Family Fun at the Toledo Mud Hens AAA Baseball Game

The Toledo Mud Hens are located in downtown Toledo, playing AAA baseball on summer days and nights in Fifth Third field. The stadium provides the setting for a fun, enjoyable day with the family for many in the greater Toledo area. Just last week, my daughter and I were the ones to benefit from this great attraction in our backyard.

We attended a game against the Pawtucket Red Sox. This game was a very busy night, because the Red Sox had a 2 time world series winner rehabbing his shoulder in the game-Curt Schilling. Curt came out and pitched for five innings, throwing all five innings scoreless. The Mud Hens won the game, but this was not the highlight of the night. For this father, my highlight was the sites and sounds that the ballpark opened to my daughter.

After watching a few innings of the game, we were able to explore the stadium. We stopped first at one of the many concession stands, and surveyed our options. My daughter settled on the ice cream sundae, complete in a Med Hens mini-helmet. I went with a stadium stable-the peanuts in shells. As we continued our tour, we realized that there was not a bad seat anywhere for young or older fans to enjoy the game. Everything from the seats behind home to the roost high above right field provided an excellent opportunity to take in all the action. In fact, this stadium's "roost" seating was recently named the best section to enjoy a AAA ball game in the country.

My daughter and I finished our snacks, and lo and behold-who should appear but Muddy and Madonna, the mascots here at the park! These characters travel around the stadium looking to entertain and pull out a smile from their fans. After getting her picture and hugs from he characters, we continued on to the gift shop. The store contained a wide array of gifts and memorabilia, from the likes of t-shirts and hats all the way down to more unique gifts like the "hen call" squeaking bill. We settled on a few choice items and wandered back to our seats.

As we settled into our seats, my daughter had about an inning's worth of attention left. I think the people operating the ballpark must realize when the kids start to get restless, and keep the fun music going and show an animated race of condiments on the jumbo screen. There also is a playground with a large piece of playground equipment for the kids to blow off so steam. As our evening came to a close, I can honestly say we both throughly enjoyed our time together, making new memories.