Active Ballparks by League

Going to different baseball stadiums is my favorite thing to do in life.  My unattainable goal in life is to visit every standing baseball stadium where professional baseball has ever been played, yes, even Japan, Austalia, or anywhere else in the world.

I don’t only enjoy going to active stadiums, vacant (“dead”) ballparks are actually my favorite to check out. I’ve driven far of the beaten path to visit a few old slabs of concrete that hasn’t hosted professional baseball in decades. There are, likely, and immeasurable number of these stadiums in the world, a never-ending goal. A more tangible mini-goal would be visit all the active ballparks under the MiLB umbrella.

One of the things that makes this goal challenging is that new ballparks open every year. And for each ballpark that opens, another one closes, becoming another dead ballpark. So a new field opening not only means there’s another one I’ve yet to visit, it also means one falls of this list of active ones I have visited. Hello, Biloxi and Hillsboro. Good bye, Huntsville and Yakima.

I didn’t include the rookie-level Gulf Coast and Arizona Leagues or the Arizona Fall League, because those just get complicated.

American League (5/15)

  1. Boston Red Sox – Fenway Park
  2. Chicago White Sox – US Cellular Field
  3. Kansas City Royals – Kauffman Stadium
  4. Tampa Bay Rays – Tropicana Field
  5. Texas Rangers – Globe Life Park

National League (6/15)

  1. Arizona Diamondbacks – Chase Field
  2. Chicago Cubs – Wrigley Field
  3. Cincinnati Reds – Great American Ballpark
  4. Colorado Rockies – Coors Field
  5. New York Mets – Citi Field
  6. St. Louis Cardinals – Busch Stadium

International League (3/14)

  1. Gwinnett Braves – Coolray Field
  2. Indianapolis Indians – Victory Field
  3. Louisville Bats – Louisville Slugger Field

Pacific Coast League (8/16)

  1. Albuquerque Isotopes – Isotopes Park
  2. Colorado Springs Sky Sox – Security Service Field
  3. Iowa Cubs – Principal Park
  4. Memphis Red Birds – AutoZone Park
  5. New Orleans Zephyrs – Zephyr Field
  6. Oklahoma City Dodgers – Chicksaw Bricktown Ballpark
  7. Omaha Storm Chasers – Werner Park
  8. Salt Lake City Bees – Smith’s Ballpark

Eastern League (0/12)

  • None

Southern League (7/10)

  1. Birmingham Barons – Regions Field
  2. Chattanooga Lookouts – AT&T Field
  3. Jackson Generals – Pringles Parks
  4. Mississippi Braves – Trustmark Park
  5. Mobile BayBears – Hank Aaron Stadium
  6. Montgomery Biscuits – Riverwalk Stadium
  7. Pensacola Blue Wahoos – Blue Wahoos Stadium

Texas League (4/8)

  1. Frisco RoughRiders – Dr. Pepper Ballpark
  2. Midland RockHounds – Security Bank Stadium
  3. Northwest Arkansas Naturals – Arvest Ballpark
  4. Springfield Cardinals – Hammons Field

California League (0/8)

  • None

Carolina League (1/10)

  1. Myrtle Beach Pelicans – Pelicans Ballpark

Florida State League (9/12)

  1. Bradenton Marauders – McKechnie Field
  2. Charlotte Stone Crabs – Charlotte Sports Park
  3. Clearwater Threshers – Bright House Field
  4. Dunedin Blue Jays – Florida Auto Exchange Stadium
  5. Florida Fire Frogs – Osceola County Stadium
  6. Fort Myers Miracle – Hammond Stadium
  7. Lakeland Flying Tigers – Joker Merchant Stadium
  8. St. Lucie Mets – Tradition Field
  9. Tampa Yankees – Steinbrenner Field

Midwest League (3/16)

  1. Cedar Rapids Kernals – Veterans War Memorial Field
  2. Clinton Lumberkings – Ashford University Field
  3. Quad City RiverBandits – Modern Woodman Park

South Atlantic League (10/14)

  1. Asheville Tourists – McCormick Field
  2. Charleston RiverDogs – Joseph P. Riley Jr Park
  3. Delmarva Shorebirds – Arthur W. Perdue Stadium
  4. Greenville Drive – Fluor Field
  5. Hickory Crawdads – L.P.Frans Stadium
  6. Kannapolis Intimidators – CMC-Northeast Stadium
  7. Lakewood BlueClaws – FirstEnergy Park
  8. Lexington Legends – Whitaker Bank Ballpark
  9. Rome Braves – State Mutual Stadium
  10. West Virigina Power – Appalachian Power Park

New York-Penn League (1/14)

  1. Staten Island Yankees – Richmond County Bank Ballpark

Northwest League (2/8)

  1. Spokane Indians – Avista Stadium
  2. Tri-City Dust Devils – Gesa Stadium

Appalachian League (0/10)

  • None

Pioneer League (4/8)

  1. Idaho Falls Chukars – Melaleuca Field
  2. Missoula Osprey – Orgen Park at Allegiance Field
  3. Ogden Raptors – Lindquist Field
  4. Orem Owlz – UCCU Ballpark

Affiliated (63/190 33%)

American Association (8/12)

  1. Cleburne Railroaders – The Depot at Cleburne Station
  2. Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks – Newman Outdoor Stadium
  3. Kansas City T-Bones – CommunityAmerica Ballpark
  4. Lincoln Saltdogs – Haymarket Park
  5. Sioux City Explorers – Lewis and Clark Field
  6. Sioux Falls Canaries – Sioux Falls Stadium
  7. Texas Airhogs – QuikTrip Park
  8. Wichita Wingnuts – Lawrence-Dumont Stadium

Atlantic League (0/8)

  • None

CanAm League (0/6)

  • None

Frontier League (5/12)

  1. Florence Freedom – UC Health Stadium
  2. Joliet Slammers  – Silver Cross Field
  3. Normal CornBelters – The Corn Crib
  4. Southen Illinois Miners – RentOne Park
  5. Windy City Thunderbolts – Standard Bank Stadium

Pacific Association (0/4)

  • None

Pecos League (6/12)

  1. Garden City Wind – Clint Lightner Field
  2. Santa Fe Fuego – Fort Marcy Park
  3. Roswell Invaders – Joe Bauman Park
  4. Ruidoso Osos – White Mountain Recreation Complex
  5. Trinidad Triggers – Trinidad Central Park
  6. White Sands Pupfish – Jim Griggs Park

United Shore League (0/1)

  • None

Independent Leagues (19/55 35%)

Total (82/245 33%)

My Ballparks – Updated

A couple of years ago, I realized, I’d been to a lot of ballparks. So I decided to sit down and make a list. I’ve worked in baseball, had a couple of jobs that had me travel a lot, and I’ve been fortunate to enough to be able to travel for personal reasons. I added six more stadiums on my most recent trip to the Midwest in May 2016 and I’m sitting at a fat 94 now, six parks away from triple digits.

Here’s the caveat to reading this. If the ballpark has an asterisk (*) next to it, that means I did not actually go to that park while it was inhabited by a professional team. For example, Engel Stadium in Chattanooga closed in 1999. I didn’t get to Chattanooga until 2001, so I missed going to a game there, but I did drive to it and take a tour. It get’s an *. Any other ballparks that say “former home of” but don’t have an asterisks, I actually went to that stadium  while a pro ball team was there.

MLB (12)

  • Arlington Stadium (Former home of the Texas Rangers)
  • The Kingdome (Former home of the Seattle Mariners)
  • The Astrodome (Former home of the Houston Astros)
  • Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox)
  • U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago White Sox)
  • Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (Former home of the Atlanta Braves)
  • Busch Memorial Stadium (Former home of the St. Louis Cardinals)
  • Turner Field (Atlanta Braves)
  • Candlestick Park (Former home of the SF Giants)
  • Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays)
  • Citi Field (New York Mets) (Added 9/23/15)
  • Great American Ball Park (Cincinnati Reds) (Added 5/16/16)
  • Globe Life Park (Texas Rangers) (Added 12/15/16)

Alabama (9)

  • Regions Park (Former home of the Birmingham Barons)
  • Rickwood Field (Former home of the Birmingham Barons, site of the annual Rickwood Classic)
  • Regions Field (Birmingham Barons)
  • Joe Davis Stadium (Fomer home of the Huntsville Stars)
  • Hank Aaron Stadium (Mobile BayBears)
  • Stanky Field (Former home of the Mobile BaySharks)
  • Riverwalk Stadium (Montgomery Biscuits)
  • *Paterson Field (Former home of the Montgomery Rebels and Wings)
  • *Crampton Bowl (Former home of the Montgomery Rebels, Bombers, and Lions)

Arizona (1)

  • Scottsdale Stadium (Spring training home of the SF Giants. Home to the AZL Giants and Scottsdale Scorpions.)

California (2)

  • Billy Hebert Field (Former home of the Stockton Ports)
  • Goodwin Field (Former home of the Fullerton Flyers)

Florida (25)

  • Pensacola Bayfront Stadium (Pensacola Blue Wahoos)
  • Charlotte Sports Park (Spring training site of the Tampa Bay Rays and home of the Charlotte Stone Crabs and GCL Rays)
  • Ed Smith Stadium (Spring training site of the Baltimore Orioles)
  • McKechnie Field (Spring training site of the Pittsburgh Pirates and home of the Bradenton Marauders.)
  • Pirate City (GCL Pirates)
  • JetBlue Park (Spring training home of the Boston Red Sox and home of the GCL Red Sox)
  • Hammond Stadium (Spring training home of the Minnesota Twins and home of the Fort Myers Miracle. The GCL Twins play in the attached Lee County Sports Complex)
  • Florida Auto Exchange Stadium (Spring training home of the Toronto Blue Jays and home of the Dunedin Blue Jays.)
  • Bobby Mattick Training Center (GCL Blue Jays)
  • Baseball City Stadium (former spring training site of the Kansas City Royals. Formerly home of the Baseball City Royals and GCL Royals.)
  • Chain of Lakes Park (Former spring training site of the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians. Also formerly home of those clubs’ FSL and GCL teams.)
  • Holman Stadium – Dodgertown (Former spring training site of the LA Dodgers and former home of the Vero Beach Dodgers and Devil Rays.)
  • *City of Palms Park (Former spring training home of the Boston Red Sox and their GCL afflilate.)
  • *Al Lang Field (Former site of many clubs’ spring training and FSL affiliates, most recently the Rays and Cardinals.)
  • *Terry Park (Former site for many teams’ spring training, most recently, in 1987, the Royals. Also former home of the Fort Myers Royals.)
  • *Pelican Park (Former home of the Pensacola Pelicans)
  • *Raymond A. Namoli / Payson Baseball Complex (Former spring training site of the NY Mets and Tampa Bay Rays) 
  • George M. Steinbrenner Field (Spring training home of the New York Yankees and home of the Tampa Yankees) 
  • BrightHouse Field (Spring traing home of the Philadelphia Phillies and home of the Clearwater Threshers)
  • *Jack Russell Stadium (Former spring training site of the Philadelphia Phillies and home of the Clearwater Phillies) 
  • Joker Merchant Stadium (Spring Traing home of the Detroit Tigers and home of the Lakeland Flying Tigers) (Added 6/2/15)
  • Henley Field (Former Spring training site of the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers, former and occasional home of the Lakeland Tigers) (Added 6/2/15)
  • Tradition Field (Spring training home of the New York Mets and home of the St Lucie Mets) (Added 6/15/15)
  • *Huggins – Stengel Field (Former spring training home of the Yankees, Mets, and Orioles) (Added 4/2/16)
  • *Oliver Field at Campbell Park (Former home of St. Petersburg Negro League teams. Hosted Mets and Cardinals spring training exhibition games in 1976.) (Added 4/2/16)

Georgia (5)

  • Coolray Field (Gwinnett Braves)
  • Lake Olmstead Stadium (Augusta GreenJackets)
  • State Mutual Stadium (Rome Braves)
  • Grayson Stadium (Former home of the Savannah Sand Gnats)
  • Golden Park (Former home of the Columbus Catfish)

Hawaii (1)

  • *Les Murakami Stadium (Former home of the Hawaii Islanders and the Hawaiian Winter League)

Illinois (1)

  • Rent One Park (Southern Illinois Miners)

Indiana (2)

  • Victory Field (Indianapolis Indians) (Added 5/19/16)
  • *Bush Stadium (Former home of the Indianapolis Indians)(Added 5/16/16)

Kentucky (4)

  • Whitaker Bank Ballpark (Lexington Legends)
  • UC Health Stadium (Florence Freedom)(Added 5/18/16)
  • Louisville Slugger Field (Louisville Bats)(Added 5/18/16)
  • *Cardinal Stadium (Former home of the Louisville Redbirds, RiverBats, Colonels) (Added 5/18/16)

Louisiana (5)

  • Zephyr Field (New Orleans Zephyrs)
  • Fair Grounds Field (Former home of the Shreveport Captains)
  • *New Orleans Superdome (Former home of the New Orleans Pelicans)
  • *M.L.Tigue Moore Field (Former home of the Bayou Bullfrogs)
  • *Bringhurst Field (Former home of the Alexandia Aces and Dukes)

Maryland (1)

  • Arthur W. Perdue Stadium (Delmarva Shorebirds)

Mississippi (2)

  • Trustmark Park (Mississippi Braves)
  • Smith-Willis Stadium (Former home of the Jackson Generals, as well as the Mets, DiamondKats, and Senators.)

Oklahoma (2)

  • Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark (Oklahoma City Dodgers)
  • All Sports Stadium (Former home of the Oklahoma City 89ers)

New Jersey (1)

  • FirstEnergy Park (Lakewood BlueClaws)

New York (2)

  • Richmond County Bank Ballpark (Staten Island Yankees) 
  • *Jack Kaiser Stadium (Former home of the Queens Kings)

North Carolina (4)

  • NewBridge Bank Park (Greensboro Grasshoppers)
  • L.P. Frans Stadium (Hickory Crawdads)
  • CMC-Northeast Stadium (Kannapolis Intimadators)
  • McCormick Field (Asheville Tourists)

South Carolina (3)

  • Joseph P. Riley Park (Charleston RiverDogs)
  • Fluor Field (Greenville Drive)
  • BB&T Coastal Field (Myrtle Beach Pelicans)

Tennessee (6)

  • AutoZone Park (Memphis Redbirds)
  • Pringles Park (Jackson Generals
  • Herchel Greer Stadium (Former home of the Nashville Sounds)
  • AT&T Field (Chattanooga Lookouts)
  • *Engel Stadium (Former home of the Chattanooga Lookouts)
  • *Raymond C Hand Park (Former home of the Clarksville Coyotes)

Texas (3)

  • Dr. Pepper Ballpark (Frisco RoughRiders)
  • LaGrave Field (Former home of the Fort Worth Cats)
  • Cotton Bowl (One game home of the Dallas Eagles)

Washington (4)

  • Avista Stadium (Spokane Indians)
  • Gesa Stadium (Tri-City Dust Devils)
  • Yakima County Stadium (Former home of the Yakima Bears)
  • *Bomber Bowl (Former Tri-Cities Triplets home. My former high school field.)

West Virginia (1)

  • Appalachian Power Park (West Virginia Power)

I’ll probably update this list as I add new ballparks. How many you got?

My List of Other Sports Venues

A few months after writing out my comprehensive list of professional ballparks I’ve visited, I went to a Tampa Bay Lightning game at the Amalie Arena in Tampa. It made me wonder how many sports facilities I’ve been to, besides baseball. I’m only going list places where I’ve seen actual game and I’ll organize it by sport, league, and team, instead of state and city.

NBA

  • Dallas Mavericks – Reunion Arena
  • Seattle Supersonics – KeyArena

Other Basketball

  • Tri-City Chinook (CBA) – Toyota Center

NFL

  • Dallas Cowboys – Texas Stadium
  • New Orleans Saints – The Louisiana Superdome

Other Football Leagues

  • Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings (AFL) – CenturyTel Center

NHL

  • Nashville Predators – Bridgestone Arena
  • Tampa Bay Lightning – Amalie Arena

Other Hockey Leagues

  • Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs (CHL) – CenturyTel Center
  • Mississippi Sea Wolves (ECHL) – Mississippi Coast Coliseum
  • Mobile MySticks (ECHL) – Mobile Civic Center
  • Pensacola Ice Pilots (ECHL) – Pensacola Bay Center

My List of Ballparks

I decided to sit down and make a comprehensive list of all the professional baseball parks I’ve been to in my lifetime. 80 is my number, if I counted right, I don’t think I missed any. I’m sure to bump that number up a little, this summer. Hopefully, I’ll make it to Tampa and Clearwater soon. I’d also like to stop by a couple old, out of use parks in the area, namely, Tinker Field in Orlando.

Here’s the caveat to reading this. If the ballpark has an asterisk (*) next to it, that means I did not actually go to that park while it was inhabited by a professional team. For example, Engel Stadium in Chattanooga closed in 1999. I didn’t get to Chattanooga until 2001, so I missed going to a game there, but I did drive to it and take a tour. It get’s an *. Any other ballparks that say “former home of” but don’t have an asterisks, I actually went to that stadium  while a pro ball team was there.

MLB

  • Arlington Stadium (Former home of the Texas Rangers)
  • The Kingdome (Former home of the Seattle Mariners)
  • The Astrodome (Former home of the Houston Astros)
  • Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox)
  • U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago White Sox)
  • Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (Former home of the Atlanta Braves)
  • Busch Memorial Stadium (Former home of the St. Louis Cardinals)
  • Turner Field (Atlanta Braves)
  • Candlestick Park (Former home of the SF Giants)
  • Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays)
  • Citi Field (New York Mets) (Added 9/23/15)

Alabama

  • Regions Park (Former home of the Birmingham Barons)
  • Rickwood Field (Former home of the Birmingham Barons, site of the annual Rickwood Classic)
  • Regions Field (Birmingham Barons)
  • Joe Davis Stadium (Huntsville Stars)
  • Hank Aaron Stadium (Mobile BayBears)
  • Stanky Field (Former home of the Mobile BaySharks)
  • Riverwalk Stadium (Montgomery Biscuits)
  • *Paterson Field (Former home of the Montgomery Rebels and Wings)
  • *Crampton Bowl (Former home of the Montgomery Rebels, Bombers, and Lions)

Arizona

  • Scottsdale Stadium (Spring training home of the SF Giants. Home to the AZL Giants and Scottsdale Scorpions.)

California

  • Billy Hebert Field (Former home of the Stockton Ports)
  • Goodwin Field (Former home of the Fullerton Flyers)

Florida

  • Pensacola Bayfront Stadium (Pensacola Blue Wahoos)
  • Charlotte Sports Park (Spring training site of the Tampa Bay Rays and home of the Charlotte Stone Crabs and GCL Rays)
  • Ed Smith Stadium (Spring training site of the Baltimore Orioles)
  • McKechnie Field (Spring training site of the Pittsburgh Pirates and home of the Bradenton Marauders.)
  • Pirate City (GCL Pirates)
  • JetBlue Park (Spring training home of the Boston Red Sox and home of the GCL Red Sox)
  • Hammond Stadium (Spring training home of the Minnesota Twins and home of the Fort Myers Miracle. The GCL Twins play in the attached Lee County Sports Complex)
  • Joker Merchant Stadium (Spring training home of the Detroit Tigers and home of the Lakeland Flying Tigers.)
  • Florida Auto Exchange Stadium (Spring training home of the Toronto Blue Jays and home of the Dunedin Blue Jays.)
  • Bobby Mattick Training Center (GCL Blue Jays)
  • Baseball City Stadium (former spring training site of the Kansas City Royals. Formerly home of the Baseball City Royals and GCL Royals.)
  • Chain of Lakes Park (Former spring training site of the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians. Also formerly home of those clubs’ FSL and GCL teams.)
  • Holman Stadium – Dodgertown (Former spring training site of the LA Dodgers and former home of the Vero Beach Dodgers and Devil Rays.)
  • *City of Palms Park (Former spring training home of the Boston Red Sox and their GCL afflilate.)
  • *Al Lang Field (Former site of many clubs’ spring training and FSL affiliates, most recently the Rays and Cardinals.)
  • *Terry Park (Former site for many teams’ spring training, most recently, in 1987, the Royals. Also former home of the Fort Myers Royals.)
  • *Pelican Park (Former home of the Pensacola Pelicans)
  • *Raymond A. Namoli Baseball Complex (Former spring training site of the Tampa Bay Rays) (Added 5/3/14)
  • George M. Steinbrenner Field (Spring training home of the New York Yankees and home of the Tampa Yankees) (Added 6/6/14)
  • BrightHouse Field (Spring traing home of the Philadelphia Phillies and home of the Clearwater Threshers) (Added 8/23/14)
  • *Jack Russell Stadium (Former spring training site of the Philadelphia Phillies and home of the Clearwater Phillies) (Added 10/8/14)
  • Joker Merchant Stadium (Spring Traing home of the Detroit Tigers and home of the Lakeland Flying Tigers) (Added 6/2/15)
  • Henley Field (Former Spring training site of the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers and former home of the Lakeland Tigers) (Added 6/2/15)
  • Tradition Field (Spring training home of the New York Mets and home of the St Lucie Mets) (Added 6/15/15)

Georgia

  • Coolray Field (Gwinnett Braves)
  • Lake Olmstead Stadium (Augusta GreenJackets)
  • State Mutual Stadium (Rome Braves)
  • Grayson Stadium (Savannah Sand Gnats)
  • Golden Park (Former home of the Columbus Catfish)

Hawaii

  • *Les Murakami Stadium (Former home of the Hawaii Islanders and the Hawaiian Winter League)

Illinois

  • Rent One Park (Southern Illinois Miners)

Kentucky

  • Whitaker Bank Ballpark (Lexington Legends)

Louisiana

  • Zephyr Field (New Orleans Zephyrs)
  • Fair Grounds Field (Former home of the Shreveport Captains)

Maryland

  • Arthur W. Perdue Stadium (Delmarva Shorebirds)

Mississippi

  • Trustmark Park (Mississippi Braves)
  • Smith-Willis Stadium (Former home of the Jackson Generals, as well as the Mets, DiamondKats, and Senators.)

Oklahoma

  • Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark (Oklahoma RedHawks)
  • All Sports Stadium (Former home of the Oklahoma City 89ers)

New Jersey

  • FirstEnergy Park (Lakewood BlueClaws)

New York

  • Richmond County Bank Ballpark (Staten Island Yankees) (Added 9/22/15)
  • Jack Kaiser Stadium (Former home of the Queens Kings) (Added 9/22/15)

North Carolina

  • NewBridge Bank Park (Greensboro Grasshoppers)
  • L.P. Frans Stadium (Hickory Crawdads)
  • CMC-Northeast Stadium (Kannapolis Intimadators)
  • McCormick Field (Asheville Tourists)

South Carolina

  • Joseph P. Riley Park (Charleston RiverDogs)
  • Fluor Field (Greenville Drive)
  • BB&T Coastal Field (Myrtle Beach Pelicans)

Tennessee

  • AutoZone Park (Memphis Redbirds)
  • Pringles Park (Jackson Generals
  • Herchel Greer Stadium (Nashville Sounds)
  • AT&T Field (Chattanooga Lookouts)
  • *Engel Stadium (Former home of the Chattanooga Lookouts)
  • *Raymond C Hand Park (Former home of the Clarksville Coyotes)

Washington

  • Avista Stadium (Spokane Indians)
  • Gesa Stadium (Tri-City Dust Devils)
  • Yakima County Stadium (former Yakima Bears home)
  • *Bomber Bowl (Former Tri-Cities Triplets home. My former high school field.)

West Virginia

  • Appalachian Power Park (West Virginia Power)

I’ll probably update this list as I add new ballparks. How many you got?

Clubbie Free Agency

It’s been too long between blog posts, folks, and I sincerely apologize. As much as I wanted to beat the odds and write during baseball season, it just wasn’t too high on the priorities list. I’ve also wanted to write about how terrible the offseasons are for me, but to tell you the truth, it’d didn’t start getting undeniably brutal until the last couple of weeks. I promised a few people I would write about my job search this offseason, as I refer to it, clubbie free agency, but I wanted to wait until that process was one hundred percent finalized.

The process was finalized at approximately 10:20am on Monday December 19th.

The Anatomy of Clubbie Free Agency

I’ve been the home clubhouse manager for the Birmingham Barons, the AA affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, for the past three seasons. It was a good job with some great perks in a fantastic city that I’ve grown to call “home.”  But, sadly, it has drawbacks and hardships and isn’t a place that I could possibly spend the rest of my career, or even afford to continue my career. I should have looked for other clubbie work sooner, but I’ve been loyal to my staff and players, and like I said, I’ve fallen in love with the city.

The last two offseasons have been difficult for me. I’d have a little chunk of change left after the season, but I’d still have to find a low paying offseason job for a few months. Then, by November or so, I’d be struggling so bad that I’d have to find a second low paying offseason job to make ends meet. Not the best way to live.

My dream job is to work at some teams spring training complex. There’s no offseason at those places. Between mini camps, spring training, the regular season, instructional league, and all the other fun activities that go on there, it’s eleven or twelve month baseball work. No crappy offseason jobs necessary.

I applied for a complex job that I found posted on MLB.com. The money was great, the job sounded amazing. I exchanged emails and phone calls with the people in charge and eventually had a great interview. In the time between seeing the job posting and hearing the results of my interview, I was offered another job outside of baseball.  The restaurant that I’ve worked at the past three seasons offered me a very well-paying management gig. I worked in restaurants for a long time before getting back in baseball. I’m pretty much completely burned out on restaurants, but a stable job that paid well and was close to home was a solid back up plan. I decided if I didn’t get offered the complex job, I was going to hang it up, and take the restaurant job.

So…… I didn’t get the job, the team promoted from within. Word went up the corporate restaurant ladder that i wasn’t hired and they gave me some pretty good pressure.

But I couldn’t do it. I was pretty close, but I had a lot of great people talk me out of it and talk me into continuing to pursue my baseball dream.

I spent the next few weeks, sending emails, tweeting, calling, and texting everyone I knew,  to see which teams had openings where. I was constantly checking the online job boards, then checking my email. I found a few jobs that I liked and was told that a few other great jobs were not going to be open. One conversation with another AA team in a different league was going well.  It was for a visiting clubhouse manager position. The job description and pay seemed great. I know a few people who had been to the town. Their reviews where that it was a decent to great place to be. I also know the home clubhouse manager for the team. He gave me the run down on everything, it seemed like a pretty sweet gig. I was pretty enthused. The interview process was awesome and the team made a great offer. There were a couple of minor details needed to be worked out, but they offered and I 99% accepted the job.

(See below for my criteria for selecting clubhouse jobs.)

The following day, however, I received a reply to an email that I had sent prior to finding out about the above job. The email was from the Tampa Bay Rays, whom I had emailed asking about possible openings at their Florida complex in Port Charlotte. The gentleman told me that the Port Charlotte position was not available, but the home clubhouse was open at their AA affiliate, the Montgomery Biscuits. I had to tell him “Thanks but no thanks.” I politely told him I already had a great deal in place, and I wouldn’t want to back out of it unless I was offered a job at a complex.

He said he understood and appreciated my loyalty,…….. then he gave me more details about the job. It was very comparable to the other job I was offered, actually, it was a little better. AND, it was close to home. Montgomery is about an hour and a half from my house, and two and a half hours from my son. The other job was more than ten hours away. I was really leaning toward Montgomery being the job that I wanted.

I emailed the president of the Biscuits after the Winter Meetings, and we met at the ballpark a couple of days later. We had a great conversation, I met some great baseball people, and I got the complete tour of the ballpark and all the details about working for the Biscuits. Pending a background check, they wanted me for the job, and I wanted the job.

I got the phone call at 10:20 am on Monday December 19th. The background check checked out, they formally offered me the job, and I formally accepted.

I’m very impressed by a lot facets of working for the Montgomery Biscuits and the Tampa Bay Rays. I’d love to go into detail, but I don’t think there is a way to do that without sounding like I’m taking jabs at former organizations. Let me just say, “I’m genuinely very excited about this upcoming season and the future.”

This is definitely a good move for me.

 

The End

My criteria for selecting a clubhouse job

1. Spring Training – Most major league organizations bring their minor league clubhouse managers to spring training, but some don’t.  Spring training is our chance to network and show our skills to the bigwigs of that organization and even other organizations. If a job did not include spring training, it was automatically eliminated. I’m not going to spin my wheels in place anymore.

2. Location – I mentioned that Montgomery being close to home was huge for me. But being close to home don’t totally encompass what I mean by “location.” Entertainment options, weather, and proximity to fun stuff also were factors. For example, I was playing on Mapquest, doing a little research on two jobs that I was interested in. One job, was 3-4 hours away from the nearest bigger city, that could have made for a long boring summer, AND offseason if I was planning on moving. Mapquesting the other job, I found there were 13 other professional ballparks within a two and a half hour radius. How much fun would that have been to see thirteen or so new ballparks in one summer!?

3. Money – It’s harder to gauge how much money you’ll be making with clubhouse jobs than most other jobs that exist. First, there’s the salary. In addition to that, the major league teams usually chips in some cash to cover various expenses. From what I hear, those amounts vary from $30 to $150 per game. What the minor league affiliate covers varies from team to team too. Some teams cover Powerade, dugout cups, replacement shower towels, shower soap, shampoo, or even furniture or any combination of those items. Those costs are covered by the clubhouse manager with other teams. I know of one team that doesn’t even provide laundry detergent for the visiting clubhouse manager. Outrageous.

Both the Rays and the Biscuits appear to be very generous. But even after accepting the job, I was told of a substantial check that I’d be getting from the Rays to help cover costs. Bonus.

4. Ballpark and clubhouse – This encompasses a lot of things. Ballpark atmosphere, location and proximity to stores and restaurants, as well as clubhouse size, amenities, and maintenance. Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery is my favorite ballpark in all of MiLB because of its beauty and fantastic atmosphere, but the downtown location that’s 15 minutes from a grocery store and having to park 1/4 of a mile from the clubhouse honestly terrifies me.

5. Team notoriety – Everyone knows who the Durham Bulls are. I couldn’t tell you how many times people asked me if I worked for the Barons when Michael Jordan played there (No, I did not. I was in high school in Washington when he played for the Barons.) It was borderline annoying, but at least people know who the team was. In college football country, that’s not always easy. The Biscuits have one of the most popular logos in the game.

6. Relationships – Last, but not least. I’ve made some great friends in the Barons’ front office over the years, but I get the sense some front offices aren’t so friendly. Clubhouse management is a pretty lonely profession, you spend many hours each day in a concrete clubhouse by yourself. You’d be surprised how important your relationship with the front office is to maintaining your sanity. They’re usually like-minded baseball people who you can have a baseball conversation with.

 In a business that is driven by sales, you’re going to meet a handful of “used car salesmen.” I got good vibes from most of the teams that I talked to this winter. I was offered a job at the ’08 Winter Meetings. When I told the somewhat  “used car salesman” assistant GM that I was interviewing with that I’d have to think about it. His smug reaction was like, “But we’re the ______ _______! How could you NOT want to work for our glorious team?!” I didn’t accept the job.

Jeff Perro Agrees to Terms with Montgomery Biscuits

Montgomery, AL —-

Veteran free agent clubhouse manager Jeff Perro has announced that he has agreed to terms with the Tampa Bay Rays and their AA affiliate, the Montgomery Biscuits, to be the Biscuits’ home clubhouse manager for the 2012 season.

Perro has been one of the most highly sought after free agent clubhouse managers during the 2011-2012 offseason.  He had been in contact with many organizations and minor league teams over the past three months. He had been very quiet, however, about which teams he had talked to, until today, when he announced that he was formally offered, and then accepted, the Biscuits position on Monday.

“There was a lot to consider.” states Perro. “I was mentally preparing myself to have to move across the country to have a job that I wanted. It’s a great relief to have an outstanding job so close to home.”

In additon to proximity, the other qualities of that Perro listed he had to consider were salary and other financials, quality of ballparks and cities,  overall chemistry with the affiliate and parent organization, and other intangibles.

“Montgomery’s Riverwalk Stadium has easily been my favorite ballpark since I first visited there a few years ago, and I’ve been to a lot of them. Perro continues “It’s going to be a great experience going to work at that place everyday. I’m also excited about working for Tampa Bay. I’ll be going to spring training in Port Charlotte, then I’ll be able to formally meet the entire organization, but I’ve been very impressed by our emails and phone conversations.”

Prior to working with the Montgomery Biscuits, Jeff Perro has also worked in the clubhouse with the Augusta GreenJackets, in 2008, and the Birmingham Barons, in 2001, as well as the last three seasons. He has also worked with the Mobile BayBears, and defunct Mobile BaySharks as well as the Mobile Mysticks hockey team in other capacities.

“I am going to miss Birmingham. I made some great friends with the Barons and White Sox, but I’m not far from them, I’ll still be able to visit. I also looked foward to the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament and the Rickwood Classic, every year. I’m going to miss those events, but there is no doubt that this is a great move for me.”

Perro will be back and forth between his home south of Birmingham and Montgomery over the next two months to prepare for the upcoming season, He’ll be to flying to Port Charlotte, FL for the Rays’ spring training toward the end of February. From there, he’ll fly back to Birmingham, gather his things, and be ready to begin the 2012 season with the Biscuits.

Follow Perro as @MiLBClubbie on Twitter and follow Facebook page for his “Inside the Clubhouse” blog.

Day Two in Pratt City, Alabama

This is part three of a three part series.

 

The Birmingham Barons players, manager, a few front office members and I caravanned to the Red Cross disaster relief center at The Scott School in Pratt City, AL on Monday May 2nd  (See Part Two: “How Can We Help?”) to volunteer our time and energy . The following day the Barons’ front office and I (the players left on a road trip to Jackson, TN that morning) were planning to go back to do more work.

 

Coincidentally, The Jacksonville Suns professional baseball team had also planned to stop and work at the relief center on their way from Montgomery to Huntsville. They were supposed to have a game in Huntsville on Tuesday, but it was postponed because Joe Davis Stadium in Huntsville still did not have power. The team could have had a day off, but they chose to help the citizens of Jefferson County, AL.

 

We arrived at The Scott School around noon, and the scene was completely different than the day before, the impending weather undoubtedly kept donors, people seeking aid, and, perhaps, a few volunteers away. Where there was a line of police officers and military patrols the day before, there was one cop, maybe two.

 

There was still work to be done. We made our way to the back parking lot of the school where were people loading and unloading. I spent more time on the unloading donations side than I did Monday. There were individuals dropping off trash bags of clothes, cases of water, and bags of cleaning supplies. There were church vans dropping off racks of clothes and loads of food. There were also individuals and companies from as far away as Wisconsin and South Florida dropping off trailers full of donations.

 

The Red Cross’s system had slightly evolved for the better in a day’s time. Instead of bringing cases upon cases of bottled water into the school, just to bring them back outside, they had just started stacking them behind the school. “How many cases of bottled water do you need? Ok, let me just walk over here and grab one for you.” Much more efficient.

 

Because of the slightly slower pace than the day before, I actually got to have conversations with a few donors and other volunteers. There was a younger guy, he looked barely eighteen, who had pulled his grill trailer from Greensboro, NC to cook hot dogs and burgers for the volunteers to eat. I met a girl who was a student at the University of Alabama. She watched the tornado take out Tuscaloosa from her dorm just a few miles away.

 

The rain began to come down around 2:00. The center slowed a little more, and the parking lot turned to mud soup, but we continued to unload, sort, and load.

 

I had talked to Suns’ broadcaster Roger Hoover earlier in the day, the team planned to show up around 3:00. I was worried that there would be little for the guys to do and they might not be able to grasp the severity and scope of the situation.

 

The Suns’ bus pulled in right on time. I walked over to the area where the Red Cross representatives were briefing Andy Barkett and his team. I found a few players that I recognized and recognized me, shook some hands, and walked them around.

 

The team had been asked to stay out of the cold rain as much as possible. I don’t blame them for that, these guys have careers on the line. You miss a few games with pneumonia, you may get passed up in the organization, and miss your one chance at a big league career. Once again, I do not blame them for that.

 

I was walking with Jeff Allison and Jake Smolinksi toward the back door to explain what we’d been doing. Allison asked if we could see the damage from the tornado. He wanted to see the town out of genuine care and concern and to be able to fathom what had happened. I told him it wasn’t but a block or two away, but I hadn’t tried to walk toward it for fear of getting M-16’d. So, the three of us walked down the road in front of the school a little way, waving or nodding at National Guardsmen on our way, what we saw was unbelievable.

 

From a little ways a way, I saw a roof. It was a roof to a big building, like a church. It looked funny, but we couldn’t quite figure out why. It looked like it was a roof to a building that was over a hill, where the building part was being hidden by the hill, and you could only see the roof. As we stepped over shingles, tree branches, and boards to get closer, you could finally see that the building had collapsed. It looked off because the building was basically gone, the roof had kept it’s shape and was resting on the ground.

 

 


PrattChurch.jpg 

From about two blocks from the school, you could see houses with half the house missing and a flat part on the top of a hill that once had houses on it. You could also see military vehicles and work trucks of all varieties; debris removal, power, water,  and vans to transport workers and volunteers.

 

I went to the Mississippi Gulf Coast three days after Katrina. It was a different scene. In Biloxi, 75% of the buildings were about 75% gone. In Pratt City, 20% of the buildings were 100% gone. I don’t know how to describe it, I’m not trying to be funny, but it was a different level and different type of goneness than Southern Mississippi was six years ago.

 

The two Suns and I turned around, headed back to The Scott School. I had a great conversation with the two about what it was like in Birmingham, what parts of the state were affected, and what we, as a state, were trying to accomplish.

 

When we got back to the back entrance, there was a Ryder truck pulled up to the door of the kitchen. Five or six male volunteers were just beginning to shuttle a truck full of MRE’s from the truck about 30 yards through the mud and into the building. I left my conversation with Allison midsentence and ran to join the chain, not expecting he or Smolinski to disobey orders and follow me. However, they were right next to me a second or two later.

 

I looked to the door at the side of the building, and about fifteen players were standing inside the doorway. They looked like excited little puppies with that “My master told me to stay and not go outside, but look at those other puppies! They’re all outside and it looks like they’re so much having fun!”

 

 


sunshelp2.JPGThe group simultaneous broke their leashes, ran to the line, and started passing MRE’s! What started out as five guys passing a thousand or two boxes inside became five guys, plus me, plus half the Florida Marlins’ AA roster. From that point on, it was open season. The Suns’ players were in the rain, walking through the mud, loading and unloading cars.

 

Before too long, my body had had enough of the cold rain and I had to walk inside to warm up. I started a talking to one player about what had happened in Pratt City, Tuscaloosa, Pleasant Grove, and Fultondale. That one player turned into two players, then three, and before long, I was talking to about ten guys.

 

Talking to the Jax team was completely different than talking to my team. My guys had been through it, seen it all unfold on the the local news, they had rode buses through these towns and had at least seen signs for the cities that were on their tv’s being destroyed by Mother Nature.

 

The Suns hadn’t. They hadn’t seen much of anything on the news, they didn’t know which areas were hit or if Regions Park had sustained any damage. They were totally interested in what was going on and listened to every bit of the information I gave them, it was the first they heard of it. Despite knowing nothing about the situation or the people affected, they were genuinely enthused and wanted to help in any way they could.

 

I told the Birmingham Barons and Jacksonville Suns this same thing:

 

It’s great that you want to help, it’s awesome that you want to carry boxes and get sweaty in the heat or muddy in the rain, but you being here is doing two things that you may not be able to see. You’re showing the citizens in this community that there are people outside of the area that you are from somewhere else and you care and know what’s going on. You’re also talking to your people back home (or in Jacksonville) and telling them about what’s going on and making them aware of the difficulties and the need. Those two things are huge because this situation was buried by and wedged between the royal wedding and the death of Osama bin Laden.

The Jacksonville Suns and Florida Marlins have all my respect after Tuesday. Not just for the work that they did, not only because they sacrificed an off day for us, Birmingham citizens, but also because the chose to get rained on and muddy in their street clothes, two hours from a shower and change of clothes at the hotel in Huntsville. Thank you, gentlemen.

The End

 

 

This is part three of a three part series about the effect the tornadoes that swept the South on April 27th have had on baseball and the communities in the area. 

Part One:  “If There’s a Tornado, Can We Come in Here?”

 

Part Two:  “How Can We Help?” 

 

Photos Courtesy of Jacksonville Suns radio voice, Roger Hoover

“How Can We Help?”

 

This is part two of a three part series.

 

On April 27th, the deadliest tornado outbreak since 1925 ripped through the Southern United States. As of April 30th, 249 people were confirmed dead by the Emergency Management Agency. The large majority of those deaths occurred within 100 miles of Birmingham, my home, and the home of the Birmingham Barons professional baseball team.

 

How do residents of a city, permanent or temporary, react to an event like that? They help.

 

Within hours of the storm, the Barons’ front office hatched a plan. Free admission would be given to any game during the current homestand with the donation of a case of bottled water or six canned goods. While I have no idea how much was donated, not my department, but I do know that the majority of the patrons who donated, donated more than the minimum.

 

Our front office was doing their part to help, the players wanted to do something too. The storm happened on a Wednesday, by the next day, we had a plan. We weren’t 100% we’d be able to execute it, but it was a solid plan.

 

A few players approached manager Bobby Magallanes with an idea, Bobby ate it up, and we moved forward. The players’ idea was to cancel batting practice one day and drive to volunteer at a devastated area. Tuscaloosa, Pleasant Grove, Pratt City, and Fultondale were the likely locations.

 

Bobby and general manager Jonathan Nelson had a conversation about it, and the wheels were in motion. Director of stadium operation James Young approached me on Friday. He talked to the Red Cross people in charge and we were likely going to be going to Pleasant Grove on Monday before the game.

 

Plans changed slightly, and James had us set up to meet at the ballpark at 10:45am to carpool to the Scott School in Pratt City, AL to work at a Red Cross disaster relief center. Pleasant Grove was still not to a point where visitors could enter the city. It was still controlled by the National Guard.

 

At 10:45 on the sunny and warm morning of Monday May 2nd, sixteen Barons players wearing their white home jerseys, our manager, three wives, a few members of our front office, visiting clubhouse manager Jan Dunlap, and I left for Pratt City, not really knowing what to expect.

 

I don’t want to use the word “chaos” to describe what we saw when we got ther, but “organized chaos” wouldn’t be too far fetched. The left turn lane onto the road that the school is one was backed up at least a quarter of a mile. Traffic was barely moving. There were many Birmingham police and Air Force and National Guardsmen with automatic weapons.

 

Once you were able to turn onto the road, you didn’t quite know what to do. The caravan used an array of methods to in order to park; jumping a curb, driving the wrong way, and moving tree limbs to create space. We all eventually got parked, then it was a matter of getting everyone together and trying to figure out where we were supposed to be going. As Jared Price, Brian Omogrosso, and I were waiting by the front of the school, directly in front of the line of traffic, for the rest of the group, a guy in an idling SUV asked where he was supposed to go to drop off cases of bottles water and juice he was donating. We looked at each other, not knowing the answer, and said, “We can take it for you.”

 

The three of us unloaded the back of his vehicle, walked inside, fought the hustle and bustle of people, and found the classroom that was designated “Bottled Water.” We dropped off the water and went back outside. There was kind of an unspoken “Hey! We found a task that we can do! Let’s stick with it!” We shouted at another truck idling in traffic, asked if they had a donation. The driver pulled onto the curb, let down the tailgate, and we unloaded probably 30 cases of water that were in the back of that one pick up! We continued to do that for a few minutes, doing our part to unload donations, alleviate traffic, and break a sweat.

 

Somebody, I can’t remember who, grabbed us and told us we had to go inside to register as volunteers. We filed in to a hot room and filled out a form with the usual “Name/phone number/address/emergency contact” questions. From there, I ended up being shuffled to the back parking lot of the school to help load, unload, and sort.

 

The basic principle that was happening was the unloading of donations at one end of the parking lot. The donations were brought inside to be sorted into separate classrooms for women’s clothing, men’s clothing, shoes, baby clothing/diapers, cleaning supplies/hygiene, and bottled water.

 

 

Link to CBS 42 Video

 

The food products were taken to the kitchen to be sorted there. There were boxes being loaded with the right proportions of canned goods, snack food, fruit, breads, and other food items that a family of a given number would need. The food boxes were brought out to a table outside the door. The donors would walk through the school to pick up the clothing, cleaning supplies, and hygiene products, then receive their food box at the table by the back door on the way to their cars! What looked like chaos at first, was one of the most organized and efficient processes that I had ever seen!

 

At first, I fell into the group of guys that were helping recipients load their supplies and food boxes at the back door. Then a lady walked out of the kitchen shouting “I need three strong men back here! I need three strong men back here!” Tyson Corley, Drew Garcia and I,  ran back behind the food tables to the kitchen. The volunteers were sorting the food donations into the food boxes, we, along with other male volunteers, were going to carry the canned-food heavy boxes to the food table. We fell into place and became another step in the process. The work these volunteers were doing was unreal, it reminded me of Wall Street. People were shouting, “I need more canned goods over here!” and canned goods would be passed. Someone else would shout, “I need juice!” and bottles of juice would be passed over.

 

After a half hour or so, the food sorting room became a little crowded. I made my way back to the loading/unloading area with the majority of the other guys. We would grab a food box or bag of supplies for the female recipients, bring it to their vehicle, then on the way back we would walk through the donation area, unload a few vehicles, then make our way back over to the loading area.

 


BaronsPratt2.bmp

Barons Players L-R: Justin Edwards, Dan Remenowsky, Tyler Kuhn, Brian Omogrosso. Janet Dunlap in the center.

 

With all the hustle, hurry, and military presence, not many of us got to see much of the devastated area that day. There were a couple of people, including GM Nelson, who had to carry aid to people’s houses or vehicles a few blocks away. When asked what it was like, the general response was “It was bad.” Short of a big downed tree across from the school and a few missing shingles on the roofs of the houses near the school, there wasn’t much you could see from where we were.

 

These players that came, came to work. Nobody showed up expecting to sign autographs, shake hands, and kiss babies. The first words out of everyone’s mouth were, “How can we help?”  We actually worked so hard that day, that our strength and conditioning coach gave the guys who volunteered a free pass for the day’s weight lifting.

 

The End

 

This is part two of a three part series about the effect the tornadoes that swept the South on April 27th have had on baseball and the communities in the area. 

Part One: “If There’s a Tornado, Can We Come in Here?”

Part Three: Day Two in Pratt City, Alabama

“If There’s a Tornado, Can We Come in Here?”

This is part one of a three part series.

The Birmingham Barons’ 11:00am game on Wednesday, April 27th in Huntsville was cancelled. I was at home in Birmingham at the time. I knew we were supposed to be getting some pretty rough weather later in the afternoon, but it was just warm and cloudy at that time. I figured it got to Huntsville first and washed away the game.

The team bus arrived back at home around 2:00 that afternoon. That was when I found out the real reason the game was cancelled. The Huntsville Stars were aware of the weather headed to North and Central Alabama and decided to cancel the game to be sure that my team could make the bus ride home safely, not driving home in the storms. The bus driver told me about the rain and wind they encountered on the way home. He had to pull over for a while to let the wind subside before driving his large metal sail over the elevated Tennessee River bridge, thus avoiding the “Barons Team Bus Blown Off Bridge’ headlines. But it was still warm, dry, and cloudy at our ballpark. The Huntsville Stars and the Birmingham Barons knew we had some serious weather headed our way, but I still hadn’t figured it out.

Sometime around 3:30, as I was unpacking from the road trip in our quiet underground clubhouse, a female voice startled me.

“Excuse me, sir. If there’s a tornado, can we come in here?”

I looked up to an older woman poking her head in to the clubhouse door that leads to the parking lot. It was obvious she was from the neighboring RV park that’s out past the right field line at Regions Park

“Ummmm….. Yeah, I guess. I don’t know what the actual procedure is, but you can totally come down here.”

I later found out what normally happens during severe weather. The park ranger unlocks the gate on the first base side and the people from the RV park hang out on the concourse.

No chance was I going to make the residents of the RV park dodge flying mustard packets and beer stands while I was safely watching tv under millions of tons of concrete. I posted the following status on the Inside the Clubhouse Facebook page:

“Apparently I will be hosting a tornado party for the people in the neighboring RV park tonight. I hope they bring beer and snacks.”

My buddy, DJ, texted me within a few minutes of the status post. He didn’t have power since the storms that rolled through the previous night (The storms Tuesday night knocked out the power at the stadium, destroyed the aluminum bleachers at the soccer fields beyond left field, and left about 100,000 Alabama residents without power.) DJ asked me if he and our pal Travis could come weather the storms with me. It really was turning into a party.

This was about the time that I realized that we may have some serious trouble headed our way…. maybe I should turn on the tv and see what’s going on.

Weather coverage was on every channel. By the time I turned on the tv around 4:00, meteorologists were already tracking three tornadoes on the ground in Western Alabama. They were talking about having never seeing formations like they were seeing right now. Not in over a decade had three tornadoes of this magnitude been on the ground in the same vicinity. I guess I turned on the tv at a pretty good time.

DJ and Travis arrived about 30 minutes later (with tons of sodas) and the RV park residents with the park ranger started to trickle down about the same time. Ken and Jan Dunlap, our visiting clubhouse staff, were in the visiting clubhouse. Apparently our visiting club hotel told the Mobile BayBears that they weren’t safe at the hotel and should go somewhere else if they could. They came to the visiting clubhouse, along with a few city employees who were working in the ballpark area. I got a call from one of our Barons player asking if I was at the clubhouse. Within a few minutes, there were five players, a wife, and an infant.

I kinda introduced myself to our new ballpark inhabitants. There was an older man from Colorado Springs, a couple from Kingsport, TN, a younger gentleman from Birmingham who just lived in his camper, a couple who was just driving their RV from Texas to Atlanta who saw downed trees and figured they stop and see what’s going on, and a few others.

Ken, Jan, and I had evolved from clubhouse managers to tornado shelter managers for a shelter that was housing an entire professional baseball team, a dozen RV park residents, three Barons interns, five players from the home team (and a wife and infant child,) a few city employees, and a couple longtime friends from across town.

We all were gathered around tv’s at approximately 5:00 when the largest of the tornadoes they were tracking rolled through the heart of Tuscaloosa. It was nearly a mile wide.

Let that last paragraph sink in. Reread it, if you must.

Tuscaloosa is the fifth largest city in Alabama, with over 90,000 residents. The University of Alabama is in Tuscaloosa, it houses 30,000 students. Granted, there weren’t many full-time Alabama residents in the room, not that you had to be a local to realize the ginormity of what was going on, but each of us knew somebody or many people in Tuscaloosa.

T-Town is about sixty miles or an hour drive southwest of Birmingham. That tornado, along with all the other tornadoes and potential tornadoes, was headed on a northeast route. We figured it wouldn’t be too long before something bad was upon us.

We continued to watch the radar as that twister kept moving northeast and eventually north of us. The TV was showing us the view from a skyscraper in downtown. From that angle they were showing, it looked like it was going right through downtown Birmingham. About a half hour later they told us it tracked north of downtown and straight through the suburbs of Hueytown, Pleasant Grove, and Fultondale.

My five year old son and his mom live in Fultondale.

The news channels only mentioned Fultondale in passing. I waited and waited to hear reports of the extent of the damage in Fultondale. Stayed pretty calm the whole time. I try to call and text my son’s mom and her mom, but phone service was pretty much gone north of town. Still stayed pretty calm. The tv still didn’t say much about Fultondale.

I finally received a text at 10:28pm, over three hours after the storm had passed. Everyone was ok.

In the meantime, I introduced our temp tenants to the pregame spread, two tornadoes passed within five miles of my house, a tornado came close to DJ and Travis’s side of town, the worst of the weather passed, and our temp tenants left the ballpark basement.

Regions Park escaped with no damage. It barely rained. Well it barely rained water, but it did rain debris. There was a steady flow of bark, leaves, and other things falling from the sky. Someone found a 5X7 of a family at an airport. Judging by the hairstyles, it was probably from the mid ’90’s. We also found a 3′ by 1′ piece of wallpapered wood panelling. I’d have to guess that this stuff came from mobile homes 30-100 miles away.

 


debris.jpgWe have a pitcher who is from Gadsden, AL this season, Kyle Cofield. Gadsden is a little over an hour away, he’s local, but he’s not local enough to drive home everyday. He’s been staying with a friend of his who has a house across town….. in Fultondale. Cofield came in a little early Thursday morning. He said that his buddy’s house had some damage, but most of the buildings in the immediate vicinity were crippled or gone.

Cofield showed me a few pictures he had on his phone. I used to live in Fultondale too, I knew exactly where he lived, and exactly where the pictures were taken. Judging by what Kyle and my son’s mom have said and the pictures they’ve shown me, my family dodged disaster by no more than a couple of miles.

 

The End

 

This is part one of a three part series about the effect the tornadoes that swept the South on April 27th have had on baseball and the communities in the area. 

Part Two: “How Can We Help?”

Part Three: Day Two in Pratt City, Alabama

Follow and Like Inside the Clubhouse

Don’t forget, you can see real time clubbie info by following me on Twitter as @MiLBClubbie. I tweet often and post quite a few pictures too. Just another way to get behind the scenes access to minor league baseball.

 

http://twitter.com/#!/MiLBClubbie

 

You can also ‘like’ “Inside the Clubhouse” on Facebook. Here, you can find links to every post, in case you somehow miss one for some reason, see pictures of ballparks and events from around minor league baseball, and discuss the “Inside the Clubhouse” posts. You’ll catch little tidbits of information that you won’t see anywhere else, too.

 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inside-the-Clubhouse/176884499019311