Classic Park - Lake County Captains

West Michigan Whitecaps (DET) @ Lake County Captains (CLE)

June 27, 2025

Whitecaps 8, Captains 4

W: Preston Howey
L: Matt Wilkinson

HR: Austin Murr (WM), Peyton Graham (WM), Kevin McGonigle (WM), Christian Knapczyk (LC)

Attendance: 3,919
Time of Game: 3 hours, 3 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Eastlake, OH
Opened: 2003
Capacity: 7,273
Level: High A
League: Midwest

I started off the final weekend of my Midwest trip with a Friday night game in Eastlake, Ohio.  Eastlake is an Eastern suburb of Cleveland that is situated along Lake Erie, although Classic Park is a few miles from the lakeshore.  Being less than 20 miles from Progressive Field, this is one of the closest affiliated minor league franchises to the parent club.  Of the ones I've visited the past two years, the only one that is closer is Brooklyn and the Mets, which call the same city home.

Perhaps it is a bit unfortunate in my judgement of Classic Auto Group Park that it was the seventh and final Midwest League venue that I visited on this trip and the six that preceded it are all very nice facilities.  If I were to rank all of them, this one would easily finish last.  That's not to say it is a dump or anything.  It's just a very generic minor league park.  The only outfield seating, at least on this night, was of the lawn variety.  There is a stand-alone bleacher section in left field, but it was covered with what appeared to be a regularly used tarp adorned with advertising.  Perhaps that comes off when large crowds are expected.  There are the typical party areas down both the left and right field lines.  There is ample traditional stadium seating covering most of foul territory.  There are suites and party decks on the level above the concourse.  On a positive note, the main concourse is spacious.  Classic Park is quite lacking on the technology front compared to its contemporaries in the Midwest League.  The video board badly needs to be replaced as it has many blacked out and pixilated squares.  It doesn't provide nearly as much information as most video boards either.  This is the first park I can recall visiting that didn't have a pitch speed indicator anywhere.  Nor could you tell who was pitching based on any info board in the stadium.  These are things I never would have considered mandatory prior to starting my minor league tour.  But it is quite noticeable now since literally every other ballpark I've visited has them.  So this would be a straightforward upgrade for Lake County to make which would put it more in line with the rest of its league.

This game featured a pair of teams that I had already seen once prior on this trip.  The starting pitcher for West Michigan, Joe Miller, was actually the same pitcher who threw a bulk of the innings in their home game that I was at the previous Saturday.  Unfortunately, it was the second straight time in which I wasn't able to see elite prospect Max Clark play in the outfield as he was once again the designated hitter for the Whitecaps.  Lake County got on the board first in the bottom of the third when Christian Knapczyk won the lefty-on-lefty battle with Miller by hitting an opposite field homer to left that just snuck over the wall.  It did not take long for the Whitecaps to answer.  In the top of the fourth, in another lefty-on-lefty battle, Austin Murr took Matt Wilkinson deep to the pull side this time for a no doubt two run homer.  I actually saw Murr play a couple times for AA Erie a year ago.  The 26 year old seems to be an org player at this point since he has spent most of this season back down in High A, but also some time in AAA as well.  Immediately following Murr, Peyton Graham made it back-to-back with a home run to left.  That gave the Whitecaps a 3-1 lead.  The Captains came right back in the bottom half with a pair of runs.  The latter was scored on a double by Knapczyk, his third hit of the game off of Miller, leaving him just a triple shy of the cycle with more than half the game remaining.  He would not add to that hit total, however.  Unfortunately for the Captains, the Whitecaps just kept scoring after this.  In the top of the fifth, top infield prospect Kevin McGonigle hit yet another left-on-left home run off of Wilkinson, an opposite field shot that landed on the tarp covering the bleachers.  This wound up being McGonigle's last home run for West Michigan as he was promoted to AA Erie about a week and a half later.  The Whitecaps added another in the sixth and three more in the seventh to open up an 8-3 lead.  The seventh inning rally started with four straight singles to begin the inning.  West Michigan didn't just get it done with the bats though.  Center fielder Seth Stephenson made one of the best catches I've ever seen in a minor league game in the sixth inning.  He raced back on a ball hit deep to the right-centerfield gap and made a leaping grab as he banged into the wall on what would have been at least a double, and possibly a home run.  That, along with effective relief pitching made the Whitecaps lead hold up.  An unearned run on a passed ball in the seventh would be the Captains only tally against the West Michigan bullpen.  The Whitecaps won this by a final of 8-4.

That extended the home team losing streak on this trip to four games.  With the win, West Michigan joined Great Lakes as two time winners on my trip, while Lake County became the only team I saw lose twice.  Just one game remained, a short drive to the south in Akron on Saturday night.

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Next ballpark: Canal Park in Akron, OH

Fifth Third Field - Toledo Mud Hens

Charlotte Knights (CHW) @ Toledo Mud Hens (DET)

June 26, 2025

Knights 12, Mud Hens 9

W: Mike Clevinger
L: Keider Montero

HR: Colson Montgomery 2 (CLT), Hao-Yu Lee (TOL), Brewer Hicklen (TOL)

Attendance: 4,736
Time of Game: 3 hours, 16 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Toledo, OH
Opened: 2002
Capacity: 10,300
Level: Triple A
League: International

On Thursday, I made the short trip from Fort Wayne to Toledo, which took me back to the state of Ohio for the final leg of the Midwest trip.  After five straight Midwest League games, it was back to the AAA International League.  This was my second stop on the trip at a ballpark I had previously visited.  In this case though, I had only been to Fifth Third Field one prior time and it was at least a decade ago.  At the time, it was probably the nicest minor league park I had ever visited.  While that is no longer the case, this is still a very nice park that likely served as an inspiration for many of the newer parks built in the years since, particularly those situated in downtown locals like this one.  Toledo is the long time AAA affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, a logical pairing since it is less than an hour drive between the two cities.

Fifth Third Field is located in Toledo's Warehouse District.  The brick exterior gives the park a classic feel which melds perfectly with the older brick buildings in the neighborhood.  Most vantage points from inside the stadium provide a nice view of the downtown skyline.  Pedestrians walking past the stadium in the outfield can peer inside to catch a glimpse of the game while in progress.  There are very few outfield seats, but a bunch of different picnic, party and special seating areas out there, including along Hessman Alley above the left field wall.  That is named after former Mud Hens slugger Mike Hessman, who is Minor League Baseball's all-time home run leader.  The lack of outfield seats is compensated by having a legit second deck above the concourse spanning most of foul territory, plus a suite level above that.  The Mud Hens team store rivals Durham's for having one of the most extensive product inventories I've seen.  Makes sense because this is another one of the flagship minor league franchises.  There was a decent sized crowd on hand for this Thursday night game, which was delayed about 20 minutes due to "weather in the area".  Perhaps there were a couple rain drops before the scheduled start, but this seemed to be an unnecessary delay.

For the second time this year, veteran Mike Clevinger got the start for Charlotte in a game I attended.  He was slightly more effective this time around, but still far from dominant.  Just like his start in Charlotte, Colson Montgomery was the star of the game for the Knights.  Montgomery has had well documented struggles in AAA for the past two seasons, but not when I've been in the house.  This was the second time I've seen him hit multiple home runs in a game.  This particular game started a week long hot streak for him which ultimately led to him making his major league debut about a week later.  He got the scoring started in this game by launching a breaking ball from Toledo starter Keider Montero out to deep right center for a homer.  The Knights really roughed up Montero in the third inning.  They started the frame with four straight singles.  Immediately after the Mud Hens went to the bullpen, Corey Julks delivered a two run single to make it a five spot for the inning, increasing the lead to 6-0.  Toledo got three of those runs back in the bottom half of the inning though.  Rehabbing Matt Vierling had a RBI single followed by a two run opposite field homer by Hao-Yu Lee.  The Mud Hens got within one in the sixth inning on a two run single by Gage Workman, against the organization he briefly played for earlier in the season.  Workman was an offseason Rule 5 pick by the Cubs, was traded to the White Sox before eventually being returned to his original organization of Detroit.  That hit made it 6-5 Charlotte.  That's as close as Toledo would get though as the Knights put up another five spot in the top of the seventh.  Charlotte had five hits in the inning including three doubles.  They sent 10 men to the plate in the frame while taking an 11-5 lead.  For the second time in the game, the Mud Hens answered a five run inning with three of their own in the bottom half.  This time, the runs were all scored on a three run bomb by Brewer Hicklen that banged off the video board.  It probably would have reached the street outside the stadium if the board wasn't there.  So that made it 11-8 Knights after seven.  Charlotte added one more in the eighth on Montgomery's second homer of the game, a lefty-on-lefty 417 foot blast to nearly dead center field.  That completed a 3 for 4 night with two homers, three RBI and four runs scored for Montgomery.  The Mud Hens tacked on a run in the bottom of the ninth, but that was not nearly enough as the Knights won this one by a final score of 12-9.

That made it three straight games on this trip in which the road team won by scoring double digit runs.  This was the most competitive game of the three though.  Following this game, I made the trek across Northern Ohio to Eastlake for one final Midwest League game on this trip.

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Next ballpark: Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, OH

Parkview Field - Fort Wayne TinCaps

Great Lakes Loons (LAD) @ Fort Wayne TinCaps (SD)

June 25, 2025

Loons 11, TinCaps 0

W: Roque Gutierrez
L: Harry Gustin

HR: Mike Sirota (GL), Jake Gelof (GL)

Attendance: 3,669
Time of Game: 2 hours, 55 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Fort Wayne, IN
Opened: 2009
Capacity: 8,100
Level: High A
League: Midwest

With Michigan in my rearview mirror, it was back to Indiana on Wednesday.  While my first stop of the trip in the state of Indiana was in a city that I was intimately familiar with, that was definitely not the case on the second stop.  As best as I can recall, this was my first ever visit to Indiana's second largest city of Fort Wayne.  Perhaps I will make it a point to visit more often in the future because I thoroughly enjoyed my stay.

Parkview Field may be the new leader in the clubhouse for my favorite High A ballpark.  I really liked everything about it.  If it were located in the footprint of one of the AA leagues, it would fit right in at that level and would still probably be one of the best facilities in the league.  It has a nice downtown location surrounded by hotels and other mixed use buildings.  The brick exterior of the home plate gate area provides a nice classic ballpark feel as you enter the stadium.  Once inside though, its about as modern as they come.  There are spacious concourses and walkways throughout the park, particularly in the outfield area which doubles as a public park when games aren't being played.  There are a bunch of different types of group and premium seating areas scattered all around the park, including the home run porch in left field, high top table seating down the third base line, a picnic pavilion in right field, an indoor club beyond the batters eye in straight away center, and second level suites.  Oh, and there are also rooftop seats above the building in right field, although they call them treetops instead.  There is plenty of traditional stadium seating as well.  One particularly unique feature is the ability to peer into the TinCaps batting cage which is located right off of the main concourse on the first base side.  I watched several players taking swings about an hour before the game started.  Most minor league parks don't open their gates early enough for fans to watch batting practice, so this is a pretty unique alternative to that.

Interestingly, this game in the heart of the Midwest featured affiliates of Southern California rivals, the Dodgers and Padres.  For the second straight night, I watched a home team take a bit of a beatdown.  This one was much worse than the one in Lansing though.  Fort Wayne's plans were derailed early when starting pitcher Harry Gustin departed with the trainer mid-at bat to the first batter he faced in the second inning.  It was Gustin's first start of the season after pitching exclusively out of the bullpen, so they probably weren't expecting a complete game out of him, but surely were hoping for more than an inning.  Loons outfielder Mike Sirota got his big game started with a run scoring double in the top of the first for an early 1-0 lead.  Things started to spiral out of control for the TinCaps in the fourth.  Great Lakes scored a pair in that inning, thanks in part to a pair of walks and a wild pitch.  The Loons added another run in the fifth and two more in the sixth on a no doubt bomb to left by Sirota, over the home run porch.  Then the Loons tacked on another run in the seventh to make it 7-0 after having scored in four straight innings.  Pretty much every pitcher Fort Wayne used in this game had trouble throwing strikes.  They issued at least one walk in every inning of the game except for the eighth and a ghastly total of 12 for the game.  On the flip side, Great Lakes starter Roque Gutierrez and three relievers were all excellent.  They combined to allow six hits and three walks while striking out 11 and keeping the TinCaps off the scoreboard.  As is often the case in these minor league blowouts, Fort Wayne opted to use a position player on the mound for the final inning.  It was pretty ugly.  Infielder Victor Duarte was definitely not trying to impress anybody with his versatility on the mound.  He was lobbing in pitches at < 50 MPH.  Jake Gelof, brother of Athletics infielder Zack Gelof, took advantage of the situation with a three run homer.  During the next at bat, the Fort Wayne manager seemed to be quite perturbed as he was yelling something in the direction of the plate.  Unclear if he was upset at the Loons hitter for not swinging at pitches in the same area code as the strike zone, or at the ump for not calling said pitches strikes.  When the inning was mercifully over, the Loons had increased their lead to 11-0.  Quite a contrast occurred in the bottom of the ninth when Loons flamethrower Reynaldo Yean was hitting triple digits on the radar gun.  He completed the shutout victory for Great Lakes.  The lone bright spot for Fort Wayne was Padres top prospect Leo De Vries, who had half of his team's six hits, including a pair of doubles.

As I was taking in this game, I couldn't help but think the White Sox should make a serious attempt to get Fort Wayne as their High A affiliate the next time those negotiations take place.  I know the Sox have preferred to have all of their affiliates closely located to one another.  But being the only Midwest MLB team without an affiliate in the Midwest League is just weird.  If nothing else, throw your local fans a bone and let them occasionally drive a couple hours to see some of the up-and-coming prospects.  Or maybe even make some new fans in a neighboring state.  Fort Wayne would certainly make a lot more sense for a team from Chicago than San Diego.  Oh, and this also happens to be an excellent facility, even better than the Sox current High A affiliate of Winston-Salem, in my opinion.  Just a thought.  Speaking of Sox affiliates, it was off to see Charlotte play in Toledo the next night.

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Next ballpark: Fifth Third Field in Toledo, OH

Jackson Field - Lansing Lugnuts

Dayton Dragons (CIN) @ Lansing Lugnuts (ATH)

June 24, 2025

Dragons 13, Lugnuts 8

W: Joseph Menefee
L: Steven Echavarria

HR: Carter Graham (DAY), CJ Rodriguez (LAN), Casey Yamauchi (LAN), Tommy White (LAN)

Attendance: 1,638
Time of Game: 2 hours, 56 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Lansing, MI
Opened: 1996
Capacity: 9,500
Level: High A
League: Midwest

Prior to this trip, knowing my one scheduled day off was going to be in Central Michigan, I asked a few people I know with far more knowledge of the state than me on how I might occupy my time on this Monday off day.  I didn't get a lot of concrete suggestions.  It seems this is not exactly the most touristy part of the state.  As it turns out, that was just as well as I probably would have opted against any outdoor recommendations anyway.  While it wasn't quite as hot as Sunday, the heatwave was still in effect and I decided to spend virtually all of the day either inside or in my car.  By Tuesday, temperatures returned to a far more tolerable level, particularly by first pitch of this evening game in the state capital city.

Jackson Field is located just a few blocks east of the state capitol building in downtown Lansing.  The ballpark is nestled in a tight city block and oriented directly south to north from home plate out to center field.  Because the park runs right up against city streets to both the east and west, the dimensions down each of the lines are quite short.  305 feet to be exact.  Tall walls jut out quickly from the foul poles on each side.  However, the dimensions are still quite short to both straight away left and right as well.  Only fly balls hit to center field might not cause a pitcher's heart to sink.  While the fit in the city block is tight on those two sides, there is actually quite a bit of open space leading up to the home plate entrance on the south side.  This is yet another minor league ballpark with a residential building overlooking the outfield.  Tenants of that building on the ballpark side no doubt have a great view of the game from their balconies.  The lower level of the building houses a picnic area and a bar that are within the ballpark's perimeter.  A concourse circles the entire park even though the only outfield seating available is of the lawn variety.  There is a considerable amount of seating on the lower level in the infield with bleachers down the first base line and a party porch on the third base side.  The second level consists of suites and the press box.  There was a small, but lively crowd for this Tuesday night contest.  Unfortunately for most of those fans, the home team didn't give them a whole lot to cheer about.

Because of the quirky and generally short dimensions of this field, I would imagine there are a lot of high scoring games played at Jackson Field.  This was one such game.  Steven Echavarria got the start on the mound for Lansing and was opposed by lefty Adam Serwinowski for Dayton.  I actually saw Serwinowski pitch for a second time this summer just a couple days ago in Dayton.  He wasn't terribly effective in either game.  Nor was Echavarria or pretty much any other pitcher in this particular game though.  A total of nine pitchers appeared in the game and only the last Lansing pitcher, Henry Gomez, didn't give up at least one run.  The defenses didn't help the cause much either, especially the Dragons.  The left side of their infield committed four errors, all of the throwing variety.  Each team scratched out a single run in the first inning.  Then the offenses really got rolling starting with Dayton's half of the third.  With a runner on second and two outs, Yerlin Confidan hit a chopper that took a huge hop off the infield dirt to somehow bounce over the second baseman's head and he raced into second for a RBI double.  That was the second of four RBI hits on the night for Confidan, two of which were doubles.  That was followed by a run scoring single by Carlos Sanchez and then a two run homer by Carter Graham onto the hill beyond the shorter wall in left field.  It was a tough luck four run inning allowed by Echavarria who would have been out of it unscathed if not for that bad infield hop.  However, the Dragons took a 5-1 lead.  Then they did more damage in the fourth.  Echavarria was pulled after issuing a hit by pitch and walk to start the inning.  Both of those runners came in to score on a triple to the right centerfield gap by Carlos Jorge.  By the end of the top of the fourth, Dayton had a comfortable 8-1 lead.  It didn't stay comfortable though.  In the bottom half of the inning, the Dragons leaky defense allowed Lansing to answer with three of their own.  Two nearly identical plays on consecutive pitches were the primary culprit.  With one out and runners at the corners, a ground ball to Sanchez at third base could have been an inning ending double play with no runs scoring.  Instead, Sanchez made a poor throw to second that got away and allowed a run to score and another runner to advance to third.  On the very next pitch, a slightly harder hit ball to third allowed Sanchez the chance to redeem himself.  Instead, the throw to second got away again.  Sanchez was charged with the error again, but from my vantage point I thought the second baseman should have been able to catch it.  Regardless, the Lugnuts wound up scoring three runs in the inning, only one of which was earned and possibly none would have scored if the first play had been made.  So it was now an 8-4 lead for the Dragons.  The Lugnuts didn't make much out of this gift though as they surrendered two more runs in the fifth and a single run in the sixth to make it 11-4.  At this point the game was not really in doubt.  However, the Lugnuts did provide some further offensive highlights.  In the bottom of the sixth, two different Lugnuts hit their first home runs of the season.  CJ Rodriguez homered to the hill in left.  Then two batters later, Casey Yamauchi sliced one down the right field line that right fielder Confidan made a lunging attempt at, but was unable to come up with it.  The ball caromed off the side wall and along the outfield wall as Yamauchi rounded the bases and made it all the way home for an inside the park home run.  It was the first home run of his professional career and one of the softest hit homers I've ever seen.  Not as softly hit was a bomb to center by Tommy White to lead off the bottom of the ninth.  Tommy Tanks, as he's often called, was a college baseball hero at NC State and LSU.  Now he's hitting tanks for Lansing.  This one wasn't nearly enough for the Lugnuts though as they dropped the game by a score of 13-8.  The Dragons filled up the line score with 13 runs on 17 hits and 4 errors.

This concluded my three stop tour of Michigan's Midwest League affiliates.  Three nice parks, but in very different surroundings.  I think I get why the Tigers currently go with West Michigan as their High A affiliate since the Grand Rapids area seems to be the most supportive of their team, with the caveat that the weather certainly kept people away from the park in both Great Lakes and Lansing on the days I was there.  It was back to Indiana for me the following evening.

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Next ballpark: Parkview Field in Fort Wayne, IN

Dow Diamond - Great Lakes Loons

Peoria Chiefs (STL) @ Great Lakes Loons (LAD)

June 22, 2025

Loons 6, Chiefs 5

W: Alex Makarewich
L: Jose Davila

S: Evan Shaw

HR: Josh Kross (PEO), Josue De Paula (GL)

Attendance: 2,423
Time of Game: 3 hours, 1 minute

Stadium Facts

Location: Midland, MI
Opened: 2007
Capacity: 5,500
Level: High A
League: Midwest

The Sunday morning drive from Grand Rapids to Midland across Central Michigan brought back childhood memories for me of going on a couple hour road trip mostly on two lane highways through rural areas, only to occasionally come upon one stoplight towns, something I used to experience all the time growing up in the Midwest.  Midland is a pretty small town by affiliated baseball standards.  It is one of three modest sized cities on the southwest side of Saginaw Bay (Saginaw and Bay City being the others).  As such, Dow Diamond is not in a particularly sprawling location.  I will try my best not to let the largely unenjoyable time I had on this afternoon cloud my judgement, because that was solely due to the oppressive heat and not the ballpark or anything under the team's control.  The game time temperature was listed as 91 degrees, but I can assure you it only went up from there.  The heat index was easily into triple digits.  I'm not sure I've ever experienced a hotter baseball game in the month of June.  At the beginning of the game, there was no shade to be found virtually anywhere in the seating areas.  I took cover for several innings in the middle part before moving to seats that had become shaded for the final few innings.

Dow Diamond is actually quite nice.  There is a huge parking lot beyond right field.  But besides that, the ballpark grounds are very green, both inside and out.  The area leading up to the home plate gate is covered with grass, trees and sidewalks.  Inside the park, there is a ton of lawn seating available down the first base line and throughout the outfield.  Trees line the exterior of the park in left field.  There is a large party pavilion down the third base line.  The main concourse is quite extensive and open to view the field, which came in very clutch on this particular day as I was able to escape the sun and still watch the game from various locations around the concourse.  Suites sit above the concourse on the club level, the only seating areas that are not on the lower level.  I was very jealous of the people in those suites on this particular afternoon.  While I'm sure this is the case for all games, they definitely had the best seats in the house for this game.  Unsurprisingly, there was not a very big crowd at this game, which I get the impression is not the norm.  Frankly, if I lived in the area and could go to a game pretty much any time I wanted, I definitely would have skipped this one.  That said, it was a relatively entertaining game for those of us who stuck it out.

For the second straight day, I watched a home team with a surplus of premier prospect talent.  Great Lakes is an affiliate in the always strong minor league system of the Dodgers.  Their lineup on this afternoon featured three current MLB.com top 100 prospects:  outfielders Josue De Paula, Zyhir Hope and Mike Sirota (DH in this game).  De Paula was easily the best in this game, and maybe one of the most impressive prospects I've seen this year.  Peoria scratched out the first run of the game in the second inning.  Their starting pitcher Jose Davila was cruising early on, with strikeouts of six of the first seven batters he faced.  But then he ran into trouble in the third.  After a single and a walk, Kendall George tied the game with a sacrifice fly.  Then De Paula followed with a towering opposite field fly ball to left that snuck over the fence for a two run homer.  Perhaps it was aided by the wind as it looked like a routine fly ball off the bat.  Impressive anyway though.  He was then in the center of another rally in the fifth inning.  He knocked in the Loons fourth run of the game on a single to center during which he advanced to second on a slight bobble by the center fielder.  De Paula then stole third without a throw and scored on a sacrifice fly by Sirota.  His stolen base was the second of four steals for the Loons in the inning, and it was the first of three steals in the game for De Paula.  Great Lakes pretty much ran at will against Chiefs catcher Graysen Tarlow and a number of pitchers.  They stole seven bases in the game.  The fifth inning did finally end on a base running blunder by the Loons though as Joe Vetrano was picked off second.  Great Lakes held a 6-1 lead at this point though.  Peoria made it a game in the seventh.  In his third inning of work on the mound, Great Lakes pitcher Brooks Auger may have run out of gas on this hot afternoon.  He walked the first two hitters in the seventh followed by Won-Bin Cho chopping one past the shortstop to knock in a run.  Then came a couple flyouts to De Paula in right, the second being a nice sliding catch near the foul line.  Josh Kross didn't let Auger off the hook though.  He hit a towering three run home run to right to make it a 6-4 game.  That would be as close as it would get.  The Chiefs weren't able to do anything with the three walks they took in the final couple innings.  In fact, other than Kross' home run, they really let Great Lakes pitchers off the hook for their wildness.  Loons pitchers walked nine batters, but the two in front of the home run were the only ones that scored.  6-4 was the final score.

The lone scheduled off day of this trip came at a pretty good time as it took me a while to recover from this outrageously hot afternoon at the ballpark.  Monday was very hot too, so I spent almost all of it either inside or in my car as I drove down to Lansing, the capital city of Michigan.

Photo Album

Next ballpark: Jackson Field in Lansing, MI

LMCU Ballpark - West Michigan Whitecaps

Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (MIL) @ West Michigan Whitecaps (DET)

June 21, 2025

Whitecaps 4, Timber Rattlers 1

W: Joe Miller
L: Ryan Birchard

S: Carlos Lequerica

Attendance: 8,266
Time of Game: 2 hours, 42 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Comstock Park, MI
Opened: 1994
Capacity: 9,000
Level: High A
League: Midwest

While I have spent plenty of time in the state of Michigan over the years, this trip took me to three parts of the state that were pretty new to me.  I started the extremely hot weekend in the Grand Rapids area, the second largest city in the state behind Detroit.  One of the questions I had leading up to this trip is how West Michigan came to be the Tigers Midwest League affiliate.  There are three teams in that league in the state of Michigan, all well within Tigers Country.  Presumably, all three would pick the Tigers as their parent club if the choice was up to them.  Lansing is the closest to Detroit and Great Lakes probably has the nicest, most modern facility.  So why West Michigan?  I don't have a definitive answer, but based on what I experienced on this evening, I suspect it is a combination of the larger metropolitan area where the team resides and a community that strongly supports the team and baseball in general.

There was a huge crowd at this game, despite the toasty conditions.  It was also rather windy, which made the conditions a bit more bearable.  It was Star Wars night, and boy did they go all out with that.  There must have been a couple dozen people dressed up as various Star Wars characters in an official capacity taking photos with fans all over the concourse before the game.  There was even a R2D2.  The stadium has a rather unassuming exterior and interior in many respects, but some unique design characteristics.  An aisle bisects the main grandstand, which is common in parks with a main concourse under the seats.  But in this case, the concourse is above the seating area and allows views of the field from everywhere.  There are a bunch of party and patio areas down both first and third base lines and a two level stadium club in right-center field.  The upper deck only consists of suites and media booths.  There are more legit seats in this ballpark than just about any A level park I've seen, which is largely out of necessity since I've come to learn they are always among the attendance leaders in that level of the minor leagues.  One unique design element is that the bullpens are actually beyond the outfield wall in right field.  That is very uncommon in MiLB, much less High A.  While LMCU Ballpark is on the older side of the parks I've visited, it is clear they have made a bunch of improvements to modernize it and have created a fun gameday atmosphere.  Along with what I experienced the night before in South Bend, it is easy to see why the Midwest League was moved up a level in this decade's minor league reshuffling.

West Michigan has one of the more prospect rich rosters in the lower levels.  Hitters Max Clark and Kevin McGonigle are both Top 15 prospects according to MLB.com.  Or at least they *were* prospect rich before those guys were promoted to AA soon after this trip.  Rehabbing Tigers reliever Alex Lange started for West Michigan.  He gave up a run on two hits in his one inning of work.  The Whitecaps immediately got him off the hook in the bottom of the first though on a RBI single by Josue Briceno, another Tigers prospect of note who has since been promoted to Erie.  That followed a steal of second base by leadoff hitter Seth Stephenson.  That was the first of four steals off the Wisconsin pitcher/catcher battery of Ryan Birchard and Blayberg Diaz, leading me to believe their scouting report was to run at will against those two.  The Whitecaps had five total steals in the game.  West Michigan picked up single runs in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings as well.  The run in the fifth was set up by singles from McGonigle and Clark to start the inning.  McGonigle scored on a sacrifice fly by Briceno.  Meanwhile, the Timber Rattlers couldn't cross home plate after Lange departed the game.  Joe Miller followed Lange and pitched a bulk of the game for the Whitecaps.  The southpaw was very impressive.  He went six innings without allowing a run, surrendered just three hits and struck out eight Timber Rattlers.  The only time Wisconsin really even threatened him was in his last inning of work when he gave up a leadoff, wind aided triple to Kay-Lan Nicasia.  But he was not able to advance any further as Miller got two infield fly outs and a strikeout.  Carlos Lequerica got the ninth on the mound for West Michigan and successfully closed things out for a save and a 4-1 Whitecaps win.

This was a very fun night in the Grand Rapids neighbor of Comstock Park.  While it was a very hot evening at the ballpark, it was nothing like what I was about to experience the following afternoon in Central Michigan as a rare mid-June heatwave continued.

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Next ballpark: Dow Diamond in Midland, MI

Four Winds Field - South Bend Cubs

Lake County Captains (CLE) @ South Bend Cubs (CHC)

June 20, 2025

Cubs 5, Captains 4 (10 inn)

W: Brayden Risedorph
L: Kyle Scott

HR: Jefferson Rojas (SB)

Attendance: 6,528
Time of Game: 3 hours, 1 minute

Stadium Facts

Location: South Bend, IN
Opened: 1988
Capacity: 5,000
Level: High A
League: Midwest

On this Friday morning and afternoon, I drove pretty much the entire length of the state of Indiana from just South of its border in Louisville to the very northern part of the state, South Bend.  No local exploration was necessary at this stop because there are very few cities that I am more familiar with than South Bend.  There is also no minor league ballpark that I have visited more frequently than what is now called Four Winds Field, home of the South Bend Cubs.  The summer between my junior and senior years at Notre Dame, I spent most of the summer in South Bend.  Back in those days, the South Bend Silver Hawks played at this same park, which was then called Coveleski Stadium.  Every Monday home game was $1 night:  $1 tickets, hot dogs, beers and sodas.  I think I attended virtually every Monday home game that summer.  That was back when minor league teams actually played on Mondays.  I would guess I've been to at least a dozen games in this ballpark.  That said, prior to this trip, my last visit was a week before I graduated from college.  So we're talking well over two decades ago.

I barely recognized the place.  Opened in 1988, this is the oldest park I've been to so far this year.  In the years soon following the new affiliation with the Cubs (2015), major renovations were made to the stadium and the neighborhood around it.  There are now residential buildings just beyond the outfield in both left and center that definitely weren't there the last time I visited.  The left field one has rooftop seating, giving it some Wrigley Field flavor.  There are also a bunch of newer picnic and party areas down the third base line and in left field.  Lawn seating remains in other parts of the outfield and down the first base line.  Currently, all of the seating areas within the regular confines of the park are on the field level.  But that is about to change.  Construction is in progress to add a second level above the concourse.  This park was a little bit ahead of its time having suites (from what I read, it was the first in the minor leagues to have them) and a concourse above the main seating area from which you can view the field.  On this particular night, that concourse was jam packed with people.  I'm curious if the addition of more seats on a second level will make this better or worse.  This game had an announced attendance well over the listed capacity, which presumably doesn't take into account lawn seating.  As I will continue to write about in upcoming Midwest League recaps, I'm starting to understand why this league was promoted to High A in the most recent minor league reorg.  Most of these teams have nice stadiums with great local community support.

This was probably the most entertaining game I saw on this Midwest trip.  It was a bit difficult for me to pick a side to root for considering these are affiliates of my two least favorite MLB teams.  The first inning featured leadoff extra base hits in both halves.  Lake County's Christian Knapczyk doubled to right on the first pitch of the game, but was then erased on a poor base running decision.  It was the start of an eventful night for Knapczyk who reached base four times, twice by way of being hit by pitches.  Cubs leadoff hitter Jefferson Rojas started the bottom of the first with a home run to left off of Captains pitcher Yorman Gomez to give South Bend an early 1-0 lead.  It was close to the only blemish of a pretty dominant performance by Gomez.  He had seven strikeouts in the first three innings and a total of nine with no walks in his five innings of work.  Lake County got on the board in the fourth inning, during which they sent all nine men to the plate despite starting the inning with two consecutive outs.  What followed was a bloop double that the center fielder got a poor read on, an RBI triple by Jonah Advincula, a single, a double, Knapczyk's second time being hit by a pitch, and then a bases loaded walk taken by Jaison Chourio, younger brother of the Brewers' Jackson Chourio.  Apparently walking has been Jaison's calling card this season because he has a very good on base percentage despite a disappointing batting average.  This walk gave the Captains a 3-1 lead.  The Cubs did some of their own two out nobody on damage in the sixth.  Following a pair of hits and a walk, Drew Bowser singled to knock in two and tie the game at three.  South Bend retook the lead two innings later on a bizarre play.  With the bases loaded and one out, a Rojas grounder to third took the third baseman to the bag where he got the force, but then threw wildly to first in an attempt to end the inning.  The ball got away into the bullpen area on the first base side where the right fielder picked it up and threw home to get an out at the plate on a questionable call by the home plate umpire.  In the top of the ninth with the Captains down to their last strike, Jacob Cozart doubled to the gap in left center to score Knapczyk and tie the game at four, which ultimately led to extra innings.  In the top of the tenth, Brayden Risedorph struck out the side, stranding the free runner at second.  In the bottom half, with runners on first and second and one out, the Cubs pulled off a double steal to put the winning run 90 feet away.  An intentional walk loaded the bases.  For some reason, #8 hitter Bowser decided to swing on 3-0, one ball away from ending the game, and fouled it off.  But he then redeemed himself for that questionable decision by singling up the middle for an extra inning, walk-off victory for the Cubs.

After this exciting Midwest League game in South Bend, it was up to Michigan for three more Midwest League games over the weekend and into the following week.  Despite traveling to the North, temperatures continued to rise for what was a rather steamy weekend.

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Next ballpark: LMCU Ballpark in Comstock Park, MI

Louisville Slugger Field - Louisville Bats

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (NYY) @ Louisville Bats (CIN)

June 19, 2025

Bats 6, RailRiders 3

W: Yosver Zulueta
L: Brent Headrick

S: Zach Maxwell

HR: T.J. Rumfield (SWB), Ryan Vilade (LOU)

Attendance: 4,065
Time of Game: 2 hours, 28 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Louisville, KY
Opened: 2000
Capacity: 13,131
Level: Triple A
League: International

After an unexpected day off due to a rainout in Dayton, I drove Southwest across the Ohio River into Kentucky where I ultimately settled in Louisville.  I wish I had known ahead of time that there would be no game played in Dayton on Wednesday because I really would have liked to have spent an extra day checking out all there is to see in Louisville.  I was able to sneak in a visit to Churchill Downs, but didn't have time to make it to the Louisville Slugger museum or do a bourbon tasting tour on Whiskey Row in downtown Louisville.

Louisville Slugger Field is located right on Main Street in downtown Louisville, near the East end of Whiskey Row.  It is located just a couple blocks from the Ohio River.  From most vantage points within the stadium, you get a great view of a couple of the bridges crossing the river into Indiana.  Really, there is great scenery looking out from pretty much anywhere in the stadium.  From points in the outfield, you can see the downtown skyline.  The ballpark is built right up against an old brick warehouse.  In fact, the main entrance to the park is actually inside of this building.  Also housed in that building is an active brewery.  First one of those I can recall seeing on site at a minor league park.  A very spacious concourse encircles the entire park.  Traditional stadium seating covers almost all of the foul territory on the lower level, even circling around to left field, providing ample outfield seating to go along with lawn seating in left center and picnic, patio and bar seating covering all of right field.  There is a pretty substantial amount of upper deck seating available as well.  The stadium's capacity of over 13,000 makes it one of the larger parks I've been to the past couple years.  There was not a terribly large crowd on this particular night though despite ideal baseball weather.  If you include the Dayton game that got rained out, this was the only one of the first five stops on my trip that didn't have a near capacity crowd.

Cam Schlittler got the start for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in this one.  He is expected to make his MLB debut for the Yankees sometime later this week.  I saw him pitch for High A Hudson Valley last August, so that will be three promotions in less than a year for Schlittler, a pretty meteoric rise.  He was quite impressive on this night before hitting a bit of a wall in the fifth inning.  His 97-99 MPH fastball was giving Bats hitters fits through the first four innings.  The first time through the order, six of the nine Bats hitters struck out.  Eventually, Schlittler would strike out nine to just one walk in his five innings.  The RailRiders got on the board first.  Following a two out walk, T.J. Rumfield blasted a two run homer to left.  The Bats answered in the fifth.  Schlittler issued his only walk of the game to start the inning.  That runner came in to score on a slow infield chopper base hit by veteran infielder Jeimer Candelario.  The Reds would DFA Candelario a few days later, so I saw what was presumably one of his last games in their organization.  Two batters later, Rece Hinds tied the game by ending a nine pitch at bat with another chopper that found a hole for a base hit.  The RailRiders quickly retook the lead though in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by one time Cubs top prospect Brennan Davis.  In the bottom of the sixth, the Bats took advantage of Schlittler no longer being in the game with their first authoritative run of the game.  Ryan Vilade started the frame with a home run to left center to tie the game at three.  They then added an unearned run in the seventh and two more runs in the eighth.  Louisville won this one by a final score of 6-3.

After a fun day in Louisville, it was up to Northern Indiana in a ballpark I had been many times before in South Bend on Friday night.  With the exception of the first and last days of the trip, that Louisville to South Bend drive was my longest of the trip.

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Next ballpark: Four Winds Field in South Bend, IN