On Monday night, Mark and Connie Bowlan sat inside their Memphis home, listening to Wilmington Blue Rocks commentary. You might ask, why would two Memphis folks be listening to a High-A baseball game being played 985 miles away? The answer is simple. Their son, Jonathan, pitches for the Blue Rocks.



The only ways to follow Jonathan’s games are to listen to the radio stream on the MiLB app or follow along with MiLB’s online tracker. His parents prefer the former. So as they have done since the Royals promoted him from Low-A Lexington to Wilmington in mid-June, Mark and Connie pulled up the app on their phone, connected to the audio and tuned in.



Jonathan’s sisters — Lauren, Rachel and Emily — sat alongside them. They, as Mark says, are the biggest fans of the pitcher the Kansas City Royals selected in the second round of the 2018 MLB Draft. They watched their brother, a 6-foot-6, 262-pound right-hander, pitch locally in college at the...