Delmarva Shorebirds
On Maryland Pride Night, Dad and I go to Perdue Stadium in Salisbury, Maryland, for a Single-A game between the Delmarva Shorebirds and the Lynchburg Hillcats.
Gloomy clouds hung over the entrance to Arthur W. Perdue Stadium in Salisbury, Maryland, home of the Delmarva Shorebirds, the Single-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. As always, Dad and I arrived a little more than an hour before game time, just before the gates were scheduled to open — an effort to maximize our time at each ballpark.
This time, though, we were not early birds. A long line of Shorebirds fans snaked into the front rows of the parking lot. We had come on Maryland Pride Night, and the first 1,000 fans would be getting a Hawaiian-style, Shorebirds-themed shirt.
Perdue Stadium opened in 1996 as the Shorebirds one and only home. It’s named for Arthur Purdue, founder of Purdue Farms, which is headquartered in Salisbury and is a major processor of birds on the Delmarva Peninsula — not shorebirds but chicken and turkey.
Delmarva is a portmanteau of the three states with land on the peninsula: Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Perdue played a central role in bringing Minor League Baseball back to Delmarva after a 44-year absence, joining the owners of the Bowie Baysox and Frederick Keys to purchase the Class-A Albany (Georgia) Polecats and move them to Salisbury for the 1996 season.
For their inaugural season, the Shorebirds were affiliated with the Montreal Expos, but they have been with the Orioles ever since. They played in the South Atlantic League until 2020 — winning championships in 1997 and 2000 — and are now in the Carolina League. Alumni you may know include Orlando Cabrera, Manny Machado, Nick Markakis, and Jayson Werth.
Dad and I flocked to the team store, where I found an excellent hat with a shorebird rising from the brim.
Shorebirds players wore their special Maryland Pride jerseys for the occasion, with elements of the colorful Maryland state flag festooned across their shoulders. The flag bears the arms of the Calverts, the family name of the Lords of Baltimore who founded Maryland; and the Crosslands, the family of the mother of George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore.
Delmarva would be battling the Lynchburg (Virginia) Hillcats, who are affiliated with the Cleveland Guardians. The Hillcats appeared in their neon-green road jerseys. Lynchburg’s record was just below .500 coming into the game, while Delmarva was well behind them in last place in the Carolina League’s North Division.
The Shorebirds started 19-year-old Venezuelan left-hander Juan Rojas, who had recently come off the 60-day injured list. Rojas got the first two Hillcats batters to ground out, but Lynchburg third baseman Angel Genao hit a rocket over the left field wall to give the visitors the early lead.
Abel Brito, a right-hander from the Dominican Republic, took the hill for the Hillcats in the bottom half and breezed through a one-two-three inning.
As the game progressed, the Hillcats employed the clever strategy of always scoring runs in every inning. It’s a useful game plan if you can execute it successfully, dramatically improving your team’s odds of winning.
In the second inning, Lynchburg put together two singles, a double, and a sacrifice fly to post three more runs on the board. Delmarva answered with a hopeful run in the bottom of the second, but Lynchburg countered with two more in the third, making it 6-1 Hillcats.
It was time to assess our dinner options. I went with the Shorebirds BBQ Footlong Dog, with pulled pork and mac and cheese, which was plenty tasty but intensely rich.
Lynchburg’s offensive assault continued in the top of the fourth with three hits and a walk against Shorebirds reliever Raúl Rangel, extending the visitors’ lead to 9-1. You could feel the crowd’s optimism empty out completely, like a long, despondent sigh.
The Shorebirds put together their first real rally in the bottom of the fourth, taking advantage of an error, wild pitch, and a couple of hits to score three runs and make it 9-4. But victory still felt like a distant hope.
I took a walk on the wooden deck that encircles the outfield, added to the ballpark during the 2018 season. A light mist began to fall when the Hillcats came to bat in the top of the fifth to keep their every-inning scoring streak alive. Four hitters proceeded to single off Rangel, plating two more runs and making it 11-4 Lynchburg. The rain strengthened as the inning wore on, intensifying the home crowd’s misery.
The relentless Hillcats piled on with another run in the sixth to bring their lead to 12-4.
I stepped away for a few minutes to see the Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame Museum, located in a hall between the front gates and the lower concourse behind home plate. Open during every home game, the museum celebrates Delmarva’s rich baseball history and its local stars. The Hall of Fame has about 370 members and includes players, managers, umpires, sports writers, and boosters.
Delmarva is passionate about its baseball. I particularly enjoyed learning about the Parksley Spuds and Slaughter Neck Giants. I also learned that Salisbury University, right in town, maintains an extensive, well-referenced archive on the history of baseball in Delmarva. Looking through the old photos, jerseys, and other memorabilia in both collections conveys a strong sense of people having fun and makes you want to be there with them.
I emerged into the wet night next to Sherman’s Sweet Shop and realized I had missed out on a Sherman’s Gelati, an orange-swirled concoction of frozen goodness named after the team mascot, something I had considered a must in my planning. (See Sherman in action in the video below.) The persistent rain didn’t exactly ignite any desire for a cold treat, but I had missed out nonetheless.
That’s when I noticed I was standing next to Chris Bitters, who has been the Shorebirds general manager since 2006. Bitters was keeping an eye on the shifting rain. I noted Delmarva’s struggles on the mound. Bitters nodded and said the team was in the middle of receiving new draftees from the Orioles while strong Single-A performers had already moved up to the High-A level. “The other night, we had just 24 players of a normal 30-man roster,” he noted.
In the top of the seventh, Shorebirds reliever Alejandro Méndez tortured the home fans by walking two batters and hitting another, loading the bases for designated hitter Juan Benjamin. But he managed to get out of the inning with an easy fly ball. For the first time in the contest, the Lynchburg Hillcats had recorded a scoreless inning.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Shorebirds set out to stage an eight-run comeback. A single, double, and another single by 19-year-old Dominican Angel Tejada brought three runners home with just one out. But the next two batters struck out, and the rally ended there.
With the game approaching three hours and the drizzle still coming down, Dad and I moved to the top of the seating to stay dry for the finale. Just behind us, a well-lubricated group joked loudly but jovially, delirious from a game that more or less ended hours ago. Down near the home dugout, a block of 20 or so fans performed a well-choreographed “Macarena,” hanging in there until the end.
Mercifully, the end came quickly. All three Delmarva batters stuck out in the ninth, and Lynchburg won it 12-7.
