Newark

Day 9

Riverfront Stadium, 2007

Question: Where do Carl Everett and Edgardo Alfonzo now play?
Answer: Long Island
Date: Saturday, July 7, 2007, 6:05 PM
Long Island Ducks vs. Newark Bears
Riverfront Stadium
Newark, NJ
Atlantic League Baseball (Independent), North Division
Promotion: Fire Safety Night


Stadium & Fans:
Riverfront Stadium, along with the Newark Arts Center, were the cornerstones of the urban revitalization plan for Newark. And to their credit, the Newark of today is completely unrecognizable from the Detroitian Newark of ten or twenty years ago. Riverfront is a nice, minor-league level ballfield with a parking deck integrated just beyond right field.

The crowds were sparse, but enthusiastic, with a lot of families and kids out to watch a cheap ballgame for an evening.


The Game:
As you'd expect with a league made up of minor league wash-outs and major league has-beens, the play wasn't quite as sterling as a big-league game. The Bears got all their scoring done in the second, and managed to hold on for a 5-4 win. (The Cubs were the only home team to lose on my trip. Make of that what you will.)

Among the has-beens were two former major leaguers of note: former Mets Carl Everett and Edgardo Alfonzo. Seeing as Everett went 0-4 and Fonzie only managed 1-4 against what is approximately AA-AAA competition, it is easy to see why they are no longer in the Bigs.


Scorecard:

Ducks vs. Bears, 07/07/07. Bears win, 5-4.

$1 for a flier scorecard that they cribbed from a baseball Web page. Some of the categories they recorded (catcher stats?) were a little weird, but otherwise a roomy and comprehensive number.


Miscellanea:
Where to begin?

For lack of a better term, there was a do-over in the fifth inning. The Bears batter reached on a single, but after complaints by Ducks' players, the first base umpire called the batter out for running out of the baselines. Upon complaints by the Bears manager and consultation with the other umpires, the interference call was reversed, but they also did not award him the single. It was eventually just ruled a foul.

There was more excitement in the seventh. A Bears runner on third tried to tag up on a fly-out to mid-right. He was thrown out at home on a questionable call, and then tossed out of the game by the umpires for arguing the call.

And then the left field lights went out. The umpires originally thought it might be a slight against the call, and there was a huge hullabaloo in the infield. It was eventually determined to be mechanical failure, but then the issue became whether or not the game could continue with one bank of lights out. The Ducks manager, whose team was losing and would benefit the most from it, was arguing for the game to be called. Eventually, however, the game continued with a dim left field.


The Stadium Race:
There was no scoreboard race at the Bears game. Similar to many low minor league teams, there were many live races that fans participated in, including the mascot race (where a small child is chosen to race the team mascot around the bases, and although the mascot is given an incredible lead, the kid always seems to win), and various kids' competitions.


Travel & Other Non-Game Activities:
This was my last day on the road. We drove out to Pittsburgh, where I embarked on a tiny flying bus to Newark Airport, to be met by my father. Because I was able to transfer to an earlier flight, I could drop all my stuff back at my apartment and turn on my air conditioning before heading back out to the Newark Bears game.

In a little act of rebellion, I collected all the soaps and lotions and shampoos available in every hotel I stayed at, and took them with me on my flight back. By my rough calculations, I had about six times the liquid volume in my bag as I did when my sunscreen was confiscated, but in approved containers that were not stopped. So I don't know about you, but I feel safer.


The Hotel:
This night, I slept in my own bed. Amen.

Click here to see all the pictures from this trip.

2007 The Midwest