We were living there in Allentown

This weekend, we hit the road to Allentown, Pa., home
of the newest Triple-A team in the International League, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. (The city is also home to one of the teams in National Pro Fastpitch, the women's pro softball league. That's also one of our interests - go New England Riptide!)

To be concise, the IronPigs have really nailed it when it comes to a great fan experience: new stadium, great mascots, good selection of merchandise (we like our merch), and great concessions (we like those, too.)

The IronPigs are the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, and came about because of a big team switcheroo in the IL last year. That's when the Yankees took over the former Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons (now the SWB Yankees), the Phillies moved their Triple-A team to the Ottawa Lynx, the Baltimore Orioles moved their team from Ottawa to the Norfolk Tides, and the New York Mets moved their team from Norfolk to New Orleans. Not surprisingly, the Phillies apparently found that Ottawa, Canada was too far away for the team that's just one step down from their major league operation. So that's how the IronPigs came into the picture, and this year, they opened their inaugural season in the brand-new Coca-Cola Park.

The park really takes the best elements of the new major league parks (think PNC Park in Pittsburgh and Miller Park in Milwaukee, except for the retractable roof) and combines them with the intimacy of the best minor league parks (think Hadlock Field in Portland, Maine and Blair County Stadium in Pennsylvania, the home of the Altoona Curve). The result is a great mix of what we love about the minor leagues. On Sunday, we saw the IronPigs take on the Rochester Red Wings, the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, and one step up from one of our Double-A faves, the New Britain Rock Cats. We see both the Rock Cats in the Eastern League at home and on the road, and the Red Wings at McCoy Stadium, taking on the Pawtucket Red Sox. So there were a lot of familiar faces playing for both teams at Coca-Cola Park, including Sergio Santos. Santos was on the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in the Eastern League last year and won the home-run derby at the all-star game in Norwich, Conn. (As it turns out, it was the only event at the all-star game because the game itself was fogged out at Dodd Stadium.)

The game (check out the recap) was an exciting one, decided in the 10th inning in favor of the IronPigs. Beside the exciting play, we were excited to find that it was also the birthday party of Ferrous, one of the IronPigs' two mascots (FeFe is the other). That meant many more mascots from teams from around Pennsylvania: Screwball and Change-Up from the Reading Phillies, the Falcon from Cedar Crest College, the Nittany Lion from Penn State and more.

We highly recommend Coca-Cola Park! It was well worth the five-plus hours on the road to get there!