The nation found out on Monday that Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg was hired to be the Lehigh Valley Ironpig’s new manager.
Their next thought was, “Who the heck are the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs?”
If Sandberg was hired by the Durham Bulls or Toledo Mudhens… they would have blinked and moved on to something else. My search notes in the blog stats shows that people have been looking for more information on us Pigs.
For those who don’t know…
The Ironpig’s brought baseball back to the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania in 2008. The area hosted many teams in the early 20th century until the last team pulled out in the early 60’s and the ballfield was plowed over to build a mall. For a short time we had an independant league team called the Ambassadors but they left after a few years. We also had a National Pro Fastpitch team until last year called the Philly Force. (I still wish it had been associated with the local area and not Philadelphia)
The home field of the Ironpigs is called Coca Cola Park. Just another park named for its corporate sponsor. Glad to have the park and thankful to Coca Cola for helping us build it. The park is located in Allentown, PA in a location that is easily accessable by highway and from the city itself. Kind of hoping that a certain minor league hockey team finds a new home in that same area soon too.
Come Visit us at Coca Cola Park!
Most folks, not from Pennsylvania, know of Allentown only for the song by Billy Joel called, well.. “Allentown”. All the factories haven’t closed down yet and some of the old have been turned into a casino. (Yes, I know that is located in Bethlehem) My dad retired from Bethlehem steel after many years and the entire site of the plant was turned into a casino recently. This is part of the naming contest held prior to our team’s arrival. Iron and Pigs. There are some pig farms around. You can just sniff if you’d like to find one but the Pig referred to in Iron Pig is to the Pig Iron involved with producing steel.
So the Ironpigs. That’s what the team became.
The Lehigh Valley is made of of a region centered by three cities. Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton.
So we have the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs. Easy enough right? So enough history.. about the team.
The Ironpig’s record has been awful posting 3 losing seasons. Not once has the team’s record been over .500. Keep in mind winning the first game of the season would put the team at 1.000. In fact, it took about 3 weeks for the 2008 team to earn its first win. We are not yet acustomed to winning.
On a more positive note.. The Lehigh Valley fans and Ironpig staff have combined for a more impressive achievement. In 2008 the Ironpigs finished 3rd in attendance for all of minor league baseball. In 2009 we finished 2nd and in 2010 we drew more fans per game than any other minor league team.
It’s a good show despite good baseball. We do see good baseball, I shouldn’t say that… but in the past it has been the visiting team putting on the show for us.
We have seen many major league stars in rehab appearances. Dice K has been here twice. We’ve seen Dontrell Willis, Shane Victorino, Brad Lidge, Carlos Ruiz, Ryan Madsen among others. Not to mention we had JA Happ (Now in Houston’s rotation) for a full season in 2008. We’ve seen many future stars as well.. Domonic Brown in the Phillies organization and many others with visiting teams.
So baseball doesn’t seem to be a huge draw.. but this park is pretty. The fun and happy atmosphere and family friendly environment just builds the fun. I can’t count how many times I heard, “I never knew this was so much fun.. I will be back!” Some say that with an Arnold accent while others think back to McArthur returning to the Phillipines. Either way, people come back.
I realize I am rambling on about the team and park and area that I love. There is so much else to say and to see.. I will leave it up to you to visit us and find out and discover for yourself.
Who are the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs? Well, the Noise Nation invites you to stop by next summer and find out for yourself.
OinK!
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
To enter that subject line in your favorite search engine, happily, points the enter-er to the Pigs’ very-well-organized website.
Their budget is a lot higher than mine RD 🙂
It’s the primary function of a blog, bro.
To chronicle your thoughts and opinions on a subject you care about.
In other words, ramble.
And share with the interested internet public.
For this fabulous freedom and liberty of yours, of course, you owe it all to the genius of Al Gore.
Well-written and informative about the team and town’s baseball history. We’ll be coming to a game this summer, and look forward to being in that part of the country.
What, in your opinion, do the Ironpigs need most? Do they lack talent? Or does the team lack basic fundamentals that a guy like Ryne Sandberg might be able to turn around?
Having followed the Iowa Cubs for a half-season, I was impressed with the team’s and Ryne’s “don’t let up on the accelerator” mental toughness.
Hi Ron! Thanks for the kind words!
I think you hit the nail on the head with a “don’t let up on the accelerator” description of Ryne. Dave Huppert did well as a manager in the past but was quite the opposite of accelerating… He was quoted by the local press as saying something to the sort of his team being a bunch of whores, that they knew they weren’t big league material and would go out to perform for a paycheck. The link has mysteriously disappeared from the source so I paraphrased what I could remember. Unfortunately, Huppert coached in the same manner. Little energy and didn’t give the appearance of caring too much.
There has been some talent there and we’ve lost a good bit via trades before they made it to AAA. Domonic Brown spent about 3 weeks with Lehigh Valley this summer and others didn’t overperform, for lack of a nicer word.
We do have a lot to look forward to in 2011 though. A good part of our bullpen from 2010 is made up of prospects, (Mathieson, Stutes, Schwimer) and we should have John Mayberry and Matt Rizzotti back. Kind of hoping to see Mr. Roast Beef, Tagg Bozied with us in the spring also.
Make sure to stop and visit the Noise Nation when you get to a game!
Dan
Huppert’s whores.
http://articles.mcall.com/2010-07-24/sports/mc-ironpigs-0724-20100724_1_ironpigs-manager-bud-light-trough-dave-huppert/2
I should tell of one game in particular where Ryno’s style impressed me.
It was a late-season road game against Albuquerque. Iowa was in a virtual tie with Memphis in their division, and needed every win they could get. Memphis had already won earlier in the evening, and Iowa trailed by seven runs starting the ninth.
If you can believe it, Iowa rallied for NINE runs in that inning, with many scoring with two out. I think the key was with runners on first and second and a slugger at the plate. Sandberg called for a double steal, and Iowa pulled it off. The very next pitch, the batter belted the ball over the fence to put Iowa in the lead, which they would hold for the win.
Sandberg could have played it safe. Managers are often reluctant to “run themselves out of an inning.” But Sandberg knew Albuquerque was becoming rattled by Iowa’s big rally and that a double steal would make the Isotopes more unglued. You’ll never convince me the batter didn’t get a fat pitch to mash because of the previous play.
It’s stuff like that should make you folks in Lehigh Valley pretty excited.
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