Minor League Baseball

Me - Minor League Baseball, Wow! I have seen  the Trenton Thunder, the Lakewood Blueclaws, the Camden Riversharks, the Somerset Patriots, the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Newark Bears, and the Staten Island Yankees. This year I am going to see the New Jersey Jackals. My favorites are the Thunder, the Blueclaws and the Patriots. I love to see the different mascots. Sparkee and Slider are the Patriots mascots. Buster is the Blueclaws mascot. Boomer and Strike are the Thunder mascots. Once at a Thunder game, I was fan of the day. I got to play catch on the field with Strike and Boomer before the game. The Thunder also have two bat dogs, Derby and Chase. When I was fan of the day, I got to pet them and have my picture taken with them. I also have a Chase stuffed animal. The Newark Bears have mascots Effa and Ruppert. I like Effa. The Camden Riversharks have Finley. The Staten Island Yankees have mascots too, but I don't know their names. My favorite mascots are Sparkee, Slider, Buster, Boomer and Pinchy. Pinchy is the Blueclaws logo, but I also have a stuffed animal of him. Minor League baseball is fun!

Mom - Although I never really liked participating in sports, when I was young I liked to follow baseball but I didn't know much about it. When I got a little older, I didn't like sports at all. When I was in college, I got into baseball again learned a lot about it and became a huge New York Mets fan. Later, the Yankees brought my favorite player, David Cone, who had once been a Met, back to New York as a Yankee  so I became a Yankees fan. These days especially since David Cone retired, I have become more of  a Minor League baseball fan. It is cheaper, it is closer, it is more entertaining for the kids and overall, I feel like the Minor League teams care so much more about their fans than Major League teams do. The last time I went to Yankee Stadium, they were charging $7.00 for one hotdog and it was $35.00 to park. Minor League teams often have kids eat free games or all you can eat buffets for $12 or $14 a piece and parking is a couple dollars. They almost always have games, contests or entertainment between innings which makes the kids happy and keeps them entertained. Lots of great things have happened to us at Minor League games. My kids have gotten to meet lots of mascots. At the Trenton Thunder, each of my daughters has gotten picked to compete in a between innings contest as did my stepson. My older daughter was once fan of the day. She got her picture in the paper and got to throw out a ceremonial first pitch. My younger daughter got to say "Play Ball" before the first pitch of a game.We also had our picture on their web-site once when they took our picture as we entered the stadium. At a Patriots game, we got to sit in a special section all by ourselves in lounge chairs, get free food, meet the mascots, and have our pictures on the scoreboard. At a Newark bears game, my older daughter was given the bat a Newark Bears player hit a 3 run homerun with. We have also been lucky enough to get lots of free tickets to Minor League games whether we won them at a school auction, won them at the stadium, got them from the team when a scheduled fireworks display had to be cancelled, or just were given them. Last season, we went to about 7 games and only paid for tickets to 1 and that was dollar weekend so we only paid $4.00 for 4 tickets. Mostly, I like Minor League baseball because they care about their fans, if you have a problem or issue , and you write or e-mail them, they will always get back in touch with you. I have never had any problems with any Minor League team that hasn't been resolved satisfactorily. For all these reasons, these days I am really much more of Minor League baseball fan than a Major League one.

And that's our view. Tune in again for another topic.