MADISON- After years of speculation, rumors and finally planning, professional baseball is back in the Tennessee Valley with the highly anticipated arrival of the Rocket City Trash Pandas.

“Once these gates open for baseball it’s going to be a relief seeing all of these families come in with smiles on their faces, sprinting across the concourse to find their seats and get in line for all of this concession food,” said Garrett Fahrmann, General Manager of the Trash Pandas. “It’s going to be an overwhelming joy opening these gates for what they were meant for.”

As the Double-A, South League farm team of the Los Angeles Angels, the Trash Pandas’ 28-man squad features five of the Angels’ top 30 prospects. Included is a strong pitching staff, a diverse group of young talent mixed among some minor league veterans in the field and the plate along with a bevy of athletes who are expected to help bring back winning baseball to the area in the confines of Toyota Field, the team’s home stadium.

The team is the focus for all who attend games, but the Trash Pandas’ staff in also situated to tend to the fans flocking to experience professional baseball. Having the 2020 season cancelled due to the pandemic, 2021 is now here and Toyota Field is open to full capacity with some pandemic safety precautions still in place, such as facemasks required by all attendees and additional safety measures to protect the players.

“This stadium was built for socializing with the fans and players,” said Fahrmann. We’re not going to be able to do as much, but our main goal is protect the players and their safety. We want them to feel safe and that’s what we’re here for, the players.”

“We all came here to work in the baseball industry and we’ve done everything but do that up until now,” added Fahrmann. “We’ve been working really, really hard, probably even harder than if we had a team last year, doing stuff for the first time seeing things like a ballpark parking lot fair works here.”

The Trash Pandas are expecting to offer collectable sets of baseball cards later in the season as photos will be taken here, especially action shots of each player. Many times the minor league baseball cards become collector items in the future.

“We’ll be doing this for the first time as we’ve never had 7,500 people come in here,” said Fahrmann. “At the same time, we’re going to make adjustments on the fly and make this an awesome season.”