Perdue Stadium - Delmarva Shorebirds

Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (CHW) @ Delmarva Shorebirds (BAL)

July 11, 2026

Shorebirds 8, Cannon Ballers 0

W: Christian Rodriguez
L: Alexander Martinez

HR: Felix Amparo (DEL), Jose Perez (DEL), Andres Nolaya (DEL)

Attendance: 3,537
Time of Game: 2 hours, 28 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Salisbury, MD
Opened: 1996
Capacity: 5,200
Level: Single A
League: Carolina

I took a few weeks off from minor league baseball after my marathon June trip down south.  That left me with just two parks left to visit this year, both of which were close enough to home to do single day trips.  The first of those came the Saturday in July following Independence Day weekend.  I drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge for the first time in many years, and on down to Salisbury, Maryland.  The "Delmarva" geographic identifier for the Shorebirds refers to the tri-state region of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.  Salisbury is located near the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but it is just a short drive north to Delaware or south to Virginia.

Arthur W. Perdue Stadium is named after the founder of Perdue Farms chicken company, which has its headquarters basically across the street from the stadium.  This 30 year old stadium has nothing particularly special about it, but is perfectly decent for Low A baseball.  It has a brick exterior with staircase entrances behind home plate that open up to the concourse that sits above the 200 level.  This concourse is mostly open air and allows you to see the action on the field from it.  A walkway bisects the 100 and 200 sections in the seating area that runs from just beyond first to third bases.  An interesting feature of this split section walkway is that there is an open space along it right behind home plate that contains a couple concession stands.  It is also possible to take a 360 degree walk around the perimeter of the playing field, even though there are no seats or amenities anywhere in the outfield.  This does provide standing room vantage points from the outfield though, located between the outfield wall and the advertising boards beyond it.  There are picnic and party areas further down the first and third base lines beyond the main seating bowl.  The second level situated above parts of the concourse contains the press box, a handful of suites and a club section.  Much like the Braves affiliates, three of which I saw on my June trip, the Orioles have all of their minor league clubs in close proximity to Baltimore.  It was quite noticeable how closely tied this organization is to the parent club, from all the O's gear I saw being worn by fans, to the singing of "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" during the 7th inning stretch.  I had concerns about potential summer storms rolling through this night, but fortunately that never materialized.  It turned out to be a nice night for baseball with a pretty good sized crowd on hand for this Saturday evening game.  It was Margaritaville Night in Salisbury, so the Shorebirds were wearing island themed jerseys.

Last I saw Kannapolis, they got no-hit in Hickory on the first game of my June trip.  So they had an extremely low bar to climb over for a better offensive performance.  They just barely cleared that bar.  Right handed pitcher Christian Rodriguez got the start for Delmarva and had himself an evening.  However, the first pitch he threw ensured the Cannon Ballers wouldn't be no-hit again.  Jaden Fauske lined one into right center and right fielder Junior Aybar just missed making a spectacular diving catch.  Instead it wound up being a leadoff double.  A couple batters later, Fauske failed to advance on a single to left as he seemed to think the shortstop was going to be able to make a play.  That proved to be costly because he never reached third base, nor did any other Kannapolis player the entire evening.  In fact, the first inning was the only time they would have multiple base runners in an inning all night.  Different story for the Shorebirds.  They were facing Kannapolis starter Alexander Martinez and quickly got on the board against him in the bottom of the first.  Braylon Whitaker led off with a double off the wall near the left field foul pole.  He would then score on a sacrifice fly by Jordan Sanchez.  In the bottom of the third, nine hole hitter Felix Amparo led off with an opposite field homer to right, his first home run of the season.  Whitaker followed with a single and would eventually come around to score to give the Shorebirds a 3-0 lead, thanks in part to Martinez's third balk of the game that advanced him to third.  Delmarva continued to string hits together in the sixth inning.  Jose Perez hit a towering opposite field two run homer to left-center to pad the Shorebirds lead to five.  Meanwhile, Rodriguez continued to cruise through the Kannapolis lineup.  He completed seven scoreless innings, allowing five hits, one walk and four strikeouts.  If this were a big league game, he probably could have kept going as he only threw 89 pitches.  Not that it was really needed at this point, but Delmarva put together their best offensive inning of the night in the seventh.  Doubles by DJ Layton and Adriander Mejia preceded a two run homer by Andres Nolaya.  They had more extra base hits (six) than the Cannon Ballers had total hits (five).  While Kannapolis was at least able to put the ball in play most of the night, that changed in the last two innings.  The last five Cannon Ballers to step to the plate all struck out.  The Shorebirds cruised to an 8-0 victory.  I must be bad luck for Kannapolis because they failed to score in either game I attended this year.  Delmarva had really been scuffling heading into this game too.  They hadn't had as much as a lead at any point of the first four games of this series.

This was my ninth and final minor league game of the year involving a White Sox affiliate.  They went an ugly 2-7 in those games, with Birmingham of all teams earning the only two wins.  Birmingham has been the Sox worst affiliate over the full season this year.  Just one more minor league game to go overall for me, which would be the following Saturday night in Richmond, Virginia.

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Next ballpark: CarMax Park in Richmond, VA

Gwinnett Field - Gwinnett Stripers

Louisville Bats (CIN) @ Gwinnett Stripers (ATL)

June 21, 2026

Stripers 10, Bats 1

W: Connor Thomas
L: Sam Benschoter

HR: Jim Jarvis (GWN), Brewer Hicklen (GWN)

Attendance: 2,738
Time of Game: 2 hours, 28 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Rome, GA
Opened: 2009
Capacity: 10,115
Level: Triple A
League: International

I made it!  The finale of my 16 day, 13 ballpark journey.  Originally, I was scheduled to go to a game in Gwinnett County, Georgia on Saturday night and then was going to spend most of Sunday driving home.  Well, I still spent most of Sunday driving, but included one last baseball game into the mix.  The drive from Rome to Lawrenceville, the northeast suburb of Atlanta where the Stripers call home, took me right past Truist Park where the Braves were playing a game that same afternoon.  Which brings me to an observation.  While it makes all the sense in the world from the big league club's perspective to have all of their minor league affiliates so close, I'm not sure how great that is for the franchises themselves.  Yes, they are all located in cities that love the Braves and many fans probably enjoy seeing the future Braves stars as they progress up the system.  But it also might hurt attendance a bit when some fans could opt to just make the drive to Atlanta to see the big league team instead.  The three Braves affiliate games I attended on this trip were all weekend games, yet had mediocre sized crowds at them.  I especially wonder how much Gwinnett suffers when they are home at the same time as the Braves, playing just 35 miles apart, as they were this day.  Anyway, just something that crossed my mind.

Either '25-'26 was an offseason with an unusually high number of minor league ballpark naming rights deals expiring, or I just happened to hit all of them this year.  I assume Gwinnett Field is only a temporary name until a new corporate sponsor can ben found.  While I have not visited Low A Augusta yet, I feel pretty confident in saying Gwinnett Field is the crown jewel of the Braves minor league ballparks.  It is a very nice facility, and a good one to close my trip with.  The lower level has almost a big league ballpark feel to it with ample seating nearly running from foul pole to foul pole, with luxury seating sections right behind home plate.  A spacious concourse encircles the entire park.  The outfield has no standard seating, but considerably sized berm seating areas in both left and right field, as well as plenty of standing room vantage points all the way around.  Because of the larger lower bowl than is typical in the minor leagues, the second level situated above the main concourse is a bit further from the playing field.  It is lined with suites and party decks at the end on each side.  High rise residential buildings surround the park all the way around the outfield.  I already mentioned a downside of having an AAA team so close to the big league team.  But on the positive side, it means the fans are heavily invested in the team and its players.  That makes the game itself more of an attraction than it is some other places in the minor leagues.  That said, there is plenty of the traditional minor league fun to be had here too.  This was a very nice, sunny afternoon in Georgia.

As a neutral, the highlight for me going into this game was getting to see Elly De La Cruz make a rehab appearance for Louisville.  The Reds All-Star shortstop had a rough game on this day though, both at the plate and in the field.  He went 0-for-3 and committed a costly error that caused the Bats to give up a pair of runs in the first inning.  Louisville did score first though.  Former highly touted prospect Hurston Waldrep got the start on the mound for the Stripers.  In the first, he allowed a two out double to Hector Rodriguez, who then came around to score on an Ivan Johnson single to left.  Turns out, that would be the only run the Bats would score on this day.  The Stripers, on the other hand, kept scoring all afternoon.  They were facing Bats righty Sam Benschoter.  A Brett Wisely triple down the right field line preceded the aforementioned fielding error on De La Cruz that tied the game.  Two more singles followed to score a second unearned run of the first inning that gave the Stripers a 2-1 lead.  In the third, Aaron Schunk doubled to left to score Wisely.  Gwinnett took full control of the game in the fifth inning.  Jim Jarvis started the frame by clubbing a home run into the Louisville bullpen near the right field foul pole.  A couple more singles and then a sacrifice fly by Schunk put the Stripers up 5-1 through five.  They would go on to score in every inning in which they batted the rest of the game.  In the sixth, it was a RBI double by Jarvis.  The Bats defense contributed to their pitchers' struggles all afternoon.  In the seventh inning, Gwinnett had already tacked on two more runs on a two run homer slugged into the home bullpen by Brewer Hicklen before an error eventually led to a third run in the inning.  For good measure, De La Cruz's late game replacement, Garrett Hampson, also committed an error in the eighth inning to push another unearned run across.  Three Bats errors in the game allowed four unearned runs to score, turning what probably would have been a loss anyway into a blowout.  Gwinnett won this one by a final score of 10-1.  Waldrep and the three relievers who followed all had nice outings on the mound for the Stripers.  They allowed just six hits in the game, with five of them being singles.

Not the most exciting game to end the trip with, but I was not going to complain at this point.  I definitely had a sense of accomplishment pulling off my most ambitious baseball trip to date, which made the long drive home that evening quite tolerable.  With 13 ballparks crossed off my list on this trip to add to the five I hit earlier in the year, I was already through 18 of the 20 ballparks I had intended on visiting this year with more than a week left to go in June.  Those last two stops were drivable day trips for me, both of which I wound up doing on consecutive Saturdays in July.

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Next ballpark: Arthur W. Perdue Stadium in Salisbury, MD

AdventHealth Stadium - Rome Emperors

Hudson Valley Renegades (NYY) @ Rome Emperors (ATL)

June 20, 2026

Renegades 3, Emperors 2

W: Rory Fox
L: Zach Royse

S: Wilmy Sanchez

HR: Core Jackson (HV), Kyle West (HV), Eric Hartman (ROM)

Attendance: 1,788
Time of Game: 2 hours, 27 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Rome, GA
Opened: 2003
Capacity: 5,105
Level: High A
League: South Atlantic

The final weekend of my trip started with me making a relatively short drive from Madison, AL to Rome, GA.  This was a pretty interesting drive, much of it being on two lane highways going through the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.  Rome itself, located in the northwest part of Georgia, is quite hilly too.  AdventHealth Stadium is located on the northern edge of town, a decent ways from downtown.  With the Southern League in my rearview mirror, it was time to close out a second league in as many nights with my final visit to a High A South Atlantic League ballpark.

This is maybe a tad unfair to AdventHealth Stadium that I saw it near the conclusion of a trip that otherwise included higher level ballparks and truly unique A-ball facilities, but I think I can safely say this was my least favorite stadium on this trip.  It reminded me a great deal of the home ballpark of the team the Emperors were hosting this night, the Hudson Valley Renegades, right down to the artificial playing surface.  Artificial turf in Georgia makes no sense to me.  This park opened in 2003, a little before the boom in modern minor league ballpark design.  There is ample onsite parking.  A retro brick exterior greets fans coming into the main entrance behind home plate.  The main concourse is located under the grandstand, which is where you will find most of the concessions, and interestingly, an indoor space that is the team store on one side and a bar area on the other.  The main grandstand has a walkway separating the 100 and 200 levels.  There are two large entryways from the concourse to this walkway.  Railings separate the sections.  In the 200 level where I was sitting, these railings made it difficult to move around, and the ramps leading up to the sections were not particularly well marked as to which sections they served.  A curious design choice, I thought.  The main grandstand is topped off with a row of suites surrounding the press box.  Seating only runs a little past third base on that side of the park.  The first base side, on the other hand, has large open spaces beyond the grandstand that house additional concessions, a picnic area, a kids zone and berm seating that stretches around into right field.  I mentioned in the Hub City write-up how unusual it was to see the PA announcer sitting at field level rather than in a booth somewhere.  Well, that was nothing compared to Rome where the PA announcer was really a jack of all trades.  In addition to normal PA announcing duties, he was also the primary emcee of in-game entertainment and a hype man.  And he did all of this while wandering all around the park, sometimes even announcing next batters while on the move.  Not sure what they pay this gentleman, but it is probably not as much as he deserves.  He has a great set of pipes too.

I happened to be wearing a Notre Dame t-shirt this day, without realizing until the evening that the starting pitcher for Hudson Valley was former Fighting Irish right-hander Rory Fox.  He was opposed by Zach Royse, who was selected 23 picks after Fox in last summer's draft.  This was Royse's High A debut.  Both pitched pretty well in this game outside of the home runs they allowed.  Royse surrendered the first home run to the second batter of the game as Core Jackson slugged one out to right into the Renegades' bullpen, giving Hudson Valley an early lead.  The Emperors didn't have as much as a hit against Fox in the first three innings, with the only base runner reaching on a dropped routine fly ball to right fielder Luis Durango.  The Emperors finally got something going in the fourth.  John Gil started the inning lining a single to right.  That was immediately followed by Eric Hartman hitting a towering home run to the kids zone in right, well beyond the outfield wall.  That put Rome ahead 2-1.  That was the extent of the damage done against Fox on the night.  He finished with just those two runs allowed on three hits, one walk and six strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.  In the half inning right after falling behind, Hudson Valley retook the lead.  With one out in the top of the fifth, Eric Genther lined one to right and hustled to second for a double.  Then Kyle West parked one to deep right, into the trees for a two run homer.  That put the Renegades back ahead by a 3-2 score.  As it turned out, neither team would score again after that.  Hudson Valley missed several opportunities to score more throughout the night, but were unable to get key hits as they left 10 runners on base.  Luckily for them, it didn't matter as their two home runs were enough.  Other than the inning they scored their two runs, Rome wasn't able to muster multiple hits in an inning all night.  Wilmy Sanchez got the save by striking out three of the four Emperors he faced.  It was a 3-2 victory for Hudson Valley, with all five of the game's runs scoring on the three home runs.  Fox deservedly picked up the win.

And with that, I had wrapped up my tour of the 12 South Atlantic League ballparks.  A caveat to that though.  I visited Aberdeen back in 2024.  However, this year they lost their Orioles affiliate status and were replaced in the SALLY by Frederick.  I wasn't able to make it to a game in Frederick this year, but will definitely go to a game there at some point.  I will go ahead and post my ballpark rankings for the league now though and will update accordingly once I've visited Frederick.  These rankings were much more difficult to do than the Southern League because I visited almost half of them over two years and 40+ ballparks ago.  I did skim through my write-ups of those older visits to jog my memory for these rankings.  And here they are.

South Atlantic League Ballpark Rankings

1. Hub City

2. Greenville

3. Winston-Salem

4. Asheville

5. Brooklyn

6. Greensboro

7. Wilmington

8. Bowling Green

9. Jersey Shore

10. Aberdeen

11. Hudson Valley

12. Rome

Perhaps it is recency bias, but I went with two ballparks from this trip for the top two spots.  Hub City was a pretty easy choice for the number one spot though.  Asheville was the most difficult to place, in the same way that I have a hard time deciding where to rank Fenway and Wrigley when rattling off MLB stadiums.  It is such a timeless gem that it can't be ranked near the bottom.  But it also isn't nearly as "nice" as the newest stadiums.  I settled on fourth, right ahead of Brooklyn, which is another ranking not so much based on the quality of the park, but because of its extremely unique location and surroundings.  Hudson Valley and Rome were pretty easy choices to put at the bottom of this list, though I could have gone either way with the order of those two.  As I keep pointing out, none of these parks are bad at all.  They are all much nicer than the Class A ballparks I remember visiting in my younger days.

Just one more day to go on this marathon trip down south.  That last Sunday would wind up being a long day of driving, with an afternoon game in Gwinnett mixed in.

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Next ballpark: Gwinnett Field in Lawrenceville, GA