Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

One of the primary pleasures of living in Appleton, Wisconsin, is having a minor league baseball team, the Class A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, just a couple of miles away.

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t572

Although it is sacriligious to say so here in Northeast Wisconsin, Green Bay Packers territory, I'm really not all that interested in football -- although I have enjoyed the Packers games that I have been to, and I also enjoy the sheer historical anomaly of an NFL team still existing in a small city of 100,000 inhabitants.

But baseball is my team sport. My maternal grandfather, who lived with my family when I was a tot, was a New York Giants fan and told me stories of seeing Christy Mathewson pitch in the 1910-1915 era -- you don't forget stories like that! Although I never learned to play baseball worth a lick, I have a deep feeling for the history and traditions of the sport.

That devotion was sorely tested by the major league strike of 1994 -- I was never as intense about the big league game after that. But part of me always wanted to have a Bull Durham-like relationship with a minor league team, and here in Appleton I have my chance.

Like the Packers, the Timber Rattlers have a public ownership model, so I am actually a "team owner" (one of about 200) by virtue of having purchased a share in the team. I know and am on a first-name basis with a good many of the folks in the front office, including the president, the assistant general manager, and the radio announcer -- it's the Cheers "where everybody knows your name" effect, and it's really nice.

The facility, known by the somewhat unwieldy name of Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium, is a exceptionally nice place to watch a game, have a few beers (and they've got some good micros!), and enjoy bantering with folks (in the seats, on the concourse, or in the "Leinie Lodge"). So I'm a regular during the season, even when the night games are a little cold, as they tend to be in April and early May.

The Rattlers' radio guy, Chris Mehring, who also handles corporate partnerships for the team, is a fine play-by-play craftsman and raconteur -- minor league announcers are soloists and have to carry three hour broadcasts by themselves, no easy feat. Chris is also an imaginatively inspired blogger:

http://rattler-radio.blogspot.com/

This season during a string of early rain-outs, Chris introduced Carl the Rain-Hating Camel and Brick the Bad Weather-Hating Bactrian, who have already become cult figures in my household.