The Burlington Sock Puppets will begin their 2024 season in the Appalachian League the first week of June and then will play their home opener at Burlington Athletic Park on the evening of Friday, June 7, as the back-to-back Division champs will look to make it three years in a row and bring an Appalachian League title to Alamance County.
Formerly the short-season Class A Burlington Royals of the Kansas City Royals organization, Burlington’s entry in the Appalachian League, the Sock Puppets, are part of a summer college league that has preserved both the history and the existence of the “Appy League,” as it is fondly called by fans throughout North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Virginia, where the league’s teams are located.
Manager Anthony Essien will be working with a talented group of players that includes two were played for the Sock Puppets in 2023, a total of ten players who play for college programs based in North Carolina, as well as many others who were highly-rated high school and college players around the nation.
“I am really excited to get started with this year’s roster,” Essien said in a May team press release. “We have a good mix of players from all over the country and they’ll get a chance to play for the best organization in the league.”
Essien, who led the Sock Puppets to the Appalachian League’s East Division title in 2023, is returning for his second season at the helm. Essien has actually been with the club from its inception back in 2021, as he served as pitching coach that season and interim manager in 2022 as the club rose from last place to division champs.
Also back for the Sock Puppets is hitting coach Rob Selna, who is readying for his third season with Burlington. With Selna working with the Sock Puppets’ hitters the last two summers, Burlington has become the class of the East Division, winning the championship in 2022 and 2023.
“We are really looking forward to the 2024 season.” Essien said in a team press release. “Having Rob back for the third year in a row is a plus, as we work well together.”
Burlington’s pitching coach this summer will be Jason White, a first-year addition to the Sock Puppets coaching staff who spent the 2023 season pitching at Duke.
Also joining the Sock Puppets’ staff for the first time is Torrey Pettiford, who will serve as the team’s bench coach. A longtime Major League scout who currently works for the Baltimore Orioles, Pettiford spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons as the bench coach for Burlington’s Eastern Division rival, the Danville Otterbots.
Along with their manager and pitching coach, the Sock Puppets are also returning one of their top players from the 2023 season - a player that many in the Alamance County area got to know pretty well in their appearances at Burlington Athletic Park last summer.
Catcher Koby Kropf, a product of USC-Upstate, earned an Appalachian League All-Star Game appearance in 2023 and hit .263 for the division champions. This spring at USC-Upstate, Kropf led the Big South Conference with 18 home runs, while batting .372.
Some of the players who are listed on the Sock Puppets roster released earlier this month on the team’s website includes Ryan Hench, the former Orange High pitching standout who is currently a freshman at UNC.
Hench, the 2023 Central Conference Pitcher of the Year and the 2022 Big Eight Conference Pitcher of the Year during his days at OHS, Hench is taking a redshirt season with the Tar Heels and has not appeared in a game thus far in 2024.
Hench’s UNC teammate, Holly Springs native Mason Yokum, is also on the Sock Puppets’ projecting pitching staff for 2024. Yokum, like Hench, has redshirted the 2024 season with the Tar Heels as he acclimates to the collegiate level.
Other Atlantic Coast Conference players on the projected Sock Puppets roster includes Brady Louck, who has made double-digit appearances this spring as a hurler for Florida State, and a pair of players who attend Cal-Berkeley, one of the ACC’s newest schools for 2025. Bears teammates Austin Turkington, a pitcher, and Carter Bailey, an infielder, are both listed as 2024 Sock Puppets roster members.
Local players on the Sock Puppets roster includes a pair of UNC-Wilmington Seahawks - pitcher Cooper Allen and outfielder Cole Nelson. Elon standout Charlie Granatell, who has enjoyed a breakthrough 2024 season with the Phoenix, will also stick around this summer and play for the local club. Nick Allen, an outfielder who attends North Carolina A&T, is also on the Sock Puppets roster.
Essien, the pitching coach at Reedley College in California, lured several of his current Tigers players across the country to North Carolina to work with him throughout the summer, including 6-5 strikeout pitcher Cruz Cabral, fellow hurler Jobe Olson, and catcher Garrett Garfield.
Garfield ranked eighth in Reedley’s conference in doubles this past season, and will bring continuity to the Sock Puppets backstop rotation, having worked with both Cabral and Olson, as well as Essien in the role of head coach.
Also making his way to North Carolina from Reedley this summer is outfielder Brody Block, who hit .391 this past season for Reedley with 18 stolen bases in 20 attempts.
Along with the quartet of players from Essien’s team at Reedley College in California, three additional players on the projected Sock Puppets roster are from Central Missouri University - pitchers Chris Massey, Reid Plum and Payton Messer.
Although the Sock Puppets open the season on the road in Bluefield for a pair of contests on June 4 and 5, they will be returning to Alamance County for a weekend series to start the campaign.
Following their home opener against Johnson City on the evening of Friday, June 7, the Sock Puppets will hold their first Friday Fireworks of the season, presented by Visit Alamance. The following evening, the team will provide a t-shirt giveaway as part of 60’s Night, while on Sunday, June 9, Kids will get a chance to run the bases following that evening’s game.
The Sock Puppets have been a smashing success for Burlington since coming to the Appalachian League as part of the revamped minor league system back in 2021. Last season the Sock Puppets averaged 2,000 fans per game - the first time a Burlington baseball franchise has drawn that many fans to local baseball contest in more than 30 years.
