Frederick Keys
Dad and I finish our 21-day baseball travel odyssey at Harry Grove Stadium in Frederick, Maryland, to see two former Minor League teams: the Frederick Keys and the State College Spikes of the MLB Draft League.
When we arrived in Frederick, Maryland, for the final game of our 20-ballpark Mid-Atlantic road trip, I was still trying to get my head around what it was we were actually there to see.
Our home team for the night, the Frederick Keys, was a member of the MLB Draft League. All six teams in the league lost their affiliation with Major League Baseball during the restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2020. That part was clear.
But the MLB Draft League is a real oddity. For the first 35 games of the season, it operates as a collegiate summer league, where players with college eligibility showcase their skills before the MLB draft in June. After the draft, everything changes, and for the final 45 games of the season, the league becomes an independent professional league, with players who have exhausted their amateur eligibility and are paid a salary plus expenses. Prep Baseball Report, an independent scouting service, provides rosters for both the collegiate and independent teams, working with Major League Baseball to bring focus to potential talent. Very few players from the first half of the season appear in the second half, and those are often placed on different teams. Our game was taking place in the second half.
The strange arrangement adds an interesting chapter to the history of baseball in this part of Maryland. Frederick’s first minor league experience came as a founding member of the Blue Ridge League, which played from 1915 to 1930. That team was known variously as the Hustlers, Champs, and Warriors and won league titles in 1915 and 1921. But the Wall Street crash of 1929 led to the end of the Blue Ridge League before the 1931 season.
In 1989, the city of Frederick lured the High-A Hagerstown Suns to the town with the promise of a new ballpark, which opened for baseball the following year. Harry Grove Stadium seats 5,400 (the Keys averaged 2,602 fans in 2023) and is named for one of the founders of the Frederick Hustlers. The Grove family — still in the area 75 years later — donated $250,000 to help the city build the ballpark.
The Keys began play in 1989 as a High-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. Named for Francis Scott Key, a native of Frederick County, the team remained with the Orioles throughout their time in Minor League Baseball, winning Carolina League titles in 1990, 2005, 2007, and 2011. Notable alumni from those teams include Andy Van Slyke, Arthur Rhodes, Sidney Ponson, Nick Markakis, Manny Machado, Mike Yastrzemski, and Trey Mancini.
Just inside the front gates, I found Keyote, the team’s coyote-based mascot since 2011.
We had arrived on Ben McDonald Bobblehead Night, celebrating the first-round pick of the Baltimore Orioles in 1989 out of Louisiana State University. The 6-foot-7 right-hander made his professional debut that year for the Keys, starting two games before vaulting straight to the Major Leagues in a late-season call-up. McDonald would pitch nine seasons in the majors, including two for the Milwaukee Brewers, finishing his career with 78 wins and a 3.91 ERA.
The modest team store had a few Keys hats on display with designs that had been around awhile. I had settled on the home hat with the sunburst behind the Serif “F.” Then, like a beautiful apparition amongst the clouds, the cap of the Spire City Ghost Hounds came into view.
Complicating the picture at Harry Grove Stadium, the Ghost Hounds are a full-time independent team that plays in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. Spire City — a name that connects to Frederick’s many downtown churches — shares not only the ballpark with the Keys but also team ownership and staff. While I technically was not there to see a Ghost Hounds game, I allowed myself to break my rule and get two caps to represent this ballpark. How could I not?
I met up with Keys and Ghost Hounds General Manager Andrew Klein, who, like many other staffers at the ballpark, was sporting Spire City gear at the Keys game to promote the new ball club. Klein joined the Keys in 2016 as the Director of Promotions after spending time with the Minor League Arkansas Travelers, Tri-City Dust Devils, and Lehigh Valley IronPigs. He became the Keys GM in 2021.
Klein walked me through the logistical details surrounding the dual-season Keys and the challenges associated with bringing a second team to the ballpark — not just communicating the difference to fans but managing operations for 88 games in 131 days. He also noted that we had by chance chosen to bookend our trip with two teams that share the same ownership — the other being our first stop, the Bowie Baysox.
Amongst his many responsibilities, Klein revealed that he is also the “Hot Dog Guy” who dresses in a hot dog costume and tosses wrapped frankfurters into the crowd in the fourth inning of every home game. “I may be the general manager of two teams, but the hot dogs are the important thing,” he quipped.
I made my way toward the field to watch the teams warm up and found Keys players emerging from their clubhouse, pausing to sign autographs for kids.
The Keys would be taking on the State College Spikes, who play on the campus of Penn State University. Both teams were just below .500 for the second half of the season, several games behind the league-leading West Virginia Black Bears.
Walker Zander took the mound for the Keys to start the game. The 6-foot-4 right-hander had pitched earlier in the year at Houston Christian University, putting up big numbers in a role that does not reward big numbers. Walker had struck out 41 batters in 50 innings but had also allowed 41 earned runs on 65 hits. But he made it through the first inning against the Spikes without trouble.
State College started McNeese State alumnus Derrick Cherry, who had finished his college season with a 5.74 ERA in 47 innings. He walked the first two batters he faced, both of whom scored when designated hitter Taylor Smith doubled to right field. Smith was coming off a strong year at the University of Texas-San Antonio, where he hit .310 with 17 homers and 40 RBIs.
Walker Zander
Derrick Cherry
The Spikes responded with a run in the first and two more in the third off Zander to take the lead, but Frederick tied the game 3-3 in the bottom half. For what would turn out to be a very brief window of time, we had a ballgame.
I went looking for my final ballpark meal of our road trip. Klein had suggested I try the Ghost Dog, topped with a sauce that blends crab meat, cream cheese, and ghost peppers. That sounded right up my alley, but when I went to order, I was told that the crab meat had not arrived for the game. I went instead with a trio of sliders, which tasted great but came with cold slabs of cheese.
The top of the fourth would prove to be a waking nightmare for Zander. With two outs and a runner on first, the Keys pitcher gave up two walks, two singles, a double, a triple, and a wild pitch in a seven-run inning for State College. Zander left the game having allowed nine earned runs in 3 2/3 innings, and the Spikes took a 10-3 lead.
I wandered down the right-field line to the Fun Zone, featuring an old-fashioned carousel ride and several inflatable attractions for kids.
The Spikes pushed another run across in the fifth as a series of quality baseball skies graced Harry Grove Stadium.
Cherry pitched through the bottom of the fifth for State College, finishing with a respectable three earned runs and a clear path to a victory. His offense added one more run in the top of the sixth to extend the Spikes lead to 12-3.
In the late innings, the ballpark crew rallied the crowd by playing the team song, “Shake Your Keys,” with fans pulling out their car keys and shaking them to the music.
It's the Frederick celebration you can hear from miles around
The boys of summer working hard as it gets
It's one fun place to be
Let's show the team that we're proud
Let's shout it out loud
HEY, come along with me
We're the Frederick Keys
Come on out and support your team
Baseball is back in town
You can hear the shaking sound
Bring the family
We're the Frederick Keys
We'll park one in the bleachers
GO KEYS
Come on out and shake them with me
We're the Frederick Keys
But the rally never came. The game rested there, held in a state bereft of suspense. A series of three Spikes relievers entered the game after Cherry’s departure, each more dominant than the last. The Keys managed just two hits in the final four innings.
Frederick went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth courtesy of State College closer Ty Buckner, who would prove to be an absolute stud for the Spikes in 2023, notching a 1.74 ERA in 27 appearances and collecting 51 strikeouts in 31 innings. A nine-run rally for the home team was never in the offing.
The final out completed 165 innings of baseball for Dad and me during our 21-day, 2,000-mile-plus odyssey through towns and ballparks across six states in the Mid-Atlantic. We had fought through illness and bad weather to experience the region’s history, art, food, natural beauty, and baseball in an all-out, barnstorming adventure. But some of the most lasting memories for me will be the quiet times in our busy itinerary — chatting in the car, listening to podcasts, relaxing in our hotel room — when we didn’t need to do anything other than be together.
