First National Bank Field - Greensboro Grasshoppers

Bowling Green Hot Rods (TB) @ Greensboro Grasshoppers (PIT)

May 28, 2025

Hot Rods 7, Grasshoppers 6

W: T.J. Nichols
L: Connor Oliver

S: Jack Snyder

HR: Daniel Vellojin (BG), Mac Horvath (BG), Maikol Escotto 2 (GBO), Lonnie White Jr. (GBO)

Attendance: 5,664
Time of Game: 2 hours, 42 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Greensboro, NC
Opened: 2005
Capacity: 7,499
Level: High A
League: South Atlantic

The final game of my North Carolina trip was in Greensboro.  I was supposed to go to a game there on Tuesday night, but the rain that started in the area on Memorial Day did not let up until Wednesday so the Tuesday game was postponed.  Fortunately, that was announced well in advance so I didn't waste my time driving from Durham to Greensboro.  I was also fortunate that there was already an early game on the schedule for Wednesday in Greensboro, which allowed me to get one more game in before I had to drive home that evening.  Of course, the rain didn't actually stop in time for the scheduled 11 a.m. first pitch, so I had to wait out a delay of a little over an hour.  Once the game got underway though, the rain stayed away and the sun even popped out for a bit, the first time I had seen that in a few days.  It was still unseasonably cool though.  First pitch temperature was only 60 degrees.

First National Bank is located in downtown Greensboro, but has a pretty large footprint for an urban park.  The main gate behind home plate is surrounded by a large brick exterior wall with stairs leading up from archways in that wall.  The concourse is quite large and provides a view of the field surrounding most of the park.  Beyond the main seating area on the third base side is private box seating, a large bar, a picnic area and lawn seating stretching out and around left field.  On the first base side is more lawn seating.  Also on that side is a large office building that is actually within the stadium's perimeter.  High rise residential buildings overlook the park just outside the perimeter from right field all the way out to center.  While those buildings are what stick out the most when you look beyond the park, from some vantage points you can also see the downtown skyline.  The upper level is filled with suites and a party deck.  This is another really nice modern ballpark.  It is easy to see why Greensboro was bumped up to High A in the 2021 minor league reorg.  They did so while remaining in the South Atlantic League that swapped levels with the Carolina League.  Many other franchises switched between those two leagues at that time, including Winston-Salem.  Greensboro has been in the South Atlantic League since the franchise's inception.

This was my second straight game seeing a Tampa Bay affiliate, but this time they were the road team.  Despite the damp and cool conditions, the ball was flying on this day.  First National Bank Field does have a reputation as a hitters park due to modest dimensions to most parts of the outfield.  Connor Oliver started this game on the mound for Greensboro but did not make it out of the first inning.  He walked two of the first three hitters he faced, gave up a RBI single to Noah Myers and a three run homer to Daniel Vellojin, a bomb to right that landed on the street outside the stadium.  Then Oliver walked another batter before leaving the game with a trainer.  Not sure what the injury was but he hasn't pitched since then.  Clearly was pitching with diminished stuff this afternoon.  The Hot Rods got out to a quick 4-0 lead.  The Grasshoppers got one back in the bottom of the first on a RBI single off the left field wall by Javier Rivas who was thrown out trying to reach second.  Bowling Green quickly answered back with a solo homer by Mac Horvath on a blast to left that was also a no doubter and not a product of the environment.  Greensboro got in on the home run derby in the third inning.  Maikol Escotto hit a two run homer to left to cut the lead to 6-3 Bowling Green.  Then the Grasshoppers got another one on an opposite field homer to right-center by Lonnie White Jr.  This was the first homer of the day that probably would not have been gone in most parks.  It was a very well hit ball though.  That made it 6-4 Bowling Green.  The teams then traded single runs the next couple innings.  Then in the bottom of the eighth, Escotto hit his second home run of the game, a no doubt bomb to left to the walkway beyond the lawn seating.  That made it 7-6 Hot Rods.  The Grasshoppers did get a couple runners on in the bottom of the ninth, but were not able to bring in the tying run.  Bowling Green won this one by a score of 7-6.

This was a fun game to close out a great trip to North Carolina.  This is one of the hotbeds of Minor League Baseball.  There are a total of nine affiliated minor league franchises in the state.  So I will almost certainly be making another trip down there in the future.  Not this year though.  Most of my remaining stops are in the Midwest as part of the longest and most aggressive baseball trip I've ever done.  I will start writing about that trip soon.

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Next ballpark: Huntington Park in Columbus, OH

Durham Bulls Athletic Park - Durham Bulls

Memphis Redbirds (STL) @ Durham Bulls (TB)

May 26, 2025

Redbirds 6, Bulls 1

W: Curtis Taylor
L: Antonio Menendez

HR: Luken Baker 2 (MEM)

Attendance: 5,664
Time of Game: 2 hours, 42 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Durham, NC
Opened: 1995
Capacity: 10,000
Level: Triple A
League: International

After spending the weekend in the Charlotte area, it was up North to Durham for a Memorial Day game.  Mondays are normally universal off days for the minor leagues.  But with this being a holiday, some teams altered their schedules for the week to accommodate a holiday game, including Durham, which is a big reason why I picked this particular weekend to make this trip to North Carolina.  It looked somewhat dicey that this game would actually be played though.  The unseasonably cool streak continued, but with rain added to the mix starting this day and continuing for most of the next 48 hours.  It held off long enough for them to get the game started.  The second half of the game was played in a constant light mist, enough to be annoying but not nearly enough to halt the game.

Durham Bulls Athletic Park is a pretty unique stadium among the ones I've visited.  It is among the older ones, opening in 1995.  At that time, the Bulls were still a Class A organization, like they were in the fictional movie Bull Durham which popularized the franchise to new levels.  They were bumped up to AAA when Tampa Bay was added as a MLB expansion team in 1998 and have been affiliated with that organization ever since.  DBAP is definitely an AAA caliber park.  It combines some old fashioned characteristics with plenty of modern perks as well.  The brick exterior and concourse below the main seating area, with tunnels leading out to the field are some of its classic ballpark features.  While the main concourse is below the seats, there is also a walkway encircling the entire park, bisecting the main seating areas in foul territory.  There is no true upper level seating in this park, which is a bit rare for AAA.  A fairly large roof overhangs a good percentage of the seats, which came in handy for a lot of people on this damp afternoon.  Unfortunately, not yours truly because I had a seat just a couple rows from the field.  There is ample outfield seating in right field, offsetting the lack of a second level elsewhere.  A Blue Monster wall rises above the playing field in left, similar to Fenway's Green Monster.  Except in this case, embedded in the wall is the stadium's only video board.  Putting the primary video board in that location wouldn't work in most stadiums, even those with large walls.  But since there are no left field seats here, it is a uniquely appropriate touch.  There are mixed use buildings surrounding the park beyond both left and right field, which are great architectural fits with the stadium.  The building in left houses the Tobacco Road Sports Cafe, where patrons can watch the game from the patio.  I ate dinner there the following night, when unfortunately there was no game in progress.  One of the lasting nods from the Bull Durham movie is the large mechanical bull sign down the left field line with the slogan "Hit Bull Win Steak".  Unfortunately, nobody accomplished that feat in this game, nor did the Bulls hit any homers to set off the bull's red eyes and smoke from its nostrils.  The popularity of this franchise is perhaps most evident by the size of the team store, the variety of items available for purchase, and the massive number of people in the store at the time I was there.  I haven't seen anything quite like that in my other minor league stops.  They must make a killing off merchandise alone.

As someone who has lived in the Chicago and Washington, DC areas my whole life and went to college at Notre Dame, the string of pitchers used by Durham in this game was quite amusing to me.  The starter was Joe Boyle, who pitched at Notre Dame where he was exclusively used as a reliever because he had trouble throwing strikes.  The three MLB orgs he has been with have all developed him as a starter though and he has made 14 big league starts.  Following him was Antonio Menendez from the DC suburb of Reston, VA.  Next was Garrett Acton from the Chicago suburb of Naperville, IL and the University of Illinois.  Then came Rays' rehabbing reliever Kevin Kelly from Springfield, VA and James Madison University.  All were overshadowed on this day by Memphis starter Curtis Taylor.  The Canadian 29 year old journeyman has bounced around a bunch of MLB orgs over the years and is yet to make it to the big leagues.  He looked great on this day though.  He pitched five scoreless innings against a pretty strong Durham lineup, striking out six batters.  Boyle was surprisingly pulled after two scoreless innings of his own.  I didn't see an official reasoning for this, but I suspect it was precautionary due to his velocity being down a few ticks from the 100 MPH he frequently throws.  He has been pitching on schedule and deeper into games since.  The game kind of fell apart for the Bulls when the side-winding Menendez replaced Boyle in the third.  Michael Siani poked one down the left field line for a leadoff double followed by an infield hit by Thomas Saggese.  Jimmy Crooks got the Redbirds on the board with a double to the left/center gap.  That was followed by big boy Luken Baker slugging a three run homer to center, giving Memphis a 4-0 lead.  It was the first of a pair of homers on the day for Baker, who has had a few cups of coffee in the big leagues with the Cardinals, but had really been struggling in Memphis this year.  In the sixth inning after rain had started to fall, Siani delivered his second opposite field double of the game, this one driving in a run to make it 5-0.  Besides the two doubles, Siani also stole three bases in the game, including two swipes of third, making him the other offensive star of the game for the Redbirds along with Baker.  The Bulls finally got on the board in the seventh on a RBI double by Jake Mangum, who has spent most of this season in the big leagues but was rehabbing in Durham this week.  Another notable Rays rehabber in this game was Ha-Seong Kim who actually made his first official start in the Tampa Bay org on this day and had a pair of singles to show for it.  On the prospect front, MLB.com's #20 prospect Carson Williams was in the Durham lineup, but his offensive struggles continued on this day as he went 0-4 with a pair of strikeouts.  Baker's second home run came in the top of the ninth, a lined shot over the Blue Monster to the Tobacco Road patio.  Memphis won this one by a 6-1 score.

The rain picked up in intensity soon after the game ended.  The following day was a complete washout which limited the amount of sightseeing I was able to do in the Research Triangle region.  The Tuesday night game I had planned on attending in Greensboro was postponed.  Fortunately, they had an early afternoon tilt on Wednesday I was able to attend instead before heading home.

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Next ballpark: First National Bank Field in Greensboro, NC

Atrium Health Ballpark - Kannapolis Cannon Ballers

Columbia Fireflies (KC) @ Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (CHW)

May 25, 2025

Cannon Ballers 3, Fireflies 2

W: Kevin Davis
L: Nick Conte

S: Hale Sims

HR: Derlin Figueroa (COL)

Attendance: 2,385
Time of Game: 2 hours, 29 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Kannapolis, NC
Opened: 2021
Capacity: 4,930
Level: Single A
League: Carolina

My first 2025 visit to a stadium I had never been to before was Atrium Health Ballpark in Kannapolis, which is a short drive north of Charlotte where I was staying for the weekend.  So I was able to hop on the road up to Kannapolis for a Sunday afternoon game and returned to Charlotte for an evening game there as well.  With this being the only afternoon game of the trip, it is unsurprising that it was also the warmest.  But the temperature actually exceeded what had been forecasted, so I was a bit warm sitting in the sun with jeans on while temps rose into the mid-70s.  Still relatively mild for late May in North Carolina though.

When Minor League Baseball reorganized in 2021, dozens of teams lost their MLB affiliations.  Most of the casualties were geographically isolated franchises or teams that were playing in facilities that didn't meet modern standards.  The old Kannapolis stadium, which I visited in 2017, probably would have fallen into the latter category, so it is quite likely that their affiliation with the White Sox was saved by the fact that this brand new ballpark was ready to open in 2021.  Atrium Health Ballpark is a HUGE upgrade over Intimidators Stadium (the team renamed themselves from Intimidators to Cannon Ballers at the same time the new park opened).  I don't have a ton to compare it to since this is the first Low A ballpark I have visited these past two years, but it seems like a great facility for that level.  It is situated in downtown Kannapolis, which isn't exactly a sprawling metropolis.  However, this park appears to have initiated a bunch of new development projects in the area.  There is a residential building overlooking right field, the first level of which contains a restaurant and the Cannon Ballers team store.  The park has a very open layout with plenty of space to wander around while keeping an eye on the game as well.  There are picnic areas down both the first base and third base lines and lawn seating available in left field.  The main seating area contains real stadium seats, unlike Intimidators Stadium which was almost all bleacher seating as I recall.  There is also a smallish second level with club seating available.

The White Sox prospect in Kannapolis who I was most interested in seeing, 6'7" outfielder George Wolkow, unfortunately had this day off.  Fortunately, last year's Sox second round pick Caleb Bonemer did play.  He didn't record a hit, but walked a couple times and made a few excellent defensive plays at third base.  The Kannapolis pitchers were the story of this game.  Starter Kaleb Sophy gave up a couple runs in 4 1/3 innings of work.  The three relievers who followed him were nearly perfect though.  Carlton Perkins, Kevin Davis and Hale Sims threw 4 2/3 innings without allowing a run or a hit.  Columbia scored their only two runs of the game in the first inning on a crushed two run homer to right by Derlin Figueroa.  They did not record another hit until a fifth inning single, and finished the game with just those two knocks.  Meanwhile the Cannon Ballers were also stymied by Fireflies starting pitcher Blake Wolters who went five scoreless innings, striking out five Ballers hitters.  Kannapolis finally got the bats going in the sixth after Wolters departed the game.  A hit batter and a walk set up catcher Ronny Hernandez to deliver a game tying two run double over the centerfielder's head.  The game remained tied until the bottom of the eighth.  A single and a walk to open the inning put the Cannon Ballers in a great spot to take the lead.  A wild pitch in a sacrifice bunt situation moved the runners into scoring position.  Then Mikey Kane flared a base hit to left to score a run.  Kannapolis was unable to add anything after that, but the one run proved to be enough.  Hulking reliever Hale Sims, who physically reminded me of former Sox closer Bobby Jenks, retired the Fireflies in order in the ninth to record the save and preserve a 3-2 Cannon Ballers victory.

After seeing a pair of White Sox affiliate losses to open the trip, it was nice to add a win to the ledger this Sunday afternoon.  That evening, Charlotte made it a Sox affiliate sweep for my Sunday doubleheader.  After these games, it was back up north to Durham for a very damp Memorial Day.

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Next ballpark:  Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, NC

Truist Field - Charlotte Knights

Round Rock Express (TEX) @ Charlotte Knights (CHW)

May 24, 2025

Express 8, Knights 6

W: Joe Barlow
L: Mike Clevinger

S: Luis Curvelo

HR: Marcus Smith (RR), Chad Wallach (RR), Brooks Baldwin (CLT), Colson Montgomery 2 (CLT)

Attendance: 6,814
Time of Game: 3 hours, 4 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Charlotte, NC
Opened: 2014
Capacity: 10,200
Level: Triple A
League: International

The second stop on my Memorial Day weekend trip took me to another park that I had visited before, twice in this case.  I first went to Truist Field in Charlotte, then BB&T Ballpark, on that same 2017 trip that took me to Winston-Salem.  Then I visited again a year later to see the White Sox play their AAA squad in an exhibition game right before the season started.  On this year's trip, I actually went to a pair of games at Truist Field.  I was able to complete a Kannapolis/Charlotte doubleheader on Sunday afternoon and evening.  For the purposes of this blog though, I'm only writing about the Saturday night game.

Truist Field remains my favorite minor league park of the close to 30 I have now visited.  It combines a state of the art facility that is big league caliber in many regards with incredible views of Uptown Charlotte rising above the stadium in right and center fields.  While there is not a bad view in the house, I personally recommend sitting on the third base side if possible to have the best skyline view possible.  An expansive concourse encircles the stadium right above the main seating level.  There is traditional stadium seating from foul pole to foul pole in foul territory and several rows of seating in both left and right fields as well, with a second level home run porch in right.  There are a few different premium seating areas behind home plate, at field level and behind glass at the top of the sections.  The second level is mostly made up of club seating and suites.  Really, if you could somehow just add an upper deck to the park, it would look like a major league stadium.  Except it would be a big league hitters paradise due to tight dimensions to all fields, particularly to right field which bumps right up to Mint Street running past the exterior of the park.  If Charlotte were ever to get a Major League franchise, this would be the ideal plot of land to put a stadium on if they could redirect a street or two.  That said, it makes a pretty great minor league park as is.

I am so tardy in writing this post that the biggest storyline of this game involved a player who has since been jettisoned by the White Sox.  Andrew Vaughn was the third pick of the 2019 draft by the White Sox and never played above High-A minor league ball on his way to the majors, primarily due to covid wiping out the 2020 minor league season.  He then made the Sox Opening Day roster in 2021 and had remained in the big leagues ever since (with the exception of a brief rehab assignment in 2022).  So he had never spent a day in AAA as a bona fide minor leaguer, until this day.  After a truly dreadful first two months of the season, the Sox decided to option him to Charlotte.  He was in the lineup batting third on this Saturday night.  And boy was it a rough AAA debut for him.  He went 0-4 with a strikeout, grounded into a double play and committed an error at first base that led to a pair of unearned runs.  Just a few days ago, the Sox traded Vaughn to Milwaukee, ending his rocky time in Chicago.  Fortunately, it wasn't all bad for the Knights on this night though.  On the flip side, once highly touted shortstop prospect Colson Montgomery probably had the best game of his professional career on this night.  He homered twice and doubled twice on a 4-4 night.  The doubles were perhaps a tad fortunate though because Round Rock centerfielder Alejandro Osuna did not take the best route on the first one and completely lost the second one in the twilight sky.  Interestingly, Osuna was promoted by the Rangers to make his MLB debut against the White Sox in Chicago the following day.  So he faced off against the Sox AAA and MLB teams in consecutive days.  Brooks Baldwin and Montgomery got Charlotte off to a quick start with back-to-back homers in the bottom of the first:  Baldwin's a bomb to center and Montgomery's was an opposite field shot to left.  Round Rock tied it up in the third on another opposite field homer, of the two run variety, by Marcus Smith off Mike Clevinger, who is still employed by the White Sox organization for reasons that remain unclear.  Smith would score the go ahead run in the fifth after reaching on the Vaughn error and scoring on a Clevinger wild pitch.  And then Smith's big night continued in the seventh with a double that knocked in another run to make it 5-3 Express.  Two batters later, Chad Wallach seemingly put the game out of reach with yet another opposite field home run, but this one was to right field and was a Charlotte special that probably would have been a routine fly out in most MLB parks.  It made the game 8-3 Round Rock.  The Knights would answer with a pair in the bottom of the seventh though.  Montgomery's second homer of the game in the bottom of the ninth, this one a pulled homer to deep right center, which cut the deficit to two.  The Knights got a couple men on after that but could not score again.  Round Rock hung on for an 8-6 win.

This was a pretty typical Charlotte game with five homers and plenty of offense, providing all sorts of entertainment.  As I mentioned above, I made it back there again on Sunday night when the Knights got revenge with a 7-4 victory.  In between was my first visit to Atrium Health Ballpark in nearby Kannapolis.

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Next ballpark:  Atrium Health Ballpark in Kannapolis, NC

Truist Stadium - Winston-Salem Dash

Hudson Valley Renegades (NYY) @ Winston-Salem Dash (CHW)

May 23, 2025

Renegades 10, Dash 1

W: Josh Grosz
L: Phil Fox

HR: Arxy Hernandez (WS)

Attendance: 5,186
Time of Game: 2 hours, 50 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Winston-Salem, NC
Opened: 2010
Capacity: 5,500
Level: High A
League: South Atlantic

Year two of my Minor League Baseball stadium tour is underway.  Like last year, I intend to attend games in 20 different ballparks in 2025.  A couple differences are in store this year though.  First, the tour will be much more consolidated with a vast majority of the stops happening in just two trips:  the recently completed extended Memorial Day weekend voyage to North Carolina and an upcoming tour of the Eastern half of the Midwest League and other affiliated clubs in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.  Another difference is that while I had never been to any of the 20 stadiums I visited last year, there will be some repeat stops this year.  Including the first couple North Carolina stops to see White Sox affiliates that I also caught on a similar trip back in 2017.

My first Minor League game of 2025 was the Friday night before Memorial Day in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  Truist Stadium is located a short distance from downtown Winston-Salem, and provides views of downtown from most vantage points inside the stadium.  It is basically built into the side of a hill.  The field is situated well below street level.  The main (only?) entrance is located in right field.  There have been a few noticeable changes in and around Truist Stadium since I was there eight years ago, including the name (was BB&T Ballpark back then).  First, the area around the park has been developed a bit, including new residential buildings overlooking the park beyond left field, a feature that I would soon learn is quite common for North Carolina ballparks.  There is a local brewery concession area in right field, to compliment a similar one in left field.  Only the left field one was there last time.  Apparently another change occurred immediately following this homestand as I saw an X post indicating that they were replacing the video board that was the original from when the parked opened in 2010 with a new, larger one in time for their next home series.  From what I can recall, the main seating areas have not changed though.  The concourse provides views of the field most of the way around the park.  Lawn seating exists well down the third base line and in left field.  Down the first base line is a large patio standing/seating area.  The modestly sized second level has ample suite and club seating.  I only visited five stadiums last year that were below the AA level.  This one blows all of them out of the water in terms of overall quality and surrounding views.  I will be visiting a lot more High A parks this year though, so I will be curious to see if Winston-Salem still holds that top spot when the summer is over.

This marked the second straight minor league baseball game I had attended that featured the White Sox High A affiliate Winston-Salem Dash, having seen them play in Aberdeen to close out 2024.  On this night, they were taking on Yankees affiliate Hudson Valley, who I also saw play last August.  Not surprisingly, there were very few holdovers on the roster for either team.  One of the few was Renegades second baseman Roc Riggio who was promoted to AA about a week after this game.  The most notable Sox prospect in the Dash lineup was Braden Montgomery, one of the key pieces coming over from Boston in the Garrett Crochet trade.  Unfortunately, Montgomery had a quiet game on this night, going 1 for 4.  Most of the Dash hitters had quiet nights, actually.  Hudson Valley starting pitcher Josh Grosz was in complete control from the start.  He threw seven innings allowing just four hits, no walks and eight strikeouts.  The only run he allowed was a second inning solo homer by Arxy Hernandez, which tied the game at one.  Dash starter Tommy Vail was fairly effective as well, but only lasted four innings.  I had forgotten until I was watching Vail pitch in another game on MiLB.TV about a week later that he started his college career at Notre Dame before stops at TCU and Auburn.  Anyway, this was a decent pitchers duel for five innings before turning into a Renegades route in the final four frames.  Dash relievers had trouble finding the strike zone as they walked six and hit a batter in five innings of work.  The eighth inning was especially ugly.  Carson Jacobs struck out the first batter he faced, but retired none of the next six.  It went walk, single, walk, walk, single, double and then another walk by the next reliever for good measure.  Hudson Valley scored five in the inning to turn the game into an 8-1 laugher.  They tacked on two more in the ninth before the Dash decided to hand the ball to infielder Wes Kath to get the last out.  Somehow, he induced a popout to short making him the only Dash pitcher on the evening to not allow a run.  So that makes two straight Winston-Salem games I've been at in which they used a position player to finish the game.  At least it wasn't in a tied game in extra innings this time, I guess.  10-1 Hudson Valley was the final score.

Not the greatest game to get my trip started.  It was a very pleasant night at the ballpark with a nice crowd though.  And Truist Stadium remains a gem of a stadium, perhaps overqualified as only a High A facility.  Next, it was off to another great park that I had been to before, down in Charlotte.

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Next ballpark:  Truist Field in Charlotte, NC