Catching a West Michigan Whitecaps game in Grand Rapids, Michigan

It was a beautiful summer day, and we had great seats along the first baseline of the West Michigan Whitecaps' baseball stadium, when we watched the Grand Rapids-based baseball take on the Burlington (Iowa) Bees earlier this summer.

 

 

The home team didn't win that particular game, but the whole 2014 season represents a major comeback from a much bigger loss the Grand Rapids-based Whitecaps experienced in early January.

I remember logging onto my computer on January 3and seeing images of a devastating fire that took firefighters from five different departments more than three hours to bring under control. The fire, started by a heater used by maintenance and repair workers in one of the suites along the first baseline side of the field, ended up destroying much of that side of the stadium.

Extreme winter weather that included bone-chilling cold, snow and ice, plus water pressure problems, exacerbated the difficulty for firefighters extinguishing the blaze.

Baseball fans despaired, knowing that the Whitecaps' 2014 season opening day lay only about  90 days away at that point, but team and stadium owners immediately vowed to have the ball park repaired, restored and ready for the April 8 season opener.

They kept that promise.

 

 

You'd never know the team suffered such a potentially devastating setback when we attended the game in its beautiful ball park last month. Our experience was certainly a great testament to the team, the owners and the support of the Grand Rapids area that made such a spectacular comeback possible.

The Grand Rapids area has a long history in baseball, but the town's last professional team before the Whitecaps' arrival in 1994 left the playing field after the Grand Rapids Chicks of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League disbanded when that league dissolved in the early 1950s.

(The Chicks, by the way, won playoff pennants in 1947 and 1953)

The Whitecaps is a Class A Minor League baseball team that became a Tigers' affiliate in 1997.

The team is also one of just a few teams in professional baseball with a privately-owned stadium built without relying on taxpayer money.

 

 

Area baseball fans helped name the Whitecaps in a contest staged by the team in 1993, which saw 1800 fans enter suggestions, coming up with 100 different possibilities. The name Whitecaps, entered by 22 different fans, became the team's moniker because it referenced the area's proximity to Lake Michigan and harkened back to a baseball tradition where many teams took names from their wearing apparel (White Sox, Red Sox).

Thank goodness some of the other suggestions like Office Workers, MugWumps, Fruit Flies or Wet Sox did not prevail!

The Whitecaps first took the field in 1994 and became the first professional sports team in town to win a championship in 1996. The team also went on to win Midwest League Championships in 1998, 2004, 2006 and 2007.

Whitecaps fans see many players who go on to play major league baseball, as well as many major leaguers who play a few games with the team during injury-rehab stints with the Whitecaps.

Seeing a game at the Comstock Park stadium is a lot of fun, and you definitely won't go hungry.

The ball park has a pretty amazing array of concession choices that include the infamous Fifth Third Burger, a four pound hunk of meat that costs $24 and clocks in at 4,800 calories. Few fans, by the way, meet the challenge of eating that burger, and there are plenty more human-sized meals and snacks at the ball park.

 

 

I saw a cart offering Lobster Macaroni 'n' Cheese, and folks who know me know what we (yes, it was big enough for two of us to share) ended up eating at the ball park that day!

The team also has three different mascots that include Crash the River Rascal, Franky the Swimming Pig and the newest addition to the team, Roxy the River Rascal. No, I'm not sure what a river rascal is, and I don't know the history behind Franky the Swimming Pig, but the mascot team, like other minor league mascots, is a lot of fun to watch and offers a lot of family-friendly contests and antics.

 

 

The team plays 70 home games and 70 road games each season competing in the 16-team Midwest League, and tickets, like other minor league sports games, are pretty affordable ($6-$14 per ticket).

Connect online with the Whitecaps on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

The team is also very good about keeping in touch with their fans and ticket buyers online. Tim bought a batch of tickets to the game for us and several other family members. He received an email a few days before the game with some helpful tips about parking, directions to the stadium and links to information about the Whitecaps' roster and stats, as well as a link to the opposing team's site. He also received an email the day after the game we attended to thank us for going to the game, with links to information about future Whitecaps' games. I'd say that was a pretty effective use of social media and marketing.

Want to learn more about baseball in major and minor leagues in the Midwest? Check out Baseball Road Trips: The Midwest and Great Lakes by Timothy Mullin.

Also check out my recent stories about other teams in the Midwest League: Fort Wayne fans cheer on their Tin Caps baseball team and Seventh-Inning Stretch with the Lansing Lug Nuts' Big Lug.

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Comments

[wanderingeducators]

How wonderful! I'd get that mac & chz, too.

[Dominique King]

It was definitely yummy, Jessie! Tough decision between the mac'n'cheese here and the mac'n'cheese hotdogs at the Lansing Lug Nuts game as to a favorite :)

[Gretchen Garrison]

Always love watching baseball. Learning how teams pick their names is always fun. Our team is the Salt Dogs which has to do with our salt creek. Not sure where the dog part came from as our salt creek is known for beetles.

[Dominique King]

I do like finding out how teams get their names, too. Thank goodness they didn't name these guys the Wet Sox! :lol:

[Tonya {The Traveling Praters}]

I certainly wouldn't expect to find Lobster Mac & Cheese at a ball game. Sure beats the traditional hot dog.

[Lisa]

One of our football's first team, now the Nebraska Cornhuskers, names was the Bugeaters. The names that are chosen or suggested are amazing some times. That lobster mac and cheese looked amazing. What a choice for baseball food.

[Dominique King]

I love finding unusual ball park fare, Tonya. I definitely could NOT pass up Lobster mac'n'cheese!

[Dominique King]

Bugeaters! I think Cornhuskers is the better choice :) I liked finding out some of the name rejects for the Whitecaps were as well.