PazTripReports: Minor (League) Report

I’m sure “a lot” of people have been on pins and needles waiting for a Pasley baseball numbers update following our recent travels through the upper Midwest.

So, here they are:

Two games (a double header) at the AAA St. Paul Saints’ CHS Field and one game apiece at the high-A Beloit Sky Carps’ ABC Supply Stadium and the high-A Cedar Rapids Kernals’ Veterans Memorial Stadium brought our lifetime minor league stadium total to 63 and our total of the 120 current[1] MiLB teams to 47. While that’s only 39.2% and we’ve still got a ways to go, our new stadium/team totals do include 20 of the 30 current AAA teams. Also, Minnesota was a new state, raising our MiLB state total to 30[2].

Meanwhile, Betsy was adding to her impressive collection of photos with mascots, snagging camera time with the Saints’ Mudonna, the Sky Carps'[3] mascot, Poopsie, and the Kernals’ Mr. Shucks. Betsy has now posed with 53 minor league mascots and nine MLB mascots[4]!

Less impressive, but certainly worthy of mention, is the video I got of the Saints baseball delivery pig, Chat BLT[5] (click here to view the video).

[1] There was a significant restructuring of the minor leagues in 2021 that brought (IMO) some much-needed structure to a somewhat chaotic and arbitrary system. There are now four MiLB levels; Single-A, High-A, AA and AAA with 30 teams in each level (for a total of 120). Prior to that, there were more than 120 teams and there were, and still are, some non-affiliated wooden bat leagues for players just getting out of college as well as some rookie and instructional leagues. Over the years we have been to games of some of these teams and, in a few cases, we’ve been to games of the same minor league team but at different stadiums as well as once well-established teams that are now defunct. Thus, while we have been to games at 63 minor league stadiums we've only been to 47 of the current 120 teams. Bottom line, counting teams and stadiums gets a little complicated. To underscore (and, yes, perhaps, belabor) this point; there are currently 13 states that do not have a MiLB team (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming). However, in years past we have been to MiLB games in Louisiana, Idaho and Colorado (the AAA New Orleans Zephyrs [which played in a stadium in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie], the single-A Boise Hawks and the AAA Colorado SkySox). Thus, those three are included in our 63 total but not in the 47 of 120 total. Clear as mud, right? Suffice to say, our primary focus is on those 120 “official” MiLB teams and, as you can see, we’ve still got a lot of work to do just to get to the halfway mark.

[2] The Saints are the only minor league team in Minnesota; thus, it was a new state for us, #30. We’d previously been to games of other minor league teams in Wisconsin and Iowa. If you’ve been doing the math here, you know there are 37 states that have at least one current MiLB team and we have been to games/stadiums in 27 of those states. So, games/teams/stadiums in 10 states still to go.

[3] Sky Carp is, according to Google AI, slang for a goose that does not migrate in the winter, opting instead to stay in its northern home year-round. I’d say that’s a pretty good name for a team based in a Wisconsin city.

[4]Photos with MLB mascots are notoriously difficult to get. But Betsy has finagled her way into photos with nine of them representing seven MLB teams. Her most recent conquest was Stomper, the “Sacramento Athletics” elephant at an A’s game in Sacramento last year. Other MLB mascots Betsy has photographed with include the Cincinnati Reds Mr. Red and his friend Rosie Red; Seattle’s Mariner Moose; Freebird of the Cardinals; Detroit’s tiger, Paws; Chicago’s Cub, Clark, and two Astros mascots that span several decades of baseball in Houston; Junction Jack and Orbit. Orbit debuted in 1990 but was swapped out for Junction Jack in 2000 when the team moved to Minute Maid Park, prompting the introduction of the railroad-themed rabbit. Orbit returned and replaced Junction Jack as part of a rebranding in 2012 that coincided with the team's transition to the American League.

[5] Chat BLT is a (relatively) small pig that brings baseballs (in a saddle-bag-like contraption tied to the “their” back) to the home plate umpire during breaks between innings. When not delivering baseballs to the umpire, Chat BLT relaxes in a small pen at one end of the Saints dugout. Unfortunately, we were not able to get a photograph of Betsy with Chat BLT. And, finally, yes, just in case you watch the video and are wondering, the home plate umpire at this AAA baseball game between the St. Paul Saints and Columbus Clippers is a woman! Her name is Jen Pawol and she is the first woman to work a MLB game, on August 9, 2025. There are currently eight women working as umpires in the minor leagues and some of them, like Pawol, are on a call-up list to fill in at MLB games. There was also a female ump working in the two-person crew at the Beloit Sky Carps game we attended.