Things To Do At Penn State During The Summer: Take In A Baseball Game
By ha-mace (Chief Contributor) Tags: State College Spikes, Pirates, Minor League Baseball
2:05 PM
So you're stuck here for the summer and wondering what the hell you're going to do with yourself since all your friends are home until the end of August. Well you could just get drunk and throw up in Indigo, but that gets old really fast (I know). So, I'm going to try to give you a periodic list of things you can do for the next eight weeks to maintain your sanity and hopefully keep the puking to a minimum (I think you can come up with the puke list by yourself).
In 2006 the St. Louis Cardinals moved their class A short-season minor-league affiliate to State College in the brand new Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. They named the team the Spikes, with a deer as a mascot, which seemed odd at first but after the team moved their affiliation from St. Louis to the Pittsburgh Pirates last year it became a little more obvious (if it's not so obvious to you, the Pirates are nicknamed the "Bucs" and a male deer is often referred to as a buck, hence the team's slogan "The Bucs Start Here").
And even if you're not a Pirates fan (if you are, god help you) the Spikes play teams affiliated with the Astros (Tri-City ValleyCats), Blue Jays (Auburn Doubledays), Cardinals (Batavia Muckdogs), Indians (Mahoning Valley Scrappers), Marlins (Jamestown Jammers), Mets (Brooklyn Cyclones), Nationals (Vermont Lake Monsters), Orioles (Aberdeen IronBirds), Phillies (Williamsport Crosscutters), Rays (Hudson Valley Renegades), Red Sox (Lowell Spinners), Tigers (Oneonta Tigers) and Yankees (Staten Island Yankees), so you're bound to be interested in one of the teams.
Between tonight and the start of the Fall semester there are 25 home games for the Spikes including a fireworks show after Thursday night's game (the stadium will also be opened after Friday's game to watch the fireworks from 4th Fest). Although you missed out on the best promotion of the season when they gave out Slinky's to the first 2,000 fans (btw, the Slinky was invented by a Penn State graduate). And with tickets ranging from $6-$11 it's relatively cheap. Although once you're inside the park, eating can be expensive. I had a cheesesteak and soda last night which cost $9.50 (ouch!) and beer was over $5.
Chances are most of the players you see aren't going to make it to the major leagues, but you never know, and plus it's not really summer unless you take in a baseball game and have a hot dog. And since Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are three hours away ...
Comments 
A picture is here.
http://www.pbase.com/moving_waters/image/81566084
Hence the team name Spikes and the mascot is a play on words. Baseball players fot footwear of choice are spikes and the mascot is a young deer with spike antlers.
The Pirates' nickname the Bucs is derived from the synonym for pirate buccaneer and has nothing to do with deer.
The owners of the Spikes must like word play. They also own the Altoona Curve.
Altoona is the home of the Horseshoe Curve.
http://www.railroadcity.com/hc/index.php
...and pitchers throw curves.
Hey, it's summer, no ones reading my blog and I've got nothing better to do
than to lecture you on triva.
And their other slogan, "Fear the Deer!" Really?
http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=3242916
You're probably right about the slogan being a play on words Buck/Buc. It was likely an after thought though. When they announced the winner of the contest, the team was still affiliated with St. Louis and they played their the 2006 season, their first, as a St. Louis farm team. The announcement of the Pittsburgh affiliation didn't come until September of 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_College_Spikes
And according to that Wikipedia article the name spike also refers to the a railroad spike. Who knows?
You mock "Fear the Deer". Have you ever driven around her at night during hunting season?
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