40 years later, Mark Light Shake is still a staple at Miami Hurricanes baseball games

Miami Herald

15-02-2025

The first milkshake Mitch Freedman sold at a Miami Hurricanes baseball game was a simple one. Then again, things were a lot simpler back in 1986.
'It was a chocolate shake,' Freedman said. 'At that time, we only had three: Chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.'
Times certainly have changed over the following four decades. His menu has expanded, with 36 options now available every game. Prices have gone up, too. One of his shakes was just $2 in his first year. Now, the basic ones go for $10 at the ballpark.
But Freedman and his Mark Light Shakes have endured the test of time. The Hurricanes' season opener on Friday, a 14-2 thrashing of the Niagara Purple Eagles, marked the start of Year 40 for Freedman and Mark Light Shake.
'It's hard to believe,' said Freedman, who turned 75 on Friday. 'The passage of time in general is hard to believe. When you have kids and then grandkids, all of a sudden you look in the mirror and you're the grandfather. It's unbelievable.'
The shakes he whips up each game are pretty unbelievable, too. They're cool, rich, creamy, not too thick. A perfect respite for watching an outdoor baseball game in the thick of Miami's summer. Freedman said he sells about a couple hundred per game.
'It started because people would come to the game and buy their food first and then later on in the game, they would buy ice cream,' said Freedman, who still runs the stand with his family. 'We wanted to come up with something that they could buy early so that we can increase our sales early in the game or pregame, and we started with the milkshakes. And as I always say, at the beginning, when we started the milkshakes, the milkshake sales were a few percent [of dessert sales at concessions], while cones and sundaes were like 97 percent. Now, over the years, it has gone exactly the opposite. The shakes are 97 percent and the rest are 3 percent.'
The three dozen options available at every game now are separated into tiers.
There are your generic choices (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, coffee, banana, peanut butter, etc).
There are a slew specialty options with various toppings and combinations, including apple pie, red velvet, jelly donut (raspberry shake with a Krispy Kreme doughnut), animal style (adding banana to any other shake option) and the kitchen sink (simply listed as including 'everything we have').
And then there are the shakes which recognize someone or something with ties to UM baseball or the Hurricanes in general. Among some of the notables:
▪ The Jayro (named after Jay Rokeach, the Hurricanes baseball's public address announcer): A chocholate shake with Oreos and fudge. Freedman said its consistently one of his top-two sellers, along with the Oreo shake.
▪ The Wizard (named in honor of UM baseball coaching legend Ron Fraser, who was leading the Hurricanes when Mark Light Shake began and led the Hurricanes to a pair of College World Series titles in 1982 and 1985): A chocolate shake with Heath bar and fudge.
▪ The 3 (named in honor of UM baseball coaching legend Jim Morris, who won two College World Series titles and who led the Hurricanes to Omaha 13 times in 25 seasons): A chocolate shake with chocolate sprinkles and fudge.
▪ The Coach L Final Four (named in honor of UM basketball coaching legend Jim Larranaga and the Hurricanes' run to the Final Four in 2023): Strawberry ice cream with strawberry puree, fresh strawberries and strawberry whipped cream.
▪ The Joe Z (named for Joe Zagacki, the radio voice of the Hurricanes): A vanilla shake with fudge and marshmallow.
And over the past few years, Freedman and his crew have experimented with new shake options that are themed to go with the opponent Miami is facing. Last year, for example, Mark Light Shake did a Disney Dole Whip shake when UCF was in town, a vanilla shake with 'Swamp Sauce' and fried gator bites when they played the Florida Gators and a sweet tea shake in honor of the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Some other notables included a lobster shake when they played Maine, a barbecue shake with brisket, barbecue sauce and cornbread when they played Texas, and (more fittingly for milkshake purposes) a cannoli shake whenever they face teams from New Jersey.
This weekend's specialty with Niagara was a buffalo wing-inspired shake.
But even with the evolution of his menu over the decades, the core to creating the shakes remain unchanged. It starts with a blend of frozen yogurt and ice cream to create the base. The ingredients used are fresh.
'In other words, if you get a strawberry shake, there's real strawberries. If you get a peanut butter shake, there's real peanut butter, et cetera, et cetera,' said Freedman, who added that it takes about 45 seconds to make the simpler shakes and up to two minutes for the novelty ones. 'Those things we've never varied. The only thing we varied, really, is the equipment because in the old days, we used frozen yogurt that was too cold at room temperature, so it was a little harder to blend fast enough. As thing proceeded and we needed to make more and more product, we got equipment that was more tailored to the temperatures that we need, but that's really the only change.'
Freedman's personal favorite is the Nestor Special, which is a coffee shake with hot fudge. And there's a story behind it.
'We had a gentleman named Nestor Leone. He worked for FPL [Florida Power & Light Company], but his side gig was being a security guard at baseball games,' Freedman said. 'And every game he would get a coffee shake. And finally he said, 'You know what? Throw some hot fudge in there for me.' He started doing that every game. So we just named it after him, calling it a Nestor Special. Now, what's unique is that is flash forward 20 years, and his son came to his first game and saw on the menu that it was his dad's shake, and it brought a tear to his eye. It was really something to see.'
The journey Freedman and Mark Light Shake has been on has been something to see, too. It's a staple of the UM baseball experience and has been for four decades.
'When I first started, we really had no idea' how long it would last, Freedman said. 'However, as time went by, especially once coach Morris took over and it looked like he'd been going to have a long run and he endorsed us, we thought we would be there for quite some time. And then the coaches that have come after coach Morris — coach [Gino] Dimare and coach [JD] Arteaga — they were players, so we've known them since they were teenagers. So it really is one big family.'