Everett AquaSox
It’s another Star Wars and fireworks night at Funko Field in Everett, where we see the High-A Everett AquaSox, a Seattle Mariners affiliate. We get time with Webbly the Frog, Funko Pops, fantastic merch, and on-field host Steve Willits.
The rainy season in the Northwest had extended well into June. Had we started the trip a week earlier, we would have had more than one rainout. But we continued to dodge misfortune, and despite a wet day and forebodingly heavy clouds lying low over Funko Field in Everett, there would be baseball for another night.
Funko Field was originally known as Everett Memorial Stadium when it was built in 1947 by the Everett School District on land ceded to it by the Everett Lodge of Elks. Professional baseball did not arrive until 1984, when Bob Bavasi, the son of legendary baseball executive Buzzie Bavasi, purchased the struggling Walla Walla Blue Mountain Bears and moved the team to Everett, securing an affiliation with the San Francisco Giants. The ballpark is now the eighth-oldest in Minor League Baseball and seats 3,682.
After the 1994 season, Everett signed a new affiliation deal with the Seattle Mariners and adopted a unique name, the AquaSox. The club plays in the Northwest League, which switched from a Class-A Short Season league to a full-season High-A league in 2021, with six teams stretching from Vancouver to Spokane to Eugene. The AquaSox drew about 2,000 fans per game in 2022 and have won two league titles since their inception, the last in 2010. The team’s most famous alumni include Mariners greats Randy Johnson, Félix Hernández, and Robinson Canó.
Much like the night before in Seattle, it was Star Wars Night and Fireworks Night at Funko Park. While the costumed performers were not as impressive as what we had seen at T-Mobile Park, we were treated to some pretty cool Mandalorian-themed jerseys worn by the AquaSox players.
The AquaSox mascot is Webbly the Frog, described by longtime AquaSox radio broadcaster Pat Dillon as “a cross between a Pacific tree frog and a Central American red-eyed tree frog — and Brooks Robinson.” A secondary mascot, Frank the Hot Dog, also showed up for the occasion.
Even with the damp weather, the ballpark was buzzing well before the game, with fans taking in a variety of family-friendly activities. Funko Field is named for the wildly popular toy company based in Everett, and a life-sized replica of one of its famous Funko Pops stands just beyond the right-field fence, dressed in an AquaSox home uniform.
The AquaSox have some outstanding merchandise, and I took considerable time assessing my options before landing on the standard home hat, with Webbly on the front. Dad picked out a hoodie, and we were all set for some baseball.
The AquaSox came into the game with a record of 29-31, 6 1/2 games out of first place and a half-game ahead of that night’s opponent, the Tri-City Dust Devils, who are affiliated with the Los Angeles Angels.
Prelander Berroa
Both starting pitchers came out dealing. AquaSox right-hander Prelander Berroa would start 13 games for Everett in 2022, compiling an excellent 2.41 ERA. On this night, he struck out the first four batters he faced, then loaded the bases in the second before getting out of the jam. He cruised through the next three innings, giving up just three total hits and no runs in his five-inning start.
Dust Devils starter Ryan Costeiu put runners on base in each of the first four innings without giving up a run. Trouble caught up with him in the fifth, however, when Cuban outfielder Victor Labrada led off with a homer to right-center field. After two more runners reached base, Costeiu was relieved by lefty Houston Harding, who gave up a double before Everett catcher Charlie Welch launched a three-run homer over the left-field wall, extending the AquaSox lead to 4-0.
I went down behind the stands to find something to eat and struck gold with the pulled pork sandwich, one of the better ballpark food items I ate on this trip.
The Dust Devils responded in the top of the sixth with runners on base. Two AquaSox errors brought three of them home. In the bottom of the inning, Everett second baseman Justin Lavey laced a homer to left, restoring a bit of Everett’s cushion. It was 5-3 AquaSox.
Working the crowd from beginning to end was Steve Willits — on-field host for AquaSox home games, broadcaster for road games, and local sports radio host. Willits throws himself into his work with zeal, a stream of well-projected words driving the soundtrack of the game. He is all over the ballpark, running games in the crowd and on the field, quizzing fans on baseball trivia, and giving news about upcoming promotions.
Willits came over to our seats with a camera operator after the sixth inning, named us Fans of the Game, gave me a commemorative t-shirt, and chatted with us about our trip to the crowd. When the game resumed, we talked, as you do, about the local weather. Specifically, Willits noted how the Northwest League’s shift from a Class-A Short Season league to a High-A full-season league in 2021 — beginning in April instead of June — had impacted Everett, with colder, rainier games early in the season; and that because Everett is as far north as it is, sunset can come pretty late — especially with the newer, faster brand of pitch-clock baseball — meaning the team might need to consider delaying that night’s fireworks until it’s actually dark.
Tri-City could not muster another hit while facing three different AquaSox relievers over the final three innings. Everett took the game 5-3. It was our third win in a row with Seattle and their two Northwest affiliates.
While the players packed their things, the Saber Guild Kamino Temple troupe of costumed Star Wars characters took to the field for a battle between good and evil, the Jedi and the Sith. Their swordplay was followed by a fine fireworks display that went late into the night.
As we walked to our car, I spotted a plaque I had neglected to check out before the game. It lies beyond the left-field fence and commemorates Ken Griffey Jr.’s first professional hit — a three-run homer, no less. The Kid launched it here when he was truly a kid, just 17 years old and playing for the visiting Bellingham Mariners in 1987. He would spend just one more season in the Minors before getting called up to Seattle and beginning his Hall of Fame career.