Summer Baseball is Returning to Mequon

After taking a year off, the Lakeshore Chinooks are back and ready to play baseball this summer. 

The Chinooks play in the Northwoods League, which is a summer wood bat league for baseball prospects. They chose not to participate in the league in 2020 due to COVID-19 when the league went into a pod format. 

The league plans to play a regular schedule this summer, though what that will look like is not yet clear, said Chinooks General Manager Eric Snodgrass.

To start the season, the Chinooks will allow a limited capacity, and adjust as conditions warrant. Snodgrass said he will be watching teams like the Brewers and Bucks closely to see how they handle having fans in the stadium.

Until then the Chinooks have all safety guidelines in place. People will be wearing masks and there are hand sanitizer stations throughout Kapco Park. The team also changed its payment system to a touchless payment system.

Another problem the Chinooks are facing is keeping their fan base engaged and interested in the team, after a year of not playing.

Last summer the Chinooks hosted live-at-the-lot events, where they held drive-in concerts for people, spacing them out so they could safely watch the concert and enjoy themselves. 

Robert Rothe, director of operations, hospitality, and special events, is in charge of maintenance and upkeep of the field, concessions, ordering food and hospitality. Rothe helped put together different events in the community to stay in touch with fans and people.  

He helped with events such as cancer walks, Gill’s reading group (Gill is the team’s mascot), live at the lot and outdoor movies. Different things to get people out of the house and keeping their minds off of the pandemic. 

With the team playing this summer, they had to get their recruiting process going, which starts after Labor Day. This year’s roster will be made up of new players, and no one from the 2019 roster is returning. Snodgrass said that they haven’t had any players drop yet and he is still waiting to see if anyone drops due to the coronavirus.

Coronavirus caused some college baseball programs to not play or delay their season, which has some seniors looking for extra innings or more opportunities to play.

“A lot of kids need innings to get a look from scouts, and there are a lot of seniors that aren’t expected to be drafted, so summer ball is their last chance for scouts to look at them,” said Snodgrass. 

There will still be host families this summer for the players, which are families that volunteer to host any player that is coming from out of state, and they provide them a room to stay in and a place to eat, while they are here to play baseball. 

“Most families know what they are getting themselves into when it comes to hosting a player during a pandemic but if a player does test positive or show symptoms, they will be relocated to a hotel away from the family, to quarantine,” said Snodgrass.

The Chinooks do have fan decks that they usually offer group tickets and events too. These decks hold up to 50 people and and offer buffet-style eating.

With the pandemic only 25 people are allowed on the deck and the buffet will be closed.

“The Chinooks don’t have any events planned at the ballpark yet for the year, a lot of people still are cautious,” Rothe said. “We would like to focus on putting on concerts, movies, anything to bring in revenue and offer stuff for fans to do on days baseball isn’t being played.”