Great American Baseball Adventure

I saw this vehicle with California plates in the parking lot at Perkins' Restaurant—oh, oh, busted—across from the entrance to Dehler Park. The 2011 number is obviously a moveable feast so I don't know how long they have been at it. If you google this you find a surprising number of individual and group 'baseball adventures' going on every season.

Presumably they come from near Sacramento where the River Cats hang out. See the sticky emblem on their gas cap to the left.

That is the AAA Pacific Coast League franchise for the nearby Oakland Athletics. According to Wikipedia they have led all of minor league baseball in attendance, averaging over 10,000 fans per home game over the past eight years, well over 10K to start and now a little over 9K for the last few years.

They have done well in the standings of the PCL as well. Wiki is pretty good at following the ins and outs of baseball franchises,—mainly because a lot of ordinary folks keep track of these things—though I wouldn't trust them on things like climate change and probably a few other things that academics might lie about.

There were other emblems scattered on this large SUV. It didn't appear to have any special rhyme or reason to it as far as a particular major league franchise, or some geographic or league gathering of places.

Oh wait a minute, now that I think about it and consult the ever-omnicient Mr Google, it may be that at least part of their trip is simply driving up the 25. From Denver, home of the Rockies, it is about a 4 hour drive to Casper, home of the Ghosts, the Rookie A Pioneer League franchise of the Rockies. They used to be the Butte Copper Kings, hardly ever very strong in the standings and certainly not in the vital attendance numbers.

There apparently is some talk about moving the franchise  in time for the 2012 season to Grand Junction CO where the field that has been used for the Junior College World Series has been having a grand rehab to the tune of $8.3 million.