UPDATE: In a nod to Modesto’s classic car and Latino lowrider cultures, the city’s new baseball team will be called the Modesto Glow Riders. Its mascot will be Cruiser the Kit Fox, combining graffiti heritage and a native animal.
The Glow Riders name and mascot will usher in a new era of professional baseball at John Thurman Field in the third week of May 2026, new team owner Dave Heller said at a press conference Nov. 10 in Ceres attended by dignitaries of Ceres and Modesto.
How might attending a professional baseball game in Modesto change next spring, now that Minor League Baseball is outta here and the independent Pioneer League is coming?
It’s a decent question. The Modesto Focus has answers.
When Modesto leaders would not cave to Major League Baseball’s demands for $32 million in ballpark improvements, the Seattle Mariners – who owned the Nuts and used the team to develop young players – told Modesto goodbye, ending the city’s long affiliation with the majors and minors. (Seattle is moving the team to San Bernardino to become the Inland Empire 66ers.)
A day after the Nuts’ final game a few weeks ago, City Hall announced that Modesto indeed will get extra innings – with a brand-new team in an independent league.
So pro baseball will live on in Modesto with a team whose players aren’t top prospects but who cling to hopes of someday making it to the big leagues.
What’s this mean for fans?
Look for these changes.
A new team name
We’re in the middle of a “name the team” contest that will end Nov. 10 when a winner will be announced from among these finalists, all preceded by the word Modesto: Bombers, Cherry Bombers, Glow Riders, Golden Goats, Graffiti, Harvesters, Monster Trucks, Road Hogs and 99ers. Fans can vote once daily through Nov. 7 at modestobaseballclub.com.
“We’re empowering our fans by saying, ‘You tell us,’” said Dave Heller, the new owner. He also owns two other minor-league clubs affiliated with the Washington Nationals and the Kansas City Royals, as well as the Billings Mustangs in Montana, which like Modesto is in the independent Pioneer League.
“Dude, I am telling you, I can’t wait to start playing baseball in Modesto,” Heller said.
Local tryouts
Maybe you have a glove and an arm and believe you never had a chance to prove yourself. You could get that opportunity.
And if not you, athletes who played for Stanislaus State, Modesto Junior College, University of the Pacific, maybe even UC Davis or Sacramento State can be expected to show for one last shot at a contract and a rainbow path to the bigs.
“Sometimes you get a guy who still has something to prove,” said Jen Ramos-Eisen, a Merced freelance sportswriter who has written about minor league baseball in California since 2013.
You don’t see open tryouts at any MiLB (Minor League Baseball) park, where all players already signed with big-league clubs.
Host families for players
People in Modesto, Ceres, Oakdale, Riverbank, Newman, Patterson, Manteca and the entire region once again will be invited to open their homes to professional athletes for the summer. They will provide a bed and share family meals – and opportunities to bond.
This used to be a thing in Modesto before MLB took ownership of minor league teams and all aspects became subject to union standards. It will be a thing again, because indy league rules aren’t as stringent. Heller’s Pioneer League team in Billings does it, and they’ll do it here as well, he said.
“They build real relationships,” Heller said. “I’ve seen host families called out in (MLB) Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. It’s kind of cool.”
Better food
At least that’s what Heller is promising. Instead of hiring a company to run concessions, his team will do the food, and he says he’s a stickler for quality.
“I’m going to hold staff accountable for making sure the food is fresh and tasty,” he said. “I love eating at my ballparks and I want to make sure people love the food there. I’m the crazy guy who goes into the pizza room to make sure they’re putting enough pepperonis on pizzas. It’s my name out there, not some distant private equity-owned team.”
Heller also plans new drink rails “where people can relax, mix, mingle and enjoy a cool alcoholic beverage if they want,” he said.
More promotions
Imagine a hovering helicopter dropping 1,000 pounds of candy on the field, kids’ hearts pounding as they wait for the signal to rush out and grab what they can. And a second adrenaline surge when the copter returns a bit later with 1,000 pounds of marshmallows, and children rush out all over again.
“The kids look up and say, `It’s raining marshmallows!’ Parents laugh. Even the players love it,” said Heller, who has done a “mega candy drop” at his parks yearly since 2008.
“Somebody once said, ‘Doesn’t it ruin the field?’ Have you not met children? It’s immaculate when they’re done,” Heller said. “Kids leave nothing behind.”
Other promotions could feature bounce houses, running bases with players, and rides like merry-go-rounds.
Heller’s Pioneer League park in Billings has been home to a 300-foot zipline, and his other parks have had “a swinging pirate ship, a drop tower, a NASA-inspired gyroscope and a spinning car ride,” according to marketing literature for Main Street Baseball, Heller’s company.
“I’d like to bring a zipline out to Modesto,” Heller mused. “But you’ve got to have room for a large pad for people to land on. It’s just a case of convincing the city to give us the land.”
Additional safety features
Plans include new padding on John Thurman Field’s outfield walls, and netting extensions “to make sure every seat is covered and nobody gets hurt by a foul ball,” Heller said.
Will DeBoard, a former Modesto Bee sportswriter, said, “It’s cool that the ballpark is not going away or moldering into nothing. I don’t see (the Pioneer League) as a step down, just a different step.”
Bigger crowds
Maybe. That’s certainly Heller’s intent. And it’s not a stretch, given dismal ticket sales in recent years.
Attendance at John Thurman Field peaked in 2011 when 180,785 people came through the turnstiles, and has dropped steadily ever since to only 81,310 last year (2025 statistics aren’t yet available). That’s an average of 1,251 per game, worst in the California League, so the bar for Modesto’s new team is pretty low.
Whether mega candy drops, new drink bars and bounce houses can reverse that trend, time will tell. Average attendance in the Pioneer League in 2024 was 2,186 per game.
“Whatever is going on in Modesto or nationally, my teams are increasing in attendance,” Heller said. “If you give people good value and family friendly entertainment, I think they will come. I’m willing to bet on Modesto.”
Less talent
Indy league players wish they had been drafted, but weren’t. Any discussion of talent begins and ends there.
You end up on a team like Modesto’s because you were good in high school or college but no MLB team signed you to a minor league contract, where you would be if you could and where you still hope to land.
This doesn’t necessarily mean the average fan will be able to tell the difference. Players will still throw hard, run hard and swing harder.
Think of it this way: Did anyone watching the Nuts these past few years think the team was stacked with probable future big leaguers?
That used to be Modesto’s reality, for sure, when the former Modesto A’s were in a high-A minor league. That’s when the likes of Rollie Fingers, Reggie Jackson, Jose Canseco, Rickey Henderson and Mark McGwire graced John Thurman Field on their way to the majors. Will Clark played here in 1985 for the opposing San Jose Giants.
In those days Modesto was also frequently a stop for rehab assignments. Fans would pack John Thurman Field when major leaguers, coming back from an injury, would find themselves in Modesto needing fine-tuning on their way back up.
No more star rehabs in Modesto
It was standing room only, for example, when Randy Johnson wore a Visalia jersey for an Easter Sunday rehab game in Modesto in 2007, and when Barry Zito did the same here for San Jose in 2011.
“You won’t get that in independent leagues because they don’t host rehabs,” said Brian VanderBeek, who covered some 1,100 A’s and Nuts games in their heyday for The Modesto Bee.
Modesto hasn’t seen many stars of that caliber since the Nuts were bumped down to low-A years ago. Rehabbing athletes don’t need to go down that far on a return to the majors.
And low-A players rarely make it to the top. Active-player exceptions include St. Louis’s Nolan Arenado, a Modesto Nut in 2011. Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez both were Nuts in 2019 and continue to belt home runs for Seattle; Raleigh hit 60 this year, and Rodriguez, 32.
Another is Ryan McMahon, a 2024 Colorado All-Star who was dealt to the Yankees just before New York’s post-season run a few weeks ago. Although McMahon rarely appeared on the pages of local media when he was a Modesto Nut in 2015, he did marry the Nuts’ director of marketing and public relations, Natalie Winters, a former Turlock Journal reporter.
While some big-league stars opted to play indy-league ball in the twilight of their careers – Canseco and Henderson, for instance – we won’t see that in Modesto. A Pioneer League rule guarantees that all players have less than three years of experience, so all are on their way up the ladder and not down. Washed-up athletes won’t play here.
Independent baseball fills void
Back in the day, when lower-league teams dotted the land throughout the United States, up-and-comer athletes had more venues to hone skills. That changed when MLB took over the minors in 2021 and eliminated 43 affiliates.
With fewer options for late bloomers, indy leagues happily provide them. And an athlete’s chances, while slim, are not entirely pie in the sky. More than 75 Pioneer League players have been signed to MiLB contracts in the past five years.
The Pioneer League, established in 1939, has teams in Utah, Idaho, Montana and Colorado, and recently, California. It’s one of four independent leagues, along with the Atlantic League, the Frontier League and the American Association, which operate in other regions.
“Independent clubs may become more important as the years go by,” predicted Ted Kubiak in an interview with The Modesto Focus. He managed the Modesto A’s for five years starting in 1989, and his players included Jason Giambi, who had “no power at all” back then, Kubiak said.
With proper instruction and time to grow, Giambi went from hitting 12 home runs in Modesto in 1993 to a total of 440 in his MLB career, mostly with the A’s and Yankees. That’s an example of the value of lower-tier ball, the kind Modesto has provided since a team was organized in 1872; west Modesto’s John Thurman Field opened 70 years ago, in 1955. (In grand jury testimony, Giambi also admitted to using steroids.)
Younger players usually show raw talent, but developing it takes years, because “baseball is the hardest game to play,” Kubiak said. “It’s incredibly difficult. To stand at home plate and try to hit a 90 mph fastball is the hardest thing in the world to do.”
By the way, Kubiak does not appreciate the commercialism of modern-day MLB and MiLB. But he retains fond memories of Modesto and Turlock, where a since-deceased couple gave him and his wife the bed in their home and slept in a camper in the driveway when the Kubiaks were in town for home games.
From time to time, Kubiak, who lives in Auburn, still connects with former players from his days at John Thurman Field. Said he, “I loved Modesto.”
Will Nuts fans transfer loyalty to new team?
Among things not likely to change: Fanatical fans.
Like Gabriel Robles, whose enthusiasm for the Nuts knows no bounds.
“A game really feeds my spirit,” Robles said. “Where else can you go hooting and hollering and not get in trouble for it?”
A few months ago, a foul ball off the bat of Nuts shortstop Ricardo Cova careened toward Robles. He snatched it, and later that same day, Robles bought Cova’s jersey in a promo auction. Robles was brought onto the field, where Cova signed both the foul ball and his own no. 30 jersey, now treasured keepsakes for Robles.
“He peels it off his body, all sweaty and smelling like him and everything, and gives it to me in his broken English, and I had my broken Spanish, and my wife and kids are laughing at me ‘cause I’m so excited,” Robles recalled. “It was the. Best. Day.”
Robles and buddies Derek Bachmeier and Nate Drechsler were so nuts about the Nuts that they took road trips to see them play in other California League cities – Stockton, Fresno, Lake Elsinore, Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino. Every ballpark is different, but each has similar sights, sounds and smells, they said.
“It’s the atmosphere,” Bachmeier said. “It’s a place to get away from the grind of life. Minor league baseball has so much more of an intimate feel as opposed to the big leagues because you’re so close to the field. It’s our happy place.”
After each had acquired several Nuts caps of different styles, Robles’s wife told him enough’s enough and he had better not buy another.
“At the next game, I said (to a friend), ‘You buy me a hat and I’ll buy yours,’ that way we didn’t buy ourselves a hat,” he said. “We did that till we got caught.”
Although their hearts are broken to see the Nuts leave town, the three friends are game to let the incoming team try to win their affection.
“It’s still pro baseball, so give it a chance,” Robles said. “Something is better than nothing. Let’s be grateful and support our team.”
