Photos by SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

For the past three seasons, Austin Raborn did not miss a Salem Avalanche home baseball game. While the club is now known as the Red Sox, the Salem fourth-grader plans to keep coming to the ballpark.

Workers affix a new sign with Red Sox colors to the front of the Salem Memorial Ballpark Tuesday.

Rain or shine, Austin Raborn will be at Salem Memorial Ballpark tonight.

Austin is at every game at Salem's ballpark, has been for the past three Carolina League seasons. He is especially excited this season, because Salem's team is now both owned by and affiliated with the Boston Red Sox, and Austin has been a Red Sox fan for half of his life.

There's just one snag: Austin will be a little late for tonight's 7:05 season-opener with the Frederick Keys.

The West Salem Cubs are playing a scrimmage and 10-year-old Austin is their catcher.

"We're going to miss all of the hoop-la," Austin's grandfather, guardian and baseball companion Larry Raborn explained, without a trace of regret. "But we'll be here."

Such compromises are the norm for the Raborns, who come late on Austin's game nights and leave early on school nights.

It's not much of a sacrifice in Austin's mind.

"I like baseball, I like playing it, too," Austin said.

Between playing baseball and watching it though, it's no contest. He'd rather play. That's even the reason he chose catcher. "I wanted to be catcher because I like playing all of the games," he explained.

Raborn, who is retired from Norfolk and Southern, said his wife, Mary Jane, isn't a baseball fan, so it's just he and Austin who share their spring and summer nights at the ballpark.

"It's something we can do together, that we both enjoy," Raborn said. "He's my reason for getting up in the morning now that I've retired."

Still, when the Raborns arrive at the ballpark, they often split up.

"He doesn't often sit for nine innings. He runs and plays with the other kids," Raborn said. "He's hanging out with his friends, and I've made some friends out there, too."

Austin, a fourth-grader at West Salem Elementary School, said he and his friends often catch foul balls, sometimes chasing them down and sometimes just by being in the right place at the right time.

"I have a whole bucket of them, like 50 balls," Austin said.

His favorite parts of the park include the kids' zone where all the bounce toys are and the grassy areas "where you can throw baseballs," he said.

The good news for Austin is that while Salem is making changes this year to "enhance the fan experience," the kids' zone, the grassy areas and popular mascot Mugsy remain unchanged. A whole lot else is new, right down to the name of the "ballpark" which for the first three season Austin attended all those games was called "Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium."

The name change, along with a spiffy new neon sign on the outside and a new paint job on the inside, come courtesy of the city of Salem, at the behest of the Salem Red Sox.

Red Sox sponsor Lewis-Gale Medical Center bought a huge amount of space on the left field wall and cover it with green so that Salem now has its own version of Fenway Park's Green Monster. Lewis-Gale is also sponsoring a nightly giveaway of 100 soft balls to celebrate its 100th anniversary and Sunday's "kids eat free" promotion. As part of the Sunday promotion, Lewis-Gale will be giving away tickets to Sunday games to families in its CHIP program.

Other promotions returning this year are Dollar Mondays, where admission is $1 with a coupon from the Roanoke Times, Throwback Thursday's where drinks are $1, and Saturday Night Live, with bands playing before the game.

Tuesdays will now be Go Green, Save Green, with two-for-one admission with a recyclable donation or a coupon from goodwillvalleys.com and collectible baseball cards with recycling tips from TruGreen.

Wednesdays will be baseball bingo nights, where all fans get a bingo card and can win prizes based on plays in the game. Wednesday is also Pack the Park for Charity night, where charities can earn money by selling a block of tickets -- at a better than 50 percent profit -- and if they sell more than 500, they also get 50 cents of every walk-up ticket sold from 6 to 7 p.m. on game night.

"It's good for us, and it's good for them," Salem general manager John Katz said. "It's something that I thought would take a while to catch on, but it's been really popular."

Katz said there would also be an emphasis on improved customer service throughout the park. He said the food service process has been improved, particularly in the suite-level seats.

The changes won't eliminate lines, Katz said. "Hopefully, they'll be moving faster," he said.

The first change people will see, likely as they drive up to the ballpark, is the covered seating. The Red Sox decided to tarp 1,000 general admission seats, to "add life, vitality, energy," according to Fenway Sports Group COO Mike Dee.

Dee said moving fans closer together will "create some intimacy."

The tarps, visible from the Salem Civic Center entrance, leave 1,940 general admission seats available.

Raborn figures the tarps are a savvy business move.

"I think it's smart," Raborn said. "They want to move people down to the more expensive seats."

Raborn is a season ticket holder, though this year he strategically moved his seat from the left side of the park to the right side to take advantage of the early evening shade. Austin is a member of the kids club, a package deal that gives kids admission to every home game for $20. Last year the kids club membership was $10, but Raborn figures it's still a bargain.

"Even though they've doubled the price, you've still paid for it in three games," he said.

And the Raborns, Austin and Larry, are definitely going to get their money's worth.