Sunday evening, I had the pleasure of being in the press box at Regions Park for the final game of the Barons’ ten game homestand. The home team was taking on the Montgomery Biscuits in an important Southern League showdown. Important because the pennant race is coming down to the wire. Only 1.5 games separate the first place Mississippi Braves and the second place Montgomery Biscuits. The Barons were in third, 7.5 games back of the pace with a 23-25 second half record. But the Barons have actually already secured their place in the playoffs as a result of having won the southern division in the first half. They will face the second half winner in a best of five playoff series starting with games 1 and 2 at Regions Park September 4th and 5th. Tickets are now on sale for the playoffs.
Best seat in the house!
The Tennessee Diamond Jaxx won the first half Northern Division championship. They are in second now, 7.5 games behind the Carolina Mudcats. The Mudcats are in the driver’s seat for the second half Northern championship. The Southern League was realigned into northern and southern division in 2004 when the Greenville Braves moved to Mississippi.
I arrived at the park around 3 p.m. for the 5:05 start. I found Barons General Manager Jonathan Nelson in his office watching the radar. Scattered showers were showing up on the Weather Tap Radar Lab software he was running. Looking at the Columbus, Mississippi radar, the situation looked much worse than it was. Much of the rain moving into Alabama was not reaching the ground. While a ten game homestand is a godsend for the players, for the staff of the Barons, it is an exhausting experience. By the final game, the Barons crew is just hoping for a quick 1-0 Birmingham victory. Even though the incoming rain was very light, Jonathan made the decision to cover the field with the tarp. It was all hands on deck as the white tarp was pulled into place even as the radar started to show a little heavier cluster of echoes sliding southeast toward Hoover. Jonathan said that it wasn’t worth taking any chances. While the field is able to handle a heavy rain well, there was no since allowing any rain to fall on it before the game. No one wanted a delay, or heaven forbid, a rainout with a valuable off day for both teams on Monday.
Forty five minutes before gametime is a decision point. Jonathan visited both field managers to get their opinion on starting the game if it was sprinkling since no heavy rain was showing up on the radar. By 4:30, as the Biscuits filed onto the field to begin their pregame workouts (usually there is no batting practice on Sundays) the tarp was glistening wet from the light rain. It turned out to be a perfect decision as the showers moved on to the southeast. About 4:35, the crew began folding the trap to begin preparations to roll it back up. Jonathan was anchoring the right side of the tarp crew. In minor league baseball, everyone helps. With game time twenty minutes away, 2,116 fans were filing into the seats. The Barons are second in the Southern League in attendance, averaging 4,475 per game. Only the Jacksonville Suns were outpacing the Barons, with an average attendance of 5,666.
Barons GM Jonathan Nelson in the press box
The Barons won 5-0 behind a superb 2 hit, 7 inning pitching performance by Lucas Harrell.
