Smorol said on a sunny early spring day, as his team played a double-header for its second and third games of the year. “We need to connect with fans.”

Not everybody thinks this way.

On a road trip last year, a couple of us visited a park of a team in a very low-level Single-A league. The stamp, again, couldn’t be found. But the GM wouldn’t be bothered, so the store manager tried to help us. It wasn’t found.

In my years in newspapers and covering minor league baseball for six years, not all GMs in the Single-A league I covered were this way (though, to be fair, I only dealt with a handful of them).

Baseball is a business, though. The year before Smorol took over the Chiefs, the team was $1.2M in the hole. Last year the team turned a profit of $67,000. That might not seem like a ton, but obviously Smorol and his staff are doing something right to have that kind of turnaround in fewer than four full seasons.

“We’re still here,” he said. “Each year has gotten better. It’s selling fence signs, getting more groups, and having more promotions.”

Attendance has also been on an increase in his three seasons, and the numbers seem more legit than in the past. Of the games I’ve been to, the announced attendance seems to be – give or take – about right, when you factor in all variables.

In 2016, the Chiefs drew an announced 274,427, which is about 28,000 more than in 2013.

It seems people are getting on board, which is the slogan for the team.

“We’re the choo-choo Chiefs,” Smorol said. “We needed a call to action. Get On Board. This train will not stop. It gives you something to ask the fans.”

Syracuse’s franchise has a long history with Syracuse. Smorol, who is a Syracause-area native and who has served as the neighboring Auburn Doubledays general manager several years ago, knows and appreciates the history and what the team means to the area.

“We want to be here,” he said of the community owned team. “This is good for the community.”

Despite the more than two-hour trip to get to Syracuse, I have over the past few years attended a bunch of games. There’s a good energy. There are really good promotions and concessions. And there’s truly not a bad seat at NBT Bank Stadium. This season, I opted to buy a 10-ticket flex pack, so I’ll be getting to a bunch of games this year.

Smorol said he is happy with the progress the team has made and knows there is still a lot of work to be done. In a dream world, Smorol says this is would be his final stop for his career.

“I knew it would take 3-to-5 years, but I thought it could be quicker,” he said. “I’m proud of our staff. What we are able to do with our budget and staff – I couldn’t be prouder. I don’t know if anybody thought we’d still be here. There are a lot of people pulling for the Chiefs.”

I’ve gotten On Board with the Chiefs – the question is, are you?

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Passport a way to go ballpark chasing, save memories

A couple of years ago, I discovered the Baseball Passport program.

At first, I didn’t jump right into it. I couldn’t find a list of stadiums where the stamp was and I didn’t want to get something I wouldn’t be able to use right away. After discovering the list, I grabbed one, thinking it would be fun to have something to jot down a few things at games.

I reviewed the passport at that time and said it was a nice thing to carry along to a game with me.

Now, it’s become a permanent part of my baseball travels.

Since I last reviewed the passport, I’ve had the chance to get into other aspects — the MLB one, the Atlantic League one and so much more. I’ve been to the Stampede event. I’ve met the creator. I’ve utilized the passport to be something very special to me.

But before I get into some other thoughts, last summer I had the chance to sit down with the creator and learn more about the program and why it’s so important to him.

The idea

Tim Parks isn’t hard to find if you are looking for him. He’s tall enough to be able to pick him out of the crowd and his easy-going nature makes him highly approachable. You can sense baseball parks are his relaxing domain.

It’s of no shock, then, that he looks to this program as something a little more than a small book to collect stamps.

Tim Parks, the founder of the Baseball Passport.

“The passport brings the intimacy back,” Parks said during the Stampede event as he overlooked Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. “It makes you feel like you are part of the game.”

In the beginning of each passport, there’s the story behind it. Originally, he had a quest to visit all 50 states with his daughters before they graduated high school. He then made a new quest — to visit all 30 Major League Baseball parks. During these travels, he would pick up some sort of memento to show he was there.

The idea for the passport popped into his head as he traveled to Alaska, using his United States passport to travel through Canada.

The program itself started in August 2010 with research and development of the prototype. With connections to the Reds front office, he pitched the idea to the COO of the team, and showed how it would work.

From there, Parks took the show to the Winter Meetings and showed it off to MLB. Major League Baseball loved the idea and offered the license to do it. The first year was small — a passport just for Reds games.

The MLB Passport was born in July 2012.

In 2013, the Minor League Baseball Passport was born.

In 2015, Parks added the independent Atlantic League.

There’s even a spring training passport. Stamps can be obtained at all minor and major league parks (pending teams don’t lose the stamps). Those stamps aren’t a cost to the team, either, as Parks absorbs all costs of creating the stamp as well as sending them to the team.

The Passport

Depending on which passport you have — they have a bit of a different look.

The main MLB Passport is leather-bound and larger. Each stadium has several pages for the stamp and information from the game. There are also stadium stickers. In the back are extra pages for other stamps, such as All-Star games, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and more.

This is good for your travels if you are trying to hit each stadium. It’s very nice to have and is collectible.

The gameday passport. The right side can be used for many things, and I sometimes will nab autographs.

Then there are the Gameday books for MLB, MiLB, the Atlantic League, and Spring Training. These books are more compact and have a space for your stamp, game-day info, and a page for notes and thoughts.

What’s nice about the notes page is everybody does it different. Some fill the page with thoughts and notes. Others (such as myself) do less.

Personally, what I put there depends on the game and the teams. I’ve gotten autographs on the pages. I’ve filled them with thoughts. I’ve left them blank and filled them in later. It’s all highly personal and can be done many different ways.

Creating memories

With the personal side of everything, obviously there will be a lot of memories, based on what the person owning the passport decided to do with it.

Parks said the idea was for these memories to be passed on.

“My thinking isn’t 5-10 years, it’s 35-40 years,” he said. “Handing it down so you can think back and you are there.

“If I go back to my grandfather, I’d give anything to have a game in his writing,” he continued. What he did. What we did. That’s what I want to see. Generation after generation of leaving memories. Once you read (what was written), you remember, It takes you back to the time you were there. It’s also old-school in that you have to physically do it. It’s not on a phone.”

The passport community is diverse, too.

From families to singles to couples to friends — there is a wide range of people taking part in this hobby.

The Stampede event in Cincinnati last July (blog post link) drew a lot of people and there was a large range of ages represented.

“This is for baseball fans,” Parks said. “These are very knowledgeable fans. Everybody has embraced it.”

Following online

Besides the passports in the park, there’s also a highly active Facebook group where people show off their stamps, talk some baseball, and show their travels.

“They are the heart of baseball,” Parks said. “It’s about families creating memories and sharing experiences. It’s your validation. Others people appreciate it and see it. It’s not for everybody. But these people understand the game. It’s enjoying the ballpark — the tastes, the smells, the friendships.”

The fans in the group show their love and dedication to the game and program by having mini-meetups at parks all over the country and throughout the summer. It’s highly interactive in the group and very welcoming.

The future

As of last summer, the passport wasn’t sold in every major league park (about 20) and not every Minor League park.

Parks said his goal is to see it sold in every park so fans have easier access to the passport and can start creating memories when they first see it.

As more and more books are out there, more people get interested. Just by word of mouth and seeing people stamp books, others ask questions.

“People ask ‘what’s that?” Parks said. “It’s surreal having this many people enjoy the book and the game. It makes me feel great to see them enjoy this.”

The verdict

If you are a baseball fan and enjoy going to games and documenting things, this is definitely for you.

The Passport is part of my every-game setup, along with my scorebook.

The passport keeps improving and more and more gets added. Additional stamps (for the big MLB book) have been added for places such as the Negro League Hall of Fame, and Louisville Slugger Museum. The books are aplenty and Parks said last year he was hoping to keep expanding. With other opportunities out there, it will be fun to see where else he might go with expanding the program (and selfishly, because I am debating an Arizona Fall League trip in November, I’d love to see one for that league).

Even more, it’s affordable. With room for 25-30 games in the Gameday passports, it’s a steal at just under $20 (or, if you happen to see them on sale at the end of a Minor League season, you can buy a bunch at a discounted rate!). The larger MLB book is about $70, but it’s worth it because of it’s beauty. Then the Gameday ones are smaller and easily carried to get every game you attend.

Further, there are stamps at all MiLB and MLB stadiums, so you can get stamped on all your baseball travels (as long as the teams don’t lose or misplace the stamp… which has and likely will happen again).

Links are below to give you an idea with the program. I definitely encourage it.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Passport Stampede event a way to connect baseball fans

It seems every hobby has its own way of getting people together.

If you play a game or something along those lines, or collect something — there are groups and, often time, meetups.

A few years back, I stumbled across a National Parks Passport program. Basically, you go to a national park and get your passport stamped. It was a really cool idea and one I knew I wanted to be part of, despite not visiting as many national parks as I would like. I did get one though, and over the course of the past few years, I’ve been able to get stamps as I go along.

There’s also a growing group online for it and they have an annual event. I haven’t made it to that event (and who knows if I ever will, but it’s there and it’s a pretty cool deal), but it gives people with this common interest the ability to meet and hang out.

All the mascots from hanging around during the game, which was the ultimate end to a great Stampede event.

Passport programs as a whole are really cool. It challenges you to get out and fill that passport, which, in turn, makes you go do something.

Enter the Ballpark Passport.

Creator Tim Parks came up with the idea and started the program in 2010. I’ll have a more in-depth post about the program and the history of it upcoming within the next week, but for now this is about his event he held in Cincinnati this past July.

The quick rundown though — the Passport Program is in Major League Baseball and in the minors, as well as in the independent Atlantic League. Expansion has taken time, but the program has continued to grow and grow.

The official Facebook group is an extremely active one with hundreds of people in it. They post photos and chat with one another. They set up meetups, affectionately called “Stampedes.”

The ultimate Stampede event was held in July.

This wasn’t just any event, though.

Tim actually gave every person a free ticket to the event — the game and everything surrounding it. We had the chance to tour the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame, as well as get into the park early to watch batting practice. The event also included an incredible question-and-answer session with broadcasters Marty Brennaman and Jeff Brantley.

Seeing the Reds’ Hall of Fame was really cool.

The only kicker to all of this is you had to be a Passport user. Outside of that, it was a day of baseball and activities.

There were a lot of people at this event. And, honestly, this is something I should have posted about months and months ago. Alas, I didn’t.

For the most part, I kind of just wandered. I spoke with a few people here and there and I kind of people watched. Batting practice was a lot of fun. It’s not often you get so close to this before gates opened, so it was enjoyable.

Once the game started, the group was in a section together. Alas, I continued to wander. I watched the game from above the section on a little leaning rail. For the final few innings, I headed up to a high level of the stadium to take it in and put my feet up.

The event was a blast and it’s one I see myself attending in future years. I already have plans to do so this year and it’s going to be at the end of a big Midwest baseball trip this upcoming summer.

For those who attended the inaugural event, you already know how great it is. For those who haven’t been — if you are a baseball passport user, it’s well worth planning the trip!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Summer of Baseball: Portland a good place to catch a game

Hadlock Field is one I’ve wanted to get to for a few years now. It’s also one of those fields kind of all by itself (Maine has one affiliated professional team), so going just for a game isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to do, despite Maine being an amazing state.

So, let’s break it down.

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Hadlock Field, built in 1993, is a solid minor league park. Though I’m not a fan of aluminum bleacher flooring, it’s a pretty comfortable all-around park. The ambiance is solid, which seems to be a pretty good trend when it comes to Boston Red Sox affiliates. The site lines in the park are good and the seats are decently comfortable.

The night we were there was cool, too, as it was a Seinfeld-themed night. Though not the biggest Seinfeld fan, John O’Hurley (who played J. Peterman) threw out the first pitch. It’s always neat to see things like that.

Anyway…

The park has an older flavor to it as the concourse is under the seating bowl. The concourse is decently wide but was definitely crowded. The team store is small, which shocked me, if not just because it’s a Boston affiliate. I think I hold the idea that Double-A and above would have better team stores, and despite seeing many smaller ones, it still shocks me.

The food selection was solid and the hot dogs were really good. I will say I didn’t have the food selection on the minor league food fight as it was this amazingly huge ice cream sundae sort of thing … and well, my blood sugar went up just looking at what it included, let along eating it. So I just went with a regular old ice cream and it was solid. Beer selection was pretty strong, too.

The stadium itself is pretty nice. A “monster” in left field is a nice tough, and I like the scoreboard. The elevated bullpen in right field was a  very cool setup, too. I think overall, it’s hard to not go here and have a good time. That being said, I have to pull off some points for the aluminum flooring because it’s really tough, at times, to pay attention to the game when there’s so much stomping on that flooring.

Parking is decent and not far from the stadium. The area felt safe and after, it was easy enough to get out, which is always a positive.

I’d definitely visit again, as long as it was encompassed with other aspects. For me, it’s a hard trip to pull off just for a game, but it’s definitely not a bad place to take in a game.

Park Notes:  

Hadlock Field
Portland, Maine
Home of the Portland Seadogs (Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox)
Visited on: July 15, 2016
Opponent: New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Double-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays)

Ratings (out of 10)

  • Stadium: 7.5/10
  • Concessions: 7/10
  • Parking: 7.5/10
  • Ambiance: 8/10
  • Friendliness: 8/10

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!