Binghamton not short on love for strawberries

The 41st annual Strawberry Festival in Owego, N.Y., takes place this weekend, and one Mets affiliate is uniquely positioned to celebrate it.

The Double-A Rumble Ponies, located just a 25-minute drive away in Binghamton, have transformed into the Southern Tier Shortcakes for the next three days. But a strawberry-themed weekend wouldn’t be complete without Mets legend Darryl Strawberry, who got his own Shortcakes bobblehead Thursday and will attend Friday's game.

“This has been a weekend we’ve been pushing for months now, so we’re really looking forward to it,” Binghamton director of community relations Amy Fancher said. “Just excited to get everyone out on the field and see them in their jerseys, the fans in their merchandise, all the strawberry-themed concession items.”

With Shortcakes weekend, Binghamton is not only representing the Mets, but an entire section of New York State. The Southern Tier is a geographical region of counties situated along the northern part of the Pennsylvania border, with the City of Binghamton located in Broome County on the farthest right side.

And with June being strawberry season in New York, well, it’s the perfect promotion for a team whose parent club once drafted a player first overall with the same last name as the fruit.

“This is the first time we’re bringing [Strawberry] in for this,” Fancher said. “I think he’s really excited to be here and meet all the fans, and we’re really excited to have him.”

We kick off the Inaugural 2023 Southern Tier Shortcakes Weekend 𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓!

🧵 Details below
🎟️ https://t.co/hQru3o5uIz pic.twitter.com/yqgxfWaPXL

— Binghamton Rumble Ponies (@RumblePoniesBB) June 15, 2023

The Shortcakes name is an obvious nod to one of the most delicious strawberry desserts out there, and the logo is probably even cuter than you’d think it’d be. Reminiscent of “chibi” art style, the shortcake sports two big eyes and stubby little legs, complete with a strawberry cream filling in the middle and a dollop of whipped cream and a strawberry on its head. Instead of a baseball bat, the smiling shortcake is holding a whisk with batter dripping off it.

“Fans are super excited. Phones have been ringing basically off the hook and we’ve sold a ton of tickets for the weekend,” Fancher said. “Everyone’s really been looking forward to it, so we’re excited to have some big crowds.”

It’s not just the Rumble Ponies faithful who are pumped for the weekend. The players have bought into the weekend’s theme and are “super excited” to show off some new threads. To promote the jerseys, the players did photo shoots posing with small strawberry shortcakes on their biceps.

“During the shoot, the guys were grabbing the shortcakes, and they were just going to take a small bite, but they ended up eating the whole thing,” Fancher laughed. “They were like ‘Nah, I’m gonna eat this all now.’”

Travel to the Southern Tier of New York this weekend and you can be eating all the strawberry shortcakes you want too.