The Platonic ideal of a minor league baseball game
is it too early to look forward to opening day?
Okay, I know I said I was going to send this newsletter “every other Friday” and here I am, the very next Friday, sending it again. Sorry! But minor league baseball season is coming to a close, and I went to my last game of the season last night. I’m feeling nostalgic! So I thought I’d tell you a little about what I think makes these games and the minor leagues in general so uniquely special.
My local team is the Brooklyn Cyclones. They play at Coney Island, there is a roller coaster (though, not the Cyclone) behind the outfield wall, the games are accompanied by that Distinct Roller Coaster Rattle, and the team is an affiliate of the New York Mets.
I started going to Cyclones games for a few reasons. First—I live in New York and don’t want to spend one billion dollars to see major league games here. To be fair, Mets tickets really aren’t bad if you don’t care where you sit! The stadium is just far from me, and I hate how crowded the 7 gets on game days. I do genuinely dislike the Yankees, though, and their stadium, and how long it takes to get inside, and, perhaps most of all, the fact that they refuse to serve me nacho cheese with my soft pretzel. PLEASE.1
Second—I wrote a whole book about the minor leagues and how special they are, but I myself had always primarily watched major league games. The minor leagues are not always televised, and they are certainly not as well advertised. That being said—I’ll give you a little guide to catching a game at the bottom of this email! Bookmark it for next spring when the minor leagues come back!! (You don’t really have to. I’m for sure going to remind you when the time comes.)
Why I like Cyclones games in particular: it takes me about an hour to get to Coney Island, the train there has only been crowded exactly one (1) time I’ve taken it, tickets are less than $20, all the seats are good, the vibe is very laid back, and concessions are approximately half the price of a major league stadium.
Plus, look at that view!! Blurred behind some reasonably priced and perfectly fine mac and cheese in an ice cream cone!
So of course I have gone to a good handful of minor league games this year!! A little tour of some of the highlights:
A chilly early-season game in April with my friend Alicia Thompson, when she was in town for my Brooklyn book launch; one of the players was wearing a hoodie under his jersey and it was so strangely casual but also so cute and also such a Luis Estrada move.
One in May, after the weather had started to warm up, with my friend/roommate, Sarah, when we needed a mid-week pick-me-up; I got my first ever funnel cake after that game, and I genuinely don’t think there’s a better place than Coney Island to get one’s first ever funnel cake.
Pride Night in June, which kind of felt like the event equivalent of someone searching “pride playlist” on Spotify, playing the first thing that pops up, and calling it good, but which was perfect all the same; I found out at the game that my agent’s amazing assistant, Nat, was there with her softball league, and then found out after the game that fellow Dial author and general delight Camille Kellogg was also there, with the same softball league. God, I love queer sports people.
One matinee game where a player was walking around hand-in-hand with his kid, who was maybe three or four, on the field after the game had ended, which was very emotional to me for [REDACTED REASONS, lest you think I’m weird for imagining very detailed futures for my characters] and also just “god that’s objectively adorable” reasons.
A Nashville Sounds game, when I was in town for a book event at Parnassus!! That stadium is really nice and puts the Cyclones’ to shame (though personally I prefer the charm and comfort of a slightly run-down stadium) and the game was SO fun despite being very rain delayed.
We did suffer some trade woes in July when Sarah’s favorite Cyclone (shortstop Wilfredo Lara; Wilfredo, you will always be famous to us, and if you were ever wondering what random person was screaming your name at games this summer, it was probably Sarah) got traded at the deadline, which was heartbreaking—it’s easy to forget about the minor league guys who get shuffled around in those trades. Unless, of course, you’re me, and you wrote a whole book that kicks off with a minor league guy getting shuffled around in a trade!
Which is all to say: I think the minor leagues really saved my love of baseball this year, as my major league team (the Mariners) continued to find new and creative ways to break my heart. There was one game in particular, this August, as it became increasingly clear that 2024 was (probably2) not going to be the Mariners’ year, that I’m always going to remember when I think back on this summer. The Platonic ideal of a minor league baseball game, one might say.
We went to this game because the Cyclones had billed it more or less as Pride Night 2, Electric Boogaloo, but upon arrival, it became clear that they had crammed approximately a thousand different promo events into one night, because the season was wrapping up and they needed to sell some tickets. It was Pride Night 2, but it was also Friendship Bracelet Night (we received the above bracelets as a giveaway upon arrival), and also it was a Friday Fireworks Night (I 100% get why fireworks are not universally beloved, and still, I must admit…I fucking love fireworks night at a baseball stadium), and it was also, apparently, Taylor Swift Night?? Which makes sense, re: the friendship bracelets, but it had not been advertised as Taylor Swift Night! I’m deeply neutral on Taylor and so cannot truly appreciate whether a playlist of her music is well curated. But anyway, they played “YMCA” for Pride Night, and then after that, it was just Taylor all the way down. (Sarah, whose opinion I trust because they know more than I do, says the playlist was not well curated at all, primarily because they played a lot of Reputation songs, “so you know it’s not even Taylor’s version; embarrassing,” to quote Sarah directly.)
On top of all of that, there was a Blink-182 cover band (called Pink-182, which I am obsessed with) playing at an outdoor venue just past the right field wall. I learned that I only know, like, three Blink-182 songs. But I thought the band sounded pretty good! Also they played “HOT TO GO!” which was fun and enabled a real “I hope they play ‘HOT TO GO!’”/ “This is a Cyclones game” meme moment.
The point is—it was a packed schedule!!! They really made sure we got our money’s worth from those $17.50 tickets. Sarah ate three hot dogs (matching her current record). I had a soft pretzel (WITH NACHO CHEESE, TAKE NOTES, YANKEES) and a mini souvenir helmet3 of chocolate-vanilla soft serve that melted all over my hand. The Cyclones won, comfortably but not in a blow-out. The fireworks were gorgeous behind the lights of Luna Park. It had cooled down to the high sixties by the time we were walking back to the train. Truly, a perfect night—the kind that makes me sad to imagine ever leaving Brooklyn, of ever going to my last Cyclones game.
Which is, after all, one of the great beauties of the minor leagues. Baseball is an inherently nostalgic game—something that I tried to really lean into in The Prospects, because I think it’s a feature, not a bug! In baseball, everything feels like it’s ending or over, even when it’s just started; nothing is permanent, for better or worse, and there’s always a tinge of gold to the game. To me, this has always been most prevalent in the minor leagues, which are not so much about the results as they are about the effort—people (at least, those of us in the stands) don’t tend to pin their hopes to minor league teams nearly as much as they do the majors. A lot of us are primarily there to see the game, to experience the summer, to enjoy things on a smaller scale, amidst our community, in whatever form that community might take. Those things feel so much more within reach when there are no massive, World Series stakes to contend with.4
It’s special. I love that. I love imagining that some of those players on the field are going to get their big dream someday, and some of them are going to go find other dreams, and their lives can and will be beautiful, too. It’s almost like I wrote a whole book about this exact feeling!
How to start watching minor league games:
Sorry if this is all extremely obvious, but honestly, I think it helps to have someone spell out some simple steps sometimes! Sports don’t always feel accessible when you are a person who has been told they’re not For You! So—here are a few ways to get into minor league baseball next season when it graces us with its presence once again:
Google what the closest team is to you! Actually, here is a map! It doesn’t especially matter what level of the minors the team plays at, or what MLB team they’re affiliates of (I mean…I’m glad the Cyclones are a Mets team, because I do quite enjoy the Mets’ whole cursed/miserable/chip-on-their-shoulder-but-also-think-they’re-better-than-you vibe, they are the true spirit of New York City to me, etc., but it really does not matter).
If you are lucky enough to have a team within bus/train/driving distance of you (sorry, bad news for anyone in Idaho/Wyoming/Montana/the Dakotas/outside the U.S.) and you have the financial means, pick a game and grab a ticket! Take a friend! I’ve yet to find a minor league team that doesn’t have at least a few ticket options for under $20. If you plan ahead, a lot of them will have no-fee deals, or discount games; some even charge lower prices for games earlier in the season, when the weather is less appealing and they want to draw people to the stadium.
If going to a game isn’t an option—or you just feel intimidated going in person! or you want to watch teams far away!—you can get a subscription to Minor League Baseball streaming. Every Triple-A team (the level Gene & Luis play at!) and Double-A team (one level lower than Gene & Luis!) stream their games, and then the leagues below that are a bit more hit-or-miss. The feeds are grainy sometimes, but it’s good fun!! I prefer grainy video over, say, the weirdly crisp Apple TV+ MLB broadcasts, with their constant betting odds in the corner, and the camera angles that feel like I’m watching prestige TV instead of, like, the Mariners pitcher who looks like Alan Jackson. Or the Mariners pitcher who looks like one of my cousins. Or the Mariners first baseman who looks like a DIFFERENT one of my cousins.
But my main suggestion is: if you are close enough and can afford it, just go to a game, get yourself a snack, and pay as much or as little attention as you want to. You can track every single pitch or bring a book and read through the whole game (a real Daphne Brink move), it truly doesn’t matter. People are much less intense about their minor league teams than their major league ones and will either be very kind to you or leave you alone entirely. Honestly, most sports fans are a lot nicer than That One Annoying Guy We All Unfortunately Know.
News & Updates
This happened well over a month ago at this point, but The Prospects went to a second printing!! Which is one of those little things that you hope for as an author but have literally no control over in the slightest. Thank you so much to anyone who has bought this book, genuinely.
I get to be Andie Burke’s conversation partner next Friday, September 13 at The Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn to discuss her new book, Fall For Him!! I’m reading this book right now and having such a good time. Get your tickets, come join us, it’s going to be a lovely evening!!
I am tentatively excited for the new Zelda game coming out this month, where you get to play as Zelda (!!!), even though I’m a little annoyed that she doesn’t get a sword or a bow or anything. I’m trying to give it the benefit of the doubt.
I am sorry for all the slander if you’re a Yankees fan, but also…I don’t know, you have Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, I’m not that sorry.
My perpetual glimmer of Mariners Hope is going to kill me someday but also it sustains me, you know?
They call it a souvenir helmet but it’s definitely just a tiny plastic baseball cap?
Not that the Mariners have ever made it to the World Series, and NOT that I’m sensitive about that at all!!
The gasp I gasped that you can't get cheese for your PRETZEL AT YANKEE STADIUM! Stupid Yankees. Also shouting out the Portland Pickles as one of the most ridiculous and fun very minor leagues (I'm pretty sure they are a summer league for college players) to watch a game at! Highly recommend for anybody visiting Portland!
I wasn't going to comment but then you said this season 'the mariners continued to find new and creative ways to break my heart' and that hit like a baseball bat to the chest !!