Minor League Baseball

Triple-A Class

Pacific Coast League

Saturday 23rd April 2016

First pitch 18.35

Memphis Redbirds 0 RoundRock Express 3,  attendance 10,171

@ AutoZone Park

200, Union Avenue

Memphis, TN 38103

$23 admission

Programme free, 68 pages, plus free 5 page game information sheet.

I had called in here on my way through this morning and managed to purchase one of the last few $23 dollar tickets. Good jod I did, as only $48 dollar tickets were on sale when I arrived back about 20 minutes before the start, having got a decent parking space for $10 just down the road on a small industrial site. With the stadium being right in the city centre it means there is no way to park within sensible distance without paying, or indeed still having your car there when you return, and this was as cheap as I was going to get.

The Redbirds are an affiliate of MLB team St. Louis Cardinals. Round Rock are teamed up with another MLB team, the Texas Rangers. The game was of a really good standard and perhaps helped by having a decent seat not too far from the action.

AutoZone Park was opened in April 2000. The largest crowd here was 31st August 2008, when 18,620 witnessed the visit of Oklahoma Red Hawks. Nowadays it seats 10,000 and has grassed areas in use as well.

After the game it was a few miles south for a bite to eat and on to the hotel.

National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I

Southeastern Conference

Saturday 23rd April 2016

First pitch 14.00

University Mississippi Ole Miss Rebels 7 Auburn University Tigers 4,  attendance 10,102

@ Oxford-University Stadium at Swayze Field

University Place

Oxford, MS 38655

$15 admission

No programme.

Before leaving home on Friday I noticed the size of the crowds Ole Miss were getting, so thought I had better play safe and book a ticket. I phoned their office and was offered an excellent seat right behind home plate. It is so much easier when you are only trying to buy a single ticket for the game as there always seems to be odd seats available, even in the best areas. I was actually doing a game in Memphis tonight, so drove the 137 miles from Little Rock to Memphis, buying a ticket for the evening game, before heading 85 miles south to Oxford, MS.

The team were originally called the Mississippi Flood, but were renamed the rebels in 1936 and have played in the College World Series five times, most recently in 2014. The stadium has a record attendance of11,729, set in 2013, seating 8,500 with further capacity in the way of grass banking.