- Batter, batter, batter, swing.

"Living West Michigan" takes you to the West Michigan white caps.

Come on.

All right, Daniel, as a little fly on the wall, would you ever fly out on the field and pretend that you're a West Michigan White Cap?

What a wonderful opportunity we have here.

- It's fantastic, yeah, and a day like today with the sun out like it is, couldn't ask for much more.

- [Shelley] What do you look for as far as getting us to the Ballpark?

- It's about the entertainment, what are we doing outside of just the baseball.

- [Shelley] And it is for kids and of course kids, young kids at heart, there are actually special activities almost between every inning.

- [Dan] Almost every single inning.

That's part of the experience and that's what we're all about.

We talk about fun, community experiences, is what the brand is all about.

And so adding the food, the fun, and just creating memories and things that people can remember whenever they leave here and share with others.

- So a first timer, what do I do?

- Oh, well the first thing you gotta do when you come to the Ballpark is you gotta get your first game certificate to make sure that you were here, like all scheduled and framed, so you had a great time here.

But then you also need to take a nice little walk around the facility because it's beautiful, still state of the art.

You'll see some new things changing here with the updates, it's a tough place to be in the state of Michigan during the summer.

- There will be some updates here?

- Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

So between now and 2026, you'll see a change of the Ballpark, where we hope to have 360 degree concourse built out.

So you can enjoy the game from all over the stadium, at any stage there.

But we also will have some extra sweet space, hospitality groups, and we'll even extend that space out even more in 2025 and 2026.

(upbeat music) - We've been around for 30 years, we're going into our 31st year, we're really well established here in West Michigan.

We have families that have been passing down season tickets for many generations.

So we see families that have grandparents, their children, and now grandchildren are with them.

We also have attractions throughout this stadium that kids can participate in.

So we have a playground that they can go to, we've got inflatables that they can jump on, adults can walk around the concourse and belly up to a beverage area where they can kind of hang out and just really enjoy the game.

(upbeat music) Our food process is intense.

In January, we hold a chef competition where we bring local cooks and chefs from the Grand Rapids area together to whip up a new fan favorite.

We then feature that favorite in a reveal for our media partners, where we show all of our new menu items.

But we add probably eight to 12 new items every year to our menu.

Crash is our beloved mascot, he is wonderful, he's a river rascal and he likes to be everywhere.

So you'll find him here at the game, interacting with kids and adults alike.

But you'll also see him out in the community doing appearances for some nonprofits that we partner with or just kids organization.

Anytime we can get him in front of people, we love it.

We partner with lots of different organizations that feature things like kids, fitness and education, those are our three pillars.

And we love to come together, not only from bringing business opportunities together, but just being able to partner with some other great organizations in our area.

- In general, who are these guys?

Who are your players?

- Yeah, our players are really high school and college, college boys, men, they usually get drafted, either in college or in high school.

They'll spend a couple years with us and then they'll move up through the ranks.

- Well, they can come back and say, it all started here.

- It all started here.

I've been around this organization for a long, long time and it's really impactful for me to see how many corporations and organizations continue to come back year over year and support the White Caps.

And how many friends and families continue to support the White Caps, like you said, through the purchase of their tickets, season tickets, and just wanting to come see us every year and hearing about the memories that people have created with their friends and families.

- Do you see families making this a priority for their summer?

- I think so.

We've got affordable, fun, again, we have great promotions that bring people out to the Ballpark too.

And we've got some top tier Detroit Tigers talent that's gonna be coming through, that a lot of fans will get a chance to see before they make it in the big leagues in Detroit.

So a lot of reasons for families to come on out - And when obviously the team's not playing, you're still getting the word out that this is a community gym?

- Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

We still host many events throughout the year and it's a wonderful facility to have picnics, to have your company outing, even share our parking lot for carnival days for those sorts of things, if you like that.

So we love to use this space as much as we can.

- [Shelley] Well obviously here at the White Caps enjoying a beautiful afternoon, so are the kids, what initiatives do you do for our schools?

- Yeah, some of our bigger initiatives focus around our reading month.

Every season, reading month takes place in March and we reward those students who are able to read with a ticket to the game.

And schools take advantage of that too.

And days where it's a nice afternoon, a lot of school groups love to come out to the Ballpark.

- [Shelley] And I understand I could even bring my dog?

- You sure can, we've got dog days, so if you've got your furry friend at home, you gotta check out those tickets too, because we've got all sorts of things set up for our little furry friends to enjoy the game as well.

- Why come to the Ballpark this summer?

- There's so many reasons to come to the Ballpark, but the main reason is if you're looking for fun, this is the place where you can get it in a one stop shop.

When it comes to entertainment, affordable food prices, all the different types of organizations you see here and the atmosphere, we are really thankful to be a part of this West Michigan community.

We know a lot of people pour into what we do every single season and we have a lot of demand to do well every single year.

So we love putting on a show every single game, whether there are 100 fans here or it's sold out with 9,000, we love to have the same energy every single time that we come out and play.

(upbeat music) It looks like that's the ball game.

- And it was a great ball game.

Thank you for your time.

- [Nate] Thank you.

(upbeat music) - Celebrating vibrant people, captivating places, and remarkable things, this is "Living West Michigan."

(upbeat music)