Ben's Biz spends an evening with the Dash

This is an excerpt from the latest edition of the Ben's Biz Beat Newsletter, bringing Minor League Baseball business and culture news to your inbox each and every Thursday. Check out the full newsletter HERE.

The following ballpark road trip recap is presented by Wyndham, proud sponsor of *Minor League Ballpark Guides*. Start planning your 2025 road trips today!

The fifth and final stop of my North Carolina-centric road trip was Winston-Salem, N.C., home of the Dash (High-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox since 1997).

Visiting Winston-Salem was a priority for me, as the one and only time I had attended a Dash game was July 26, 2011. Entering the 2024 season, there was no other active Minor League team that I had gone longer without visiting. In fact, this 13-year-and-five-day stretch was the longest gap between ballpark visits of my entire career. It ended on July 31, with a Wednesday night contest against the Greensboro Grasshoppers.

Truist Stadium is not to be confused with the football venue of the same name located in Greensboro. Nor is it to be confused with sporting facilities such as Atlanta’s Truist Park, Charlotte’s Truist Field, Highland Heights, Kentucky’s Truist Arena or High Point, North Carolina’s Truist Point. Double-check your GPS coordinates before traveling here is all I’m saying. As there are varying degrees of truth, there are varying degrees of Truist.

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Winston-Salem’s Truist Stadium debuted in 2010. It replaced Ernie Shore Field, which opened in 1956 and is now owned by Wake Forest University. Professional baseball in the Winston-Salem area dates to the early 20th century. The franchise now known as the Dash began in 1945 as the Cardinals and was later known as the Red Birds, Red Sox, Spirits and Warthogs before adopting its current moniker in 2009.

The Dash moniker connotates speed, but it’s also a reference to the dash -- actually a hyphen -- between Winston and Salem in the city’s name. (These neighboring towns were consolidated in 1913.) I was bullish on visiting the Dash for reasons beyond my long absence from their city, as in recent years the team has displayed an increased commitment to operational creativity. Much of this can be attributed to team president Brian DeAngelis, who joined the organization prior to the 2022 season following six years with the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

Truist Stadium is located just to the southwest of Winston-Salem’s downtown area, with the busy Salem Parkway located on the south (outfield) side of the ballpark. It ain’t pretty, but it’ll get you where you need to go.

Truist Stadium’s imposing and stately brick façade sets the tone for its overall experience, as there is a level of grandeur not often found in ballparks at the High-A level. There are 5,500 seats, but the stadium feels much bigger due to its wide wraparound concourse, spacious left-field berm and a preponderance of group and social areas.

At this game I was once again accompanied by MLB live content creator (LCC) Kathryn Skeean, who took many of the photos you’ll see in this article. We began our evening in the dugout, where I interviewed Dash third baseman/outfielder DJ Gladney (left) and bench coach Darius Day.

Gladney and Day are both natives of the South Side of Chicago who participated in the White Sox's Amateur City Elite (ACE) youth program and are now members of the White Sox organization. After conversing with them, I met the Dash’s mascot, who in my opinion should’ve been named Mohawk Harrelson.

His name is Bolt, as in a lightning bolt. Lightning strikes, and I throw them. After delivering another stunningly good ceremonial first pitch, I posed for a picture with my catcher -- fellow baseball standout Juan Carela (currently the 26th-ranked prospect in the White Sox organization).

In the stands and on the concourse, the conversations continued. DJ Fisher, who works for Legends (the team’s concessionaire) is a former Dash employee of the year, and per DeAngelis, “one of the hardest workers the Dash have ever had.” DJ has a benign tumor on his face, a condition called neurofibromatosis, but has not let that affect his drive and determination.

Prior to arriving at the ballpark I visited Bowman Gray Stadium, Winston-Salem’s legendary (and legendarily rowdy) stock car track.

I mention that because, at the ballpark, I met one of the track’s most popular and promising racers. At 16 years old, “Real Deal” Riley Neal is a third-generation driver and youngest-ever Bowman Gray race winner (among many other rapidly accumulating accolades). In addition to driving, he goes to school, pumps septic tanks(!) and, like DJ Fisher, works for Legends. Riley was, in my estimation, the most mature and responsible-sounding teenager I’ve ever spoken with.

A lap around Truist Stadium yields many interesting sights. This includes a behind-the-scenes view of the control room, complete with job descriptions.

Another portion of this area has been turned into a team store, which features a window into Andrew Murphy’s broadcast booth.

In the above photo you’ll notice Italian Beef shirts, one of several alternate identities the Dash debuted this season. This Model T on the outfield concourse, meanwhile, is tied in with the Tobacco Beetles. This pestilent identity has a 1920s aesthetic, a nod to the peak era of Winston-Salem’s agricultural prominence.

For inanimate renderings of larger animals, check out the carousel in the Kids Zone. It was brought over from Ernie Shore Stadium, where it once delighted Winston-Salem baseball fans who are now adults. Perhaps even elderly adults. It’s the circle of life.

For actual living creatures, head to what I consider to be Truist Stadium’s crown jewel: The Hype Hens Chicken Coop.

Hype Hens, yet another of the Dash’s alter egos, is in part a play on “hyphens” (because, again, that’s the punctuation mark that separates Winston and Salem). The coop is home to the six chickens seen above, lovingly cared for by Dash stadium operations director Amber Hudson.

I spent a large portion of the game with my Designated Eaters, the husband-and-wife duo of Seth and Cindy Mendelsohn. They enjoyed an amazing meal, spread out over many innings, that will have to be documented in a separate edition of this newsletter. Stay tuned!

As the game wound down, I spoke with the Dash’s biggest fans: sisters Janice and Susan Nickell. These two were a trip, their love for their hometown team irrepressible, their ability to finish each other’s sentences remarkable. There was singing, there was dancing, there was cheering. It was a nonstop Nickell sisters party, and everyone was invited.

If I had a nickel for every time I wasn’t quite sure how to wrap up a ballpark dispatch, I’d be a rich man. I’ll have much more from the Dash over the coming weeks and months, going into more detail about many of the people mentioned here.

It was a low-key Wednesday evening for the team, but for me it was anything but. I finally made it back to Winston-Salem and the vibes, as the kids say, were immaculate. The fact that I also got to visit an intact shell-shaped Shell station was a bonus, a story that’ll have to wait for another day.

Thanks for reading and please remember to tune into the MiLB Awards Show on Monday night at 9 p.m. ET on the MLB Network. I’ll be on your TV, and I hope it makes you laugh.