[Thanks to Ahistoricality for correcting my Iowa geography.]
Friday, May 30, 2008
Beating the Bushes
At The Boston Globe Peter Funt has a fun little column on minor league baseball team names. I've been to my share of minor league games all across the United States and have seen the Hickory Crawdads and the Cedar Rapids Kernels and the Midland Rockhounds and Asheville among many others play in cozy ballparks with wacky local giveaways and quaint traditions. I love Major League baseball and my ideal game will always involve Fenway Park. But there is something about minor league baseball that embodies the sport as America's Pastime no matter the status of football in the sporting hierarchy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Actually, it's the Cedar Rapids Kernels. When the crowd's below 500, you can hear the umpire calling balls. I love that.
Thanks for catching the error -- I made the correction. I was able to catch them the weekend of my brother's graduation from Cornell College.
dcat
The Asheville Tourists run this cheeky ad on the radio, something like: remember how great it was when you dad took to you to see the Tourists? Get that feeling again by taking your son or daughter to the game. Dad can I get a footlong? Sure Son.
I love that. I love the cheap ticket, the two for Tuesdays beer night, the short 300 hundred yards to the right field wall, and the Elvis impersonators singing and a dancing on top of the dugouts between innings, and of course that friggin silly name.
The localism and hokeyness and almost amateurish approach to minor league baseball is part of its appeal. This is especially so given that the actual quality of the product -- both on the field but also the experience that these teams provide -- tends to be wonderful.
dcat
Post a Comment