On a Hell of An Afternoon for a Ballgame
 |
| Bethpage Ballpark, 2012 |
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Camden Riversharks vs. Long Island DucksBethpage Ballpark
Atlantic League (Independent)
Central Islip, NY
1:35 PM
Outside the Game:
With the season winding down, I wanted to see if I could get in a couple more games before dragging me kicking and screaming into the off season. Most of the minor league teams in the area are shut down once major league call-ups start, but some of the longer-season independent leagues still have games through at least the middle of the month.
I hadn't been out to Long Island yet to see the Ducks, which was odd, given their relative proximity and close affiliation with many ex-Metropolitans (such as former manager Gary Carter). Their last home game of the season was on a Sunday afternoon, and figuring that early Sunday was as good a time as any to cut across Manhattan, I gave it a shot.
I started on my trip about when I wanted, though instead of listening to Ed Randall and Talking Baseball, I was subjected to NFL preview shows on this Sunday morning. It indeed being Sunday morning, there was no traffic going through the Lincoln Tunnel and only a modicum of heartache driving across Manhattan proper to get to the Queens Midtown and 495. Once through the tunnel, it was relatively smooth sailing all the way out to Islip, and I arrived at the stadium just before they set up the parking lots. Because of this, I accidentally parked in the handicapped lot (which was the only one that was obviously a parking lot when I got there), but I moved my car over to the regular lots once there was someone to show me where to go.
After the game, the place emptied out pretty easily, and I was back on 495 westbound in no time. There was a bit more traffic this time on the approach to the Queens Midtown tunnel, but surprisingly less on my way across the City to the Lincoln. I got home with little fuss and spent the rest of the evening downloading and labeling all the pretty pictures.
The Stadium & Fans:
 |
| Home plate to center field, Bethpage Ballpark |
Bethpage Ballpark is located out in the middle of nowhere, ever for Long Island, but was a nice enough park, especially for an indie-league stadium. The park's brick exterior was all terraced, and each of the entrances had imposing portals at the top of nice staircases, even if one end of the stadium did jut up against a block of apartments.
The entrances emptied out onto a main promenade above the seating bowl, which extended in two levels of seats separated by another lower walkway. The seats extended from left field to right field, and a row of luxury boxes ran from base-to-base behind home plate. In right field was party zone and in left was a larger picnic area. Concessions ran along the promenade (all with fowl-pun names, though with a nice selection of ballpark food, including corn dogs), and there were some specialty concessions out in left for a local barbecue place. The inevitable team store was located behind third, named, of course, "The Waddle In Shop."
The mascot duck was named Quackerjack in a way that made me wonder if the Crack Jack corporation had heard about it. He had an above-average suit, and actually performed a number of impressive tricks, including one-armed push-ups in a giant duck suit. He was involved in most of the on-field festivities throughout the afternoon.
 |
| And he's manly |
It was the last home game of the season, and therefore Fan Appreciation Day at Bethpage Park. All attendees received a free program and scorecard for showing up, and they had a pre-game autograph session with the team and a post-game running the bases event. The managing duties that day were handled by the winner of a contest to be "Manager for a Day." I don't know how much of the on-field tasks he got to perform, but he did throw out the first pitch and exchange the lineups and the like in full uniform. There was an on-field MC in charge of the program of events, the primary of which was multiple mountain bike giveaways during the course of the game. Also thrown in were the typical minor-league fare of musical chairs, bat races, food mascot races, and t-shirt giveaways.
For a Sunday day game this far into football season, there was a respectable crowd on hand who kept very into the game. Getting crowd noise going was not a problem as one of the most popular fan items were duck whistles that quacked when you blew on them. These kept the kids in attendance entertained for most of the proceedings.
At the Game with Oogie:
 |
| Corn dog |
This one was a weird one, because I saw one of my own kind. It was odd, because it was almost a Highlander thing, and I felt the presence before I even saw him. But as I was walking around waiting for the gates to open, I saw a heavy-set guy with a mid-range camera out taking a picture of the September 11th memorial, and realized that he was another baseball tourist. He was even also wearing a Brooklyn Cyclones hat, for the love of Pete. I had no idea what to do with this. We made awkward eye contact for a minute and then went about our business. I didn't exactly know how to breech the subject with him, and kept on thinking what I would do in a similar situation. I repeatedly saw him in the tiny stadium taking pictures, and then, when he whipped out a big plastic clipboard so he could score, I thought I was on Candid Camera. So there was that.
The closest I was able to get to the dugout was the second tier of seats, which still game an excellent view of the field. Presumably, all the lower deck seats were season ticket holders, but most of those seats were vacant for the game. I was mostly situated among families, though one of them was less welcome than others. About two rows behind me was a walking (more waddling) stereotype of what everyone hates about New Yorkers. The paterfamilias of this clan was just your garden-variety overweight loudmouth know-it-all jackass who had to bellow every last thought coming out of his mouth. It got maddening after a while, though eventually the crowd more or less drowned him out, but only more or less.
The Game:
 |
| First pitch, Riversharks vs. Ducks |
This was a simple tale of dominating pitching. The Ducks were starting former Phillies' farmhand Matt Way for the first time, and he absolutely ate up the Riversharks, beginning by striking out the order in the top of the first. The Ducks did little better, with three straight fly-outs (the first by former Metropolitan Timo Perez, now lead-off man for the quackers).
The Riversharks went in order again in the second, with the Ducks only getting a lead-off single in their half. The Riversharks went down in order again in the third, suffering two strikeouts along the way, but the Ducks had something going in the bottom of the inning. A one-out double was brought home on a single from the aforementioned Timo Perez before two strike-outs ended the inning with the score 1-0 Ducks.
In the top of the fourth, the perfect game was marred by a lead-off walk, quickly sacrificed over to second, but a blazing line out to short caught the runner off the bag and doubled-up to end the inning. The Ducks went meekly in order in their half, and the Riversharks had a quick ground-out to start the fifth. But then a poorly hit dying quail landed in left-center to break up the no-hitter. But two quick outs followed to end the half. Seemingly in sympathy to their pitcher, the Ducks broke it open in the bottom of the fifth. A one-out triple was brought in with a single, who then promptly swiped second. After a pop-out to first, a single brought the runner home, followed by a double to bring him home in turn. The next batter hit a clean single, and the runner tried to make it home from second, but was gunned down at home to end the inning with the Ducks up 4-0.
The Riversharks got a two-out walk in the top of the sixth and nothing else to show except for two more strikeouts, and the Ducks stranded a two-out double of their own. After another strikeout to start the seventh, the Riversharks got only their second hit, left on base by a following fly out and strikeout. The Ducks got something going with a lead-off hit batsman who stole second and then got driven in with a two-out single, leaving it 5-0 Ducks at the end of seven.
Not quite done shaming the Riversharks, Way struck out the side in the eighth, while the Ducks likewise went in order. At the top of the ninth, they pulled Way, and I nearly fell out my seat as Armando Benitez came out to close it for the Ducks. All the Metropolitan fans in attendance immediately started ragging on him, and he was clearly trying very hard to ignore them. He did not disappoint, giving up a lead-off single before improbably putting the next three down in order to secure the 5-0 Ducks victory.
The Scorecard:
Riversharks vs. Ducks, 09/16/12. Ducks win, 5-0.
First things first: The Ducks get a lot of love from me for being so incredibly pro-scoring. As it was Fan Appreciation Day, everyone at the park that day got a free program and a free scorecard. The scorecards are usually sold in stand-alone kiosks with programs, and normally cost $1 each.
The scorecard itself is a quad-fold cardstock, and although it has ads, small boxes, and little space for replacements, it is well laid-out, and has special places for the sort of thing that I record anyway (such as weather and start times). Above and beyond that, they even made an announcement before the game about how the best way to follow the game was with a scorecard and where you can get one and where the lineups were posted. This was literally the only stadium I've been to that has made such an announcement, major, minor, indie, or otherwise. I salute the owners heartily for their commitment to the scoring arts.
As to the game itself, the story was in the strikeouts. The Duck's Way notched 13 strikeouts over his eight innings, while only scattering two hits and a pair of walks. He only faced three more than the minimum because the first walked batter in the fourth was erased on a lineout to the shortstop who doubled up the runner on second. While an interesting exercise, it was only the second-best pitched game I'd ever seen, behind Metropolitan Bobby Jones' 1-hitter against the Giants in the playoffs.
There was nothing else too out of the ordinary, except the triple in the bottom of the fifth that was somehow ruled a triple instead of a three-base error. Granted the fielder was diving for it, but the ball actually hit his glove.
The Accommodations:
Hoboken, nothing more
2012 Stand-Alone Trip
No comments:
Post a Comment