Minor league baseball is here! We thought we’d take some time to pull together some facts for fans that may want to try one of the Braves minor league affiliates, especially with the new low-A team in Augusta, Georgia. Today is a team that hits close to home, literally in my case, the Rome Braves.
A+ Rome
The City of Seven Hills (Georgia division) has been the home of Braves minor league baseball since their 2003 move from Macon, Georgia and has enjoyed two South Atlantic League championships (2003, 2016).
This season Rome has been promoted to this high-A level as one of the inaugural teams of the brand new High-A East league. Like all other affiliated minor league teams, Rome will be playing a schedule that features weekly 6-game series against a single opponent followed by a day off. All of Rome’s days off will be on Monday.
Over the years, Atlanta has treated Rome as the primary incubator of their highest talented players in their late teens and early twenties. The 2016 championship was built on the talents of Mike Soroka, Touki Toussaint, Kolby Allard, Ronald Acuna Jr., and Austin Riley, all of whom where teenagers when the season started.
Stadium
Address: 755 Braves Blvd NE, Rome, GA 30161
State Mutual Stadium has been the home of the Rome Braves since the team moved before the 2003 season. The stadium has a cozy 5,105 seat capacity. It’s dimensions of 335’ to left, 401’ to dead center, and 330’ to right match the old dimensions of former Atlanta Braves home Turner Field and help keep State Mutual Stadium a pitcher-friendly field.
The team has a brand new HD scoreboard and viewscreen and have installed new LED field lights which should turn one of the dimmest night-game fields to something closer to major league caliber.
State Mutual Stadium is an approximately 90 minute drive from Truist Park, going up I-95 to exit 290, then taking GA 411 west to the Rome loop/Veteran’ Memorial Highway, then north. The stadium is next to the campus of Berry College and signs for one will lead you to the other.
If you are an RV’er, the Braves have an RV campground available year-round with water and power hook-up at $30-per night or $180-per week.
Food
The usual ballpark concessions are available, but there’s other offerings including a Chick-Fil’-A stand and a craft beer booth.
The Three Rivers Club is available for all Club Level ticket holders and offers sit-down service in an air conditioned area (no small perk in the hot Georgia summers). It’s located under the stands behind home plate and also has limited patio dining.
Bubba’s BBQ is an open-air restaurant located down the first base line. Get the Kitchen Sink nachos to share, featuring their pulled pork BBQ. Or try their BBQ Sundae, a piece of cornbread topped by BBQ pork and slaw and served in a cup.
Tickets
Game-day tickets range from $8 general admission, $12 down the lines, $14 behind the dugout, and $17 club level which includes the six sections behind the plate. Buying your ticket in advance knocks off $2 from all of those prices.
There are also 14 full-service suites.
The Area
Approximately 3 miles south of the stadium is downtown Rome, a surprisingly lively area full of antique shops and boutiques and local eateries that are worth your time, including Harvest Moon Cafe, John Henry’s Grill, and Rome City Brewhouse.
Within walking distance of the stadium there is an Italian restaurant and a coffee shop, but otherwise it’s better to eat first then come to the park.
Coaching Staff
Rome’s first-time manager is Kanekoa Texeria, though this isn’t his first time in Rome. Texeria served as the team’s pitching coach in 2019, and before that served as Danville’s pitching coach from 2017-18. Texeria was in the majors in 2010-11 for Seattle and Kansas City, combining to appear in 43 games for the two teams in 2010. He had pitched for the Gwinnett Braves from 2014-2016 before becoming a coach.
Pitching coach Bo Henning was hired before the 2020 season, but because of the shutdown this will be his first real season with the team. Henning joined the organization after managing in the collegiate wood-bat Northwoods League and co-owning and operating the Sacramento Sports Center baseball academy.
Hitting coach Danny Santiesteban gets a promotion from the rookie league Danville Braves in 2019. A former minor league outfielder in the Twins organization, Santiesteban joined the Braves organization as a coach before the 2018 season.
Angel Flores was a six-year minor league veteran in the Tigers organization before opening the Action Force baseball academy in Orlando, Florida. Flores has been in the organization since 2017 working in the rookie leagues.
Long-time Rome coach Bobby Moore returns to the team after a one-year stint working at the team’s complex in North Port, Florida. Moore had been with the team since its arrival in 2003 and makes his home in Rome.
The Players
The Braves made sure to stock one of their local teams with several of their top prospects. The biggest name will be Stockbridge, Georgia native Michael Harris, fresh off a productive major league spring training that had generated a ton of buzz inside and outside the organization for the outfielder.
Also on the squad is 6′-6″ slugging first baseman Bryce Ball and 2020 first-rounder Jared Shuster and fifth-rounder Bryce Elder, all of whom will be prospects to watch.
Minor league veterans Riley Delgado, Kevin Josephina, Andrew Moritz, and Alan Rangel won’t make a lot of prospect news but are solid players that should help Rome into the win column this year.
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