MANCHESTER, NH – It had been a miserable weekend, weather-wise, in Manchester with monsoon-like rains on Friday night then another Old Testament-type downpour on Saturday afternoon.
Still, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats were determined to wait out the rain and play a doubleheader of seven-inning games on Saturday night against the Altoona Curve.
Only the first game wasn’t the Fisher Cats. Instead, it was a rebranded team named the Manchester Chicken Tenders, and their starting pitcher Rafael Sanchez just happened to throw a no-hitter, walking only two batters on 90 pitches through seven innings.
For those unfamiliar with baseball, seeing a no-hitter is roughly analogous to spotting a comet with the naked eye, and it happened on the same night the Toronto Blue Jays’ AA-franchise was paying homage to its host in The Queen City.
“It was unbelievable,” said Fisher Cats’ general manager Taylor Fisher. “I had goosebumps.”
Fisher said that after Sanchez tossed the no-no, the fourth in the Fisher Cats’ franchise history, he then signed more than 200 baseballs for fans.
The first game of the double-header was scheduled to start at 4:05 p.m but the driving rain that has been pelting the region all spring showed no signs of relent. So instead, fans were treated to the 1993 cinematic juggernaut “Rookie of the Year,” on the jumbotron.
Many fans left— including this correspondent whose foot is still sore from kicking himself in the behind—but for those who waited out the rain and stayed, they were treated to something divine.
Photos/Susan McGowan
And it happened to coincide with the Fisher Cats rebranding as The Chicken Tenders, wearing orange buffalo sauce-colored jerseys.
“To have a no-hitter while wearing those jerseys, it has had a lot of traction on social media,” said Fisher, adding that rebranding AA teams is “quintessential minor league baseball.”
“It’s cool to have something specific to the sporting events that tether to the city,” Fisher said. “It’s fun to carve out a couple of nights each year where we are not the Fisher Cats, and it is totally different.”
The Chicken Tenders are also a nod to Manchester’s claim that the chicken tender was founded by Charlie Pappas at The Puritan Background in 1974, a claim that has been contested by both Baton Rouge, La., and Savannah, Ga.
“But you ask yourself: Is it true? Is it important?” asked Manchester’s Nick Lavallee, the engine behind making Manchester “The Chicken Tender Capital of the World,” in a 2024 New York Times article. “Sure. Manchester has an identity problem. Why not point out the things worth celebrating?”
Lavallee’s grassroots campaign succeeded, and in 2023, former mayor Joyce Craig officially declared Manchester the “Chicken Tender Capital of the World.”
But the Manchester Chicken Tenders are not the only rebranding the Fisher Cats are presenting this season.
On April 19, against the Harrisburg Senators, the New Hampshire Space Potatoes made their debut, beating the Senators 4-2 at Delta Dental Stadium.
According to Fisher, the Space Potatoes is a mascot that was “mashed together” by two iconic New Hampshire events: the first documented presence of the white potato crop in the United States in Derry in 1719, and the alleged alien abduction of Seacoast couple Betty and Barney Hill in 1961.
Fisher said that almost all of the New Hampshire Space Potato merchandise sold out after announcing the rebrand in February. The Space Potatoes are currently slated to play on July 18 versus the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, and again on Aug. 30 against the Erie Seawolves.
“Alternative identities can move a lot of merchandise if you can come up with a unique name and nice logo,” said Fisher.
And sometimes, after the rain clears out, alternative identities can result in no-hitters, and this one was particularly spicy.