On the Road: Not Much of a Goodbye in Huntsville
Did you know? Each one of my road trip blog posts has an accompanying MiLB.com article. Click HERE to read my piece from Huntsville, containing information NOT included in this blog post.
One of my most anticipated stops on this, my latest and therefore greatest ballpark road trip, was Huntsville’s Joe Davis Stadium. The Stars are currently playing their final season, as the franchise will move to Biloxi in 2015 and compete as either the Black Jacks, Mullets, Schooners, Shrimpers, Shuckers or Beacon (these are the finalists in the ongoing “Name the Team” contest).
Joe Davis is undoubtedly a dump, but dumps have character and I have always enjoyed visiting. In fact, Huntsville was one of the first places I ever visited in my “traveling ballpark writer” capacity. I went there in 2009 in order to participate in and write about the team’s attempt to play the longest game of Wiffle Ball of all time.
File photo from 2009 visit. I am now fatter.
That game of Wiffle Ball never happened, due to a rainout. (But I did get to see an on-field sword swallowing demonstration, because obviously a sword swallower should be on the premises during a Wiffle Ball world record attempt.)
And, five years later, on June 5, 2014, the game in which I was supposed to attend didn’t happen either. While the weather had been pleasant during my drive from Chattanooga to Huntsville, things took a turn for the worse shortly after I checked in to my hotel.
On second thought… https://t.co/OEt7dFPG8a
— Benjamin Hill (@bensbiz) June 5, 2014
My concern was justified. After the torrential downpour and frightening lightning subsided, I dutifully drove over to the ballpark. You know, just in case. There were a smattering of cars in the parking lot, and tickets were still being sold.
The women at the ticket window were very welcoming — after all, this was to be my special night! Huntsville Stars GM Buck Rogers had declared June 5 to be “Ben Hill Day” at Joe Davis Stadium, with free admission to any fans residing in Ben Hill County, Georgia. Ben Hill is about six hours away from Huntsville, so I wasn’t necessarily expecting anyone to take the Stars up on the offer, but with the weather being what it was it was now a virtual guarantee that the good people of Ben Hill had stayed home. I just hope they did so of their own free will, and not because they were in jail.
postcard from vanishinggeorgia.com
Also nowhere to be found was Buck Rogers himself. Buck has been named general manager for the new team in Biloxi, so he’s splitting the remainder of this season between there and Huntsville. He, his wife Babs (an essential Stars staffer as well) and several other front office members were in Biloxi, making an already quiet Joe Davis Stadium that much more quiet. (For those who don’t know Buck, he’s a very loquacious guy.)
Buck Rogers in his office, taken during my 2010 visit to Huntsville
Rogers and crew had picked a good night to be out of town. Within three minutes after I arrived at Joe Davis Stadium, word filtered in via the omnipresent staff walkie-talkies that the game had been “banged” (industry slang for “postponed”).
Come back tomorrow, Huntsville Stars fans.
But for me, there would be no tomorrow. At least not in Huntsville. While I briefly considered modifying my itinerary and sticking around for the following day’s doubleheader, the weather wasn’t looking good for that one either. With a heavy heart, I made the executive decision to proceed to the next day to Rome, Georgia, as I had originally planned.
The game wasn’t happening, but that didn’t mean that I had to leave Joe Davis Stadium. “Why not wander around and get a few final photos?” I said to no one in particular.
The Stars are called the Stars because of Huntsville’s rich aeronautic past and present. The fact that the GM is named “Buck Rogers” is just a coincidence, however.
What isn’t a coincidence is that the signage around the stadium is in a NASA-style font.
If you look closely, you’ll see that the sign next to “Stars Radio” declares this section of the ballpark to be a “horn-free zone.” Casio, the team’s PA announcer, told me that he had never heard a horn in the stadium before, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.
Yes, when I was wandering around Joe Davis Stadium I ran into a guy named “Casio” (given name: Matt Mitchell), and ended up writing a story about him. Rainout or not, this is something I had been planning on doing anyway. Casio is a local celebrity!
The view from the press box.
Up in the pressbox, I was reminded of a Tweet that had been directed at me the previous week. The guys at Cespedes Family BBQ were on a road trip with a somewhat similar itinerary to mine, and had been in Huntsville several days before.
.@bensbiz leaving you a buisness card in Huntsville right here pic.twitter.com/2aMu220kL7
— Cespedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) May 29, 2014
Found it!
Thanks guys. I held on to the card, filing it in my Rolodex under sub-category “individuals who have never invited me on their podcast even though I am the greatest Minor League blogger of all time and most underrated sports media entity of the last five years.” This is the second-biggest sub-category in my Rolodex, right behind “sports media professionals who never respond to me on Twitter even though that joke I tweeted at them was really clever and funny and clearly the best use of my time.”
If it sounds like I have a chip on my shoulder, it’s because I do!
Sorry, I’ve been a bit obsessed with wordplay lately. I think it’s because I’ve been listening to M&M.
That M&M is a bibliophile because he’s, well, red. He does most of his reading in the bathroom, but didn’t think it was funny when I nicknamed him “John Candy.” (Also, I’m going to file an expense report for the $2.50 I spent on the chips and M&Ms. Clearly it was a justifiable business expenditure.)
Anyway, I was writing about Huntsville. The game was rained out, Casio had been talked to, business cards had been found, and there was nothing left for me to do but go back to the hotel room and sulk in a desultory manner. (Is there any other way to sulk?)
I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to provide more on the Huntsville Stars in this, their final season, but at least I’ve written about them plenty in the past. Click ’em all!
Article on Buck Rogers from my 2010 visit
Article on Huntsville Stars as they entered their 2014 swan song
Guest blog post from former Stars employee Gillian Richard, on why she loves the team.
I too, will miss Joe Davis Stadium, and this is the one moment I will never forget.
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
twitter.com/bensbiz
Ben's Biz Blog 
Back around the time of the previous World Cup (the one in South Africa), the vuvuzela was all the rage. Some knucklehead thought it was a good idea to sell them at the stadium. Immediately thereafter, every child in the stadium would just blow and blow and blow, all throughout the game for no particular reason. That resulted in my only going to a single game that season as I left with a headache. I think the horn-free zone was instituted the following year, but by then, no one was going to the games anyway, so the chances of hearing horns were slim.
On the positive side, on July 4th some 10,500+ fans filled Joe Davis for a great evening of weather, sloppy baseball and very good fireworks. That was the most people I’d seen in Joe Davis since Jose Canseco was in Huntsville on rehab assignment or Michael Jordan was playing with the Barons. The next night, the attendance was back to normal for the season, at around 695.
There is talk that the stadium in Biloxi might not be ready for 2015, so we might get the Stars for another year since the team still has the lease on Joe Davis thru 2015. Fingers crossed for another lame duck season!