Spend a Day at Isotopes Park

The fifth-inning tradition means there’s always something to get the fans excited, even on an early May night when the Isotopes lineup hasn’t generated much offense against the visiting Salt Lake Bees. The Triple-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies has collected just three hits, but two came in the bottom half of the third as third baseman Warming Bernabel’s liner scored shortstop Ryan Ritter to knot the score at 1-1. The home team has dropped the first two contests on this six-game home stand, but no one seems too concerned. 

“Minor league baseball is about fun,” says general manager John Traub, who’s been at the helm since the team moved from Calgary in 2003. The organization’s focus is on the experience, he adds, from the food in the concession stands and the music between innings to the game-day promotions and the antics of Orbit the mascot. Tonight, Little Leaguers paraded the infield before the first pitch and a fireworks display will take place after the final out. “It’s really important for us to remember what it’s like to be a fan.” 

GROWING UP IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, Traub rooted for the Los Angeles Dodgers, back when the Albuquerque Dukes served as their Triple-A farm team. “I knew all the guys who came through Albuquerque to stick with the Dodgers,” he says of those teams in the 1970s and ’80s. 

The Dodgers appeared in four World Series during those decades, helped in part by Dukes alums Ron Cey, Pedro Guerrero, Mike Scioscia, Dave Stewart, and National League Rookie of the Year Rick Sutcliffe. “All those guys came through their system,” Traub says.

Indeed, Albuquerque has a rich and decorated professional baseball history—even if there were some fits and starts at the outset. The Dukes first took the field in 1915 as a part of the six-team Rio Grande Association, a Class D minor league that didn’t make it through that inaugural season. 

While there were a few Albuquerque teams in the interim, it took more than 25 years for the Dukes to return to the diamond, this time joining New Mexico squads from Hobbs and Roswell in the West Texas–New Mexico League. But World War II halted play in the Class D league after the Dukes’ inaugural, but shortened, 1942 season. When games eventually resumed in 1946, the Dukes began to find their footing, claiming three league titles over the next 10 years while playing at 3,000 seat Tingley Field. “Baseball has been a generational sport in this state, going back 100 years,” Traub says. 

In the late 1950s and early ’60s, the Dukes cycled through Class A affiliations with the New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds, and Kansas City A’s before finding a home with the Dodgers, first in the Double-A Texas League as the Albuquerque Dodgers and then in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League (PCL) once again as the Dukes. In 1969, the 10,510 capacity Albuquerque Sports Stadium opened at the northeast corner of University Boulevard and Avenida Cesar Chavez, where the current stadium sits today.

It wasn’t long before the Dukes started winning, capturing the first of eight league titles under the guidance of eventual Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda in 1972. “The tie between the Dodgers and the Dukes was synonymous with success,” Traub says.  

Although he had graduated from UCLA with a degree in psychology, Traub sent out letters to all 26 major league teams hoping for a job. “I had nothing to lose,” he says. His efforts landed an unpaid public relations internship with the California Angels, but still he found ways to keep tabs on his rooting interests. 

On clear summer evenings when the skies were just right, Traub would tune his radio in Southern California to listen to the Dukes in Albuquerque. “All the stars had to align,” he recalls. In 1992, Traub joined the PCL’s Calgary Cannons, where he moved up the ranks until eventually becoming the team’s vice president and general manager. 

Traub’s familiarity with Albuquerque as both a fan and a baseball executive in the same league was important in bringing minor league baseball back to town after the Dukes were sold to a Portland, Oregon, ownership group in 2000. “It left a void,” Traub says of the team’s departure. “There was no baseball here for two years, and it took a lot of people by surprise.”

Albuquerque seemed like the perfect fit when the Calgary franchise went up for sale in 2001. “Albuquerque was the prototypical amazing baseball community,” Traub says. The deteriorating Sports Stadium was razed, and Isotopes Park was built on the same footprint. With new owners Mike Kodyke and Ken Young, the Albuquerque Isotopes debuted on April 3, 2003, as the Triple-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. 

To honor the city’s long association with pro baseball, the Isotopes hold an annual Retro Night, when the team dons the mustard-and-red jerseys of their predecessors, and fans hear the old refrain, “The Dukes are coming out, coming out swinging” from those glory years. 

“It is a great, great baseball town,” Traub says. 

ON GAME DAYS, TRAUB CAN OFTEN BE FOUND near the Guest Services kiosk waving to fans and chatting with employees, including roughly 20 or so who have been with the team since its inception. “Whether you’re the groundskeeper, the usher, the scoreboard operator, the ticket taker, or the parking lot attendant, everybody has a chance to impact the experience,” Traub says.

Count Micki and Len Roberts among those who deliver upon that promise. Ushers since 2009, Micki works the third deck where many of the suites are located, while Len can be found in sections 104 and 106. The reverse snowbirds from Arizona spend their summers in Albuquerque, where Micki was raised. Len says that some of the fans “he’s gotten to know over the years” have led to lasting friendships.

“Almost on a daily basis we hear from fans about how much they appreciate what the Isotopes mean to this community,” Traub says. “It’s not just coming to games. It’s our reading program, taking players to hospitals.”

The city reciprocates by showing up. The Isotopes have led the 10-team PCL in total attendance the past two seasons, including 503,525 last year. That’s good for Albuquerque too, which owns the ballpark. Before the first pitch on opening night, Traub presented Mayor Tim Keller with a check for $1,587,183 for rent and surcharge payments for last season—making the total amount presented to the city for the use of the ballpark some $35.5 million since 2003. 

The ensuing years have seen enhancements and upgrades to the experience, including a right field family-friendly Fun Zone with a playground for kids, a carousel, inflatable jump houses and slides, and the Topes Tower gravity ride. 

This season, the Isotopes plan to celebrate that bond with its City Roots series, four games in which the team will wear special black uniforms featuring the 505 area code on their caps. A Gothic script font spells out Duke City across the jerseys with the Zia symbol hidden in the D and the symbol’s four rays carried into the C. “[The Zia] ties in the history and culture of our community,” Traub says.

Richard Kraft, a diehard New York Yankees fan, has been attending games in Albuquerque since 1972. “I’ve been to many major league ballparks,” Kraft says, including a 2009 World Series in the Bronx. But the real estate agent loves the social aspect of the minor league games often bringing groups of 20 to 30 to the ballpark. “It is more of a social event for me,” he says. 

That’s not to say the product on the field isn’t important. Among Baseball America’s top 10 prospects in the Rockies organization, three were playing in Albuquerque as of mid-May—outfielders Yanquiel Fernández and Zac Veen and starting pitcher Carson Palmquist.  

“It’s where you see the major league stars of tomorrow play today,” Traub says. “It’s a lot more personal to see them when you’re sitting here in the lower level, down the left field line than up in the fourth level of a major league park.”

Still, as much as Traub loves baseball, he really doesn’t get to see many pitches. So once or twice a year, he sits in the press box and keeps score “just to get myself reengaged and pay attention to what’s happening with the on-the-field product,” he says. “So much of my job is focused on everything else.”

BACK ON THE FIELD, THE ISOTOPES ARE trailing the Bees 2-1 in the eighth inning when Bernabel draws a one-out walk. Back-to-back singles by first baseman Keston Hiura and left fielder Sterlin Thompson load the bases for the home team and draw a visit to the mound by the Bees pitching coach. 

With the game in the balance, the crowd whistles and cheers as the Bees discuss their strategy. Whatever the message, it doesn’t work. 

Catcher Austin Nola bounces the first pitch he sees over the third baseman’s head and into left field for a double, giving the Isotopes a 3-2 lead. Second baseman Julio Carreras follows with another
double and two more runs. The Isotopes do no further damage, but the four-run eighth is enough, as closer Jaden Hill strikes out two Bees in the ninth to secure the win.

As Nola heads to the mound to congratulate Hill, the lights pulse around the ballpark creating a strobe-light effect. The scoreboard lights up like a neon sign spelling out “topes win.” When the players make it through the handshake line and into the dugout, the lights go out for good, and the fireworks begin. 

It’s the kind of night Traub dreams about: “People leaving the ballpark with a smile on their face, having a great time, and not necessarily even knowing the final score.” But the victory helps too.

Gary Herron is the author of  Baseball in Albuquerque (Arcadia Publishing, 2011) and Duke City Diamonds: Baseball in Albuquerque (Rio Grande Press, 2013) and has served as the official scorer for the Isotopes in almost 700 games. Editor-in-chief  Steve Gleydura has covered a Major League Baseball All-Star Game and the World Series.