Keith Sanpei
Power hitter Danny Mayer of Pacific College is heading to Madison to debut as a Mallard.
Last year, the Madison Mallards erected a large sign spanning the gated entrance to Warner Park’s Duck Pond: “Welcome to Your 9-Inning Vacation.”
“It’s important for fans to come into our ballpark with a smile, keep it all night and leave with that smile,” says Tyler Isham, the team’s general manager.
But for the 30 college baseball players who will be on the Mallards’ active roster this season, the next 72 games will be far from a vacation. As part of the 18-team Northwoods League, Madison’s 15-year-old collegiate summer team could be one of several steps in their journey from obscurity to a Major League Baseball lineup.
Remember Phil Gosselin, the utility infielder who played for Madison in 2008? He’s now with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Or J.R. Graham, the Mallards’ flamethrower from 2009 and 2010? He made his debut with the Minnesota Twins last year.
The Mallards open the 2016 season on the road May 31 with two games against the Battle Creek Bombers and then travel to Rockford, Ill., for the first of a two-game series with the Rivets. The second game will move to Madison for the Mallards home opener on June 3.
“Our goal is to win the league championship,” Isham says. “That’s the expectation around here.”
The Mallards came close last year, losing the league’s South Division championship game to the Kenosha Kingfish.
While this year’s pre-Opening Day roster included only one player from Wisconsin — Alex Hintze, a lefty pitcher out of Oshkosh North High School who plays for the University of Connecticut — Isham says fans should keep their eyes on 245-pound, 6-foot-5-inch outfielder Danny Mayer, a power hitter from Pacific College, and Oklahoma State pitcher Luke Matheny, the second of St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny’s sons to play for the Mallards. Tate Matheny, currently in the Boston Red Sox farm system, played in Madison in 2013.
Off the field, fans will see changes, too. Updates in the TDS Triple Play Club area created more common space for groups and improved the sightlines, and new tabletops in the Great Dane Duck Blind Club are crafted from recycled bleachers acquired from an old high school ballpark.
Additionally, six postgame fireworks shows are scheduled, including one on opening night. And the first of eight bobblehead dates will be June 10 — featuring the likeness of late comedian Chris Farley, who grew up in Madison.
