Shorebirds a team that chickens built

To paraphrase Frank Perdue -- "It takes a tough man to build a tender ballpark."

The Shorebirds, based in Salisbury, Md., are quite simply the team that chicken built. The Delmarva region is host to several chicken processing facilities, with industry giant Perdue headquartered in Salisbury. Soybean and corn farms are prevalent throughout the area, with the resultant crop used as chicken feed.

Minor League Baseball came to Salisbury in 1996, largely thanks to the efforts of Frank Perdue. The chicken industry titan donated the land for the ballpark and provided half the construction cost under the auspices of the Maryland Baseball ownership group (the state and county combined to pay for the remaining half). The ballpark is named after Frank's father, Arthur W. Perdue, who started the company in 1920. Frank died in 2005, and the press box has since been named in his honor.

"[Frank Perdue] loved hanging out there," said Shorebirds general manager Chris Bitters. "He came to as many games as he could."

The "Shorebirds" name itself could also be seen as a chicken reference, but this is not so. When the team arrived in 1996, it was as an Expos affiliate, with the expectation that it would become an Orioles farm club (which did happen the following season and has been the case ever since). Furthermore, the name references the region's abundance of waterfowl.

Nonetheless, chicken remains king when visiting Arthur W. Perdue Ballpark.

"We're the only team that has a reason to do the chicken dance!" said Bitters.

Living history

No visit to a Shorebirds game would be complete without visiting the Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame, located inside the stadium and run entirely by volunteers. Inside, one can find a treasure trove of regional baseball memorabilia, with an emphasis on now-defunct teams of the past as well as locals who went on to shine on the national stage.

During my visit, museum curator Charlie Silcott showed me a photo of third baseman Ducky Detweiler, who played for nearby Federalsburg in 1939 en route to a brief Major League career with the Boston Braves. "Hopefully, he'll be here tonight," he said.

And indeed he was. Detweiler, now 92, can often be found sitting behind home plate with Jean, his wife of 67 years.

"We come here as much as we can, as long as it's not too cold for an old man," Detweiler said with a laugh. "I played [professional] baseball for 15 years and it was a good 15 years, no question about it. It's really something to sit back and think about it, all the people I met along the way."

Detweiler played 13 games for Casey Stengel's 1942 Boston Braves and, during that stint, faced none other than the mighty Carl Hubbell.

"Hubbell struck me out a couple of times, and the umpire told me, 'Don't feel bad. Just think about the five [Hall of Fame] players he struck out in a row at the [1934] All-Star Game."

But redemption was soon to come.

"The last time I came up against [Hubbell], I hit a dribbler back to the pitcher's mound and it must have hit his thumb and bounced over his glove or something. They scored it a hit! So I can always say I got a hit off Carl Hubbell."

Multi-tasking

Outside of some canvas billboards getting knocked down in left field, Hurricane Irene left Arthur W. Perdue Stadium virtually unscathed. Nonetheless, local officials weren't taking any chances as the storm approached on Aug. 25.

"[Nearby] Ocean City employs a lot of seasonal workers, from places like Russia and Ireland, who work and live in the city for the summer," said Bitters. "About three years ago, there was the realization that the tourists can evacuate and the residents can evacuate, but there are anywhere from 4,000-8,000 [workers] who have no way to leave, and the state is responsible for them."

Hence the events of Aug. 25. As the Shorebirds played their scheduled game against the Lakewood BlueClaws, bus loads of these seasonal workers were brought to Arthur W. Perdue Stadium. After checking in at the stadium, they were then loaded onto another bus and driven to a Baltimore shelter.

"And through it all, there was a game going on!" said Bitters. "A lot of [the workers] had never seen a baseball game before, and were pretty excited to be there."