Blue Wahoos To End 2025 Season With Chappie James Bobblehead, Other Weekend Events

The Blue Wahoos will end their 2025 season this weekend with a variety of special events at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

The ballclub finishes its season with games Friday through Sunday against the Columbus (Ga.) Clingstones, the Atlanta Braves affiliate in the Southern League.

On Friday, the legacy of Gen. Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. will be honored with a Chappie James Bobblehead Night, to celebrate the Pensacola native rising from this community into becoming the first African-American, four-star general in U.S. Armed Forces history.

Members of James’ family will be recognized on the field. The bobblehead figure is James in his flight suit uniform and will be provided to the first 1,000 people entering the stadium Friday. Gates will open at 5 p.m. before the 6:05 p.m. game start time.

Chappie James graduated from Booker T. Washington High then was part of the famed “Tuskegee Airmen” who trained during World War II and received college degrees at Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University in Alabama.

He then made American history, serving 35 years in the U.S. Air Force and becoming an inspiration.

“His was a national, global reach well beyond Pensacola,” said Anthony Aspenson, the Blue Wahoos assistant general manager and creative services director. “It is super cool to do this. There is a museum here in his name, the (3-mile) bridge is named after him, there is a flight academy in his honor.

“I think this night ties into our military connections very well. The Air Force is obviously very active in our community and not far away, Eglin Air Force Base (in Niceville) is the largest per-capita Air Force base in the country and also Hurlbert Field (in Fort Walton Beach), so we are super proud to do this.”

The idea of honoring Chappie James in this manner was suggested by team president Jonathan Griffith. It is being sponsored by Colonial Trailways. The bobblehead design was approved by members of James’ family.

Two years ago, members of the Blue Wahoos staff toured the Chappie James Museum of Pensacola, located on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, gaining more insight into James’ legacy.

“It’s amazing to see his impact,” said Aspenson, who was part of the tour that day.

On Saturday, the Blue Wahoos will host the Blue Angels and their families in a rare weekend off for the famed U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron. Members will be honored on the field and there will be other activities that night to celebrate the Blue Angels.

The game against Columbus will be followed by the final fireworks show of 2025, this one sponsored by Publix.

On Sunday, the season-finale will include “Princess Day,” – a partnership with a local company to have costumed princesses greet children and all fans on the stadium concourse. It’s also the final Family Sunday where children 12-under can run the bases following the game and families can toss soft baseballs in the outfield for 30 minutes.

Military members can receive a free standing room only ticket by showing ID at the stadium box office as part of a combined partnership with Great Clips and WKRG-News5.

Also following the game, Marcus Pointe Baptist Church will have a baptismal ceremony, open to those interested, performed in a pool set up on the field.

The game Sunday has a special 1:05 p.m. start time as mandated by Minor League Baseball to allow teams a head-start on traveling to their homes and exiting the season.

The Blue Wahoos were officially eliminated from the second-half divisional race and will miss the playoffs in back-to-back years for the first time since 2012-14. The Montgomery Biscuits surged to the second-half win and will play the Biloxi Shuckers in the South Division playoffs, while the Chattanooga Lookouts and Birmingham Barons battle in the North Division playoffs.

However, two of the Miami Marlins other top three affiliates, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Triple-A) and Beloit (Wisc) Sky Carp (High-A) have reached post-season. The Sky Carp played Game 2 of their best-of-three series against the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Kernels on Thursday night, after Beloit won the opening game in their first playoff appearance in eight years.

Jacksonville finishes its season next week and will play in the International League playoffs in the final week of September.

One of the pitchers who led Beloit this season, is Will Schomberg, 24, who will make his third start with the Blue Wahoos Thursday night against Columbus.

In his second Double-A start on Sept. 5 in Biloxi, Schomberg took a perfect game into the seventh inning, until a two-out bloop single ended his bid for the incredible feat.

He matched a career-high with 10 strikeouts in the Blue Wahoos 5-0 win against the Shuckers on that night and it was his longest outing as a professional pitcher. But Schomberg figures to part of the Blue Wahoos’ starting rotation when the 2026 season begins.

“I guess I realized the entire game (until 7^th inning) that nobody had gotten on (base), but I think it was after the fifth inning, and I was like, I’ve faced the bottom of their order for the second time now, so I like my odds of getting to the seventh now and I really like my odds at six and two-thirds (innings),” said Schomberg,

“I made a good pitch and a bloop single falls in. That’s baseball sometimes, so it was fun, though,” Schomberg said. “It was cool. I learned after the fact that as long as it was perfect, they were going to keep letting me go out there.”