In 2014, the World Series of Beep Baseball was held in Rochester, Minnesota, giving many of our family, friends, and fans, a rare opportunity to watch the Millers play. The opportunity is rare because, most of the time, the Millers don’t get the chance to play in Minnesota because we’re the only team in the state.
Rochester has played host to a World Series of Beep Baseball three times, in 2007, 2010, and 2014. It was because of the 2010 World Series that the Minnesota Fighting Lions, our parent organization, decided to branch out of recreational beep baseball and form a competitive team. The Fighting Lions changed their name to the Millers in 2012, adopting the University of Minnesota Gophers maroon and gold color scheme. The Fighting Lions still play recreational beep ball, though, every Saturday from late April through mid September, giving people the opportunity to play beep ball in a more casual setting.
This year, the World Series of Beep Baseball will be held in Rochester, New York, a city known for its minor league baseball team, the Rochester Red Wings, it’s world renowned universities, The University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of Technology, and as the birthplace of Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, and Xerox.
The Rochester Red Wings are the oldest continuously operating minor league baseball team in the United States. Founded in 1899, they’re a farm team for our own Minnesota Twins. They’ve won the Governors’ Cup, the championship of the International League, 10 times since 1933, setting a league record. Rochester was named “Baseball City, USA” by Baseball America in 1998.
The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) has been the home of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf since 1966. In 1990, RIT started its first PH.D. program in imaging science. It now has 7 PH.D. programs, and became the first university to offer a Software Engineering degree at the undergraduate level in 1996.
The tallest building in Rochester is the Xerox Tower, clocking in at 443 feet. Other points of interest include the George Eastman House, the world’s oldest photography museum, Frontier Field, and the Strong National Museum of Play, housing the National Toy Hall of Fame.
It costs around $500 to fly from Minneapolis to Rochester. Busses and trains are also options, but they don’t cost much less and the 1009 mile trip takes nearly two full days. $7,500 of this year’s budget will be used to transport our 15-person team by air.
Rooms at the host hotel, the Radisson Riverside, cost $89 per night, plus 14 percent tax, for a total of 101.46 per night. We usually share our rooms, meaning that our hotel costs will only be around $5600. That’s 72 percent of this year’s budget. The rest is spent on food, equipment, ground transportation while we’re there, and tournament registration fees. According to our statistics, around 1800 people have read our posts over the last week. If each one of you donated $10, we’d easily be able to achieve that goal. Fortunately, many of you have donated much more. For that, we thank you. If you haven’t donated yet, there is still time. Donations are tax deductable, quick and easy. Simply click one of the donate links on this page. When you’re finished with that, share or like this post on facebook, twitter, or any other social network you’re a part of and again, thank you to all of our family, friends, and fans for your support.