Burlington started as a mill town and its greatest claim to infamy for decades was that panty hose were invented there. So, Sock Puppets really is an appropriate name for their ultra-minor league baseball team. When the minors wore the names of the major league teams that their best players moved into, they were Indians and Royals. And Google Maps still thinks it’s Royals.

I love the names that minor teams have been giving themselves. Winston-Salem is the Dash. Charleston, SC was the Rainbows for a little while. Sportscasters were so embarrassed to say that that they just called them the ‘Bows , I think they were hoping people would hear Beaux. Now, they’re the RiverDogs. And everyone recognizes the Durham Bulls. Last night, they played the Bluefield (WV) Ridge Runners.

Burlington’s team isn’t even AAA. They are part of the Appalachian League, a summer collegiate league and I think that means they are the bottom tier of the major league pipeline. The game we saw on LabCorp Night, before the rain got the field covered, was erratic. Thre were some great plays and some absolute flubs. But, the people-watching was excellent.

There were a lot of people wearing Sock Puppet merch.

There was an MC running sideline entertainment between innings. There were a couple of people dressing in stuffed sumo costumes who knocked each other off their feet for 3 quick rounds. Four kids did a Hokey Pokey contest and one got a trophy. They threw souvenir baseballs into the crowd during one break.

And they have a Sock Puppet mascot dressed in socks.

If the stadium got too quiet, which was not really quiet, someone (who sounded like a 10 year old girl) would sing out “Sock Puppets!” and every kid (and many adults) in the crowd would sing it back. That call-and-reponse went on for 2-4 iterations many times.

The food we saw walk by looked like excellent fried chicken, ordinary French fries and pizza I wouldn’t eat on a bet. They had plastic beer cups in the shape of the Sock Puppet logo.

All in all, it was really fun evening and I’m very glad we went.