jamisea

Hi Rosterman, I'll jump in on this one.... My name is Jami Sanderson and I have been the volunteer "Host Family" coordinator for the Blue Wahoos for the past couple of seasons. My husband, Randy and I began hosting players during the 2016 season. This will be our 4th season hosting players and we are looking forward to it. When the players leave Spring Training and they are named to the Blue Wahoos, they are given my phone number. I have a list of both host families and temporary housing for the players to choose from. I've found that by the time the players are in AA, many don't want a host family—they prefer sharing an apt. with other players. But some players do like a host family— particularly international players. There is not a lot of low rent housing available in Pensacola because our area's high tourist season (unlike south Florida) is in the summer. My husband and I have primarily housed international players mostly because we live close to the stadium and have a car they can drive. I'm working diligently in the offseason to line up more host families and housing options for the new players and looking forward to meeting them!

Yesterday, this article hit. All of the best ballparks in the Minors, and Pensacola Blue Wahoos Stadium was #1 in AA! https://www.milb.com/milb/news/bens-best-the-minor-leagues-top-ballpark-views/c-300372986?tcid=tw_article_300372986

My husband had to get into the swing of things with the Twins. He ordered a license plate for his antique" Vespa. "Kazoo" is the mascot for the Blue Wahoos.

Ha! FOOTBALL. Uggghhh. One of the challenges of footballs season, is that currently the local University NCAA D2 program—which is only in it's 3rd year, plays football on the baseball field. They set up bleachers in the outfield (from rt. to center filed). They don't start converting the field to football until reg. baseball season ends. It's gotten dicey 2 of the last 4 seasons when the Blue Wahoos made the playoffs and the baseball playoff schedule overlapped a football game. The staff works very hard to convert the field to football—pulling "all-nighter" and then converting it back for baseball! The University is building their own stadium though it's not supposed to be finished for 2 more seasons. On a brighter note, The University of West Florida Argonauts went to the D2 National Championship game last year on their second season of existence.

Oh I’ll chime in. Just realize I do not know much about the actual GAME! I hear stats & my brain malfunctions! You’ll be glad to know our video feed is superior to the other teams and Tommy Thrall, our announcer is really fantastic! His sidekick is Chris Garagiola ... yes, Joe’s grandson and they really do a fine job. If you have the MiLB app, you can enjoy the games wherever you are. Later. Jami PS husband just ordered a book about the Twins so we can get up to speed!

Hi Everyone, I'm a Pensacola resident, a Blue Wahoos fan and my husband and I are a host family for the players! (I am also the volunteer coordinator for the host family program). We've been hosting players for the past 3 seasons and are going to continue next season too. Usually we have anywhere from 2-4 players at our house, and as they rotate through the season, by the end we've had as many as 7-8 players per season. Mostly we have hosted international players, as we live closer to the stadium and know these guys usually don't have a car so they drive my "beater." While, we are sad to see our Reds "sons" leave, we are thrilled to have the Twins come in. I'll be following the forum over the offseason so I can get to know who's who in the Twins organization. Pensacola is a great place to visit and our waterfront stadium, (which was built in 2012) and the Blue Wahoos staff are top-notch. The view is beautiful, the breezes are usually good and it's a great place to visit for some baseball. Weather, usually a pop-up thunderstorm can cause delays of games at times, but last season we only had one game cancelled due to rain. The heat: Yes, July/August tend to be warm. BUT our games are at 6:35 CST and by that time it's usually cooled off. Ft. Myers is a 10 hour drive from Pensacola. But we can finally go see some Spring Training games! The Reds ST was in AZ and that was just not going to happen for us. So hello to all the Twins fans and welcome to Pensacola! If you have any questions, shoot me a message. WAHOOOOO! Jami Sanderson Here's a photo of the stadium: