Shorebirds Welcome Capacity Crowd for Annual Hot Stove Banquet

Forget the weather outside on a bitter February night – bone-chilling temperatures compounded by wind, mounds of snow piled next to curbs but showing no signs of melting, and waterways all over the Delmarva Peninsula with a glistening sheen of ice hardening by the minute.

Bob Langan sat at a table inside the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center, surrounded by friends and family, and felt like he was in his Section 102 seats at Perdue Stadium behind home plate. Bev White strolled around the banquet room, catching up with members of the Delmarva Shorebirds Silver Sluggers program as if it were a home game.

The frigid temps might not have suggested it, but for at least a night, the crack of the bat, the smell of fresh-cut grass and the aroma of hot dogs seemed right around the corner, courtesy of the 2026 Delmarva Shorebirds Hot Stove Banquet.

“We know the Shorebirds are coming soon,” said Langan, a Pittsburgh-area native and Salisbury resident who attended the affair with wife Angie and original Delmarva season ticket holder Ed Carey. “Pitchers and catchers are reporting next week. It’s not spring fever yet, but you know it’s close.”

While Langan excused himself from dinner to check on his chances of scoring a Roberto Clemente bobblehead in the silent auction, White was reconnecting with ballpark friends and smiling every time she saw a Silver Sluggers cap in the crowd.

“I’m a sports girl,” said White, a Laurel, Del., resident who is a vice-president at TidalHealth Home Care, a sponsor of the annual event. “I love being at the ballpark, but it’s not quite time yet. The Hot Stove Banquet gets everybody hyped and starts to put the winter blues and blahs in the past.”

Another sellout crowd packed the venue’s Midway Room to ruminate on the upcoming Shorebirds season, recap the parent Baltimore Orioles’ offseason machinations and listen to Orioles Hall of Famer Ken Singleton reminisce about his time in black and orange.

Baseball might have been the main course for the evening, but those in attendance were lending a helping hand to their communities. The event benefited the Single-A Shorebirds’ Fly Together Fund, raising $8,400 that will be reinvested into the community via the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore. The Fly Together Fund, established in 2009, assists youth sports programs and community initiatives across the team’s catchment area.

“At TidalHealth Home Care, we love to help and we love to educate the community,” said White. “Coming to this event allows us to help and it gets the season started the right way.”

Mingling with fans – a few in his classic No. 29 jersey – brought back memories for Singleton, an outfielder and designated hitter for the Orioles for 10 of his 15 major league seasons.

Singleton, now 78 and retired after a 36-year broadcasting career that ended with 24 seasons behind the microphone calling New York Yankees games, logged 26 games in 1968 in the Carolina League for Raleigh-Durham, then a Mets farm team. He recalls the unique bond between minor league fans and the teams they support.

“I remember I wasn’t making much money, but in those days, you really didn’t need that much,” said Singleton. “You had a dream of making it to the big leagues. I was fortunate – I was on a team that won a lot of games, and several of the players on that team made it to the major leagues. I was in the Mets organization at the time and just trying to move up year by year, and fortunately, I was able to do that. It only took me three years to get to the big leagues, which is pretty quick.”

Along the way, he made friends – and fans - for life.

“I can recall in Double-A and A-ball, where families would have us over for dinner because we weren’t making much money. Years later, these people showed up in St. Louis or Milwaukee or wherever, and you’d leave them tickets to the game because you’re just repaying their kindness,” he said.

Though Singleton never played in Salisbury, he did take in a game at Perdue Stadium when his son, Justin, was a Toronto Blue Jays farmhand in 2001, playing for Charleston. His advice to today’s Shorebirds would be the same as he delivered to his son.

“I would tell them to stay with it,” Singleton said. “There’s going to be times you’re struggling – not everybody plays fantastic all year long. It’s a long season. Be as consistent as you can be. There are nights when you don’t feel like you’ve played your best and you’ve made mistakes. But it’s not the end of the world. You’ve got a game and you can play the next day.”

And if they’re very lucky, those players might one day be invited back to one of their minor league stops to warm up fans for an upcoming season. Singleton regaled the crowd with memories of the Orioles’ victory over the Phillies in the 1983 World Series, the life-changing trade that brought him to Baltimore from Montreal and his recollections of playing under Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver.

“It’s great to be remembered,” said Singleton, who still resides in Baltimore. “The fans who remember us are getting older – they’re taking to their grandkids to games now.”