Day 0

Sep 18, 2023
7 min read

Wait, what are you doing?

I'm going on a road trip.

Where?

Six different minor league baseball stadiums. I'll be following the Southwest Division of the Eastern League as they finish up their season.

Why?

I like sports. I like to travel. Because minor league baseball plays in so many places on nearly every day of the week (during the summer), it's the best fit to combine these two passions.

If you'll stop asking questions, I'll tell you more about it.

Okay.

The Eastern League is one of three Double-A baseball leagues in baseball (along with the Southern League and Texas League). If you're unfamiliar with the minor leagues, Double-A is the third level of American baseball, behind Triple-A and (of course) Major League Baseball. Double-A ball is mostly composed of young players (usually in their early-twenties) who have hopes of making it to the MLB, and it's often where the haves and have-nots separate themselves.

There are twelve teams in the Eastern League, split into two divisions. The Northeast Division features teams from New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine, but those places are far away from my apartment. The Southwest Division's teams are in:

Bowie, Maryland
Richmond, Virginia
Altoona, Pennsylvania
Akron, Ohio
Erie, Pennsylvania and
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

If you'd like, I'll tell you about each of these places as I visit all of them.

I'm going to call this Day 0, because most of it doesn't count.

The official first day of my trip was Friday, September 8. I spent the day doing what what I normally do on Fridays: working.

But after work, I made the thirty-five minute drive to Bowie, Maryland.

Tell me about Bowie

Bowie is a small city in Prince George's County, Maryland. It's part of the Washington metropolitan area, but it's "outside the beltway" and feels a bit distant from the city. While not exactly halfway between DC and Baltimore, I kind of think of it that way.

What can you do in Bowie?

This is the unfortunate part of starting this project during a workday. I didn't have time to do anything else in Bowie. But, I've been to Bowie several times before, so here's my report:

They have a nice public library. I checked out Boom Town by Sam Anderson, which I highly recommend.
It's a fairly affluent suburb where people have the ability to own more land than in many other parts of the DC/Baltimore area. This makes for some nice drives with pretty houses, once you get off the highway.
I wrote about Bowie State University's men's basketball team back in November, linked here if you're interested. Turns out, I also didn't write much about the city there, but I think it's a nice read nonetheless.

I'll visit the surrounding area more for future games. Speaking of -- let's talk about the baseball game now.

Who are the Bowie Baysox?

The Baysox are the AA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. The team has been in Maryland since 1993 and have played in Prince George's Stadium since 1994 (after spending one season in Baltimore). Prior to playing here, the club was known as the Hagerstown (MD) Suns from 1989 -1992 and the Williamsport (NY) Bills in 1987 and 1988.

Why are the called the Baysox?

Bowie is only about twenty miles from the Chesapeake Bay, so that solves the first half of it.

There is a long history of baseball teams named "Sox," most notably the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox. But those are hardly the only ones. After scouring various Wikipedia lists, I've found as many Sox teams as I can, from minor leagues to summer leagues to women's leagues to international leagues to leagues I didn't know existed, almost all of them defunct. They are...

(inhales)

The Salem Red Sox, Abbeville Red Sox, Lenoir Red Sox, Lexington Red Sox, Lynn Red Sox, Marion Red Sox, Oneonta Red Sox, Rayne Red Sox, Roanoke Red Sox, Superior Red Sox, Warsaw Red Sox, Cleveland Red Sox, Memphis Red Sox, Brantford Red Sox, Regina Red Sox, Allentown Red Sox, Bristol Red Sox, Fort Lauderdale Red Sox, Pawtucket Red Sox (known as the PawSox) who recently became the Worcester Red Sox (known as the WooSox), Greenville Red Sox, Jamestown Red Sox, Pittsfield Red Sox, Reading Red Sox, San Jose Red Sox, Scranton Red Sox, Williamsport Red Sox, Winter Haven Red Sox, Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, Sarasota Red Sox, Lynchburg Red Sox, Bristol Red Sox, Winston-Salem Red Sox, Carina Redsox, Mudgeeraba Redsox, East Torrens Redsox, Lafayette Red Sox, Lafayette White Sox, Addison White Sox, Dardanelle White Sox, Duluth White Sox, Holdredge White Sox, Wisconsin Rapids White Sox, Louisville White Sox, Los Angeles White Sox, Bristol White Sox, New Zealand White Sox, Evansville White Sox, Glens Falls White Sox, Monroe White Sox, Tampa White Sox, Sarasota White Sox, Great Falls White Sox, Lockford White Sox, Lynchburg White Sox, Knoxville White Sox, South Bend White Sox, South Bend Blue Sox, Elkhart Blue Sox, Davenport Blue Sox, Denison Blue Sox, Hopewell Blue Sox, Huntington Blue Sox, LaSalle Blue Sox, Martinsburg Blue Sox, Portland Blue Sox, Holyoke Blue Sox, Leicester Blue Sox, Sydney Blue Sox, Valley Blue Sox, Abilene Blue Sox, Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, Butler BlueSox, Utica Blue Sox, Cleveland Green Sox, Springfield Green Sox, Pints Green Sox, Chicago Green Sox, Dublin Green Sox, Fremont Green Sox, Greensburg Green Sox, Bessemer Grey Sox, Montgomery Grey Sox, Reno Silver Sox, Saskatchewan Silver Sox, Amarillo Gold Sox, Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox, Baltimore Black Sox, Bowie Baysox, New Bedford Bay Sox, Colorado Springs Sky Sox, Miami Sun Sox, Mesa Solar Sox, and the Toledo Sox.

(passes out from lack of oxygen)

Who are they playing?

Oh right, we're talking about Bowie. They are playing the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, who play in the Northeast Division, meaning I won't visit their home stadium (womp womp). The Fisher Cats are the AA affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Is the stadium nice?

You know, I actually like Prince George's Stadium. It has no frills, it feels small even for AA ball, and -- after seeing several games here back when I lived in Prince George's County -- I have never seen the scoreboard/video screen work correctly. But every seat has excellent sight lines and getting to the restrooms and concessions is incredibly easy, no matter where you are. Plus, parking is free.

Prince George's Stadium is not going to knock anyone's socks (sox?) off, but it's an incredibly pleasant place to see a game.

What do they have to eat there?

I am going to try to get something a little out of the ordinary at the concession stand during each game. Whether it's something local or just something I find interesting, this is going to be a way to entertain myself.

Obviously you can get a regular hot dog at Prince George's Stadium. Obviously you can get a chicken finger basket. But since the team emphasizes its proximity to the bay (and because the state of Maryland is obsessed with crabs), you can get a few crab-related items. I decided to go for something called a "crab dog."

I'm never doing that again.

It is simply a bun and hot dog layered with crab dip and nothing else. The crab dip was neither hot nor cold, and it's just not a flavor combination that needs to exist. Plus, I mean look at this thing. Presentation is key in food service, and you don't want "looks like vomit" or "is three different shades of yellow" to be primary identifiers. If it had tasted good, I still would have been turned away by its appearance. Unfortunately, it was nasty, so it never had a chance to redeem itself. (Full transparency: I ate the whole thing).

In short, DO NOT EAT THE CRAB DOG. Though, to be fair, Allison came with me; she got the crab fries -- they were much better.

I don't know how to write about baseball in an interesting way, so I am just going to do bullet points of the game itself, as well as additional notes about non-game things.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

Upon entering the gates, I was handed this:

That is a brown paper bag, which is not something one normally receives at baseball games. Inside the bag was...

A bobblehead of former Baysox catcher/current Orioles All Star Adley Rutschman. This is fun.

Throwing out the first pitch was none other than Maryland Governor Wes Moore. He threw out the first pitch along with some kid (and the kid threw a much better pitch). I don't know why he was there, but it's not that often that you get to see a governor.
You know how I mentioned the scoreboard at this stadium rarely works? This is what it looked like for most of this game:

Bowie doesn't get a logo. New Hampshire does, but that's the logo of the Altoona Curve. Altoona is not playing in this game. This is -- by far -- the oldest video board in the conference. You can tell.

GAME NOTES

New Hampshire: 24-33, 6th place (9.5 GB) in the NE.

Bowie: 33-27, 3rd place (2 GB) in the SW. Bowie has an outside shot of making the playoffs, so this game is important.

NH starting pitcher: Luis Quinones BOW starting pitcher: Connor Gillespie

Top 1st: Gillespie starts the game with a strikeout, but Devonte Brown hits a home run, giving the Fisher Cats a 1-0 lead.

Bot 1st: Bowie's Dylan Beavers answers with a solo shot of his own, tying the game 1-1.

Top 4th: New Hampshire's Trevor Schwenke steals second base with a man on third and two outs. Bowie's catcher throws the ball to try to get the stealing runner, but the throw goes wide, allowing the man on third to score. The Fisher Cats now lead 2-1.

Bot 5th: Bowie's Donta' Williams hits a pretty double. This pays off when Billy Cook gets beaned in the batter's box with the bases loaded, tying the game 2-2. However, Dylan Beavers strikes out with bases loaded and can't take the lead.

Bot 6th: Adrian Hernandez comes in to pitch for New Hampshire. He immediately strikes out the side.

Top 7th: Trey McGough comes in to pitch for Bowie. It's his AA debut, and he gets a strikeout for the third out.

Bot 7th: Donta' Williams gets on base again, and he scores again when Maxwell Costes hits a sacrifice fly. The Baysox lead 3-2.

Bot 8th: Max Wagner hits an RBI to bring in Dylan Beavers, extending Bowie's lead to 4-2. Later, a fielder's choice/missed tag at home scores Jud Fabian, and the Baysox now lead by three, 5-2.

Bot 8th: I feel a raindrop.

Bot 8th: Fifteen seconds later, I feel another raindrop. Immediately after, I hear one of the loudest claps of thunder I've ever heard. The umpires stop the game, the grounds crew pulls out the tarp, and the heavens start to pour. Allison and I decide to leave instead of sit in the rain for an undetermined amount of time. When we get home, we see that they decided to end the game in the eighth, giving Bowie a 5-2 win.

Win: Trey McGough

Loss: Adrian Hernandez

Player of the Game: Donta' Williams - 2-3, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB

The first night of my road trip is spent at home, as it feels dumb to get a hotel a half-hour from home.

Click here to read about DAY 1, in which Will goes to Richmond, ducks around in more rain, tries to see a bear, and thankfully avoids watching the Alabama-Texas football game.