Minor League Sports

I recently listened to the audiobook version of Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America by Will Bardenwerper. It's a look at primarily the Batavia Muckdogs, a small town baseball team in Batavia, New York. It's a book about baseball as much as it is about small town America and what minor league sports can mean to a community.

The book has struck a chord with me. It might be purely nostalgic, but there is something about summer nights at a ballpark watching baseball. Maybe it's that I grew up playing baseball. Maybe it's all the excitement I had whenever I went to a Phillies game at Veterans Stadium as a kid, always bringing a glove thinking that would be the day a foul ball comes my way.

Today, despite still being a huge Phillies fan, living closer to the Philly sports complex, I don't go to that many games given the cost and hassle to get in and out of the stadium complex. I live close enough to Philly that would make it seem likely I'd go more, but Philadelphia traffic, and questionable access to public transit makes traveling into the city more of a pain than it's worth to me. Sitting in traffic on the I-76 or I-95 just doesn't really appeal to me.

But the big leagues is not what the book is focused on, and I appreciate that. The book focuses on the Batavia Muckdogs, a team in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL). The league is meant for college players to get some more reps in outside the normal college baseball season and maybe some more chances to be discovered in hopes of joining an independent league team or even get drafted by a Major League club.

For some context, Batavia has had a baseball team since 1939. They used to be part of the New York-Penn League before MLB consolidated the minor leagues after the 2020 baseball season. MLB contracted the minors as part of what feels like a push to make baseball more "corporate" at the cost of small towns across America.

Batavia lost their minor league team, but were able to keep baseball in their town by joining the PGCBL. The book focuses on the sense of community people have around the team. It was nice to read about how people continued to embrace the team and players.

It makes me think about my relationship with minor league sports and how minor league baseball and hockey.

Growing up, the closest Minor League Baseball Stadium was in Reading, Pennsylvania. The town hosts the Reading Fightin Phils (then the Reading Phillies), the Philadelphia Phillies AA affiliate. I only remember going to a few games there as it was a 45 minute drive away, so it would still be a haul, especially for my parents who had my younger siblings to also contend with. For me at the time anyway, the major league team was the bigger draw.

Now though, I see a much bigger draw to minor league sports. I was considering going to a few Reading games last year but never got around to it. I think I'm going to revisit that this spring. It's still a 45 minute drive so it's not "close", but it's not the first time we'd drive that kind of distance for minor league sports.

My wife and I travel up to Allentown 2-3 times a season to see the Lehigh Valley Phantoms play in the American Hockey League (AHL), the higher of the 2 minor leagues in the NHL. From a distance perspective, it's a little further than the Flyers for us. From a time on the road perspective, it's probably similar, if not shorter (thanks Philly traffic!). The arena is smaller and feels more intimate, like you're right there on the ice with a good view of the action, even in the upper deck. The product on the ice is still fantastic, the games are still a lot of fun, and as a hockey fan, I love it. And cost-wise, oh man, you can buy a single ticket to a phantoms game for only a little more than parking for the Flyers.

Back to baseball, a couple years ago as a Christmas gift to my parents, I bought the entire family tickets to a Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (Philadelphia Phillies AAA affiliate) game. The stadium in Allentown was beautiful and we had a gorgeous late summer night that wasn't too hot with a gorgeous sunset to watch a baseball game. It was also a much better environment for my young nieces and nephews with more activities geared for kids.

That is one of the draws of minor league sports. They're much cheaper than their big league counterparts making it more affordable for families. That affordability helps keep costs down for me as well. And from a nostalgia perspective, a nice evening in a minor league ballpark can be just as enjoyable, if not more than the more expensive big-city experience. Plus it can be pretty cool to see the future big-league players coming up through the system. Catch the future superstars before they're as well-known.

I'm looking forward to some baseball sky evenings.

Fun fact, Phillies fan favorite and 2008 World Series champion, Chase Utley played for the Batavia Muckdogs during his rise to the majors.