CAROLINA BASEBALL: GAME 15
Hickory Crawdads
We travel through the Blue Ridge Mountains to L.P. Frans Stadium in Hickory, North Carolina, to see the Hickory Crawdads, the High-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. It's a Copa de la Diversión night, so the Crawdads are playing as Llamas de hickory, and the visiting Greenville Drive (Red Sox affiliate) are playing as Ranas de Rio (River Frogs).
The Hickory Crawdads, the High-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers, play at L.P. Frans Stadium, which is west of town near the airport and the Hickory Aviation Museum. We headed there for a game between the Crawdads and the Greenville Drive, who we’d seen on Game 1 of our journey in Greenville.
Built in 1993 for $4.5 million and renovated twice since, “The Frans” has a capacity of 5,062, with 4,000 fixed seats. It’s named for the owner of the local Pepsi-Cola bottling company, which can be seen beyond left field).
Between 1936 and 1960, Hickory hosted several Minor League teams known as the Hickory Rebels. In 1993, local businessman Don Beaver purchased the Gastonia Rangers and relocated them to Hickory to become the Crawdads — a name selected by the community for the abundant critters found in nearby creeks. In 2021, the Crawdads launched a popular alternate persona: the Hickory Couch Potatoes, a tribute to the local furniture industry and a nod to the region's agricultural roots.
The Crawdads were affiliated with the White Sox until 1998, then with the Pirates until 2008, and have been with the Rangers ever since.
The crawdads had struggled in 2021 and were 29 1/2 games out of first place. Greenville had enjoyed a better year and came into the night with a 60-51 record but no chance to make the playoffs.
We had arrived on a “Copa de la Diversión" ("Fun Cup”) night, a season-long event involving 76 of Minor League Baseball’s 120 teams in 2021. Participating clubs don special jerseys and adopt alternate personas in this outreach to the Hispanic and Latin American communities. The Crawdads were appearing as Llamas de hickory, while the Drive were playing as Ranas de Rio (River Frogs). Both jerseys were fabulous.
I took one last stroll aound the ballpark, dipping into the Locker Room team store for a Crawdads hat and t-shirt.
After a scoreless first inning, the Ranas de Rio cobbled together a couple of runs in the top of the second. The Llamas answered with a run in the third.
As day melted into night, we were treated to the finest baseball skies of any stop on our road trip.
Food lines were long on this busy Friday night at The Frans, but I managed to grab a decent plate of pulled pork nachos in the scrum.
Meanwhile, the game began to slip away from the Llamas. Greenville’s River Frogs scored three runs in the top of the fourth, then three more in the fifth after center fielder Wil Dalton — who hit just .182 in 60 games for Greenville in 2021 — cleared the bases with a slam over the left-field fence.
Wil Dalton
I walked over to the first-base side to get a good look at Mega Man and his minions in their “Pit of Misery” in Section 108. Crawdads fan Christopher Pack is a fixture at home games, cheering through his megaphone and leading his section (the “minions”) in the heckling of opposing players. One favored bit is for Pack to take over/under bets on how many steps an opposing batter will take back to the dugout after striking out. When the strikeout occurs, the crowd counts each step in merciless union, and Pack acknowledges the winning bets while shouting “dilly dilly!”
Down 9-3 in the seventh, the Llamas showed signs of life. Right fielder Pedro Gonzalez led off with a homer. A triple and a fielder’s choice scored another. The next batter slapped a double to left, knocking out Greenville reliever Jose Espada in favor of Yorvin Pantoja. The Venezuelan then gave up a homer of his own to the next batter, Hickory first baseman Dustin Harris, who would hit .372 during his time with the Crawdads. The lead had been cut to 9-7, and the big crowd came alive.
However, Hickory’s relivers could not fare any better. Right-hander Sean Chandler promptly loaded the bases in the ninth, then gave up a grand slam to Ranas de Rio first baseman Joe Davis, ending all hope of a comeback. The River Frogs tacked on another run in the ninth and beat Hickory by a pretty solid football score of 14-7.
The night ended with a celebration of a youth baseball team, followed by a mini-game in which fans tossed numbered tennis balls onto the field; those that came to rest inside hula hoops placed on the infield earned tossers tickets to another game. Once these festivities had concluded, the long Saturday night of baseball and other fun ended with a fireworks display.