LITTLE FALLS, N.Y. — When you watch the Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs take the field this season, you might notice something different about the back of their jerseys.
Instead of a player’s name, you’ll find the name of a dairy farm, a custom harvesting operation, or an agribusiness rooted right here in the Mohawk Valley.
It’s the vision of Chris Nellis, a local farm advocate whose family has ties to the land going back to 1723. Nellis pitched the idea to Diamond Dawgs ownership and got a quick green light.
“Travis was willing, and we went forward with it, got a good start,” she said. “I think we can build it and grow it.”
The concept draws a playful connection between the Diamond Dawgs and Little Falls’ baseball history.
The Little Falls Mets served as a short-season Class A farm team for the New York Mets from 1977 to 1988, playing their home games at Little Falls Veterans Memorial Park. Nellis saw in that legacy an opportunity to celebrate the region’s agricultural identity in a fresh way.
“When I was a little girl, this was the field for the New York Mets — it was their farm team,” she said. “The largest industry in the Mohawk Valley is agriculture. So it was a thought that we could recreate the farm team by getting agricultural entities to sponsor jerseys.”
The jerseys feature the names of farms and agribusinesses from across the valley, transforming each uniform into a moving billboard for the region’s agricultural community.
Sponsors this season include Dygert Dairy, a 13th generation operation in Palatine Bridge recognized as a Tricentennial Farm; Seventeen 23 Farm LLC of Fort Plain, the Nellis family’s own dairy operation — also a Tricentennial Farm — which has been featured on the television series FarmHER; Double A Custom Harvesting of Sharon Springs; Fly Creek Valley Corn Maze; Seneca Dairy Systems; Herkimer Veterinary Associates; and Cargill, among others.
To get the program off the ground, Nellis took a boots-on-the-ground approach to outreach.
“I sent out 50-60 letters just asking people to get involved and be part of it,” she said. “Our farm did it, and we encouraged some others.”
In the program’s inaugural year, sponsors paid for one jersey but may have had their name appear on several, as the total number of jerseys exceeded the number of sponsors. Nellis sees that as a feature, not a bug — a way to increase visibility for the businesses involved as the program builds momentum.
She’s already thinking about how to expand the promotion. Getting photos of players wearing the sponsored jerseys and sharing them with farms and businesses could help build interest and attract more participants.
“I think getting some pictures with the guys on them, and if the farms or businesses that sponsored come out and get pictures with them — I think that will start some of that promotion and our ability to do more,” Nellis said.
And the ideas don’t stop with jerseys. Nellis is working on ways to deepen the connection between fans and players throughout the season.
“I want to do a question a night to a player — like, what’s the coolest thing you’ve seen since you came to the Mohawk Valley, or what’s your favorite food?” she said. “Somehow make the connection that they’re people, you know, with the fans and all of that.”
The underlying goal is to use baseball as a vehicle for storytelling — specifically, the story of the region’s agriculture and its importance to the local economy.
“We’re hoping to grow the programming, get more and more, and be able to tell the story of Ag in Mohawk Valley and all over the United States,” Nellis said. “The more people make these connections, the more people want to come feel a part of this. And I think it could be really fun.”
For more information about the Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs, visit mvdiamonddawgs.com.
