Minor league baseball returns to Hagerstown this weekend: What to know

It will have been four years, eight months and two days Saturday since a minor league baseball team — the Hagerstown Suns — last played in Hagerstown.

On Saturday evening, weather permitting, the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball's Flying Boxcars will play their inaugural home opener in the new Meritus Park in downtown Hagerstown.

The team had a historic inaugural game on the road with a combination no-hitter against the York (Pa.) Revolution.

"We're just excited to be playing baseball again," David Blenckstone, the Boxcars' general manager, said before the season began. Blenckstone also was involved with the Suns for many years.

Unlike the Suns, the Boxcars are not affiliated with a major league team.

With construction on the multi-use stadium coming down to the wire, Boxcar officials are calling this first home stand a "soft opening." Single-game tickets are not being sold for these first games, and not all of the concession stands and bathrooms are expected to be open.

But there will be baseball, hot dogs, fans and fireworks.

The Boxcars announced about three weeks ago that they pushed the home opener back one day to give their staff time to get familiar with the facility. And since not everything will be ready, only folks with special ticket deals, such as season ticket holders, can attend the first home stand, which is through May 9.

The Maryland Stadium Authority is handing the keys over to Meritus Park on May 2, Linda Ebersole, a representative for the ownership group of Downtown Baseball LLC, told the Hagerstown mayor and City Council on Tuesday. Game-day staff has received training in the former Herald-Mail building to gear up for getting into the ballpark, she said.

Since the second home stand starts on Election Day, Boxcars officials said they are aiming to hold traditional opening day festivities on May 17.

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Forecast for opening weekend

As of Wednesday, the baseball gods were not planning sunny skies for opening weekend.

Scattered showers throughout the Hagerstown area, with pockets of light and moderate rain, are forecast for Saturday evening's game, said National Weather Service meteorologist Erik Taylor with the Baltimore/Washington Forecast Office.

An isolated thunderstorm in the area cannot be ruled out, but there's a better chance for that on Sunday, he said.

It also will be a bit breezy further into Saturday evening, with gusts up to 20 to 25 mph possible, Taylor said.

Temperatures are expected to be around 60 degrees at the start of the game and drop to the high 50s, by 8, 9 p.m.

For the Sunday day game, there's also a chance of showers and thunderstorms across the area, though a bit more scattered in coverage, Taylor said.

The game-time temperature is forecast to be around 63 degrees and warm up to around 65, 66 degrees when the later innings would occur.

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What kind of food will be available at Meritus Park?

Hub City Concessions, the food and beverage arm of the operation, has a menu planned that includes several more affordable items as well as specialty items, some with local ties, said Matthew Kane, director of food and beverage.

For a family of four, based on single-game ticket pricing at the ballpark sign, general admission would cost $48. Though children 5 and younger can get in for free if they sit on their parent's lap.

Going with a basic meal, The Herald-Mail estimates a family of four would spend about $36 for food and beverages. That includes four "game-day" hot dogs, three sodas, one 16-ounce domestic beer, and sharing an order each of fries and a gigantic popcorn.

There will be several concession items available for $5 or less, Kane said.

"Our goal is to make sure we are accommodating everyone, not just the suite holder," Kane said. "I want families to be able to come in, and come in and enjoy it. That's been our focus since day one."

The executive chef is Ryan Robinson, a Culinary Institute of America graduate who has worked at the Adirondack Club Lounge and Liberty Mountain Resort, Kane said.

The specialty items are expected to be available for the second home stand, which begins May 14.

Those items include the hot honey chicken sandwich with Krumpe's donut, which uses a Krumpe's glazed doughnut as the bun with the doughnut cut in half and put on the griddle.

Asked if that is their play on chicken and waffles, Kane said that was a "good way to look at it."

Other speciality items include crab cakes supplied form Gordon's Grocery in Hagerstown's North End and a Chicken Chesapeake, a chicken breast topped with a crab dip supplied by Gordon's.

There also will be Detroit-style pizza and burnt-end brisket sausage. In barbecue culture, the ends of the brisket are cut off into small pieces and cooked in barbecue sauce and caramelized, Kane said. They are called burnt ends, which in this case are ground into sausage.

For adult beverages, there will be beer, wine and liquor service, Kane said.

Most of the local purveyors will be beverage partners, including Cushwa Brewing Company, Antietam Brewery, Meinelschmidt Distillery and Scotty's Vodka from Frederick, Md.

There will be vegan and vegetarian options including hot dogs and burgers, as well as gluten- and nut-free breads available, Kane said.

Because Hub City Concessions is on site handling food and beverage, employees should be able to answer dietary and allergen questions quickly, Kane said.

While Meritus Park has the equipment to have hawkers or vendors sell food and beverages while walking amongst the aisles, that is not planned at the start of the season, Kane said.

If the opportunity presents itself, those vendors could become available at some point, he said.

Because the general bowl seating has more accessibility to the concessions than club seating, in-seat ordering will be available on the club level starting with the second home stand, Kane said.

Hub City Concessions also will handle food and beverages for other events at the multi-use stadium, including catering events in a private space on the second level, Kane said.

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Where to park and how to get to Meritus Park

The Hub City Garage that the City of Hagerstown is building along West Antietam Street is expected to be ready by mid-June at the earliest, City Engineer Jim Bender said.

The city has been working with Boxcars' management to encourage fans driving downtown for the games to park at the other two downtown parking decks and the Central Parking Lot. The Central Lot and the entrance to the University District Parking Deck are in the first block of North Potomac Street after traffic turns south off East Franklin Street.

The Arts & Entertainment District Parking Deck is behind Bulls & Bears Restaurant and can be reached by taking Renaissance Way off of East Washington Street.

While construction continues on finishing Hub City Garage, Bender said West Antietam Street will reopen for vehicular traffic on Friday afternoon. Depending on stadium work, West Baltimore Street could reopen as soon as Friday afternoon as well.

Pedestrians approaching the ballpark will find the ticket booth off the Cultural Trail from the West Antietam Street side.

The Cultural Trail alongside Hub City Garage reopened recently so people walking from the University District Parking Deck can take that route to the stadium.

Hagerstown Police Chief Paul Kifer said there also will be a larger than normal police presence downtown during the opening home stand to get a sense of any issues related to how folks are getting in and out of the ballpark.

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Meritus Park features

Folks getting in line for food will still be able to see the ball field.

That sight line, or lack of sight line at the former Municipal Stadium where the Suns played, was a major disappointment for fans who often stood in line for some time for food.

Fans can walk around the perimeter of the playing field via a concourse so they can keep their eyes on the game, Kane said.

There also will be over 100 screens on which fans can catch a live in-house stream of the games.

The ballpark has a large video board that will serve as the scoreboard and be used to introduce players and feature promotions and ads, Blenckstone said.

The plan is to eventually show game replays on the screen as well.

Ebersole said there is a children's area along the back of the first baseline that is expected to have inflatables. There are picnic tables near there as well as an elevated picnic area behind the outfield.

There will be fireworks nights, including after Saturday's first home game.

Blenckstone said the fireworks will be launched from the ball field, similarly to how it was done at Municipal Stadium. They will not be high-range fireworks like the type seen for Fourth of July celebrations.

Evening games start as late as 6:30 p.m. and would typically be over by 9, 9:15 p.m., Blenckstone said.

City Administrator Scott Nicewarner, in an email, said that the city's noise ordinance starts at 11 p.m. on weekends, which start on Fridays. If a game runs later than 11 p.m., any scheduled fireworks would be canceled and rescheduled.

The ballpark is close to a residential neighborhood with homes on Summit Avenue across the street from the park.

Blenckstone said big lights at the ballpark as well as stadium signage lights will be turned off shortly after folks leave the stadium. That will probably happen about 40 minutes after the game ends, he said.

While most ballparks are cleaned after the game, Meritus Park will be cleaned the next day to allow the lights to be turned off sooner, he said.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Minor league baseball: Hagerstown Flying Boxcars open Meritus Park