Great Lakes Loons (LAD) @ Fort Wayne TinCaps (SD)
June 25, 2025
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
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.
Next ballpark: Fifth Third Field in Toledo, OH
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