Hot Tots Begin 2025 Season
It was a perfect evening for baseball. Temperature at game time around 70 degrees. A bit of a breeze to keep the American flag in center at Corbett Field waving, and a perfect sunlit blue sky. As we opened our door in the parking lot there was the familiar smell of brats cooking on a grill and the sound of baseballs popping leather gloves as players in white (The Hot Tots) and sky blue (The St. Cloud Rox) warmed up their arms, preparing for a 6:30 PM contest.
I had thought about the game all afternoon and really looked forward to the baseball game experience. I am pretty sure that my first summer organized sport experience was baseball. We started with herd baseball…that being one kid would hit the ball off of a tee, maybe run the wrong way around the bases, and every kid on the other team would run to try and retrieve the ball. Sometimes a battle would erupt in center field as 2 or 3 players vied for the chance to run after the runner, now rounding 3rd, or first depending on which way he went, and headed for home. The race to the plate would end as either the runner crossed the plate safely, or the fielder managed to dutifully smack the runner with the baseball glove. Didn’t make any difference that the ball may have been in the other hand, and who (besides everyone) was keeping score anyway.
On the fence in either dugout was a big graphic of a baseball field. The coach would say a kid’s name and then point to the area in the field where he, or she, was to play. We would never talk about details like the number of outs in an inning (what’s an inning?) because every kid would bat. It was baseball, small town North Dakota, and every other small town in the United States, style, and whether the players from The Minot Hot Tots or St. Cloud Rox want to admit it or not, that is where they all started.
For the baseball purist, the Hot Tots belong to the Northwoods League which it states on their website, is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. It is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 26 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. It was explained to me once that the Northwoods League is a college level, wooden bat, baseball league. The 2 players I met tonight were from Orlando, Florida. “A long way from home?” I asked. One responded “yeah, but we like the weather up here so far.” The other young player added “it is very hot in Florida this time of year.” I thought to myself it was a good thing these kids’ chosen sport was not hockey, and their first experience with North Dakota weather was playing for the Minot Minotauros; but that is another story.
For a family looking for an entertaining 3 hours in the great outdoors, the Hot Tots are your ticket. According to General Manager Monica Hocking “a family of 5 can come to a Hot Tots game for as little as $80.00.” That may be only the tickets for admission, but I kind of look at a Hot Tots game as a way to not only experience baseball, but baseball food as well.
And there is no down time in a Hot Tots game. During inning breaks there are back to back games for kids (and the Hot Totties from Elison Assisted Living). The field is just barely cleared in time to the first pitch of the next inning.
One of the most entertaining inning breaks came as local celebrities, and GM Monica Hocking, competed for the right not to be slimed. This is one election you don’t want to win folks. Monica took it all in stride and blamed her team of minions (you’ll get this when you attend your first game) for stuffing the ballot box.
The outcome of the game may not have been what we wanted, but the entertainment certainly was. Pick up your phone and get your tickets for the next Hot Tots or Honeybees game..buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks. I don’t care if I ever get back, cause its root, root, root for the Hot Tots!
