The Lengthy Island Geese have flown collectively for 25 years.
Because the 2025 season kicks off in Islip on Friday evening, the fun-filled Atlantic League ball membership is celebrating what has been a extremely profitable (webbed) footprint stamped on the island.
“It starts with the fans. We have great fans here on Long Island who support the team like it’s the highest level of the game,” supervisor Lew Ford, a longtime Geese outfielder who performed for the Twins within the mid-2000s and a few video games with the Orioles in 2012, informed The Publish.
“It’s also great baseball. Guys that start the season here can end the season in the major leagues,” Ford added of the impartial, MLB companion league that’s boasted large names equivalent to Roger Clemens and the late Rickey Henderson previously.
The Geese, who’ve received 4 league championships since changing into a franchise in 2000, have additionally had their very own Corridor of Fame star energy information the group towards success.
Mets nice Gary Carter managed the group in 2009, and Bud Harrelson was a co-owner and coach who was a fan favourite identified for working with children at group clinics.
“I ended up coaching with Buddy later, too,” Ford mentioned. “He was such a personable guy, and watching him interact with the fans and players, I loved him. He was one of the best.”
Playfully, the group shows a Pete Rose Cincinnati Reds jersey in a bar space of the stadium as a homage to the fracas between Harrelson and Rose throughout the 1973 NLCS.
This season, nonetheless, the Geese need to the longer term and never previous glory days.
The group put in a brand new turf subject with shiny orange basepaths, and Ford known as the transfer “a huge upgrade” for 2025.
Lengthy Island, which has persistently been a league chief in attendance due to enjoyable on-field fan video games in between innings and Duck mascot Quackerjack, can be bolstering its house season with a number of fireworks nights that sometimes promote out the 6,000-seat stadium.
“It’s not just the fans, the players love those games, too,” Ford mentioned. “We bring our families on those nights. We’re looking at a great year ahead.”
In boys lacrosse, Massapequa hosts Port Washington at 5 p.m. Friday, and in women lacrosse, South Facet hosts Kellenberg on Saturday at 1 p.m.
