The Toledo Mud Hens

          Remember the old television show MASH? The Corporal Klinger character’s back story was that he was from Toledo and he loved the Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball team.

          If you grew up in California, you didn’t know for sure whether the Mud Hens existed. A script from the make believe world of sitcom TV is not generally a credible source of accuracy.

          Minor league baseball was a big part of the sporting landscape in California before the Dodgers ever made it west. No mystery there. But who knew if the Mud Hens really existed?

          Turns out they do. The Mud Hens are the Triple A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers and Thursday they played the Columbus Clippers, an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. Toledo won 2-1, a high-quality, professional baseball game that was completed in roughly two hours, 25 minutes. There were no television timeouts, not many pitching changes and no manager replay challenges.

They just played baseball.

Well, okay. Between innings there were all kinds of activities. They threw balls into the grandstand, had contests for kids, had KissCam on the scoreboard and had mascots running around making people happy.

Fifth-Third Park in Toledo seats 9,806 and the game with the Clippers was Toledo’s 14^th sellout of the year. Simply put, the people of Toledo like their Mud Hens.

Most of the Mud Hens fans stayed after the game to watch the huge fireworks display, so if you scooted out you could watch the fireworks from the parking lot and still beat the traffic to the highway. Call that California Training.

A single seat in row H of section 106 puts you three rows behind the home dugout and cost $10. There is a charge if you call and order on the phone with a credit card, but when you do that, you speak to an actual person who helps you find the seat you want. This is a very helpful organization.

Parking directly across the street costs $10, but you can park a block away for $5. Two hot dogs, a large soda and a bag of peanuts is a package deal that costs $7. Programs are free and score cards are free. If you happen to forget a pencil or pen, that’ll cost less than $2.

The entire evening cost $32 and could be cheaper by parking a block away and remembering a pen or pencil.

The park opens at 5:30 p.m., food sales start at 6 and the game starts at 7. You can watch batting practice, although you probably will not be able to watch infield practice.

This is a high-quality, family oriented, fun place to be. Try it, you’ll love it.

 

Thanks for reading.