‘Like a stress reliever’: Players, fans ecstatic as the Myrtle Beach Pelicans are back
Baseball is back at the beach.
The national anthem, opening pitch, crack of the bat, pop of the catcher’s mitt, cheers, jeers, beers and a celebratory fireworks display were all part of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans’ 4-2 win over the Augusta GreenJackets on Tuesday at Pelicans Ballpark.
It had been nearly 21 months since the last Pelicans game at TicketReturn.com Field on Aug. 22, 2019, and a coronavirus-limited sellout crowd of 3,300 half-filled the stadium Tuesday for the 2021 home opener.
“It’s fantastic. Honestly, I love training as much as anybody and I love working out, I love that side of baseball,” said Pelicans and former Coastal Carolina pitcher Scott Kobos. “But doing that for what, 14 months, is absolutely brutal. I mean it gets old after a while. So to finally be back out here . . . there’s nothing like tonight, like having about 3,000 fans screaming their heads off in the stands. That stuff you can’t replace so it feels really nice to be back at it again.”
Matt Mervis hit a go-ahead three-run double in the eighth inning Tuesday and most of the crowd rose to its feet for Kobos’ final strike of the game that left the bases loaded in the top of the ninth inning.
The Pelicans are scheduled to play 60 home games this season and there are attendance and spectator restrictions in place for the month of May. The team will reevaluate its rules beginning in June, taking into consideration any mandates from local and state governments and Major League Baseball, which oversees minor league baseball.
In May, attendance is limited to 50 percent of capacity, or about 3,300 strategically-placed spectators. MLB rescinded a mask mandate for spectators on Thursday, so masks will not be required at Pelicans games following the season opener.
Fans rejoice
Ashley Wiggins and Claudine Garver brought five members of the North Myrtle Beach Braves traveling youth baseball team to the game, including three who are their sons.
Wiggins’ first date with her husband was at a Pelicans game. “Now we bring our kids here, and we’ve been off for a year with no games. We’re so happy to be back,” Wiggins said.
“It’s good, clean fun and a safe environment for us,” Garver said.
Longtime Myrtle Beach resident and former season ticket holder Joe Bayer missed seeing his ballpark friends over the past year.
“I’m glad to see it back. I missed seeing people,” Bayer said. “I used to sit in section 106 and I know a lot of the regulars there.”
Ed Howard III came to Myrtle Beach for a one-week vacation with his wife and daughter to watch his son play for the first time in nearly two years.
Ed Howard IV, the Pelicans’ starting shortstop and the Chicago Cubs’ first-round draft pick in 2020 out of Mount Carmel High School in Chicago, had his senior season of high school baseball canceled along with the 2020 minor league season.
“I’m ecstatic. This is like a stress reliever for me. I went a year and a half without seeing it, and this is part of our [family] culture watching games,” said the elder Howard. “He’s ecstatic. I mean it was a rough go. He pretty much missed over a year and a half of baseball. He only played three years of high school ball.”
Howard said the temperature was in the 30s in Chicago when he left for the Grand Strand.
“It’s always nice to come down to the nice weather in Myrtle Beach, but to top it off to be able to come and be here to support him on his first day back, the homestand,” Howard said. “We’ve always supported him since Day 1 and always will so nothing’s going to change. I don’t care what league he’s playing in I’ll be there.”
The 2021 team
The Pelicans are 3-4 following Tuesday night’s win, and have won three of their last four games. They dropped the first three games of the season at the Charleston RiverDogs before taking two out of three over the weekend.
Myrtle Beach, a Cubs affiliate, has moved down from Advanced-A to Low-A this season and is in the South Division of Low-A East along with Augusta, Charleston and the Columbia Fireflies.
They are scheduled to play six-game series against the same opponent each week Tuesday through Sunday, with Monday being an off day for the league. The Pelicans will also play four of the eight teams in the other two divisions of Low-A East in its 120-game schedule through Sept. 19.
Buddy Bailey is in his fourth consecutive season managing the Pelicans and starts the season with three of the Cubs’ top-20 prospects according to MLB.com.
Howard was the 16th overall pick and first shortstop taken in the MLB draft last year. Baseball America ranks the defensive standout as the fourth-best prospect in the Cubs’ organization and MLB.com has the 6-foot-2, 185-pound 19-year-old ranked fifth in the system.
Outfielder Yohendrick Pinango of Venezuela, who turned 19 on Friday, is ranked 13th in the system by MLB.com and shortstop Yeison Santana, 20, who joined the organization as part of the Cubs’ trade of Yu Darvish to San Diego, is ranked 19th. The Dominican Republic product batted .346 in 2019 with the Padres’ Arizona League team.
Kobos, a 6-2, 200-pound left-hander from Charlotte, N.C., was a member of the Chanticleers from 2018-20 before signing with the Cubs in July. He had Tommy John surgery in 2018 and made 23 pitching appearances at CCU, posting a 5:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in the shortened 2020 season.
Kobos recorded his first professional save Tuesday, allowing a pair of singles to start the ninth inning before striking out three of the next four batters to leave the bases loaded. Kobos said he hit 95 mph on the radar gun and has been regularly throwing 94-96 in practice.
“Obviously having success it’s nice to see all my hard work pay off,” Kobos said. “But just being able to get out and compete again [is nice].”
He’s thankful he was assigned to Myrtle Beach to begin his pro career. Attendees Tuesday night included Kobos’ former roommate at CCU, some former teammates, his girlfriend, and a former physics professor.
“I had a little bit of everyone come out and it was really nice to see them and feel the love a little bit,” he said. “I’m absolutely thrilled to be in Myrtle Beach. The part of pro ball I was looking forward to the least was figuring out the living situation somewhere I’ve never been and am unfamiliar with. So being back here I knew my way around everywhere, I’ve got a great support system from my time at Coastal and they came out and showed out tonight and I really appreciate them for that.”
The Pelicans roster also features six former players in the ACC, SEC, Big 12 or Big 10 conferences in infielder Ryan Reynolds (Texas), outfielder Darius Hill (West Virginia), pitcher Adam Laskey (Duke), outfielder Jordan Nwogu (Michigan), pitcher Jake Reindl (Arkansas) and pitcher Sam Thoresen (Minnesota), a third-round pick in the 2020 draft.
Infielder Grayson Byrd from Clemson began the season with the Pelicans but has already been promoted to the Double-A Tennessee Smokies.
This story was originally published May 12, 2021 at 2:33 PM.
