We end 2017 with a countdown of the 10 biggest stories of the year on Ballpark Digest, as chosen by editors and partially based on page views. Today, #10: The Pawtucket Red Sox’s ongoing search for a new ballpark. (more…)
Author Archive | Jesse Goldberg-Strassler
Best New Food Item: Beercheese Poutine
From fan nomination to majority rule to Midwest League stomachs, the West Michigan Whitecaps gobbled up Ballpark Digest’s Best New Food Item of 2017 with their Beercheese Poutine — a tribute to the team’s unique and popular crowdsourcing approach to concession items. (more…)
2017 Broadcaster of the Year: Howard Kellman and Mick Gillispie
Baseball is shaped and advanced by its innovations, from new ballparks to names to uniforms to theme nights, spotlighted by Ballpark Digest throughout the year and honored now, as we begin our 2017 awards. (more…)
2016 Best New Logo/Branding: Columbia Fireflies
As chosen by the editors of Ballpark Digest, the 2016 award for Best New Logo/Branding of the Year belongs to the Columbia Fireflies (Low A; Sally League). (more…)
2016 Broadcaster of the Year: Sean Aronson
With the retirements of Vin Scully and Dick Enberg, the importance of the baseball radio broadcaster has never been more clear. It is the broadcaster who links the generations, shares the latest upcoming news from the ballpark, tells of the players’ humanity, and connects the fans to the team on a deeper, satisfying level. (more…)
Baseball Assisting in Autism Awareness
On May 1, 1960, a Sunday, the Chicago White Sox debuted the exploding scoreboard following an Al Smith home run. As the Chicago Tribune reported, “Cheers of 29,586 spectators still were ringing in their ears and their eyes were half-blinded by the multicolored send-off given them by the electrical monster in center field.” (more…)
Memorable Opening Day Follies
A happy Opening Day to you and yours! Every team is tied for first, a full schedule lies ahead, and crowds pack into ballparks with best-case scenarios buzzing about their heads. (more…)
Ballparks and Movies: Magic in the Bleachers
Pitchers and catchers are reporting, and spring is dawning soon. With temperatures still around freezing in the north, we’re catching a few movies before Grapefruit League and Cactus League action gets underway. Here are our picks for the ten best performances by Major and Minor League Baseball ballparks on the silver screen. (more…)
Ballpark Digest Interview: Jason Benetti
There may be no one associated with the Chicago White Sox more than Ken “Hawk” Harrelson—which made the announcement that the White Sox had hired Jason Benetti to call home games alongside Steve Stone such a surprise. Benetti mulled over his hiring, hand-sanitizer ingredients, and his favorite ballparks in an interview with Jesse Goldberg-Strassler. (more…)
Logomania in the offseason
The Midwest League’s Kane County Cougars remade their look for their 26th season. The new logo features evening-shadowed evergreen trees of the western Chicago suburb behind a menacing anthropomorphic cougar, and the team nickname written in in a furry white cursive in the foreground, all of it framed by a park ranger’s badge. (more…)
It’s That Time of Year: Baseball Absence Disorder
Welcome to the time immediately after baseball season: Fall Ball in Arizona, the start of the Australian Baseball League campaign, and the days of quoting Rogers Hornsby (“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring”). (more…)
Memories of a New York Mets World Series
Tonight the New York Mets will host Game 3 of the World Series — and just in time, after Games 1 and 2 in Kansas City didn’t well. Citi Field will be in the spotlight, but many fans will fondly remember where the Mets won a World Series for the first time: Shea Stadium. (more…)
2015 Broadcaster of the Year: Josh Whetzel
Josh Whetzel is many things; among them, a native Kansan, a cancer survivor, a Dodger fan since childhood, and broadcaster at the University of Buffalo. To that list, we add the following: The longtime Voice of the Rochester Red Wings is Ballpark Digest’s 2015 Broadcaster of the Year. (more…)