For the rocky start to 2017 that the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp endured both on and off the field, it turned out to be a pretty good initial season for the Shrimp.
When word filtered out last November that Ken Babby, who bought the Jacksonville Suns in September of 2015, was planning on dropping the revered Suns name to something called the Jumbo Shrimp, the howls heard around Jacksonville were loud, threatening and frequent.
“Who is this new guy to change the tradition of the Suns? I’ll always call them the Suns,” a fan said.
Those were words that Babby heard on a fairly regular basis leading up to the start of the 2017 season in April. But not anymore.
“I think at this point we can say that this community has accepted “Jumbo Shrimp” as our hometown minor league baseball team,” Babby said. “That was not a forgone conclusion at the beginning when we changed the name. We faced adversity early on, change was hard. We still honor the great tradition of all the years of great baseball history here in Jacksonville, none of that has gone away. It’s just that from this point forward, its Jumbo Shrimp baseball.”
Things weren’t much better on the playing field in the first couple of months of the season. The Shrimp faced some early season injuries that cost them two of their top prospects – pitcher Dillon Peters and outfielder Austin Dean. Both were among the top 10 minor league prospects for parent club, the Miami Marlins, according to Baseball America. Both players were hurt within the first two weeks of the season and were out the rest of the first-half season.
The Shrimp missed them. The team struggled to win games on the road (losing all seven road series) and finished in last place with a 30-40 record. The second half was much more positive, almost coincidently with the growing acceptance of the team’s new moniker. Dean finished the season strong, hitting .285 and ranking among Jacksonville’s top hitter in a number of categories. Peters found his groove even quicker. He was so dominant in his performances that in mid-August he was promoted to the Major League where he finished the season in the Marlins’ starting rotation. Along with the Southern League’s leading hitter, Braxton Lee, they helped turn the Shrimp’s fortunes in the second half into a first-place finish. And while the Shrimp went on to lose to Pensacola in the playoffs, it was a most memorable and successful season overall.
As for the growing support for the Shrimp name, things went better than even Babby could have imagined. Long-time fans didn’t stay away from the Baseball Grounds as a protest to the name-change, they showed up in near-record numbers. Over 60,000 more fans attended Shrimp games this year than in 2016, giving Jacksonville the largest increase for any Double-A ballpark from a year ago and making it the largest increase in the history of the Baseball Grounds. It was so dynamic that it ranked as the second-largest jump in all of domestic Minor League Baseball in 2017. The Shrimp gained notoriety throughout minor league circles when their cap with the Shrimp logo on it finished among the four most popular hats among all minor league teams this year.
“The support of our fans, partners and the Jacksonville community in the inaugural season of the Jumbo Shrimp has been nothing short of amazing,” Babby said. “We are so grateful for their enthusiastic response to affordable family fun at the Baseball Grounds. The credit goes to our staff. We’ve subtlety, but very intentionally, re-positioned the business to be for families.
“Everywhere you see Jacksonville Shrimp, you see affordable family fun,” he said. “You see young kids with their families. We have the Wolfson fun zone beyond the wall in centerfield where we’ve tried to create a special place for families. We’ve made it affordable to get into the ball park so that you can get a $5 ticket every game, and once here, a hot dog for $2 as well as a lot of shrimp choices. We have a phenomenal facility and a great community that came out and really supported the team this year.”
It was another challenging season for Babby. As owner of another Double-A minor league team, the Akron RubberDucks, Babby made countless trips between Jacksonville and Akron, more than he wanted to count, often bringing his 9-year-old son, Josh, with him. Come October there will be a new addition to the family when Babby marries fiancé Liz Bryan.
Babby, who is a member of several Board of Trustees including Jacksonville University and the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, is one of a rare breed in that he’s a hands-on owner. Countless times during the season, Babby could be seen on Bragan Field throwing Shrimp T-shirts into the stands. He’s jumped behind concession stands to lend a hand when the lines for food got too long. He’s a frequent visitor to the team store on the mezzanine level of the ball park, always talking to fans to check on their needs and how he can make things better for their experience at the Baseball Grounds.
“I enjoy doing those things,” said Babby, 37, who gets as excited about being at the ball park as his son. “I’m a baseball fan, first and foremost. I have a 9-year-old son who tells me when I get things right and he tells me when there’s a promotion that isn’t so good.”
“But this past year has been a blast,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
Neither would Jumbo Shrimp fans who are now endeared with the new name.
Rough Start Turns to Winning Inaugural Season for Jumbo Shrimp
By Jeff Elliott
