Baseball’s back: Home debut of Doggy Paddlers met with excitement, community support

QUINCY — As Wednesday’s first pitch drew near, Quincy Doggy Paddlers general manager Brendan Saak could feel the gravity of the moment grow stronger.

“We had a nice, sunny afternoon, and about 3:30, 4 p.m., it was like, ‘OK, let’s go. What do we have to do?’” Saak said. “Once people started to filter in, it was like, ‘OK, this is happening.’”

The Doggy Paddlers’ first-ever home game had arrived, a day co-owner Tim Hoker had been looking forward to for more than a year.

“We’ve been working on this for 14 months bringing baseball back,” Hoker said. “We told you guys we were bringing baseball back, and we finally brought baseball back.”

The Doggy Paddlers welcomed the reigning Prospect League champions, the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp, to QU Stadium for the team’s inaugural home-opener. The Prospect League website lists the official attendance at 989, a number with which Hoker was quite satisfied.

“I had zero expectations,” Hoker said. “If we saw one person come through the door, I was good because we were starting. We knew this day was coming, we got there, and people started to come, so we were happy with that number. We appreciate everybody.”

The Pistol Shrimp scored four runs in the first inning and never looked back, spoiling the Doggy Paddlers’ first game at QU Stadium in 11-0 fashion, but results on the field aside, Hoker deemed it a successful night.

“The score is not what we wanted, but at the end of the day, I think everybody had some fun,” Hoker said. “It’s day one, and we’re only going to grow from here.”

Saak echoed that sentiment, saying operational kinks like ticketing software not working correctly and slow-moving lines at the concession stand — dubbed the “treat stand” — are things the organization can work through.

“It was chaotic for sure, but it was our first one,” Saak said. “We’ll learn from it and get better. That’s what life’s about. It’s about growth and learning from mistakes, so that’s what we’re going to do. We have 27 more here at home, so we’ll iron out the wrinkles and get it running a lot more smoothly, but I thought it went pretty well.”

Crews worked into Wednesday afternoon preparing the stadium for the 6:30 p.m. first pitch, and while some fencing is still to be added around the new dugouts, Hoker was pleased with the progress made in such a short amount of time.

“At noon, we had a big dumpster right here, and we had work trucks all over the place, and the turf was being meated together,” Hoker said. “That was nervewracking, but it was OK. We got it done. We pretty much got everything on our list that we needed to get done.”

Because of that hard work, baseball is back in the Gem City, something longtime Quincy native Scott Andrews, who attended Wednesday night’s game with his wife and close friend, is grateful for.

“It was fun to hear the crack of the bat,” Andrews said. “I loved it. It was neat to hear that.”

Doggy Paddlers field manager Brad Gyorkos, who managed the last Quincy Gems team in 2022 and 2023 and the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes last season, missed the ballgames under the summer lights at QU Stadium.

“Quincy cares about baseball, man,” Gyorkos said. “Even though I was in the league and I was in Springfield, I missed coming here. Quincy baseball is special, especially when we’re playing well and the fans are loud and engaged. It was really cool.”

Gyorkos wished his club could have put forth a better performance for the baseball-hungry fans, but he could feel a renewed sense of baseball fever at the ballpark.

“It’s a pretty special thing,” Gyorkos said. “It’s nice to have baseball back, and I know the people are happy, and to me, that’s all that matters.”

Saak expects that fever to stick around for the next two months and beyond, and the efforts behind the scenes will make that possible. Those efforts pick back up on Thursday when the Doggy Paddlers host the Pistol Shrimp once again.

“Like you hear all the time, one percent better every day,” Saak said. “Hopefully, we’ll be at least 10 percent better tomorrow, but for us, it’s about, ‘How did it go? What did we do? How can we do it better tomorrow?’ We’ll take that mentality with us this entire summer.”