Tuesday, August 12

Your eyes deceive you. It is not the great Benjamin Hill sending you this particular edition of the newsletter, but Josh Jackson filling in. Ben will soon return, and in the meantime we've got a lot of wild news right here and plenty of fun to be had on the brand-new Baseball Traveler page. 

The Minor League Baseball season is not even a month old -- not even three weeks old for every team below the Triple-A level -- and yet we've already seen a veritable boatload of the type of weird, wild, wacky occurrences that make MiLB the greatest sports league entity in existence.

Let's take a look at just seven things that, improbably, have already taken place in the 2025 Minor League season.

Hillsboro is all abuzz

The High-A Hops, a D-backs affiliate in Hillsboro, Ore., really felt the sting on April 15. Not only did they drop the game, 8-2, to visiting Spokane, but the home bullpen was invaded by "thousands of bees," per the Hops' broadcast. The siege was only resolved with the intervention of local beekeeper Dan Kovak, but not even he could get the Hillsboro bats buzzing.

That's so ... Ohio?

Internet culture can be so cruel, can't it? Its recent victims include the entire state of Ohio, "Ohio" having become in e-lingo, synonymous with "awkward," "boring" or even "cringeworthy," and often being deployed in the dismissive phrase, "That's so Ohio." If you think the Akron RubberDucks were going to let that slip by like soapy water over a rubber ducky's back, think again.

The Guardians' Double-A affiliate put on an April 9 promo called That's So Ohio Night, insisting in social media posts, "We're more than a catchphrase and definitely not weird!"

To prove how not weird they are, the RubberDucks had a first pitch thrown by an alpaca farmer. Ohio, apparently, has more alpaca farms than any other state. Whatever the background, a photo of an alpaca on a baseball field sure makes for a spitting image.

A switch-pitcher emerges

He's an RHP. He's an LHP. He's an RHP and an LHP. Forget it, Jake. It's Cijntjetown.

The Everett AquaSox, High-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, have a switch-pitcher by the name of Jurrangelo Cijntje. Ranked as Seattle's No. 9 prospect, the 2024 first-round Draft pick has already shown electric stuff -- with both arms. 

There have been switch-pitchers before, of course. (Longtime MiLB fans will remember when a standoff between switch-pitcher Pat Venditte and switch-hitter Ralph Henriquez prompted a rule change in 2008.) But Cijntje profiles as a rare talent. He piled up six punchouts over four scoreless frames in his pro debut, then put up more goose eggs in his next start. In between, he made a relief appearance -- when you pitch with two arms, you've got to make sure they both stay fresh.

Snowpening Day

Spring Training is way behind us, but the Portland Sea Dogs, Maine-based Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, are still struggling to say sayonara to winter. Their home opener -- on April 8, mind you -- went on as scheduled with flurries falling. Their first Saturday home game, though, was postponed due to snow, and the makeup doubleheader on the following day was also postponed as ye olde wintry mix coated the Maine coast.

Sunshine on their shoulders, wind at their backs?

Rockies affiliates have some good mojo working in 2025. On Opening Day for all levels below Triple-A, THREE Colorado farm clubs delivered walk-off wins, and the fourth fell just short. Not two weeks later, the top team in the system -- the Albuquerque Isotopes -- scored three runs on a walk. Wait, what? It's true.

An im-prom-tu promo night

If you read this newsletter last week, you already know (and are probably itching to revisit) the amazing story of how a plumbing issue in Georgia led to an in-game high school prom at a ballpark in North Carolina. If you're reading about it for the first time right now, you're in for a treat. Care to dance?

Off to a peachy start

The Columbus Clingstones -- the new Double-A affiliate of Atlanta, following the relocation of the Mississippi franchise -- opened Synovus Park with the help of Braves great Craig Kimbrel.

Kimbrel, who is the Braves' all-time saves leader (with 186 of his 440 Major League saves coming with Atlanta -- so far), signed a Minor League deal with his original organization in March and made his 2025 debut during the Clingstones' home opener on April 15. The 36-year-old righty struck out two and walked one in a one-inning appearance in Columbus' 3-0 shutout of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos (Marlins). 

Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball celebrated Jackie Robinson Day on Tuesday, April 15 -- the anniversary of Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. 

It was 1946, though, that was Robinson's first season in the Brooklyn organization. Events that spring are responsible for Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona bearing his name; believe it or not, the park where Robinson first took the field as a player in the Dodgers' system is the current home of the Single-A Tortugas.

Check out the remarkable story of how Robinson came to debut in Daytona, and how a Minor League team is keeping that history alive.

I promise you Ben will be back before you know it, filling your inbox with dispatches from ballpark visits around the country, invitations to apply to become a Designated Eater and, of course, his trademark wit.

In the interim, you can drop him an email (benjamin.hill@mlb.com) -- and remember to check out the new Baseball Traveler page.

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