Author Topic: Rocket City Trash Pandas  (Read 605 times)

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Offline Copecwby20

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Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Topic Start: March 30, 2023, 01:41:20 PM »
I've always thought they had an awesome name and logo and always wanted to go to a game. Turns out, with the award of this major new NASA contract my company now has a massive presence in Huntsville. They ended up sponsoring the team and now has a Suite at Toyota Field. Looks like I'm finally going to get to go to a Trash Panda game, but in style.
What are some of your favorite minor league teams and/or mascots?

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #1: March 30, 2023, 01:58:27 PM »
I think they changed the name, but the Albuquerque Isotopes used to be a favorite, especially when they were the Dodgers affiliate. Lots of good players went through there in the 70s.

Online Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #2: March 30, 2023, 02:26:32 PM »
Wisconsin Udder Tuggers
Charleston River Dogs
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels

Online imref

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #3: March 30, 2023, 03:13:20 PM »
Is there a Panda Express at the ballpark and does it serve panda?

Online Natsinpwc

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #4: March 30, 2023, 03:15:45 PM »
Is there a Panda Express at the ballpark and does it serve panda?
No but they have raccoon and bat. 

Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #5: March 30, 2023, 03:26:52 PM »
Hartford Yard Goats. Rockies affiliate.

Offline Elvir Ovcina

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #6: March 30, 2023, 09:55:41 PM »
I've always thought they had an awesome name and logo and always wanted to go to a game. Turns out, with the award of this major new NASA contract my company now has a massive presence in Huntsville. They ended up sponsoring the team and now has a Suite at Toyota Field. Looks like I'm finally going to get to go to a Trash Panda game, but in style.
What are some of your favorite minor league teams and/or mascots?

It's actually a nice park down there too, although it's got an oddly DC feel with all the defense contractor ads all over the place: you can just go right down the SAIC/Leidos/Booz Allen bingo card. 

They've got the best name/logo combo I've seen. 

The Hartford Yard Goats have a heck of a name.  The Hickory Crawdads have a great logo and fan group name, Crustacean Nation with a menacing-looking crayfish.  The Biloxi Shuckers have a crazed-looking oyster for a logo that enters bizarro-land when it's 10 feet tall on a Jumbotron.   The Amarillo Sod Poodles (slang for prairie dogs) might win for silliness, but I'm still partial to the Lansing Lugnuts (I haven't seen either of those teams at home). 

Aside from Hickory and Lansing, A-ball usually lands a little far on the silly/campy/trying too hard side.  AA is usually where it's at.

Offline Count Walewski

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #7: March 30, 2023, 11:05:02 PM »
My buddy who never talks about what he does for work takes a lot of business trips to Huntsville. Says it is a beautiful place. I plan to go next year as part of my plan to visit all 50 states: I'll fly into Huntsville and spend 2 days there before moving on to Birmingham, but sadly before the MiLB season starts.

I did fulfill a years-long dream of seeing the Isotopes play in Albuqerque last year. Their stadium is truly the world's largest Simpsons reference.

I've seen the Akron RubberDucks play a road game in Bowie, Maryland and my wife, a Tulane alum, cheered for the New Orleans BabyCakes when we saw them play a road game in Oklahoma City. Jose Lobaton was on the BabyCakes, I believe - but after that season they moved to Witchita.

When traveling we always see the local minor league team if they're in town. The Lynchburg Hillcats have a boring name but I had a great time there. We got a ball and got to see a guy in a Confederate bandana get arrested. But the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs probably have the best overall stadium: everything there is pork or pig themed. You get a pork passport when you enter and get stamps at all the various concession stands that sell pork products.

The Chicago Dogs play in a stadium that is squeezed between the highway and O'Hare International Airport. If the game is boring, you can watch the huge 777's fly overhead as international flights take off - see how many different airlines you can see in one night! Might be what Nationals games would be like if they had built the stadium in Virginia near Reagan.

Offline Copecwby20

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #8: April 06, 2023, 04:42:41 PM »
Your post


The Hilton Garden Inn I’m staying at is by the airport and 3 miles from the stadium. It’s very nice and seems to be relatively new. I was able to snag a room for $90.

Online skippy1999

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #9: April 06, 2023, 05:03:19 PM »
My buddy who never talks about what he does for work takes a lot of business trips to Huntsville. Says it is a beautiful place. I plan to go next year as part of my plan to visit all 50 states: I'll fly into Huntsville and spend 2 days there before moving on to Birmingham, but sadly before the MiLB season starts.

The northern part of Alabama is very beautiful; if you like waterfalls and hiking there are lots of places around both Huntsville and Birmingham.

Offline Elvir Ovcina

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #10: April 06, 2023, 08:34:29 PM »
Watching their opening day right now - they're playing my hometown team.  Racing pandas coming out now mid-4.  Andrew Abbott (UVA grad) on the bump for the visitors.


The Hilton Garden Inn I’m staying at is by the airport and 3 miles from the stadium. It’s very nice and seems to be relatively new. I was able to snag a room for $90.

I've stayed there.  It's decent - it's an HGI.

Offline GburgNatsFan

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #11: April 07, 2023, 12:53:12 PM »
Savannah Sand Gnats.  Still have the hat. When my kid played Little League, they were too cheap to buy major league hats. The minor league hats and t-shirts were a fraction of the price.

Offline Elvir Ovcina

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #12: April 07, 2023, 05:15:35 PM »
Savannah Sand Gnats.  Still have the hat. When my kid played Little League, they were too cheap to buy major league hats. The minor league hats and t-shirts were a fraction of the price.

They don't exist anymore.

Offline GburgNatsFan

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #13: April 07, 2023, 07:50:30 PM »
They don't exist anymore.

Nope. I don't think that was a qualifier in this thread though... :D

Offline Count Walewski

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #14: April 08, 2023, 07:18:09 AM »

The Hilton Garden Inn I’m staying at is by the airport and 3 miles from the stadium. It’s very nice and seems to be relatively new. I was able to snag a room for $90.

Thanks for the tip - I am a Hilton guy so I will look into that. I am a huge stickler for hotel quality (once you find bedbugs in a hotel once, you become obsessive with avoiding that again) and I was eyeing the Drury Inn & Suites which seems to be objectively the best hotel in the Huntsville area. It's considerably more than $90/night however.

Offline Count Walewski

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #15: April 08, 2023, 07:21:21 AM »
The northern part of Alabama is very beautiful; if you like waterfalls and hiking there are lots of places around both Huntsville and Birmingham.

I gotta squeeze my Alabama trip into Arlington County Public Schools spring break so unfortunately I have cut a lot of northern Alabama out of my itinerary. I'm going to spend 2 days in the Huntsville area but no longer plan to take a day trip to the Muscle Shoals area.

I'll have around 1.5 days in Birmingham and then will take day trips to Tuscaloosa and Montgomery using Birmingham as a base.

Online imref

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #16: April 08, 2023, 10:10:27 AM »
The battleship in mobile is a fun visit. Mobile bay is beautiful

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #17: April 08, 2023, 11:42:40 AM »
The battleship in mobile is a fun visit. Mobile bay is beautiful
eh, you can see a better BB in Norfolk (the Wisconsin). Off the top of my head, for the Iowa class, there's the Missouri in Pearl Harbor, near the Arizona, there's the New Jersey in Camden, and I forget where the Iowa is (San Diego? Bremerton?). The Alabama I think is the same class as the Massachusetts (Fall River, MA), and the North Carolina is in Wilmington. I guess the Texas is still afloat, too.

Online imref

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #18: April 08, 2023, 11:48:56 AM »
eh, you can see a better BB in Norfolk (the Wisconsin). Off the top of my head, for the Iowa class, there's the Missouri in Pearl Harbor, near the Arizona, there's the New Jersey in Camden, and I forget where the Iowa is (San Diego? Bremerton?). The Alabama I think is the same class as the Massachusetts (Fall River, MA), and the North Carolina is in Wilmington. I guess the Texas is still afloat, too.

the NC in Wilmington was falling apart when we were there about 10 years ago. They were talking about scrapping it because the foundation that owns it didn't have the money for repairs.

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #19: April 08, 2023, 12:34:53 PM »
the NC in Wilmington was falling apart when we were there about 10 years ago. They were talking about scrapping it because the foundation that owns it didn't have the money for repairs.
i think one of the things done to some of the non-Iowa class ships is they were scavenged for parts when the Iowa class was recommissioned in the 80s.

Online Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #20: April 08, 2023, 01:43:41 PM »
I believe that's that last dreadnaught.  Last one afloat anyways, there are quite a few off of Jutland.
I guess the Texas is still afloat, too.

Online Dave in Fairfax

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #21: April 08, 2023, 05:04:36 PM »
The USS Texas is in drydock. I think it is still up in the air whether it will return to San Jacinto or whether they'll find a new site closer to Houston tourist access. Getting there was a bit of a trip, albeit we were coming from Johnson Space Center rather than Houston proper.

It is indeed the last dreadnought. The IJNS Mikasa in Yokosuka is the last pre-dreadnought.

I'm not sure about the other WW2 battleships, but the Alabama's museum in Mobile also includes a submarine and a park with numerous aircraft and armored vehicles. Battleship Cove in Massachusetts probably has more large vessels, with a battleship, a destroyer, a sub and a German corvette.

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #22: April 08, 2023, 05:53:37 PM »
Battleship Cove in Massachusetts probably has more large vessels, with a battleship, a destroyer, a sub and a German corvette.

I'm one of those folks who likes to pick out landmarks when I fly. Depending on the flight path into Boston, you can pick out the Massachusetts from the air when you take the shuttle. It's just north of the I-195 bridge. I think the other landmark near there used to be the Brayton Point cooling towers, literally on a point jutting out into Mount Hope Bay.

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Online Slateman

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Re: Rocket City Trash Pandas
« Reply #24: April 09, 2023, 07:06:39 AM »
Threw a no hitter and lost