Trash Pandas win prestigious 2025 Double-A Frietas Award

The Rocket City Trash Pandas are on a hot streak.

This year, they’ve been awarded the highly-coveted Bob Freitas Award from Baseball America, a well-known publication that covers baseball news from Major to Minor League.

Keep reading to learn more about the award, and what the Trash Pandas are up to now.

The award

The Bob Frietas award is granted to one team at each level of Minor League Baseball, and is awarded on conditions of excellence in business operations, community involvement and sustained success.

The other recipient of the award this year is The Vancouver Canadians, a High-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Our hometown team won the 2025 Double-A league award for their commitment to excellence in spite of the 2020 pandemic.

Why Trash Pandas

Their inaugural season was to begin on April 9, 2020, but was obviously derailed due to the COVID-19 surge. Their first game was pushed back by a full year, but they finally took the field on May 5, 2021 against the Chattanooga Lookouts.

During the pandemic, however, the Trash Pandas couldn’t be stopped. They used the field to host movie nights and community events meant to bring joy to the Huntsville community.

What happened after was nothing short of incredible. The Trash Pandas grew to became a cultural icon, even earning a segment on John Oliver’s ‘Last Week Tonight’ which prompted orders from all 50 states on Trash Pandas t-shirts, hats and more.

It’s no wonder they were deemed deserving of such a high honor.

You can still catch the Trash Pandas Christmas Light Show at Toyota Field now through December 28, and keep an eye on the Trash Pandas socials to keep up with the latest.

📍500 Trash Panda Way, Madison, AL 35758
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