Bark in the Park

This was the first annual Bark in the Park promotion by the Gary Railcats Northern League team. It is a safe bet that I was the only guy to bring a little dog in a red dress to the ballpark. Coco is my daughter's doggy and she takes Coco everywhere. She wanted to bring Coco for a little fun at the ballpark herself. However my daughter had to work, so I was given the task of taking Coco for a ballgame.

Was I supposed to dress like my dog too? That lady has a black and white dog and she is wearing black and white shorts. Sorry, I stop at wearing a red dress.





Okay Coco. Just lay on my lap. The game is not that interesting anyway.

Minor league baseball, the rust belt, and the recession

Lake Michigan Shore magazine's July 2010 edition includes an article on three rust belt teams along the southern most shores of Lake Michigan: West Michigan Whitecaps, South Bend Silver Hawks, and Gary Southshore Railcats (the only independent league mentioned in detail).

http://visitshoremagazine.com/2/?p=13972

The recession has put a squeeze play on America, but no place has been hit as hard as the Rust Belt. Unemployment in Michigan reached 14.3 percent in January, the highest in the country.

But minor league baseball continues to prosper in Michigan, notably with the Midwest League’s West Michigan Whitecaps outside of Grand Rapids. On the Indiana side, the South Bend Silver Hawks are branching out into the community, and the most remarkable upswing can be found with the Northern League’s Gary SouthShore RailCats—a team that is defying odds with its spiffy downtown ballpark.

Baseball can thrive during bad times.

There were some interesting statistics in the article. I always knew (even before the ballpark was built) the highest percentage of fans at Railcats games would come from places other than Gary. However, I didn't know Gary residents were as high as the third largest percentage of fans at US Steel Yard either. I figured Gary residents were far lower down the totem pole in that department. Don't know why I figured that since I'm a Gary resident and practically live at the ballpark and know other Gary people that camp-out there as well.

A few other interesting statistics, while I knew the Railcats attendance went up last year I didn't know that during the same year 81% of all minor league attendance went down. Railcats attendance seems a little down this year (2010) though. Maybe bad economic times have taken hold. I seem to remember larger crowds on Fireworks Fridays.