CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Charleston Dirty Birds season is approaching, with spring training starting on April 17.
Dirty Birds Manager Billy Horn said on Friday’s “580 Live” the team would go on the road for its season opener in Staten Island.
“Our spring training begins on Monday, April 17th, and it will go until Wednesday the 26th, and the 27th will be our travel day and we open up the season in Staten Island on Friday the 28th,” he said.
Horn said independent baseball is nonstop work.
“It’s nonstop work on the independent side because we don’t have a scouting department; that’s myself and the coaches. We work with getting all the players and housing and visas and baseball budgets, so this is a year-round, full-time gig,” he said.
Horn added the team would strive to compete for a championship.
“Our goal is to strive to win every single ball game. We know that’s not going to happen, but to go out every night and compete, play hard, put on a good show, and compete for a championship,” he said.
Manager of Marketing, Entertainment and Media Relations Eden Douglas said the stadium saw many new faces last season.
“We had over 31,000 new fans in the ballpark last year,” she said. “There are people traveling from all over because they see our brand, they see how much fun we have, and Billy [Horn] is amazing on the field, and he likes to entertain too. They see all that stuff, and we try and push it as much as we can, and we literally had someone from Texas here for a week.”
The season will start on April 28 in Staten Island, the Dirty Birds will be on a nine-game road trek before their home opener on May 9.
Story by Chayce Matheny