Why I Love Minor League Baseball (Part 2)

Jake the Diamond Dog acting as bat boy for the South Bend Silver Hawks.

     In last week’s post, I talked about one the main appeals for me with Minor League Baseball... access to emerging talent.  This week, I’ll discuss how Minor League Baseball goes beyond simply being a run-of-the-mill sports outing, and is often a full-on barrage of entertainment for people of all ages.

      I’d like to broach the topic by sharing a story from my first internship in Minor League Baseball with the Burlington Bees.  To say that employees in small town Class A baseball “wear a lot of hats” is an understatement.  I did everything from clean facilities (restrooms included), recycle used cans, stock concession areas, put together stat packs for the radio broadcast, and tackled business related items.  The one thing that was always paramount and a driving factor behind doing even the most horrific tasks was making sure that the fans had the absolute best experience when they come to the park.  One day, this meant tackling the age-old physics question of how to shoot a hot dog with condiments, intact, out of a CO₂ cannon.  When it was rolled out for the game, the results were spotty, but the fan response was incredible.

    

     Many of the fan experience initiatives you see in Minor League Baseball don’t generally find their way into a Major League ballpark.  Whether it is an open cheeseburger eating contest after a “Jimmy Buffet” night, or a Hawaiian Luau night with open fires in the concourse and a man playing a ukulele, they enhance the novelty of the experience for a typical fan without detracting from what is happening on the field.

  

    Minor League Baseball also has some of the premiere giveaways if you are a collector of sports memorabilia.  One of the more popular giveaway items, pictured in my previous post, are bobbleheads.  Although Major League teams also give these out, generally they are extremely high quantities.  In the case of MiLB teams, most bobblehead runs are limited to 2,000 or less.  This makes them far more rare and adds a substantial level of value.  Although this is just for a niche group of collectors, they can add value to the experience and drive ticket sales. 

     Lastly, and probably most importantly, is the attention paid the kids in Minor League Baseball.  I can’t be certain if it is a conscious effort to breed a new generation of fans, but they pull out all of the stops to cater to children.  Beyond just mascots, children are generally involved in activities on the field throughout the game and even after, running the bases of a professionally maintained diamond.

    Whether it’s between inning activities, fun follies like shooting hot dogs into stands, fireworks, or even bat retrieving golden retrievers (pictured), most minor league baseball stops do as much as they can to make it a memorable experience on a nightly basis, regardless of what is happening on the field.