Macon Bacon to begin season Saturday with new theme nights, special events in store

For the eighth year, the Macon Bacon are sizzling into the summer and beginning their season — and this time they’ve got some special treats in store.

The Bacon, who play in the Coastal Plain League, a wooden-bat collegiate summer baseball league, are set for their home opener at Macon’s historic Luther Williams Field on Saturday against the Florence Flamingos at 7 p.m. The game is already sold out, with more than 3,000 seats set to be filled for the first home game of the summer.

All the typical sights and sounds of the baseball diamond will be there to take in: the freshly-manicured infield, the crack of the (notably wooden) bat, and the game itself, of course.

In addition to Opening Night excitement, postgame fireworks will accentuate the normal gameday experience. It’s a moment the team and its staff, including president Brandon Raphael, have been prepping for since the last season ended.

“It’s the most exciting night because we’ve waited all offseason to put this together for people. It’s the culmination of everything… It’s interesting because we’ve got the longest offseason of any sport out there, pretty much. We’ve got 10 months of offseason, and the planning for the next season is already in motion the day the previous season ends,” Raphael said. “All the different moving pieces, we get started early to help those all fall into place.”

What’s the most important piece of that puzzle? Making sure the
logistics are right for fans.

“We couldn’t do anything we do without fans, they are always going to be any sports team’s first priority,” Raphael said. “So we square away all that as best we can. Then we get together all the other planning, all the special events and the entertainment. All that implementation doesn’t matter if the fans aren’t comfortable and able to get out to the game.”

Then there’s stadium maintenance. As one of the oldest stadiums in the country with a rich history, Luther Williams Field does not often get updates, but the Bacon maintain the park with care in the offseason.

The team is made up of college players, which adds yet another layer to planning.

“They’re all mostly coming in this week, we ought to have about ¾ of the team here by the first game and the rest will trickle in as they’re available,” Raphael said. “With a collegiate league like this over the summer, it’s another unique trait. These guys have conference tournaments, they’ve got regionals for the NCAA tournament. They have to finish up their college seasons first.”

Then there’s the fan experience, for which the Bacon are known and have set a high bar. Music, skits and activities in between innings and special theme nights highlight a schedule packed with all types of gimmicks and fun for spectators.

“A lot of that depends on the team getting together and developing things. We also have a really great intern team that comes in, they all arrived this month,” Raphael said. “If you look at any sports team, the busiest time is going to be that last month for everything before the season starts. It’s definitely crunch time for us right now.”

The theme nights tend to be highlights for Macon’s fan experience. Tried and true classics scheduled for most seasons include Star Wars night, Bark in the Park and Hawaiian Night, but the Bacon have some new events on deck this season that should excite fans.

“We’ve always got some tricks up our sleeve. Fans always love the theme nights and we got some exciting new ones this year,” Raphael said.

Some new theme nights include “Halloween Night” and “Pirates and Princesses” night, but Raphael thinks one of the most special evenings of the season will be Jackie Robinson night.

The special event honoring the legendary pro player who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier will take place June 20 and is a new spin on a retro-themed Decades Night that the Bacon have done in the past.

With retro entertainment and garb galore in tow, the Bacon will retire the number 42 worn by Robinson in what Raphael and the team believe is the first jersey retirement ever held at Luther Williams Field. 

It’s set to be a special night, especially given the fact that Robinson once played at Luther Williams Field, and that the Robinson biopic “42” was filmed at the field in Macon more than a decade ago.

“We always have a sort of throwback night, but we wanted to do something special,” Raphael said of the new promotion and event honoring Robinson. “It’ll really be the first jersey retirement we’ve had here. We’ve never worn the number 42 out of respect for it, but with the connections we have with Jackie Robinson’s legacy, it feels right to retire it officially.”

Robinson’s legacy is a key one in Luther Williams Field’s deep baseball lore — a feature that Raphael thinks is one of the crucial draws of Bacon games. He recommended that if fans are attending a Bacon game for the first time ever Saturday, or at any point this year, that taking in this history should be a priority.

“I think one of the first things you have to do is walk around and check the place out. It’s a really great historic stadium, it makes us really special. You have to see everything, get a look at the historic spots around the stadium, see the list of people who’ve played here,” Raphael said when asked to guide first-time visitors.

“Then you have to meet Kevin, our 7-foot-tall piece of bacon,” he said. “Then after you get some of the unique food here, you just settle down and take it in.”

Even with all the new theme nights, the Bacon’s everyday history and other offerings will get a shot at a bigger audience when the CPL’s annual All Star Game comes to town in July.

“We get a chance to represent Macon and show everybody how great the history is here,” Raphael said of the chance to host the league’s best players. “Plus, there’s teams in the league that don’t normally play here, and we get to host them here. It’s a chance for a lot of talent to get a look at Macon too.”

With July’s All Star Game, the Robinson jersey retirement in June and plenty of other events scattered around the schedule, Saturday’s fireworks-laden season opener should be only the beginning.