At 9:18 Sunday night, the final out was recorded at Trustmark Park.
It had been a long one.
The Mississippi Mud Monsters pounded out 20 hits and scored 17 runs in a 17-9 win over the Washington Wild Things, putting an emphatic finish on their final home game before one of the most unusual road trips in franchise history.
For the fans, 9:18 meant it was time to go home. They gathered their things, walked down the concourse and spilled into the parking lot. Before long, the traffic around Trustmark Park would disappear. The stadium would grow quiet.
For the Mud Monsters, though, the clock had already started. They had a little more than 45 hours until another first pitch.
This one would be in another country. 1400 miles away.
Before a baseball could be thrown Tuesday night in Ottawa, an entire professional baseball operation had to somehow get from Pearl, Mississippi, to Canada’s capital city. That’s part of the grind of baseball that most fans don’t see. And that process started almost as soon as Sunday’s game ended.
The final out of a baseball game creates an illusion.
From the stands, everything appears to stop. The players shake hands. The grounds crew begins working on the field. Fans head for their cars. Eventually, the stadium lights go dark.
Behind the clubhouse doors though, baseball keeps moving.
There are uniforms covered in the evidence of the previous nine innings. Towels have accumulated throughout the clubhouse. Players have personal laundry. Equipment that spent Sunday afternoon scattered around a professional clubhouse now has to be accounted for and prepared for a six-game road trip.
And this isn’t a normal getaway night. The Mud Monsters aren’t loading a bus for a drive to another Frontier League city.
They’re going to 1,451 miles away to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada’s Capital city.
There is perhaps no job in baseball more invisible than the clubhouse attendant. Around the game, he’s simply the “clubbie.” Fans probably never see him. Players couldn’t function without him. A clubbie’s responsibilities can include everything from maintaining the clubhouse and preparing uniforms to handling laundry, organizing equipment and helping load the team for road trips.
And on a getaway night, the hours can become brutal. While players shower and eventually leave the ballpark, the laundry room doesn’t shut down with the scoreboard. Game pants need attention. Jerseys have to be washed. Towels, undershirts, shorts, practice gear and other clothing accumulated during the game have to make their way through the laundry.
On a normal night, much of it will be needed again tomorrow.
Sunday night was different. Much of it needed to be clean, packed and ready to leave Mississippi. The Mud Monsters had just generated 20 hits and 17 runs over nine innings of baseball. Now somebody had to clean up after all of it.
While the 600,000 people who make up Jackson’s Metro area slept Sunday night, in anticipation of beginning another work week, the real work of getting a minor league baseball team to Canada was underway.
Moving a baseball team isn’t like packing for a weekend trip.
There are the obvious things: Uniforms, Gloves, Bats, Helmets. Catcher’s gear, etc. Then start adding everything else required to keep a professional baseball team functioning for six games. Training and medical supplies have to travel. Coaches have equipment. Clubhouse supplies are needed. Players have personal bags. Uniform pieces have to be accounted for.
There are dozens of little things nobody watching from behind home plate ever thinks about. On a normal Frontier League road trip, much of it can be loaded underneath the bus.
On a normal Frontier League road trip, much of it can be loaded underneath the bus. Open the luggage compartments. Pack everything in. Shut the doors. When the bus reaches the next ballpark, unload it.
Ottawa is different. General manager Andrew Seymour told Magnolia Coast Sports Saturday night, that the Mud Monsters will leave Pearl early Monday morning and head south. Their first destination isn’t even in the direction of Canada.
It’s New Orleans.
The team will bus roughly three hours down Interstate 55 before beginning the next stage of its journey. Then the bus stops. And everything that needs to continue to Ottawa has to keep moving.
Somewhere early Monday morning, after a night that began with a 9:18 final out, the Mud Monsters will load the bus. Players will climb aboard. Bags will disappear underneath it. Equipment will be loaded. The doors will close.
And Trustmark Park will disappear behind them. For the next few hours, Interstate 55 becomes part of the Frontier League.
Pearl. Brookhaven. McComb. Across the Louisiana state line. Hammond. Ponchatoula. Then New Orleans.
It is a strange way to begin a trip to Canada, driving three hours south before flying north. But that’s the route awaiting the Mississippi Mud Monsters. And reaching New Orleans only completes the first leg.
According to Seymour, the Mud Monsters will fly from New Orleans to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. Then they’ll connect in Chicago for a second flight to Ottawa. It’s one of the details that makes this trip so fascinating.
Everything that left Trustmark Park has to navigate an airport.
With the team flying commercially, suddenly the same people fans watched score 17 runs Sunday night are navigating terminals, baggage requirements and a connection at one of America’s busiest airports like everybody else.
And baseball equipment isn’t exactly a carry-on. However the Mud Monsters handle it, everything they need to play baseball has to make the journey too. At some point Monday, Mississippi’s road trip will pass through Chicago.
Less than 24 hours earlier, these players were standing underneath the lights at Trustmark Park, putting together 20 hits against Washington. Now they’re more than 800 miles away, moving through O’Hare International Airport.
Around them will be business travelers. Families. Tourists. People running for connections. And mixed somewhere into all of that will be a professional baseball team from Mississippi trying to get to Canada. Then comes another flight. Chicago to Ottawa. Another takeoff. Another landing. Another unloading. And, this time, an international border.
Eventually, some time late Monday night the travel stops. The bags arrive. The equipment gets where it needs to go. Players reach the hotel. For the first time since the final out Sunday night, there might finally be an opportunity to slow down.
But not for long.
Tuesday is a game day. The Mud Monsters open a six-game series against the Ottawa Titans Tuesday night at Ottawa Stadium. That means the routine begins again. Players arrive at the ballpark. Equipment gets unpacked. Lockers begin looking like lockers. Uniforms have to be ready. Bats have to be where players expect them. The athletic training staff needs its supplies.
Players stretch. They throw. They hit. They take batting practice. Eventually, they put on the same uniforms somebody was washing back in Pearl.
Then they run onto the field. By first pitch Tuesday night, the journey disappears. Nobody looking at the scoreboard will see 9:18 p.m. Sunday in Pearl. They’ll see the Mississippi Mud Monsters versus Ottawa Titans. That’s the strange thing about professional baseball. When everybody behind the scenes does their job correctly, you’re never supposed to know how difficult it was to get there.
For all the work required to get to Ottawa, the Mud Monsters aren’t going there for a vacation. They’re going there to play six baseball games in six days. Then, after Sunday’s series finale, the entire process reverses. Pack the clubhouse. Gather the uniforms. Load the equipment. Leave Ottawa. Cross the border. Fly home.
Because the last homestand of the season is waiting back home at Trustmark Park.
The Mud Monsters are due back at Trustmark Park Tuesday night to begin another six-game series, this time against the Windy City ThunderBolts.
Another clubhouse will be prepared. Another set of uniforms will hang in lockers. Another crowd will come through the gates. And somebody will throw another first pitch. Most people in the stands will never think about what happened between the 9:18 p.m. final out against Washington and the moment the Mud Monsters returned home.
That’s baseball at this level.
The box score from Sunday will forever say Mississippi 17, Washington 9. What it won’t show is what happened after the final out. And sometimes, that’s where the better story begins.
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